Let's Talk Movie Night: Part I

Most of you showed an interest in staying after school one day and viewing a few movies in their entirety. I'm up for it, too, so we should probably start discussing just what it is we want to do.

First, we need to answer a few questions in terms of logistics. How many movies? (I'm thinking 2, with a few extras thrown in - short films, trailers, cartoons, vintage educational films, etc.) How much time? (After school to when? Leave and come back later?) What day of the week? (Are you guys willing to stay on a Friday, or should we do it during the week and just end by 7 or 8?) and Where? (I've been brainstorming a few options. I think we should do it somewhere reasonbly fun and comfortable. We need to stay on school grounds, but onther than that I think we should let our imaginations go wild and worry about getting permission after we've got a game plan. Here are a few ideas I had: the ARC, the SAC, the IMC, room 195, one of the Pits, the auditorium. Let me know if you have any ideas. Is there a cool, weird place I'm not thinking of?)

Second, how big is this going to be? I think we need a maximum number of participants. I don't want it to get too huge. I guess it depends a bit on how many of you think you will attend, bu I'm thinking that if every member of the class attended, and each of you brought two friends, we'd be on our way to 50/60 people, and that would be about it. Or maybe you want to limit it to just members of the class.

Third, what are we going to watch? Again, I have a few ideas I'd like to share with you, but by no means are these our only options. The sky is the limit. (Sort of...)

Option 1: 70s Drive In Movie Night
We start off with a few vintage drive in movie advertisements...



(I've got dozens of these.) Then we watch a few classic trailers of off-beat 70s flicks.



And then we dive in to a classic 70s drive in genre-heavy double feature. Kung fu and action, maybe. Or horror and western...

There's a million we could go with, but these are a few that I personally love...The Five Deadly Venoms and Escape from New York. Lots of fun 70s cult classic action. Maybe even Django...I'ts about a cowboy who cruises through the desert dragging a coffin along with on a rope. Who's in the coffin? Only Django knows...

Option 2: 1940s Night at the Movies
We start off with a classic theatrical cartoon short or two...

And then an episode of a 1940s movie serial...

(I've been wanting to show you one of these anyways. They were 12 or 15 episodes long, 15 minutes per episode, and each week you'd see a different episode of the same story. There's a bunch of these. ) Then we watch a double feature of two 30s and 40s classics. I'd like to suggest two great movies that we just won't have time to get to in class...

Option 3 - Theme Night
Maybe we watch a few from a specific director and get an idea of his body of work. We could pick a country and watch a few French or Japanese films. Maybe we pick a genre and watch a western double feature or a few full length animated films you guys have never scene. Maybe we go with stop-motion animation night...

Ray Harryhausen is probably my all around favorite filmmaker, and I'd love sharing some of his stuff with you. It's just the most fun you can have at the movies. Total unabashed entertainment.

Option 4: Bad Movie Night
I used to sponsor a club where all we did was meet once a week and watch clips from bad movies. We could do that for a night. Watch clips and trailers from bad movies and end the night with a screening of this classic...

Or this one...

On second thought, maybe we should avoid science fiction, since we're hitting it so hard in class...

And so we begin. First question...do we even want to do this, and would you even go? Second, what do we want this night to be like? Please come back periodically to see how the discussion is going and to continually add ideas and opinions. Thanks.