We recently hosted our last West Coast premiere event in Ketchum, Idaho, and we had an incredible turnout! All of the tour stops have been special in their own way, but the events we throw in the locations where we filmed always have a little more excitement in the air. The event last night in Ketchum took place where we shot Ruby Dog—both Pat and Ruby (the stars of the film) showed up to answer questions and meet fans!
After Ketchum, we headed to Dayton, Ohio, to the Neon Theater for the grand finale show alongside our friends at Airstream. It is crazy to believe that this journey is coming to a close!
We have been working on these films for the last nine months. In some ways, we are ready for it to end. We love the tour, but our first passion is filmmaking and putting on a national tour is a different beast.
This is the first time we have been out on the road, producing a string of premiere events, and it is, to put it lightly, challenging.
It all began months ago with calling venues and hoping they resonated with our idea of Searching for the Big One. Some of the locations were easy, but others like LA came down to the last minute! We found our L.A. venue just 10 days before the premiere was set to take place.
The actual day of the event is always nerve-wracking. Our crew is filled with perfectionists, so we are always sure to show up hours before the event to make sure the screen, projector and speakers are fully set up and functioning. Once we are confident that our equipment is working properly, the nerves start to set in. Will anyone actually show up? You watch the clock and as the time grows near you begin to sweat because no one has arrived! Then, you remind yourself that no one ever comes early.
People always show up and we spend the next couple of hours connecting with the attendees, showing the films and sharing our story. These are the moments that make it all worth it.
All of that challenge comes with the most incredible reward. We get to share our films with an audience, and then we get to meet those people afterward. There is no greater energy than someone driven to share their passion with us because they just watched one of our films.
That is the goal: to spread the sparks of people that do incredible things. We couldn’t feel more fortunate to have had the chance to do that repeatedly over the past month.
We are often asked at our shows how we find the people we make films about, and we always answer the same way. “We are hoping you will tell us later tonight.” Chispa is not a rare thing. We have found inspired people after every one of our shows. It’s the people we meet that show us why we spent this time on the road on our Search for the Big One.
Get more information about the Search for the Big One film tour.
