The Sunset on the Beach Experience

Our friends at Lost Virtual Tour gave us an exclusive account of what it was like to attend the world premiere of Lost Season 3 “A Tale of Two Cities” screening at “Sunset on the Beach” in Hawaii this weekend. There are no real spoilers here, just the recounting of a personal experience. You can also view his pictures of the event.

Normally, when we go to Sunset on the Beach (they show movies throughout the year as a public service to residents and tourists), we are always on “Hawaiian Time” (late), so we usually go to sit behind the screen erected at Queens Beach (the part of Waikiki Beach on the far eastern end of the hotel strip). The crowd is much thinner in the back, so even if we stroll in late (around 6:30pm), we can still sit close to the screen. It’s a little less bright and of course, the image is in reverse but it’s a great deal: movies outdoors on the beach. Thank you, C&C of Honolulu!

For the Lost Premiere preview screenings, I arrive earlier. The movies start around sunset, but music and food booths begin the festivities much earlier around 4:00, which is when I arrived…

There was already a throng of people, and of course people had been camping in front of the screen since the morning. There is a stage in front of the screen, and a large VIP-only seating area, so these early campers will still be a ways back.

I immediately went to the food booths to pick up programs, which lay on the counters next to the food. At the far end, there was a new tent, the ABC tent. They told me they would later be handing out Lost goodie bags in return for surveys. I chalked that up to a loss because I then headed out behind the screen. Yes, even when I’m early, the back is the place to be for LOST premieres.

Remember, the cast makes an appearance, and since today was a Saturday, I expected nearly all of the cast members would attend. Last year was on a work day, so some names such as Evie and Terry O’Quinn were working on a shoot at night (of the S2 premiere). And they have to physically make it to the stage. Here’s how: they drive up in limousines, and walk through a secured fenced-off area from the rear of the screen.

In other words, if you want to star-watch and try to vie for photographs and autographs, or just scream your undying love, you want to stake out a spot in the rear, along the path to the stage. This year the path ran from the road to a rest tent area with gift bags, refreshments, and restroom trailers, then from there it turned right and ran along the beach to the movie screen and front stage.

I walked around the entire area (saying goodbye to the ABC tent) to the makai side (oceanside) of the red carpet railing. I staked out a prime spot with a view of the screen on the sandy beach with my blanket. When I heard a scream from behind the Banyan tree (where the fenced path met the road), I walked over to the railing. Michael Emerson was the first arrival.

Indeed, all of the regular cast did come; it was not a work day. Of course I had researched Lostpedia, Google Images, and IMDB before coming to make sure I knew what Rodrigo Santoro, Kiele Sanchez, and Elizabeth Mitchell looked like. One could almost guess by the volume of the scream behind the Banyan who had arrived. I would have to say Jorge probably got the biggest scream, just behind Evangeline. Those of us around me had wrongly guessed Matthew and Josh for these loudest screams. By the time they walked from the road toward the ocean to the tent, and turned right to go to the stage, it was pretty hard to get the attention of the stars, who were saturated by then. Also the beach side of the rail was an expanded area farther from the actual path, so the people on the mountainside of the rail had much easier fan-screaming range. Oh well, they had a bad angle view of the movie screen itself, so it was a conscious tradeoff.

I have to take my hat off to Terry O’Quinn. Sure I expected Jorge and Naveen to be autograph friendly, and they were to a fault. But Terry O’Quinn probably spent more time meeting the fans than Jorge and Naveen combined, which is saying a lot. We heard Terry’s scream, but didn’t see him round the Banyan tree for ten minutes. He worked his way down every nook and cranny of the security railing on both sides. His handlers were actually getting upset at him for taking too much time, as he had to eventually go to the proper press area just behind stage left, which was bristling with the cameras of the professional press. But he probably spent 45 minutes or more just doing autographs and photos with fans. Terry, you get a gold star.

We expected Matthew Fox to breeze by (he did), and Josh and Emilie arrived so late that they had to immediately go to their press duties before the sun had set and the festivities on the stage began.

Elizabeth Mitchell and Kiele Sanchez were totally ignored by the bemused fans as they walked by. There were many well-dressed support people and guests walking by along the secured path. I tried to shout from my location, but as it was farther from the path, they both walked straight to the pro press photoshoot.

Adewale. What a difference a year makes. Last year at the S2 premiere, he was totally ignored, and I mean totally. He had just sort of sat in the tent area watching all the commotion. This year he was a fan favorite, and elicited huge screams. He clearly relished in the new attention, and was also very good with fan photographs and autographs. He was nearly blinding in his white attire. And in reference with his recent run-in with the law, someone asked him to show his Hawaii drivers license. Hilariously, he obliged, holding it up for all to see.

Who else was good with fans… Yunjin made a clear effort to meet the fans. The photographs do not reveal how high she had turned up her wattage that night. Stunning. Speechless. Her hair would put a Pantene commercial to shame. A Japanese tourist on the beach was screaming like a lost kitten: “Yooooonnnnnjiiiiiiiiiiiin! Yoooooooooooooonjiiiiiiiiiiinnnnn!” Surprisingly, Daniel was a bit aloof this year. Oh, and Henry Ian Cusick, was amazingly good with fans. He spent a lot of time with the fans, probably tied for fourth best with Adewale, behind Naveen, Jorge. Remember, it was his first year at Sunset on the Beach. And in person, that guy has charisma. Wow. And he was shining like a dark diamond in his white attire as well. That is star power. Again the press photographs you see are misleading. Dominic did a little bit of fan love immediately after exiting his limousine, but he arrived a bit late as well, so his handlers were probably pushing him along.

