Breaking Dawn part 1 premiere

Breaking Dawn part 1 Premiere - Master Post
last updated 12/12/11


Check out what happened before and during the premiere for Breaking Dawn part 1 at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles, California.

Here you'll find:
- A breakdown of every key moment from the morning of getting the wristbands to just after the end of the Premiere.
- Photos throughout the camp out and during the premiere.
- Videos of celebrities visiting Tent City, walking the black carpet, and the bands that performed during the concert.
- Audio of the entire sets of each band that played the Breaking Dawn soundtrack concert on Saturday (11/12/11)

And a bunch of other stuff after the jump!




November 10th, 2011

3:45 am - My group knocks on my car where I'm catching a few hours of sleep. It's time to pack it up and go loiter for the 6 am wristband event.
The security has no clue what's going on. They give off false info about where we're supposed to congregate.

5:00 am - By this time there are two groups of loiterers. A smallish one on the corner of Chuck Hern and Fig and a larger group on the corner of Olympic and Georgia.
We've got people in both places, we're calling and texting each other. We finally decide that the parking lot where Summit is having fans park (Lot 4) on Olympic and Georgia is the place to be.
We make our way over to the parking lot (which is completely empty) and wait. As per the rules, we don't form a line but plenty of people want to make/start one.
At one point, there is a large group in the back of the lot and a large group in the front. This doesn't last long when security shows up, the group in the back starts running up to the front.

6:00 am - Charles (Sweden) and his security group of three arrive. They yell at us to get back off the sidewalk and off the flag stones and into the parking lot proper. Their plan is to pull people and groups at random and escort them to the wrist band line.
Lots of pushing, yelling out and holding up hands with how many in your group, etc.
I'm in a group of 14. We all hold arms and hands tight and put our youngest and cutest up front. Everyone is shouting around us but we tell her to stay calm and cool. When security looks her way she bashfully says:

Cute Representitive: "14?"
Security Guy: "14? Really? We tried that before, it didn't work."
CR: "But look," we raise our claspt hands "we're all holding hands."
SG: "Ok, just you 14, come through."

We try to snake are way through but people will try to ride your coat tails in. We had to pause a few times to shake them off but all of us made it.

6:30 am - Our group are in the 30s to 40s but there was one dude taking names to get a wrist band. They were going 10 at a time. It was taking forever and after being awake and standing the whole time, I was so exhausted. Hunger was setting in and Nokia/Summit should have had a snack bar because they would have made a killing.

Finally, with wrist band on, we get assigned our concrete spaces. We grab our tents from the car and start making camp. Our ragtag group takes up almost an entire row.
Morning/Afternoon - It takes them forever to get people through. They don't get everyone's names down. When it starts getting dark, they pass out wrist bands and told them to come back at 9 am tomorrow to "register" it (give them your name and email).

Last year, there were ~500ish wristbands given out. This year, it's sounding like 1,100.
Last year, we filed up the Nokia plaza and spilled out onto Chuck Hern within some barricades. This year, the Nokia Plaza is packed, the second camp is bigger and packed, and they created a third area (on the fly) as a temperary camping place [map to come].

What new: Summit with Yahoo! Movies set up a Twi-fi lounge between main camp and camp #2. They offer up free wi-fi (not worth it b/c it's very slow), a great place to take pics because it looks like there's a wedding reception in the forest, lots of giveaways everyday, and free pictures with a wedding life size Edward wearing (optional) wedding dresd, veil and bouquet. There's also a replica wedding cake too. The seating inside looks like tree stumps. It's really nice.

8:00 pm - As a treat for fans, they show "Twilight" on the big jumbo tron and serve free popcorn at the Twi-fi lounge. Lots of screaming, especially every time Edward is on screen.
[Friday] 12:00 am - Kiowa Gordon (Embry Call) shows up with his band to talk to fans. They even did an acoustic song for their admirers.

November 11, 2011

Afternoon - More give aways at the Twi-fi lounge with check-ins on Facebook and answering trivia correctly. They were giving away t-shirts, sweatpants, gift cards to Starbucks, copies of the soindtrack, umbrellas and probably more. I got my t-shirt, I just have to shed a few pounds first to wear it.

5:00 pm - Tinsel Korey (Emily in the movie) comes by tent city to surprise fans. A huge line forms for pictures and a few autographs but she was there mostly for pictures. [Video below]

8:00 pm - We all watch "New Moon" on the big screen at the Nokia Plaza. Screaming every time Edward and ab packing Jacob show up. Instead of popcorn, they server purple cotton candy.

