You may have seen the posters and ads on the street, but didn't really notice that Jackie Chan, Choi Siwon, Adrien Brody and John Cusack were attending the Dragon Blade Gala Premiere (what is a gala premiere anyway?), and you can win tickets to said Gala Premiere. By the time it hit me that I could be watching a movie with Jackie Chan and Choi Siwon, it was too late to try to win tickets. However, it was not too late to show up at the Red Carpet event to catch a glimpse of the stars. A thousand other people turned up too.
I saw the back of Siwon's hair, and Adrien Brody's forehead!
A friend happened to have a ticket to the Gala Premiere, so we told him to tell us about everything. I had tried to google "Gala Premiere", and there was only one post (which I can't find anymore) about experiencing such an event, and it was not very detailed. It did warn us that the movie is likely to start late due to the red carpet event, and that was only partially true. The stars had a decently long break between the end of the interview and the start of the movie, but the movie started late.
As we were leaving, we received a message from the friend inside that he got more tickets for us. Yippee! Except we were in a different hall. Oh...no Siwon?
It turns out that a Gala Premiere is a big event. The entire movie theater was booked out and showing only Dragon Blade. The PA system was calling out hall numbers, and ushers were herding people in. It was quite impersonal. We were in the last theater, along with some Siwon fangirls that we saw earlier. The theater was half-empty, and nothing was happening. The fans were either experienced or hopeful -- they were crowded in the first few rows where you have to strain your neck to see the movie. Then the ushers came in and asked us all to move forward, which is when we knew that we were going to see Jackie and Siwon.
The MCs came in first, then security, and Jackie came down one aisle, and Siwon came down the other. It was mainly Jackie who was doing the talking, although Siwon has pretty decent Chinese speaking skills. We were got to get even closer to take a group picture (we didn't move forward, so we were probably cut off). After a few minutes, Jackie and Siwon left, although we managed to stick our hands out of the aisle for a handshake.
The rest of the evening was the movie.
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So how should one get free tickets to Gala Premiere? The methods suggested below are not guaranteed to work since it relies a little on the working style of the organizer. Some are more likely to work than others.
After all the excitement, we asked how my friend got the tickets for us. While waiting to enter the hall, he saw a lady standing around with a giant stack of tickets, and he asked her for a few. I know, anti-climatic. In fact, she had so many that she didn't seem to know what to do about it (hence the half-empty theater). So if you have a friend who has a ticket, he could get more tickets. It's the rich get richer kind of situation.
Secondly, the fangirls. The ones I saw in the theater. I don't think they bought or won their tickets. If I had to guess, the organizers were looking out for fans (evidence of fandom include holding signs with the name of your favorite oppa). Think about it. You don't want some mature people sitting in the audience. You want hormonal crazy teenagers who will scream every time they hear Siwon's name. It makes everyone feel good. It was a little quiet in my theater because they didn't get enough Siwon fans. (Incidentally, it was interesting watching a movie starring Siwon with Siwon fans.) This is an international method -- this is how Taylor Swift selects which fans to meet.
So there you go, the inside scoop on a gala premiere. If you are one of those fangirls who got in, please tell us how you got your ticket. If you're not one of those fangirls but you also got in, I would love to hear from you too.
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