His Highness Hollywood Movie Premiere: Excitement, Entertainment and Sabotage - Page 4
The room fell silent, and the screen came to life with the tapping of a typewriter which corresponded with a cautionary warning springing to life on film. This is important to note, as we witnessed this three times within a 2 hour period. More on that in a moment.
About five minutes in the film, something happened. Leading up to a complete and abrupt halt in the movement of the film, the sound began to fall out of sync. The audience muttered what we were hearing was not what we were seeing. The lights came on, a mad rush occurred in back, and soon we were addressed.
"Folks we are having a technical difficulty, so, while we wait, I will do my best to entertain you."
Or something close to that, because this was Laurent saving the day, and his French accent, though sexy as all get out, lost me in translation. Laurent lulled us with sweet guitar sounds, as tinkering was done to the film in fits and starts. About 15 minutes passed, people reseated and we were going to try this once more. Hey, no big deal tech stuff happens.
Once again, the tapping, those cautionary words appear and we settle into our seats. Five minutes pass and BAM! A grinding halt occurs at the same place. Audible groans and confusion can be heard. Jon Sobel and I look at other with puzzled expressions. Jon even considered jumping in, since his day job is as a tech guru. We decide to stretch our legs as the frenzied scramble begins anew. The crowd is clearly getting restless, but all the while, Ian is holding up under the pressure. Andrew keeps himself busy conversing with those who are beginning to recognize him (plus Ian gave the most famous man in the room a shout out during the introduction).
Another 30 minutes of nervous chatter pass, we are informed that something drastic is going to take place to fix this problem (dumping the avi file to another hard drive) and we are assured this will solve the problem at last. At this time, most people are visiting the bar for more heavy-hitting drinks, and the 9:00 hour has come and gone.
Finally, we are called back, refreshed with spirits and ready to go. Ian, still smiling, is sure he and his team can salvage this. Familiar tap, tap, caution, five minutes and SLAM, nothing. Even the positive goodwill still left in the room would not make this film move beyond this five minute mark. What is Ian going to do, what am I going to do was running through my mind. And likely many others. This was the third attempt. By all accounts, Murphy's law was in affect.
Continued on the next page
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