Bust a Budget Move
Even in today's economic climate, event planners are expected to cut through the noise of competing events and wow a very jaded audience. Imagination in execution and financing is the new standard.
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Hans Zimmer, Johnny Marr and an orchestra perform at the Hollywood premiere of "Inception"
At the afterparty for Tuesday night's Hollywood premiere of "Inception," the mind-bending new thriller written and directed by Christopher Nolan, chanson singer Tera Hendrickson, backed by a guitarist and drummer, stood on a tiny stage and performed sweet songs for the hundreds of attendees who had just had their brains blown.
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Samantha Sackler on Fox's LA Style File

Lady in the Water Premiere Has Gloomy Feel
Smoke machines and swamplike decor created a spooky atmosphere at the party for Warner Brothers' new M. Night Shyamalan movie.

bizbash.com - Courtney Thompson
Moss, twigs, vines, and briar set the scene at Warner Brothers' premiere party for Lady in the Water. Held in the American Museum of Natural History's Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life (aka the big whale room), the event accommodated some 750 guests and echoed the film's spooky subject matter. "We wanted to bring a gloomy, eerie backyard look to the room," said Warner Brothers vice president of publicity and special events Courtney Saylor, adding that director M. Night Shyamalan handpicked the venue because, "it's a one-stop shop, where both the screening and the after-party can take place."

Lady in the Water stars Paul Giamatti and Byce Dallas Howard walked the blue carpet before screening the film inside the American Museum of Natural History's LeFrak Theater.

After watching the film in the museum's LeFrak Theater, guests made their way through winding halls of glass-encased stuffed mammals before entering a party space swathed in green light and smoke—a swamplike atmosphere created by Samantha Sackler of Events in Motion. Sackler custom-produced roughly a dozen 12-foot-tall fake trees with swaying branches, as well as vine-encrusted highboy cocktail tables and candlelit centerpieces of hanging orchids. A 16-foot circular bar stood the in the center of the room, and Sackler also covered boxes lining the walls of the venue with moss, twigs, and "anything else you'd find in your backyard." In addition to a dozen round cocktail tables covered in dark green linens, which were reserved for the film's stars, the room also had black suede benches, ottomans, and circular couches.

The focal point of the party was Scrunt—the vicious wolflike creature out to kill Lady in the Water's heroine, Story, played by Bryce Dallas Howard. Raised on a platform in front of a large screen bearing the movie's logo was the red-eyed Scrunt prop used in the movie.

While the museum proved to be a convenient venue for Saylor, she said the gigantic whale hanging from the Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life's ceiling was a challenge. "Lady in the Water clearly deals with water; however, there is nothing in the film that has to do with whales," she said. "We basically dealt with it by not lighting the whale at all, which surprisingly works pretty well." Saylor also faced the challenge of incorporating sponsor Pepsi's 100 sweepstakes winners into the arrivals area without having them on the red carpet (which was actually blue, courtesy of the soda brand). She was able to do so by placing bleachers bedecked with Pepsi banners to the side of the carpet, where the winners had a bird's eye view of the film's stars arriving.

Snow Falls on Hollywood for Fox Premiere Ice Age 2
Ice Age 2 launched at Grauman's Chinese Theater covered in snow and ice.
bizbash.com - Alesandra Dubin
For the premiere of 20th Century Fox's animated film Ice Age 2, the iconic facade of Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard got a decidedly more wintery look than sidewalk gawkers typically see in sunny Los Angeles. Fox's Len Iannelli tapped Events in Motion to dress the location with 20-foot-high glaciers and create a pathway for celebrity arrivals via snowmobile. Union Ice Company provided snow for the event. (Events in Motion pulled a similar stunt for the The Day After Tomorrow premiere at the American Museum of Natural History in New York back in 2004.) Eight ice skaters from the Los Angeles Ice Theater skated and performed choreographed pieces to music from the movie. After the screening, guests moved to the venue's courtyard for a reception (covered with more falling snow) where they appropriately nibbled on ice cream and other dessert snacks.

Forecast for Tomorrow: 80 Degrees, Snow
bizbash.com - Alesandra Dubin
New York weather can be so extreme. Sometimes it's snowy and wet, sometimes it's hot and sticky. And for the premiere of Fox's summer disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow at the American Museum of Natural History, it was all of those in the same evening.

To evoke the film's weather-gone-wild plot, Fox special events director Len Iannelli and Events in Motion coordinated a pre-screening arrival area with nearly 100 tons of man-made snow. The grueling set-up began at 2 AM on the morning of the premiere. The team flocked the trees in front of the museum as well as the building facade to a height of more than 150 feet. Additional fake snow—biodegradable, we were assured—blew from handheld snow blowers and trusses above the white carpet to give the illusion of falling snow for the dozens of journalists on hand to capture the arrivals of the film's stars, including Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal, who hurled snowballs at passing taxis on Central Park West.

With those celebs and others like Chelsea Clinton, Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon and Ja Rule in the crowd, long stretches of white velvet ropes helped keep gawkers at bay. Even if the puddles left by the melting snow on the hot afternoon created a serious liability issue for starlets in five-inch heels, the spectacle drew enough television and print coverage to cancel critics' complaints.

The venue was a natural choice for the premiere: The museum is featured in a scene in the movie. After the screening in the museum's Le Frak theater, about 1,000 guests moved to a party in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. The party itself was toned down compared to the large-scale arrival event. Restaurant Associates' catering included passed hors d'oeuvres and a buffet with pesto ravioli and a cubed watermelon and goat cheese salad. Pretty decor including white lilies and roses recalled the snowy demise of thousands of Manhattanites in the film—a quiet bit of irony amid the festive party with dance music and martinis.

NEW YORK POST
by Liz Smith

We have two words to describe the power of director-writer Chris Kentis' movie "Open Water": forget "Jaws." This tale—based on a number of true-life experiences tells of an attractive, stressed-out, young couple who, while scuba diving on vacation, get stranded in the middle of shark-infested waters. Shot for ultrarealism on stark digital video, the film stars unknowns Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis. Coming in at an unbearable tense 82 minutes, this thriller delivers genuine chills, horror and poignancy for which the high-budget "The Village" strains. The final image of Ryan is among the most haunting ever put on screen. (My one cavil is a gratuitous full nude of the of the female star. Her hunky on-screen hubby is not revealed, in a scene that in fairness, should have shown both.)

At the premiere Monday night, the audience staggered out as if stunned upside the head by a big fish fin. Thank goodness there were Sharktini cocktails a plenty and the amusing Coral Bar after-party, where ladies in little dresses and high heals swam in the huge fish tanks. (The Lions Gate folks considered putting fake blood in the water but decided that was too gruesome.)

Among the partyers was chart-topping singer-pianist Peter Cincotti, a knockout who has a real "regular-guy" vibe. (His new disk is "On the Moon.") Cinocotti has discovered poker and says, "It's not really about gambling; poker teaches you about life, how to deal with people, make decisions ... I've found myself using what I've learned playing poker in my business decisions." OK, you guys at "Celebrity Poker," Cincotti wants in!