ELECTRIC DUSK DRIVE IN & SECRET MOVIE CLUB present PARKING LOT CINEMA!
Part of our ZOMBIE SUMMER double feature. Friday, August 21, 2020. 8:10pm SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004. Directed by Edgar Wright, Universal, 100mns, Digital) & 10:40pm DAWN OF THE DEAD (REMAKE) (2004, directed by Zack Snyder, Universal Studios, 110mns, Digital)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Gates will open for our First Movie at 6:45pm. If you are just attending the second movie, please arrive no earlier than 10:00pm so we can allow all FIRST FEATURE only attendees to leave and get you in quickly!
PARKING LOT: Sears Parking Lot across the street from 211 West California Avenue, Glendale, California 91203. The actual entrance to the parking lot is on West California Avenue between North Central Avenue and North Orange Street.
HOW TO: While we all work to be socially responsible during the age of coronavirus, Electric Dusk Drive In & Secret Movie Club are partnering to put on a Parking Lot Cinema series. Each week, we will be screening movies on a great inflatable screen in a great parking lot location in Los Angeles.
Make sure when you purchase your ticket(s), you do the following:
1)PURCHASE EITHER THE DOUBLE FEATURE MAIN TICKET ($37) which includes a $25 car fee and the first ticket at $12 per person. This gets you into BOTH Features.
OR PURCHASE A SINGLE FEATURE EARLY BIRD TICKET ($23) which includes a $15 car fee and the first ticket at $8 per person. This gets you into the single FEATURE you select by title.
2) GO TO ADD ONS: Purchase either an additional $12 per person ticket (for BOTH Features) or an additional $8 per person ticket (for a SINGLE FEATURE) for however many other people after the first person will be in the car. We will be doing a count at the gate.
PLEASE NOTE TICKETS THE DAY OF AND AT THE GATE WILL BE $20 per car + $8 per ticket for a single screening.
3)PRE-ORDER ANY CONCESSIONS & POSTERS you would like from the additional Add-Ons. You can pick up all concessions and posters at our table on the Sears side in the middle of the Parking Lot.
To attend, you need a car with an FM radio. We will space out cars to make sure folks can always maintain 6 feet of distance. We ask that folks stay in their cars unless they need to use the portable restroom. Whenever you are out of your car, you are required to wear a mask.
We will have hand sanitizer, masks, and gloves for sale for folks who need them. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU BRING ALL THESE THINGS ON YOUR OWN.
For the foreseeable future, we will be screening our movies at the great spacious Sears Parking Lot in Glendale, California. Please read through the Frequently Asked Questions for more thorough instructions after our description.
Our partnership with Electric Dusk Drive In (a wonderful home grown Los Angeles pop-up street cinema organization: https://www.electricduskdrivein.com/) continues with this third weekend of offerings!
Friday night, August 21, 2020, we screen a ZOMBIE SUMMER double feature! First up at 8:10pm is Simon Pegg’s and Edgar Wright’s hilarious yet committed zombie comedy SHAUN OF THE DEAD.
This was the debut feature for director Wright who would go on to become one of the leading directorial voices of his generation with movies like Hot Fuzz, The World’s End, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Baby Driver. Simon Pegg has gone on to become one of the most recognizable character actors appearing as Scotty in the Star Trek movies and Benji Dunn in the Mission Impossible series. Together they wrote and Wright directed this Valentine homage to the zombie genre.
Here, we get 30 year old aimless worker drone Shaun (Pegg) who lives with his best friend slacker Ed (a hilarious Nick Frost) at a crisis point with his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), who is tired of dating a boy-man. Then suddenly a zombie apocalypse happens and Shaun has to really step up his game. . .or be eaten.
Wright has carved out a genre almost unto himself (like Quentin Tarantino in a slightly different way) of basing his movies on his love of movies, genres, video games, pop culture, YET making sure there is a beating heart of character and conflict at their centers.
SHAUN OF THE DEAD inaugurated the Cornetto trilogy (a beloved ice cream that appears in all three movies) where Pegg and Frost would always appear as the leads in three very different genre movies (Zombie, Buddy Cop, Sci Fi Apocalypse).
