"Sex Drive" Red Carpet Premiere - Written by Spaldy

The theater where the premiere was held at.

"Sex Drive" donuts! I couldn't exaggerate how cool that is.

Seth Green waved to our camera.

And he posed.


And looked happy to be there.

Here's the Red Carpet.

The Mexican Donut from the flick.

David Koechner talks to FilmArcade.

So does director Sean Anders and screenwriter/producer John Morris.

That's us!

Clark Duke talking to Spaldy.

Alice Grecyzn on the Red Carpet, with a cameo from Spaldy's arm.

I have always been a writer, not a personality. When the situation calls for it, I can be quite gregarious and engaging, but I end up speaking like “fire pretty” for three days afterward. Working the red carpet is a strange situation. On one hand, you want to ask questions and record and preserve those answers as much as possible. On the other hand, the people you are talking to are human beings and you should converse with them and not drill them like they are applying for an opening at your company. As this was my first trip down the red carpet row, I had a bit of difficulty finding that line between conversation and interview. If you remain too quiet, you get short, terse, awkward answers. But if you try to converse, you interrupt and cut them off. There is definitely an art to these interviews, and it likely takes a personality and not a writer to do the situation justice.

As we were stationed at the end of the row, we were going to be asking questions long after they had answered about 100 or more before us. Sure they have stock answers and sound bites, but if you are the 18th person to ask the same question, then the sound bites you get sound a lot like Tim Robbins in “Bull Durham:” “we’re just happy to be here” or “It was just a great bunch of people to work with.” So in an effort to make it less painful for me and for them, I instead stuck to asking the people strolling the red carpet what movies they enjoy and what inspires them. Some were surprising (Oscar from “The Office” said he had just watched “Appaloosa” on DVD with Creed – tell me that image isn’t the best you’ve heard of all week) and others were classic (John Morris likes “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” while Seth Green was partial to “Raising Arizona”). Surprisingly only a couple people were really passionate when they talked about films they liked or were inspired by. I am hoping it was the long march of questions that sapped their enthusiasm and not something more sinister. You see I know a lot of people who work in film and television and many of them do not watch film or television. I don’t get it and I can not quite comprehend it. To me it is kind of like a banker who doesn’t like money. The whole issue is kind of a pet peeve of mine, so I choose to be optimistic and blame the atmosphere rather than the enthusiasm.

Overall it was an enlightening experience. Most of the people were very friendly and gracious, and really made the event a lot less intimidating than one would think. My trusty iPod recorded my interviews in perfect clarity (all the more embarrassing for me to hear my voice and its awkward questioning perfectly preserved), however its hard drive had other plans. Though I no longer have most of those interviews available, I did manage to save a few videos and pictures from the event. Check them out! (Videos coming shortly...)