Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada - August 20 (registered)

Gwynedd · **Posts:** 98 **Signal Origin:** Halifax, NS, Canada

Second year for Halifax, first year for us as an organizing team. We're confirming plans with the theatre now, hope to update with full details soon.

Carbon Arc Cinema (in the Khyber Arts Building, Barrington Street)
Saturday August 20

We are planning for 2 showings, hopefully 6 and 9 pm, as the space is very intimate! Libations and official merchandise will be available for purchase/pick-up before and after the shows; plans are also well underway for Jayne hat sales, costumes, and door prizes.

Co-organizers are myself and Affabletoaster.

Email: cstshalifax@gmail.com
Twitter:
Website is now live for ticket sales & merchandise: http://www.cstshalifax.ca

William Pace · **Posts:** 907 **Signal Origin:** Logan • Utah • Hera

I really wish I could be to this one. I love intimate art house theaters. Please take lots of pictures and video if you can.

samatwitch · **Posts:** 766 **Signal Origin:** Vancouver, BC

Good luck, Halifax. It's great to have more Canadian cities continue. Now if we could just get Ottawa back.

Gwynedd · **Posts:** 98 **Signal Origin:** Halifax, NS, Canada

Thanks guys! We are now confirmed with Carbon Arc and look forward to working with them to organize a memorable event. It's a great little space - which they are donating to the cause! We'll be sure to take pictures.

numindan · **Posts:** 137 **Signal Origin:** Edmonton, AB

Lovely to see Halifax back for another year. Fabulous date as well. Perhaps I should try and make the trek home for a few days around that time... Best of luck to you.

Gwynedd · **Posts:** 98 **Signal Origin:** Halifax, NS, Canada

Wow, well, if you make it back this way it would be GREAT to have you attend!

Website is now live for ticket sales & merchandise: http://www.cstshalifax.ca

Turns out the cinema's technical manager is a Firefly fan, and VERY excited about the event, lots of great suggestions!

Gwynedd · **Posts:** 98 **Signal Origin:** Halifax, NS, Canada

Two days left, good grief! SO excited. We asked a friend of ours who's a part-time artist., has made some nice hand-drawn birthday cards etc., if she had time to do up a sketch of something from the 'Verse - she draws lovely art-deco style stuff, we thought maybe a sketch of Inara would be nice. A couple of days ago, she dropped off an amazing PAINTING of Serenity flying through the black! It's gorgeous, we all want it!

Our indie cinema just had a two day work party to fix it up. Sadly, it was not well attended, but it's all repainted and there are new risers. We were hoping to get more comfortable chairs installed, but I don't think that's going to happen now. Still, the place looks great!

I have been experimenting with problematic food, i.e. popcorn balls on a string. Worked well, I will try and get photos.

Lioness · **Posts:** 2430 **Signal Origin:** Toronto

You'd better take photos! And instruction on how you made the popcorn balls on the string!

samatwitch · **Posts:** 766 **Signal Origin:** Vancouver, BC

It sounds as if you have everything under control, Gwynned. We definitely need pictures!

Gwynedd · **Posts:** 98 **Signal Origin:** Halifax, NS, Canada

CSTS Halifax 2011 has wrapped up. Two showings of Dr. Horrible, trivia contests, silent auction, costumes, themed food and drink, and of course, two showings of the Big Damn Movie made for a memorable evening. We’re still sorting out a few silent auction items and shirt sales, but we raised close to $1400 total! The Halifax/Nova Scotia Browncoats are a small but mighty group, and both shows sold out (capacity 60 each.) Despite all our push in the weeks beforehand, nearly half of ticket sales happened online in the 24 hours before the event!

Our cinema, the Carbon Arc, is a small art house venue on the top floor of an historic building in downtown Halifax which has had various interesting tenants through the years and is now the Khyber Centre for the Arts. We didn't have proper cinema chairs in yet (they've been donated, and we were really hoping the cinema would get them installed, but it didn't quite happen in time) but there were little cafe tables, folding chairs on risers, and nobody complained. It faces a few challenges that come with an aging building, including lack of air conditioning. It got pretty hot in there, but that didn’t deter the Jayne hat wearers! Advantages of an independent space included a relaxed, party atmosphere very suited to a Browncoat shindig, plus the ability to sell beer and “real” Mudder’s Milk. We had cupcakes, samosas, and my rendition of River’s problematic food: popcorn balls on a string.*

by , on Flickr

We did not do terribly well on the silent auction. Not sure why that is – I got the impression people just didn’t have a whole lot of money to play with, even for cool items or a good cause. Our best item was the Serenity painting a friend of ours donated. We didn’t run a costume contest this year, but did invite folks to come in costume. Mal, Zoe, Badger and Inara all showed up. Photos can be seen on Flickr .