10:30 pm - Movie ends. Kellan Lutz, who was promoting his movie "Immortals" at The Grove, comes by Tent City to say hello to fans. Screaming and chaos ensues.

Night/Morning - It rains!

November 12, 2011

10:00 am - A special (Oprah like) appearance by the created herself, Stephenie Meyer. She, with a team holding up black Breaking Dawn umbrellas, brave the cool morning to individually pass out signed copies of Breaking Dawn. She was also taking pictures with pretty much everyone who asked for a photo. She spent a lot of time meeting her admirers. The most poignant part of the event was the calm hush over the fans. Unlike when Kellan came by the night before, the crowd was relatively quiet (in awe and in honor I'm thinking). [Video below]

4:00 pm -  Charlie Bewely takes the stage (that was set up over night) to MC the special concert supporting and staring bands of the Breaking Dawn soundtrack. Charlie brings the jokes and dance moves as he fills time and introduces each band.

The first group up is actually Mia Maestro who plays Carmen, a member of the Denali Coven, in Breaking Dawn pt 1. The other groups that were there included Imperial Mammoth, Cider Sky, Sleep at Last, Lucy Schwartz, & Aqualung. The did mini sets of three songs and their special track featured on the soundtrack.

Us Twilight fans weren't the only ones watching the concert. Director Bill Condon and Producer Wyck Godfrey were seen taking pictures and signing autographs with fans. Charlie was also signing for fans surreptitiously by the barricades.







For audio only (to listen, download, and comment on), visit my Soundcloud page.

7:30 pm - On the big screen in Nokia Plaza, they show Kristen Stewart's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Screams across the entire plaza. Then they play Rob's appearance on Jimmy Fallon. Screams of what sounds like orgasms and slaughtered sheep could be heard from all around.

8:00 pm - After the late night spots, they play Eclipse for us. Candy stripers (from the future?) dresses in sparklie black, pass out a variety of candy to the screaming viewers. After the movie a young wolf pack member who played Colin in the movie, was by visiting Tent City (though no one knew who he was).

11:30 pm - Everyone staying in camping area #1 (main Nokia Plaza) needs to be moved to camp #4 (in back of camp #2 and inside The Staples Center courtyard) by 6 am the next morning so that they can set up the red carpet.

November 13, 2011

6:00 am - Tents and everyone in camp #1 is gone and they start taking down the protective rain barrier and start assembling the red (actually black) carpet.

11:00 am - The Corner Bakery came by with muffins, bagels and orange juice for everybody at Tent City but what really got the fans screaming were the celebrity visits. Peter Facinelli (Carlisle Cullen), Jackson Rathbone (Jasper Cullen), Booboo Stewart (Seth), MyAnna Burning (Tanya Denali), & Casey LaBow (Kate Denali) came by and were so generous with their time. Pictures, autograph, stories, etc. Summit handed out mini poster, paper fans and Breaking Dawn t-shirts along with a bunch of left over candy from the night previous.



Afternoon - People start to congregate around some young guy, snapping his picture taking his autograph. So of course we go over there and ask him where he's from. Apparently, according to him, he's part of the wolf pack but has no clue what his character's name is. He signed my book "Nic somethingsomething". I Google that shit but the only thing that makes sense is that he plays Brady but according to Twi Wiki he's played by Swo wo Gabriel but the thing is, he looks like the guys signing my book but with a severe hair cut.

Early evening - As I'm about to pack up and leave for the hotel, a friend runs by and says "Melissa Rosenberg is here!" I've got my book in hand and my camera around my neck and I'm making a bee line for her. She looks like she just got back from a meeting or a speech because she's in a suit all dressed up. She spends a good amount of time for the remaining people in Tent City.

9:00 pm - So, from our original group, five of us are in my hotel room and a handful of us stayed behind to stick it out in Tent City one more night (their hotel was a dive and sleeping on the street was more sanitary). We're charging our phones and listening to music when a friend (let's call her Alice) calls me and screams "OHH MY GOD!!! ROB AND KRISTEN ARE HERE!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" *click*

My hotel room erupts into frantic movements. I'm changing, we're getting someone out of the shower, we're popping gum and heading out the door and all pile in my car. I'm in the middle of the street when "Alice" calls me back. "They're not here," she says. "We're just having some fun blah blah blah."

