Sub Rosa Drive-In Theater

As if Sub Rosa couldn’t possibly be any cooler, Larry delivered a little news to me that just had to go up here.

I’ve made our appreciation of Simply Green Biofuels and their willingness to host us tonight very well known. Finding permission to be somewhere was our last real step in making this a successful show and for a while it looked like we weren’t going to get that permission anywhere. But these guys stepped up to the plate and that’s huge.

One of the biggest problems of running this show is finding an energy source that is both portable and powerful enough to support the rather hefty demands of the projector.  Being the advocates of sustainable energy resources that they are, Joel at Simply Green told Larry that tonight’s energy, provided on the house by Simply Green, is sourced from solar cells. Pretty sweet, no?

If you take a look around, other GDIs are using deep cycle batteries, gas powered generators or are plugging into wall outlets that powered by fossil fuels. Our plugging into solar powered electricity, potentially, makes us, The Sub Rosa Drive-In, the first Green Guerilla Drive-In! Thanks Simply Green! Not only do you support a healthy environment but you also support your community. In turn, you, the community, ought to support Simply Green.

You may have an idea of what’s been going on lately but in the interest of full disclosure here’s the deal in a nutshell:

Foster’s Daily Democrat ran a front page article about us back on Monday, which was awesome. It made so many of you aware of us and your excitement and support was so unexpected and thrilling. However, Dan Jacobitz of Somersworth business, Video Under The Stars, took great exception to what we’re doing and wrote to the paper calling us a bunch of names. He also called Swank Motion Pictures to rat us out.

Swank, whom I’ve had a relationship with in the past, emailed me to ask what I thought I was doing. Suddenly, flying under the radar was no longer an option, Larry and I were way out in the open. Our backs to the wall, we had no choice but to work out a deal with Swank to license our movies.

Last week’s showing of Pump Up The Volume is now officially licensed. We paid the fee for that. We also paid the fee for tomorrow’s Red Dawn show and The Warriors in two weeks. License fees for us are $100 a piece. Many of you came to our aid to help us out with donations and we cannot possibly thank you enough. For that we’re going to bring you the best possible guerilla drive-in that we can. We’re still accepting donations for future shows so please give what you can, whatever you think that we’re worth and we’ll keep this rolling for as long as the money lasts or as long as the city of Dover will tolerate us. Whichever comes first.

Read the full follow up to Monday’s article here

But know this! We are officially licensed. We have paid the fees. We have permission to screen these movies and we can prove it.

A couple of Friday night’s attendees were a writer/photographer pair from Foster’s Daily Democrat. They came down to talk to Larry and I and take a few photos. The one over there to the left is my particular favorite of the batch. The rest are of Larry and I paired up with some quotes both accurate and inaccurate about the nature of the screenings and so on. Quotes that I’m a little uncomfortable with being in print. A few clarifications.

I didn’t poll the Twitter pool to determine the first movie. I polled my @CinemaSuicide followers for some ideas about what trailers would be appropriate to run with the movie. The idea to show Pump Up The Volume came from Larry and Mike Merrigan.

I am also pretty sure that Larry’s quote about what’s guerilla about licenses is incorrect and that we were talking about getting permission to project at Location X. We had talked about licensing fees and where to get them for non-theatrical exhibitons and that for every MobMov group that licenses their movies, there’s one that doesn’t. But we were discussing permission to project on private property and why we changed the location at the last minute and the philosophy of our group, property reclamation and the whole idea of a flashmob, particularly in this context.

Lastly, the DVDs that we show are DVD-R’s… of movies that we physically own. They’re re-authored discs with custom trailers and bumpers to make the show a little more interesting and fun and maybe introduce you to some hokey flicks you’ve never even heard of.

So now that that’s out of the way. Read the entire article at Foster’s Daily Democrat.

Looks like we got a little ink in today’s Portsmouth Herald. I spoke with Jeanne McCartin last week about the shows, which is nice because it helps get the word out.  Hopefully, you reading this now, read about us in the paper. Of note is this passage:

Trying to make this work was a no-brainer for White who had attempted to interest a number of small theaters in a second-run, camp film series, with movies like “Pump Up The Volume,” and “Heathers.” “Owners would say, ‘why would people come to movie theaters if they can get it on DVD?’ But it’s not about watching the movie. Yes you could do it at home. But you can’t meet new people there. It’s a communal experience,” says White. “We’re not anticipating a mob of people…; just those that come together around this idea, which is bigger than the sum of its parts.”

This is the point I’ve been trying to make all along. It is key to the success of these shows. Read the rest of the article here and keep your eyes on this site for updates.  Larry and I are close. We’re just about ready to test the gear and start putting the word out. If you’re not on the mailing list, change that. Put your email address in the box up there on the right.

By the way, I’m also aware of Safari issues and that mailing list field. If you’re having trouble submitting your email address, please email info [at] subrosadrivein [dot] com and I’ll put you in there manually. You don’t want to miss this.