The Story of the Story of Appleseed

Alright, fine, the story of seeing Appleseed.

Picture this: It's last Thursday, I'm pretty bored. My plans for after-work include going to the gym and going home. All of the sudden one of my coworkers emails me and asks if I know about this new Appleseed movie, and do I want to go? I reply and ask if it's free and if N. can go too and the answer is yes.

All I have to do is meet this coworker's husband, who I've heard of but never met, at his office at exactly 6pm. So I ask to get off work early and arrange to have N. meet me at this guy's office. N. shows up a little later than expected and a man who's been smoking outside while I waited for N. is like "Are you here to see Jeff?" We say yes.

The man leads us back through the bowels of an office that reminds me of the 4Kids offices, only cooler, and we end up in the very back, in the office of Jeff's small company. We have to wait for Jeff to take a phone call and for the other invitee to the movie to arrive, so Jeff hands us a book that has press clippings and stuff about his company in it.

N. and I skim through the book and learn about Jeff's company. Turns out Jeff's a long-time gamer. N. is all about that and strikes up a conversation with Jeff about D&D and Dragon magazine and all that.

When we get up to Asia Society the line for the free preview screening stretches around the block. We're not as early as we could've been, and things look grim. Word reaches the back of the line that Time Out magazine photocopied their movie passes, and that's why twice as many people as will fit in the theater have shown up!

Jeff goes up several times to investigate the front of the line. Jeff's coworker assures us that we'll get in, and that "Jeff has never failed us before." I am vaguely aware that Jeff has Connections" in the Industry, but I'm not sure to what extent.

We move to the front of the line to one side, where a conflict is taking place. The security-guard-looking fellow is locking the doors and yelling at people and telling them it's filled to capacity, but sometimes he looks over at Jeff in a friendly way. Things are looking bad. A Japanese woman who I recognize as the director of the Energy-Fest-NYC events is trying to usher in her Japanese guests, but the security guard is saying no. It's almost time for the movie to start. Free posters are being handed out as consolation prizes.

Suddenly the security guard talks to us privately. He introduces us to an old man, his father. Apparently Jeff worked with the guy's father for years and years in the comic book industry. The security guard leads his parents and our group (a total of eight people) around to the secret door in the back, where the Energy-Fest woman is arguing in broken English with a man who looks like a building manager who is complaining about fire codes. The building manager looks like he's on the verge of tears.

The security guard explains that it's OK, he has eight seats saved in the second row, and he has eight people here. We are ushered past the visiting Japanese dignitaries and into the theater.

Taking tickets is someone who I recognize from Metro Anime Society, not to mention every other asian event in the city, like the Subway Cinema Film Festival, and various meet-ups from meetup.com and Zoe's party, and several anime cons. He must be a member of Asia Society.

Just inside the theater is a guy I recognize from somewhere but can't place until sometime after the movie.

We take our seats, which have paper signs that say "Reserved" taped to them. Whenever I've been to other free preview screenings, I've always looked at the taped-off sections and wondered who the hell gets to sit there. This time it's me.

The rest of the audience is made of some of the big-time anime fans I recognize from various events, a lot of unwashed fanboys, some press-like people, and more Japanese dignitaries.

The event begins and someone from Asia Society introduces the freakin' president of Geneon Entertainment! Geneon is one of the big three or four anime distribution companies (the others being ADV, Funimation, Manga Entertainment, and Central Park Media). This is a bigwig from Japan! He's got a lot riding on the theatrical release of this movie in the states. He rattles off the list of cities the move opens in tomorrow in a memorized English speech. The last city, and he says, his favorite, is Honolulu.

Next the Energy-Fest chick gets on stage and introduces the director of the film, who's sitting in the audience. Then she thanks everyone again for coming and having this event and goes on to warn the audience not to think too hard about the picture we're about to see. "Please," she says, "Let your brain go transparent!"

The film plays to an audience who at once likes the cool scenes and laughs in a mixture of sarcasm and embarrassment at the bad scenes. My review is here.

At the end a lot of people leave during the credits, perhaps unable to face the director for the Q&A session to follow. There's also a simultaneous video game release party going on upstairs. Maybe they're going to that.

I realize the mystery man from when I walked in the door is a friend of Andrea's, from Central Park Media. I've hung out with him at least twice and met him more times than that, but he was still really hard to place.

The Q&A session goes surprisingly well. A very professional-looking older woman translates for the director. It can't be easy, since people want to know very technical and fannish answers to things. We learn that Briareos was coughing in that one scene because he's a cyborg, and not a total robot (although this seems to lead to more questions...), and that the production staff used Maya and Lightwave. We learn that from the time the director was hired, the film took only a year and a half to produce! It was shot almost entirely in Japan. The director is not allowed to reveal the budget.

Next there's a reception after the film with free snacks, and free wine. Jeff, his cohort, N. and I head over to the reception. N. talks to Jeff's cohort for a while. I recognize Steve from CPM and talk to him. Turns out these CPM people are working the event. At first I assume he means as a kind of second job, since CPM doesn't pay very well. But it's actually mandatory overtime, since CPM has ties to Asia Society.

Jeff goes off to talk to Industry types. Eventually he comes back and talks to N. and I about his experiences working with Joss Wheadon! Jeff helped with the Buffy mythology early on in the show, and later he was solicited to help write a Buffy movie that never happened. But what did happen was that some rich producers flew him to Japan, to visit this guy's house - built in a Buddhist monastery in the middle of a mountain! We marvel over what kind of idiot actually builds a mansion on an Indian burial ground for real.

A woman who claims to be from the "Kyoto News" or something implausible asks me my opinion of the film, since there are mostly guys around. She wants to hear a woman's point of view. I complain about this and that and that characters not looking human enough and she tends to agree. Then the Asia Society starts flashing the lights and kicking us out.

We talk with Jeff outside for a while before parting ways.

N. is wholly impressed to have met geeks in the Industry who someday want to put their D&D campaign into a really tastefully done high-budget movie. Isn't that every geek's dream?

I felt really lucky to get to go to such an event totally for free and at the last possible minute. It seems to me sometimes that the best things that happen in New York are almost totally random.

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