Worcester Movies on the Common II: "Back to the Future"

Well, it's taken me a whole week to finally write about this, but the second Movies on the Common show happened last week (July 28). The movie for this edition was "Back to the Future" (1985). I could use a time machine to go back a week and write this post in a little more timely manner, but...

This outdoor movie program is being put on by Worcester Film Works. The first show in June featured the film "Grease" (1978) (read about that show here: Movies on the Common 2011). There is still one more show to go at the end of August. That one will feature "Spaceballs" (1987). But, let's discuss show number two, shall we?

You can't go to the Worcester common and not check out the "Turtle Boy" statue!

The stage/screen set up behind City Hall

We all went to the show again (The Wife, the two Little Monsters and myself); and this time were joined by several other friends. It would seem that the word has spread about this outdoor movie series (as I had hoped it would), because there was a much larger crowd this time around. I thought the turnout for the first show was more than respectable, but the second one was even better.

The crowd grows as the sun sets

As an added bonus, they got the totally awesome 1980s cover band Flock of A**holes (you can figure it out) to play before the movie. It was a very nice evening and The Flock (as they're also known when children are present) put on an amazing set of classic 80s tunes that lasted a couple hours. Anyone who showed up just in time for the movie missed out on a chance to really get into an 1980s frame of mind before watching "Back to the Future". The Flock played tunes from all kinds of bands and artists like Prince, Billy Idol, Duran Duran and, yes, A Flock of Seagulls. They even played Huey Lewis and the News' "The Power of Love"--which would of course be featured in "Back to the Future"! As the evening wore on and the crowd grew you could see the 80s-vintage people starting to shed the years and get up and dance to the music from their formative years. Heck, I felt so immersed in the 80s I wanted to walk across the street to Strawberries to pick up Huey Lewis' latest tape, or head over to the Worcester Galleria to pick up an Orange Julius!

The Flock rocks!

It occurred to me last year (the 25th anniversary of the release of "Back to the Future") that there is an interesting juxtaposition when watching the movie now. It came out in 1985, and that was the "present" setting of the film. Of course, 1985 was twenty-six years ago and now seems very much like the past. When Marty travels back 30 years to 1955 we have to deal with the fact that the "present" he leaves is practically that old to us. The scenes in the "present" seem like a period piece now. Adults who watched the movie when it came out could probably relate to the scenes from 1955 the same way that many of the viewers on the Worcester Common last week related to the 1985 scenes. Okay, I could talk about this stuff for hours, but let's get back to the show...

The Common "opened" at 6:00 and people started picking out their spots. Jen from Worcester radio station WXLO 104.5 introduced the band and gave out some prizes through The Flock's set. The Theatre Cafe and Sweet Sister's ice cream truck set up shop once again, selling food, beverages and frozen treats to anyone who brought along their appetite. The Little Monsters got ice cream of course, and later on I even splurged on a couple hot dogs from the Theatre Cafe.

Getting ice cream from the Sweet Sister ice cream truck

The Creature enjoying her ice cream

Hot dogs from the Theatre Cafe

The only real "disappointment" of the night was that it was announced that Finz, the mascot of the Worcester Sharks hockey team would make an appearance. Unfortunately he never showed up. The Little Monster brought along her stuffed Finz and was a bit let down by his absence. With this only being the second show, the series is still in its infancy. They still have one more show this season to try to work all the (admittedly minor) bugs out.

The Little Monster and her stuffed Finz doll

Speaking of bugs, the Worcester Film Works table had a popcorn machine at the first show that they were expecting to use to make and sell popcorn to the movie-going patrons. Unfortunately it malfunctioned and they had to buy a bunch of bags of Smartfood Popcorn to fill the machine with. I had figured they must have gotten the machine fixed for the second show. When I visited the table before the movie the machine was indeed operating, though the WFW people were a bit concerned that it wasn't popping the corn fast enough. Later on--during the movie--I took a look at the table and saw them selling bags of popcorn. Thinking that everything was running smoothly I went over to pick up bag. To my surprise I was greeted with a sign stating that the popcorn was Smartfood! Apparently the machine failed them again. This is beginning to become a bit of a tradition in itself. I have to admit that a little part of me hopes to go to the "Spaceballs" show next month and see the popcorn machine once again filled up with Smartfood! Of course I want everything to run the way it's supposed to, but it almost feels like this is the way it's supposed to go at this point...