We see all the trademarks of Wright’s approach from the very beginning: a hyper almost eye blistering style that nevertheless knows when to slow down for key character moments. Hilarious self-knowing comedy that never falls into winking or spoof. And a love and devotion to cinema determined to produce really entertaining yet nutritious movies. So join us to see how the British do zombie!
Then, we look at another side of the Zombie genre with the “how did this turn out so amazing” DAWN OF THE DEAD remake directed by Zack Snyder in 2004. It’s fascinating how despite the endless production of zombie movies, a new movie comes along every few years that somehow finds a way to re-invigorate the whole genre.
Interestingly, SHAUN and the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake both came out in 2004. Snyder appeared to have a thankless and impossible task: to remake George Romero’s 1978 original DAWN OF THE DEAD, often considered THE GREATEST ZOMBIE MOVIE OF ALL TIME.
It would be like Michael Bay remaking CITIZEN KANE.
But Snyder found a way to take the basic plot: a group of zombie apocalypse survivors find a way to shelter in a shopping mall and keep the growing zombie hordes from getting in (for awhile) and make the movie and tone something different enough to be both its own thing AND respectful of the original.
As many folks (including this programmer) felt to their surprise, this movie turned out to be WAY BETTER than anyone had any right to expect. Snyder directs what still has to be considered one of the great horror openings as Ana (a wonderful Sarah Polley) wakes up on the morning of the zombie apocalypse and has to immediately make life or death decisions in a situation she doesn’t understand.
From these first heart stopping cinematic 10 minutes or so, we then get introduced to other survivors (including a great as always Ving Rhames as Kenneth, a thoughtful cautious police officer. The movie then becomes (as many of the greatest zombie movies do) both a story of how a group either survives or dies based on its ability to work as a team AND a ticking clock of tension as the zombies amass outside the mall.
Like Danny Boyle in 28 DAYS LATER before him, Snyder made the critical decision that the zombies would RUN which adds a whole other level of terror.
So come join us to see how two singular moviemakers found ways to make an evergreen genre fresh again through homage and reinvention!
Best always,
Craig Hammill
35mm Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
“HOW TO” AND FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR OUR PARKING LOT CINEMA SERIES
HOW TO:
For now, our Parking Lot Cinema events will be held at the Sears Parking Lot across the street from 211 West California Avenue, Glendale, California 91203. The actual entrance to the parking lot is on West California Avenue between North Central Avenue and North Orange Street.
You will need a car with FM radio to attend. Gate will open at 6:45pm so folks have plenty of time to find the lot, get a good space. We will begin our pre-show/introduction around 8pm and the first movie will start promptly at 8:10pm.
IMPORTANT: If you are only attending the second feature, please arrive no earlier than 10pm so we can get everyone attending the first feature out of the lot, so we can get you in and start the movie!
We will be pre-selling concessions and posters here on Eventbrite to start so everything is as easy as possible. We will hand you your poster and all your concessions AT THE GATE when you enter.
PURCHASE EITHER THE DOUBLE FEATURE MAIN TICKET ($37) which includes a $25 car fee and the first ticket at $12 per person. This gets you into BOTH Features.
OR PURCHASE A SINGLE FEATURE EARLY BIRD TICKET ($23) which includes a $15 car fee and the first ticket at $8 per person. This gets you into the single FEATURE you select by title.
GO TO ADD ONS: Purchase either an additional $12 per person ticket (for BOTH Features) or an additional $8 per person ticket (for a SINGLE FEATURE) for however many other people after the first person will be in the car. We will be doing a count at the gate.
PLEASE NOTE TICKETS THE DAY OF AND AT THE GATE WILL BE $20 per car + $8 per ticket for a single screening.
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE GONE TO THE "ADD ONS" section in EVENTBRITE to purchase your ADDITIONAL PERSON(S) IN CAR tickets. We will be doing a count when we check you in at the gate.
We do offer a VIP package for $100.00 which gets your car a first row space for the entire double feature. You can have up to 4 people total in the car at no additional charge. And you get a CONCESSIONS package of 4 sodas/waters/iced teas, 2 popcorns packets, & 2 regular sized candies. If you PURCHASE the VIP TICKET there is no need to purchase any additional per person add-ons.
