August 17, 2002
Madstone, Part 3
Jim Sheehan, President of Madstone Theaters LLC, responds to nettle through (PR guy? publicist? not sure) Dave Anderson of Madstone Films. Here's the email (which Anderson encouraged me to publish) unedited, in its entirety:
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Subject: Hello Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 18:22:13 -0400 From: Dave Anderson Brain, Jim Sheehan asked me to pass along this message: +++ Dear Brian, Sorry to hear you were less than thrilled with your time at Madstone. We don't like anyone going home disappointed-although it seems worth noting that the vast majority of last weekend's three thousand plus film lovers (felt pretty crowded to us!) were quite happy. Among the memorable highlights, unflappable staffer Bart "the Human Trailer" had 'em rolling in the aisles with snarky comments and obscure trivia while introducing Clerks and other films. Regrettably, he wasn't at your screening, but hopefully you'll get to enjoy him next time. In fact, we'd love to have you back on the house. Just say when and you've got a pair of tickets and two tasty smoothies waiting for you. In the meantime, we noticed that you seem quite intent on finding out what our name means. Don't go for much mystery in your life, huh? (Do you know what a Miramax is?) Well, since you insist, we'll let you in on the secret: a Madstone is a Hopi Indian term for a rock that, legend has it, can be used to remove the venom from a snakebite. In any case, you raised a number of interesting questions and concerns. I've attached the press release announcing our opening that hopefully will provide some of the answers you were seeking. We appreciate your impressively thorough (definitely thorough) evaluation and hope to incorporate some of your counsel into the ongoing process of getting to know what matters most to all the discerning film-lovers we are here to serve. And so you know: we've already talked to our staff to make sure they can answer the types of questions you asked; we're looking into that mysterious hum you heard; we've made sure the web site is healthy again; and we're also thinking about creating a brochure that explains in more detail what Madstone will be bringing to San Diego (the material you saw dealt only with membership-which, by the way, many folks have already signed up for). As for the trailers, they will be up and running this weekend-even though many folks actually made a point of thanking us for leaving them out. Well, I guess you can't please everyone. But we genuinely hope to please you eventually. In the meantime, take us up on that comp invite, come enjoy a movie you haven't already seen, and hang out with some fellow film fans in our lounge. We think you just might find them to be pretty happy with their time at Madstone. Who knows, maybe the experience will even remove some of the venom... Best,
Jim Sheehan P.S. Digital projection is in the works but we're waiting on a few technology developments. We'll keep you posted. |
I wrote back and thanked Jim for taking the time to write. He didn't quite answer all of my questions directly (I had a fairly clear list of 'em in Part Two of the Madstone articles), but he did provide a press release which goes into some more detail.
The attachment to the above email was a Microsoft Word document. Setting aside my age-old rule never to open Word document attachments in email, I did this time with the hope that no viruses had hitched a ride. :-) So far so good (knocking on wood). I've converted the attachment to PDF file for your viewing pleasure (warning, it's 300k). All it is is the press release that went out announcing the opening of Madstone San Diego.
Jim mentions someone named "Bart" who provided an introduction to some of the films. Alas, no Madstone employees were present to introduce the movies in the two shows I attended last weekend.
I've requested a meeting with Madstone's new San Diego Director of Audience Services to get a better idea of what Madstone has in store for the San Diego area. Will follow up when I hear back.
Posted by brian at August 17, 2002 03:46 PM