The Worcester Film Works table...

...And the sign announcing the true identity of the popcorn later on.

After The Flock's set ended there was a bit of a delay while their equipment was removed and the screen was lowered. Because of the concert there wasn't as much of a chance to have the projector all set up and ready to go beforehand as they had last month. But once it got dark enough the movie did start up. There's not really much to say about "Back to the Future". If you haven't seen it then you SHOULD. If you have seen it then you know what it was like. The Wife and The Tiny Creature left before the feature presentation, but The Little Monster and I stayed right until the end. It was her first time seeing "Back to the Future" and if course I loved the experience of seeing it through her eyes. The highlight was probably when she came up to me during one of the time travel scenes and asked me with a solemn voice--"Daddy, did this actually happen?". I just love that kind of stuff! It's funny to discover how tough it actually is to try and explain the film to someone from a generation or two removed from 1985. Another great moment from the night was when the scenes with the clock tower in it played on the screen...just below Worcester City Hall's very own clock tower (There's a bit of that interesting juxtaposition toward the end of the video below)! All in all, it was definitely worth keeping The Little Monster up nearly three hours after her normal bedtime to see the whole movie. As we headed back to the car around 10:45 on a cool summer night I saw in The Little Monster that familiar ultra-tired state that I remember experiencing as a kid after a long night at the drive-in.

The screen is lowered into place after the band finishes up

SHOWTIME!

Marty rocks out!

Doc Brown informs Marty that they have to go "back to the future"!

As I mentioned, this was only the second of three shows for Movies on the Common. They've done an excellent job so far, and I'd definitely recommend trying to make it out for "Spaceballs" at the end of the month (August 25) if you can. They have one more chance to work out any little bugs that might still be lurking around in the series and fine-tune it a bit further. I can only hope that the success of the series will mean that it will return for a second year in 2012! Otherwise I'll just have to jump into the Delorean time machine next year and head back to 2011 to experience it all over again...

Here's some video from the night. It's heavy on The Flock's set, and the short amount of "Back to the Future" highlights didn't really come out very good. Still, it gives a bit of a look at what the show looked and sounded like for anyone who couldn't be there.

Movies on the Common 2011 (Worcester, MA)

Well, once again I've managed to miss an opportunity to blog about an upcoming event (see the three-part look back on the 2010 Drive-In Super Monster-Rama that I finally got around to writing about nine months later). A group called Worcester Film Works is putting on a series of free movie screenings on the Worcester (MA) Common this summer. The first show was tonight (in fact, it's still probably going on as I start this blog). While it's too late to let people know about tonight's show, the good news is that this is going to be a three-movie series. This means that anyone who reads this and might be interested in attending one of these shows has two more opportunities to do so!

I only recently heard about the 2011 Movies on the Common series, and apparently it was only recently organized by the folks at Worcester Film Works. From talking to members of the group tonight this is something they've been wanting to make happen for a while now. For something only recently put together it was a very nice first effort. The weather tonight (which WFW obviously has no control over) was just about perfect--a warm evening that turned into a pleasantly cool night, no humidity, no precipitation. They couldn't have asked Mother Nature for a better night to start their series.

We showed up around 7:00, with the show scheduled to start at dusk (approximately 8:30). The audience was modest but enthusiastic when we arrived. Over the next hour-an-a-half the crowd swelled to a nice size--especially for a first-time event. I'm not good at estimating crowd numbers, but there were easily a hundred people present by the time the movie started. A couple vendors were present too: Sweet Sister Ice Cream was there with their ice cream truck, and Main Street's Theatre Cafe was there with various sandwiches for sale. We got ice cream for The Monsters, but didn't indulge in the sandwiches this time (though I'm sure they were tasty). Worcester Film Works had a table set up too. They had a popcorn machine there to sell popcorn to the viewing audience. Unfortunately, in what must have been the worst glitch of the first night, the popcorn machine didn't work. Through quick thinking they were able to solve the problem: they ran out, bought a bunch of bags of Smart Food Popcorn and filled the machine with that! Just before the movie started paper bags of Smart Food were selling for a buck apiece. You can't have a movie without popcorn after all!