We can offer refunds for requests made MORE than 24 hours before showtime through Eventbrite. After that, no refunds. Sorry.
As we fine tune these screenings, we will be bringing food trucks, speakers, more variety. But for this first weekend, we JUST want to focus on quality and having a great time.
We highly recommend that you bring a sweater, jacket, or a few layers of clothes just in case it gets a little chilly and you don’t want to run your car.
We will also have portable restrooms which are cleaned daily AND in between movies.
TICKETS & REFUNDS: Because of the special nature of these screenings, we can not offer discounted series passes. We can offer refunds for requests made through Evenbrite more than 24 HOURS before screening time.
After that, no refunds. Sorry. But we can offer you complimentary tickets to a future Secret Movie Club screening as long as it hasn’t sold out and isn’t a special screening with a different pricing structure.
WHERE DO I PICK UP MY PRE-ORDERED CONCESSIONS AND/OR POSTERS?
We have a concessions/pick up table on the Sears side of the Parking Lot right in the middle. All our concessions are factory sealed. We simply hand you your order. If you pre-order posters, we will also have them at this table for pick up. Concessions WILL be available for purchase at the event itself as well if you want to make a game time decision.
WHAT IF I HAD TICKET(S) TO A SECRET MOVIE CLUB SCREENING THAT GOT POSTPONED DUE TO COVID AND WANT TO USE IT HERE? We will be reserving 10 spaces per screening for folks who want to transfer their tickets to one of our Parking Lot Cinema events. We will still need to charge you for the car ($25) but we won’t charge for the tickets.
Please email us at: community@secretmovieclub.com as soon as you can if you want to attend so we can reserve you one of these spaces. Once these 10 spaces fill up, you will have to either pay full price or request a different event.
WHAT IF I HAVE A SECRET MOVIE CLUB LIFETIME, SPRING OR SUMMER 2020 SEASON, OR SERIES PASS? Lifetime Pass holders do get automatic admission to all our events so that includes our Parking Lot Cinema events. Please just email us at community@secretmovieclub.com to let us know you will be attending.
For Spring and Summer 2020 Season and Series Pass holders who had their events delayed due to our COVID postponements, we can’t transfer those passes to the Parking Lot Cinema series because of the special nature and different pricing structure of this series.
HOWEVER, if you write us at community@secretmovieclub.com, we will do our best to get you entrance into at least a few of these screenings as a thank you for your patience. We will have to charge the $25 car fee but we will waive the per person ticket fee. And your Season or Series pass will STILL BE GOOD once we return to theatrical screenings.
WHAT PRECAUTIONS AND MEASURES ARE YOU TAKING SO THESE EVENTS ARE SAFE DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC?
All our staff will have gloves, masks, and work to maintain 6 feet of distance.
We are working to make these events as touch-less as possible. Therefore we ask that you purchase your tickets and all concessions, movie posters, etc THROUGH Eventbrite prior to the event. That way we can just check you off our list, hand you your concessions/posters, and guide you to your parking space.
We will work to have masks, gloves, hand sanitizer for sale at our events.
BUT WE DO HIGHLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO BRING ALL THESE THINGS YOURSELVES.
We will have portable restrooms which are constantly cleaned between EACH USE.
HOW WILL THESE MOVIES BE SCREENED: For the time being all movies will be screened digitally. While our first love is 35mm, to make these events happen in parking lots, we do need to screen movies digitally. However, we have taken every step to make sure the image and sound are of the highest quality so you have a great cinematic experience. We will also be doing LIVE IN PERSON INTRODUCTIONS as we did for our theatrical screenings.
WILL THERE BE SINGLE FEATURES AND/OR FAMILY FEATURES? Yes! We will occasionally be screening single features of longer length and single family features. Pleasencheck our website (secretmovieclub.com), our Social Media (@secretmovieclub35mm @secretmovieclub), and our Eventbrite page: http://secretmovieclub.eventbrite.com each Monday at 1pm for newly announced events.
HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, thoughts, recommendations.