Finally after a month of preparation, the day of waiting has come. On the 13th of January 2009, Les' Copaque Production organised a Press Preview for Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula at the Cathay Cineplex Cineleisure Damansara, a month before its 12th of February release. The team was anxious, nervous of the outcome. Why? Because after 2.5 years on Geng, it all boils down to this. Will people like it? Would the press enjoy it as an audience at all?
But before we go into that, let's look at the Press Preview itself.
The Press Preview invitation cards
The Press preview was to start at 7.30. We had set up the registration booth, World of Geng booth where we sold Upin & Ipin and Geng merchandises, as well as the buffet area for guests. Thanks to Cathay Cineplex Pacific and Cineleisure Damansara for the venue. Cathay Cineplex even changed the coming soon posters to "Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula". They even looped our trailer in the big screen until the end of the event. We also would like to thank MDeC for sponsoring the event.
We’d like to thank the Grand Brilliance team as well for helping us handle the Press Registration. What luck did the press and media guests have because for every registration, goody bags were given which included a Press release of Geng, Media kit for write-ups and images, Geng Notebook, Geng Mineral water (yes there is such a thing), Geng Car bumper sticker, an Upin & Ipin pen, Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula A4 poster as well as Geng badges. Everthing was set to make sure the press received sufficient information and material to follow up on Geng coverage later on.
Tags worn by the crew
Feedback form distributed to guests and press
Customers who passed by to catch a film at the Cineplex were curious with the event. Some asked for goodie bags and some asked if they could buy tickets to the screening. We declined apologetically and informed them of the 12/02/09 release date. In fact many people actually asked for tickets to Geng at the Cineplex ticket counter that Cathay had to inadvertently display that Geng was sold out on the big monitor. Don't worry guys you have a month to prepare and book tickets early.
The calm before the storm
Coming up next, the arrival of guests and the show itself.
Written by: Anas
Pictures by: Faizu, Adam, Hidhir, and Yuki
Geng Press Preview: Bahagian 1
Akhirnya selepas sebulan persiapan, tibalah hari yang paling kami nantikan. Pada 13 Januari 2009 yang lalu, Les’ Copaque Production telah menganjurkan ‘Press Preview’ Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula, sebulan sebelum tarikh Wajib Tayang di 55 pawagam seluruh Malaysia pada 12 Februari ini. Kami semua sangat teruja dan agak gementar memikirkan hasil kerja penat lelah yang dibuat selama 2½ tahun ini akhirnya bakal disaksikan oleh para media, wartawan dan jemputan khas.
Makanan sudah pun terhidang, booth pendaftaran telah bersedia menerima tetamu, dan barang jualan cenderahati World of Geng sudahpun teratur untuk dibeli pengunjung.Tepat 7.30 malam, bermulalah majlis Press Preview untuk filem Geng:Pengembaraan Bermula yang bertempat di Cathay Cineplex Pacific,Cineleisure Damansara. Terima kasih Cathay Cineplex yang dengan bermurah hatinya telah menukar semua poster ‘coming soon’ di ruang legar dengan poster filem Geng .Mereka juga telah menayangkan secara ulangan trailer filem Geng di skrin besar hingga tamat majlis kami.Kami juga berterima kasih kepada MDeC kerana telah menaja majlis ini.
Kami juga berterima kasih kepada team Grand Brilliance yang juga telah membantu kami menjaga booth pendaftaran pihak media. Para wartawan dan media yang hadir telah diberi cenderahati yang mengandungi ‘press release’ filem Geng, ‘media kit’ untuk artikel dan gambar berkaitan produksi Geng, pen Upin&Ipin, buku nota Geng, pelekat kereta Geng, poster A4 Geng, dan juga air minuman Geng.Semuanya telah disediakan supaya pihak wartawan mempunyai maklumat dan sumber yang cukup untuk menulis artikel tentang filem Geng ini nanti.
Para peminat filem yang melalui ruang legar Cathay Cineplex juga berminat dengan majlis Press Preview Geng.Ramai yang mahukan ‘goodie bag’ dan ramai juga yang bertanya dengan kaunter tiket di Cathay untuk mendapatkan tiket menonton filem Geng hingga kaunter penjual tiket terpaksa meletakkan tanda SOLD OUT di paparan skrin tiket untuk filem Geng. Diharap para peminat bersabar dan dapat menempah tiket awal untuk menonton filem ini bila tiba 12 Februari nanti.
Sekarang, ketibaan para tetamu pula..