The stars did their duties by the stage, and meandered back later, and I saw Kiele walking back to the tent. Again it was silent (as a teeming throng can be), and I shouted: “KAI-LEEEE”. She blinked, paused, turned right, left her companion and started walking over. The path was relatively far from my location so she made quite a detour. She was gorgeous and very sweet. She smiled and said thank you, then paused again. She thought about something, then as she said, “And by the way, actually it’s pronounced “Kee-lee””. I have to emphasize she said this very very nicely, and was almost embarrassed to tell the one fan who had recognized her. As I apologized she said, “It’s okay, everyone says Kai-lee”. She was very nice (did I say that already?) and signed my program, and when everyone around me realized who she was, they got some autographs too. Her pictures, too, don’t do justice to her personal live charisma. She wasn’t even trying, and it was just there.

Soon afterwards, Elizabeth Mitchell came back, and was also ignored. When I called out, she too came over. She is TALL. And she is a classic beauty, someone from another era. I was trying to be polite and not take up too much of her time, but she really wanted to talk, and tried to fix me with her gaze. Maybe she’s a Meissner actor. She mentioned that this crazy commotion was brand new to her and amazing. I chided and laughed that it was only going to “get worse” for her. “I know,” she replied. Again she started signing things for folks around me, and then the other side of the crowd got her attention soon afterwards. Yay. She felt like a star, whatever that is. =). Did I mention how beautiful she is?

And we could not recognize this one extremely tall gentleman in a camel-hair jacket. I tried calling out “Carlton”, but I had tried that out on another man earlier so I only did it half-heartedly, lamely calling “CARllln”. I later found out that was him after all. I had forgotten to look up the faces of the producers. J.J., Damon, and Javier, I think I could recognize, but not Carlton Cuse or Bryan Burk. Next time. But here came Jack Bender, returning from the stage. He’s recognizable by his black long locks and glasses.

I shouted for “Mr. Bender”, and he too paused, and turned toward me. That man is used to power, you can tell. He’s a director, and you could feel it, it was almost intimidating as he looked around for who had called him, then bee-lined over. He was very nice, and very gracious, and joked that: “Everyone usually only cares about the stars– not about guys like us.” “But you’re the ones that put it all together!” “I know,” he sighed with a smile. He was very nice and spent a lot of time with our portion of the crowd, then the other side grabbed his attention soon afterwards. Great guy. Oh, and by the way he directed the episode we were about to see tonight, the S3E1.

OK that’s about it. Then it got dark, and photographs became hard to take. The crowd started to scream, starstruck in jest, at the main security guard, and began to thin out as it got darker. Emilie & Josh you couldn’t even see that well because of the light at that point, as they arrived late.

Some tips: If you have a consumer camera like me, bring along a whole package of spare batteries. I must’ve gone through ten AAs. Also, learn the names of the actors. If you’re there screaming HEY YOU EKOOOOOO, it’s not quite as nice as actually knowing his name (Adewale). No one around me seemed to know the names other than Matthew and Evvy’s, and maybe Josh. And learn the faces of the new actors, and of the producers. Producer Jean Higgins was also there walking by, and I did not recognize her, and only saw her introduced on the stage later.

Well after that the festivities began in earnest. This is the part we didn’t get to see that well from behind the screen, since of course the screen obscured the front stage. Compared to the autographs and closeup photos, most people behind the screen would agree it was a good tradeoff. Carlton took the microphone first, and introduced Bryan Burk and Jack Bender. Carlton commented that the crowd on the beach in front of the screen seemed to go on forever. It was a monster crowd. Bender gushed about the show, half-heartedly asked the audience not to reveal spoilers to the rest of the world, joking, “Just keep it between us 15000”. Bender also introduced Jean Higgins. Then the rest of the cast was introduced one by one, until they stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the stage as flashes popped.

Before the episode aired, there was also a world premiere of the music video of “Demons” by Brian McFadden, former member of the Irish boyband Westlife. I didn’t know who he was, but later saw that the video automatically appears on ABC’s website area for Lost. The music was very much like a youtube fan-vid from Lost Video Island, albeit a very well done one. It was made of cuts of various scenes from Lost (including S3), with scenes from his original video for this song. The song mentioned the word “Lost” a few times, and the lyrics seemed to be spooky and roughly appropriate to the theme of Lost, so it was all right.

OK, just to make a note. I will avoid spoilers as I continue, so don’t worry. Trust me.

The episode finally started, and the first five minutes were amazing. Really the best five minutes of any episode. I applaud to the producers and writers. Even if you’ve read spoilers about the episode, DO NOT READ SPOILERS ABOUT THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES. It simply cannot be unspoiled, it is so good.

Well, the episode was okay. However I almost got the feeling it was going through a checklist, so that it would set up the story arc for the next five episodes. The flashback was interesting but not explosive or moving, in the way the last one we saw (Desmond’s in the S2 finale) was. I found myself turning around to take photos of the VIP refreshment tent behind me, where the stars had congregated after their appearance on the stage. In the distance, I saw Josh’s face getting more food at the table, perhaps he missed dinner before coming. As the episode ended, I felt a bit… at a loss. “Well, what did you think of that???” called the MC hostess. The muted audience reaction revealed that most of the crowd agreed with my vague dissatisfaction. But make no mistake, it did set up the frame for the next episodes well, and I am now eagerly awaiting more. In that it did its job, and the opening sequence rocked. I’m not asking for more. We rabid fans really have set our expectations too high I think—we see one fabulous episode, and from that point on, we expect every episode to be even better, even more. It’s simply not possible folks. Just compare Lost to any other television series, and you realize that nothing else compares. Just be happy, and be Lost.

See you next year in Waikiki!

-LVT Webmaster