Fort Collins is an amazing place to live. I count myself very blessed to call this place home. It feels like a small town but with some big city flair. There are many establishments in our city that I would love to have around for a very long time. The Lyric is no exception. Times are changing, technology is changing. Our little movie theater, where one can drink a beer and eat a cheese plate while watching the latest indie film, is at the risk of closing it's doors.
From the Lyric.....
Fort Collins, Colorado, rest of the world, we need your help. Movie distributors and studios are forcing us to to upgrade our projectors to digital by Spring of 2013 or else they will stop providing us with movies to show! As you might imagine, this is very pricey. For two new projectors, two new sound systems, and all new seats for both auditoriums we’re going to have to raise 150 thousand dollars!
Here is what is cool about getting new equipment though:
-Digital projectors mean we will get new movies faster. Instead of waiting 6 to 8 weeks for the movie that opened in LA and New York today, we will be getting them in about 4.
-Movies won’t come to us scratched and beat up! Ever been to the Lyric and wondered why there was a green line running down the left side of the picture for twenty minutes? That was caused by someone out there mishandling the film and damaging it. That won’t happen with digital!
-We will also have the capabilities to present movies in 3D. I know many of our patrons guffaw at the thought of seeing a movie in 3D, but if you would have seen Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams in 3D I think you might be convinced it can be pretty awesome. Wim Wenders, who directed Pina in 3D is working on a 3D documentary about the great architecture of the world. How cool is that!?
-New 5.1 surround sound in both auditoriums? I think the benefits of that are pretty self explanatory. Better sound makes for a better movie-going experience!
-We know our seats aren’t the most comfortable in the world, and we also know we don’t have cup holders. Both of those things will change if we can raise this money.
So what’s the plan moving forward? We’re starting a Kickstarter campaign that we currently plan to run from July 6th until August 5th to raise the money needed for the upgrades.
If you don’t know about Kickstarter, it is a super cool way for anybody to contribute to an art or community project. For contributing different amounts of money contributors receive different rewards. Some of the things we’ll be giving to our contributors (Kickstarter calls them “backers”) will be pint glasses, free drinks, really cool Lyric/Kickstarter t-shirts, tickets to an awesome after party we’re going to throw upon completion of the Kickstarter, free movie parties for you and 45 of your closest friends, a plaque with your name on it on one of our new seats, Lyric memberships, and, the ultimate reward: you get to pick your favorite movie and we’ll play it at the Lyric every day for a week. In essence, you get to subject Fort Collins to your movie tastes just like we do all of the time.
There is a catch though. Kickstarter works on an all-or-nothing model of funding. Once we set our minimum goal for money to raise we have to reach at least that minimum or else we don’t see a cent of it. Plus, we’re only going to have 31 days to do it. The whole process is going to be tough, but I know we can pull it off! We need your help though. The Lyric has already been in business for five years; please donate what you can once our Kickstarter begins on July 6th so we can stay around for much much longer.
Thank you for caring, and we’ll see you at the movies.
-Michael Putlack
The Lyric’s Social Media Guru
Time is running out and this saddens my heart. The hubby and I have already donated to The Lyric Kickstarter. As I write this, they still need to raise $33,194 in 5 days. Oh boy. Come on people! Save a piece of our beloved city.