As for the movie, tonight's feature was "Grease" (1978), which was a nice choice. Not only is it a classic, crowd-pleasing movie that I actually remember watching at the drive-in when it first came out, but it also goes very nicely with this weekend's big annual New England Summer Nationals car show in Worcester which starts tomorrow (July 1, 2011). I was expecting one of those inflatable movie screens to be set up, but was pleasantly surprised to instead see a huge screen set up right behind City Hall. I'm also not good at estimating screen sizes, but it was BIG (see photos below). There were colored lights running up both sides of the screen and the movie was projected from behind. It was a very nice set-up. I suppose that if I had to pick something to gripe about, it would be that the projector being behind the screen meant that there was a circle of bright light from it visible onscreen during the feature. While this wasn't ideal, it was actually less distracting than one might expect. I guess that since it's so blatantly right in your field of view your brain kind of tunes it out. Every once in a while you'd remember it was there when the action of the movie was centered where the light was, but in general it wasn't much of a nuisance at all. On the plus side, the projector being behind the screen also meant that the entire area in front of the screen was prime viewing area, since no projecting equipment was set up there. The picture quality itself was nice once it became dark enough, and the sound was loud and clear. Classic rock was blasting through the speakers before the movie.

The show started with a welcome from a Worcester radio personality and a couple Charlie Chaplin shorts before it was really dark enough for the movie. Then, just as darkness was falling in earnest, "Grease" started up. The movie itself needs no description. We had to leave early--after the "Greased Lightning" number--so we could get The Little Monsters home and put them to bed, but I can only imagine that the rest of the show went smoothly.

Worcester Film Works wanted to pick some very popular mainstream movies that would bring the crowds in for this first season as they try to build interest in the series. "Grease" seems a perfect match for this formula. As for the rest of the series, it runs on the last Thursday night of the month in July and August. After the June 30 showing of "Grease" there are still two more movies coming up before the summer ends: "Back to the Future" (1985) on Thursday, July 28 and "Spaceballs" (1987) on Thursday, August 25. In the case of a rainout, the movies will be run on the following Thursday. Hopefully the show will be successful enough that it will be able to continue for many more years. If tonight's turnout is any indication, it should be a good summer for Movies on the Common. I think the vast majority of the good-sized crowd must have had a fine time. As word of mouth spreads and Worcester Film Works and other media outlets (hopefully) get the word out, I'd expect the audience to grow even larger. See Worcester Film Works for up-to-the-minute updates about the series.

They say that a picture says a thousand words, so why don't we look at some photos from tonight's show?

Entering the Common, we passed by the famous "Turtle Boy" statue (note the screen in the background)

The Little Monster makes her choice at Sweet Sister's ice cream truck

The Worcester Film Works crew manning their table (and their malfunctioning popcorn machine)

The Wife and The Little Monsters give you an idea of the sheer size of the screen

The Little Monster gives you an idea of the sheer messiness of her popsicle

The Little Monster and The Tiny Creature enjoy creating an unholy mess (they actually didn't do too bad, surprisingly)

The Little Monster shows off her sugar-stained mouth while waiting for the show to begin...

...while The Creature shows off her Mommy's sunglasses

A look at the projector behind the screen

A couple members of Worcester FilmWorks survey the scene

As the sun sets the crowd swells

Closeup view of one of the Charlie Chaplin shorts that started the show

The Little Monster getting her first look at Charlie Chaplin!

The second Chaplin short

And finally, wait for it...

Our feature presentation: GREASE!

The Wife and The Little Monster enjoy some Smart Food

And so does The Creature

A last look at the scene as the sky continues to darken

And finally, here's a little bit of video footage from tonight. It starts off with The Little Monsters dancing to Led Zeppelin before the show, continues with part of the introduction and then a few quick clips of the movie itself as it looked on the big screen behind City Hall.

See you on July 28 for "Back to the Future"!