Dear ------ and ----,
First of all allow me to thank you for arranging for me to be allocated 8 tickets for the AFI Fest. I am grateful to you both for your efforts and also to the kind person who phoned me to make the initial offer following my e mail. Sadly almost nothing worked out as planned owing to the abject failure of the system and also the unbelievable ignorance of the individual volunteers used at the Theatre. Permit me to elaborate.
J. Edgar 11/03/2011
My wife and I arrived well in advance of the time scheduled for issuing tickets. We parked in Orange Street and on reaching street level were greeted by a crowd already lining up. 2 AFI people were present but were lost in conversation with one another. Fortunately several members of the line volunteered the information that theirs was the Rush Line. We left them and entered Hollywood Boulevard at which point we had to do the annual silly dance of crossing the Boulevard and walking 50 yards or so on the other side before crossing back to the Theatre side. This because the sidewalk is closed for VIP Arrivals even though none are there at that time. We headed for the end of the Line near Grauman's Chinese and established that this was indeed the line for ticket holders. This information initially came from fellow patrons as no AFI people were in attendance. Later a young lady went down the line checking that we were all in the correct line. I showed her the e mail from Leti, explained the situation and she confirmed we were in the correct place. some 30 minutes or so after joining the line another young lady arrived, asking the same question. This time she took the E Mail away with her and a few minutes later returned to inform us we were in the wrong line. It was never made clear to us what this line was actually for. Perhaps it was a Hot Dog Queue. We went, as instructed, upstairs to seek another line where the tickets would be forthcoming. Once again, nobody was evident from AFI and it was left to the guys at the front of the line to tell us where to wait. This proved to be about (guess) 50 yards from the front.. Nobody challenged our right to be in this line and so I approached a young lady sitting at a table on a corner some 20 yards ahead and she checked my name off the list, thus registering my arrival. What followed was about 90 minutes of agonizing standing while self important nobody's strode around looking oh so busy and informed. A young man positioned himself in front of us all and was told that he had to keep a fire line free "just in case" wholly understandable. To watch him police this imaginary line was classic cinema in itself. Every now and again he was distracted by a question from a patron in the line or from a new arrival. Fortunately he was unable to offer any information at all to anyone and then had to check and re check the position of his imaginary wall. Several patrons took to challenging this IL by crossing it but no action was taken and we all became bored. On three or four occasions AFI "Management" came along but most were ignorant of what was going on. Then we began to learn that you had "oversold" and that we might be placed in another Theatre instead of Grauman's. Eventually after the specified 90 minutes or so we were given two tickets for Row A. I suspect we were among the last ten people to get tickets for the main house. As you know the Movie was to start at 7.30pm but we did not take our seats until well after this time and were by no means last to arrive in the auditorium. What was interesting was to spot the large number of people who we had seen in the Line outside coming up to the second floor to join the rest of us. I would say at least 20 of the people downstairs had to leave their line and join ours.
I listened rather than watched Mr. Di Caprio's performance which seemed worthy of Oscar consideration and have told him so. We were able to see Mr. Eastwood from very close up because when he spoke before the Movie he was only about 10 feet away.
Carnage 11/05/2011
Once again we arrived early, though it has to be said, later than the previous occasion. Based upon our previous experience we knew exactly which line to join and did so This time we found ourselves completely outside on the second floor. The line must have been 200 yards long. It continued to grow over the next hour or so On this occasion, AFI People were better informed and in the space of ten minutes about an hour after joining the line, we were told that there was no chance of getting in to see the Movie and then we were all told that nobody knew if that was true as they were still doing the sums. Then we were informed that the Theatre was full and if we wanted to leave, that would be ok. My wife and I chose to leave and had dinner instead.
My Week With Marilyn 11/06/2011
Based on our experiences from 11/3 and 11/5 we decided not to bother even trying to line up
Shame 11/09/2011
Again, in the absence of any assurances to the contrary, we opted to ignore the performance. Thus completing our involvement with AFI Fest 2011 a Festival we have enjoyed every year since arriving in the United States and joining AFI in 2007.
I have more issues that the patience to deal with them here but do propose to ask some fairly obvious questions.
1: Why do you not issue tickets to ticket holders for the Gala Premieres prior to the night?
2: Why do you not limit the number of tickets made available to all comers to the number of seats available in the Theatre?
3: What is the value of joining AFI if when Festivals such as this take place, your members are lumped into the same line as the general public who have decided to do nothing to support the AFI except take the free tickets, popcorn and Pepsi?
4: What steps do you intend to take next year to avoid this amateur farce and turn it into the professional Festival it should have become after 25 years.
Today I bought 2 tickets to take my wife to Graumans Chinese Theatre we will visit without the Festival nonsense and I tell you this, the price was worth it to avoid this fiasco.
Over to you, please feel free to pass this e mail on to whatever level of AFI Management you may feel would be interested.