WE DID IT! \o/

*I used . A package of bamboo skewers and a roll of food-grade butcher string were easily found in my local supermarket. I experimented with various options for the string, including tying a large knot in the end, or looping it around in the popcorn, but found that it really didn’t have to be that complicated – simply stick the string into the centre of the ball as you shape it, maybe curving it a bit, and it will hold just fine. You can tie the sticks on before or after you make the balls. At first I was doing it before, in case the maneuvering of tying the sticks on caused damage to the balls, but then I ended up doing some the other way and there were no problems. The candy mixture is hard to mix into the popcorn: it is best to have two people, one stirring while the other slowly pours.)

Lioness · **Posts:** 2430 **Signal Origin:** Toronto

Congratulations! It sounds like a great time was had by all and I applaud your enthusiasm to do it twice! And that is an impressive donation.
Did you do just one silent auction for the 2 screenings? How did that work?

Gwynedd · **Posts:** 98 **Signal Origin:** Halifax, NS, Canada

We did a single silent auction. I went through so many possible schedules and variations, and the silent auction was the thing that ultimately decided the order. I considered breaking up the items and having a set for each show, but I felt that would definitely net less money.

We had the 2 screenings, 6 and 9 pm. We opened the doors at 4:30 for silent auction browsing, etc., showed Dr. Horrible at 5, and at 6 pm we had a trivia contest, door prize draws, intro vid, and got Serenity underway by about 6:25. That meant that the first screening wrapped up about 8:25. Meanwhile, people started arriving around 8 pm for the 9 pm showing, and hung out in the silent auction/concessions room. (We had the auction table and merchandise on display in the same room that was selling food and drink, and I think that worked to our advantage.) The crowds mixed between 8:25 and 8:55, at which time we closed the silent auction and announced the winners. Winners who'd been at the 6pm show could pay and take off, while winners who had 9pm tickets stayed in the screening room for another round of trivia/door prizes/movie and could pick up their stuff after Serenity II wrapped up at about 11:25 pm. We took a 5 minute break, and then showed Dr. Horrible a 2nd time for any of the 9 pm folks who wanted to stick around. The whole thing finished shortly after midnight.

I think the silent auction worked fairly well as a result. People with 6pm tickets who REALLY wanted an item either stuck around to make sure they weren't outbid, or put down a reasonable bid and their phone number. The bids just were not very high or very frequent in general. We got 3 bids max on any item, mostly 2.

If we do it at the same venue next year, we'd consider adding a third (matinee) screening, but how best to run the silent auction is still the thing that stumps me about that set-up. People won't want to hang around for hours (plus we don't have room) but it gives an unfair advantage to the 9 pm people who can up-bid by a couple of dollars.

samatwitch · **Posts:** 766 **Signal Origin:** Vancouver, BC

Congratulations, Gwynedd. A fun, well-planned and successful event.

Lioness · **Posts:** 2430 **Signal Origin:** Toronto

It would be interesting to see a discussion of silent vs live auctions. Sometimes a city has no choice but when there is a possibility of doing one or another, my feeling is that live auctions get more money.

Gwynedd · **Posts:** 98 **Signal Origin:** Halifax, NS, Canada

To be honest, the single biggest factor in our decision not to run a live auction was that one of the key team members has an extreme dislike of them and felt strongly that they did not want to be involved in that. (Personally, I find it a bit uncomfortable to run raffles as I dislike gambling, the idea that most people will part with money towards something they want and end up walking away with nothing - but where it's for charity, I can justify it as a way for them to basically give a donation, with the chance of getting a reward.)

The venue size played a part, too, however. With the limited seating/standing capacity, it is just not possible for us to have the ticket holders for both shows in the same space to run a live auction. One possibility could be to hold the auction between the shows, with the 6pm holders who wanted to bid staying on, and asking the 9pm holders to come an hour early, and assuming that there would be a smaller fraction of each crowd who'd be interested so we wouldn't breach fire regulations.

My concern, though, was that there would be a lot of 9pm holders who would not come early - they'd decide the auction wasn't worth sitting around for an hour, or they wouldn't have read the website/tweets/etc. for details, or they simply would not get there in time - and that we would end up with fewer people in total bidding. This might be made up for by the excitement and buzz that a live auction can generate, with someone working the crowd, talking up the items, reminding people it's for a great cause etc... I'm not sure, but my gut feeling with our local crowds was that having the auction run essentially simultaneously with things like standing in line waiting for your showing, and buying concessions, was the best way to go. Pretty much all 120 ticket holders came by and saw the silent auction items, as well as merchandise.

Live and learn, though. If I can work out space logistics, we may try it a different way next year! :wink:

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