Someone updates her Facebook, then it goes to Twitter and three minutes later some serious panic starts to set in. They squelch it as fast as they can but some people are not happy. They're the ones sitting at home and not experiencing the screaming and the frantic chase to locate Sharpies. Good times.

November 14, 2011

12:00 am - After calming down (somewhat) after the prank that launched a hotel room of frantic girls, we had went to sleep until I get a phone call from our friends still out there camping out. They called to tell us that everything from "Tent City" needs to be gone by 6 am. We grumble a bit and set an alarm for 5 am.

5:00 am - Wake up, head down to Tent City and practally throw everything in the tunks and back seats of cars. Head back to the hotel and fall back asleep.

8:30 am ? - I finally get up really really really groggy. We shower and change and check out.

11:00 am -  Food at Denny's. This will be the only chance we get to eat real food for the rest of the day.

1:00 pm - Get gas, go to the bank, park and dump out everything we don't want to carry all day in the cars and head down to Starbuck at LA Live. There are already a mass of people loiterng outside waiting for their appointed line up time. They gave us rules on Saturday and at the bottom it told you an approximate time to be in front of the Nokia Theater to line up according to your wrist band number. The first 300 was to line up at 2 pm but they were calling for us to line up at 1:30 pm. This paniced some because they were planning on going to the bathroom first but they have at least 1,000 more people to go so for furture reference, do what you need to do then line up. It's ok.

2:20 pm (ish) - Since my group was lucky enough to be in the first 50 people, we started to head into the barricades. We were ultimately placed in the front row, in the middle, facing the sill photographers (papparatzzi). Instead of the metal barricades dividing the fan area into corralls, they had sand barrals so sideways movement within the rows was fluid. I don't know how I feel about this. I like the section dividers because less people are pushing at you less from all sides. It also keeps people in the designated areas.

We're facing the sun but it dipped below the building at round 4:15 pm. In the meantime, Yahoo Movies was getting the kinks worked out for their live stream of the red carpet that started at 5:00 pm.

Ultimately, they lined us up four people deep. The last row were standing ontop of raised platforms. The girls directely behind me were in the very low 200s.

When the barricades were filled, they starting filling the stands that were set up on Chuck Hern street on the opposite side of the black carpet entrance on the left side of apporaching cars. Celebrities who just arrive, made their way over to these fans first before stepping onto the carpet.

This year, it felt like there were twice as many people attending so when they started coming through, it was a bombardment of stars and flashbulbs. They didn't play any music related to anything I think because of the Yahoo Movies commentary.

This was really tough to navigate because there are so many new cast members and you have no idea what they look like and those that you do know are unrecognizable because they're all dressed up. It's not until they're right on top of you that you realize who they are and start screaming their name.

A lot of the time the stars will just have their picture taken for a few minutes then turn around and start signing and taking pictures with people really rapidly. Some celebrities just walked down and took pictures. Their handlers promised that they would bring them back to sign but they're lying, flaming bags of shit.

Imagine a U2 concert, now multiply the sound by 10 and you might come close to the screaming when Rob, Kristen and Taylor showed up. I'm not a small girl but I was loosing circulation everywhere when Rob was by and I had a mass of girls pushing behind me.

I got what I wanted. A poster signed by the main three and a picture with Rob that makes my heart skip a beat when I see it. *happy sigh*



The black carpet is over before you know it and you're just praying that you're pictures are halfway decent. A Summit representative comes down and announces that they have enough tickets for everyone to go inside the theater and see the movie.

8:00 pm We gradually make our way inside where we have to throw away all of our Sharpies and check in all of our electronics. Free soda, popcorn and commemorative cups await us as we make are way up to the Mezzanine level. We don't have to wait long before the lights dim and the screaming that was manageable outdoors is now confined in the theater and my ears throb for a good two minutes into the movie when they flash the Summit logo and Breaking Dawn title.

The movie erupts into screams and subsequent shushing every 5 minutes or so. Nothing like watching a movie for the first time with 5,000 of your closest friends.

Albeit to say, Bill Condon knows what he's doing. It's a phenomenal movie. Best one yet. It's going to make so much money off of me. I'm contemplating spending all day Friday in the movie theater.

The only downer to seeing right then is leaving the theater. You have to claim your electronics down stairs and it take forever. We finally exit the theater just before midnight which is really late seeing as how the movie is less than 2 hrs long. It was completely worth it though.

So, are we ready for Friday? Bring tissues! You have been warned!

Photographs