I know not
everyone can be a smart businessman, but I'm fairly
certain I haven't seen one this nearsighted in my
lifetime. Here's the unbiased truth, and thankfully I
have 1001 entries as a testament to me trying
desperately to weed out all of my bias when I tell a
story.
As you may
remember, I found out about using The Continent from
Peter John Ross (actually one person - heh) a guy who
was helping me load footage when my camera broke in
Columbus. I called the manager, Ravi, and met
with him the following evening to go over everything.
He gave me a great rate, and we set up a time the
following week for me to test everything. The film
portion of the show was fine, but my father and I
decided in order to do the live portion (me singing
and playing keyboard) we would need to bring our own
sound equipment. Kind of a pain, since filling a room
that size meant bringing my father's
BIG ASS speakers, but we just couldn't trust
the wireless set-up the theater had. It would just
mean some extra set-up time, but not really a big
deal. The theater isn't being used except for rentals
because the film projector doesn't work, so we weren't
costing Ravi any money.
Personally, I was
extremely excited about this theater. Hell, I wanted
to work for the guy and help him advertise it. Since
it was an isolated theater JUST for rentals? If he got
in with the film community in Columbus, even the
college film community, he could make a FORTUNE. The
Continent is a dead area, but something like this
could really work. I knew I'd be back in April to
premiere the full movie, and PJR also had a film in
April... it was nearly all profit for this guy, 'cause
he gets the rental money AND the concessions, etc. for
a theater that's dead anyway. I was pretty
pumped.
We got there
several hours early, to make sure everything was
working right and it was fuh-reezing in the theater.
Ravi explained that he had to really watch his pennies
and couldn't turn on the heat until just before
showtime (which was 7:30), but he assured me it would
be warm by then. I knew he was giving me a great rate,
and it wasn't endangering the equipment (the way a
really hot day with no AC would) so it was totally
cool. Finally got everything set up and working, took
about 90 minutes, and then I just babysat all the
equipment as my dad, brother and his friend went and
got some food. I was far too anxious to eat.
Throughout the set-up Ravi poked his head in to make
sure everything was going good, and he turned on the
heat right when he said he would - and the theater was
comfortable by showtime. Perfect.
Everything went
off without a hitch and when the show ended around
9:30, we all hung out and talked for a bit (had some
cake as you remember from the video) and Ravi pulled
me aside and handed me a NEW contract in which he had
crossed out the previous amount, DOUBLED IT, and
asked me to sign. I handed the paperwork back to him
and said "what are you doing?". He said that we only
agreed to rent the space for 2 hours, and we were
there longer than 2 hours. An absolute fabrication,
this was never an hourly thing, he knew the show
itself was 2 hours, of course we would have to set-up
and teardown since we were bringing all of our own
equipment. And obviously, he let us in, checked in
throughout the set-up -- and never said one word about
it. All smiles throughout. I said I'd talk with him
after everything was loaded, and when I came back it
was more of the same. He had "done me a favor" with
the price of the rental, etc. etc. He also made that
clear the week before, and I appreciated the
favor. He even asked me to NOT say the price he was
renting the theater for me, when talking about it -
and I understood. It was a "friend of Peter's" price,
but you could tell he seemed a little aggrivated when
I first signed the contract. But he printed it, he
signed it, so I'm not sure what he had to be
aggrivated about. He could've easily said a different
price.
The most bizarre
part of all of this, was that the snowstorm that hit
30 minutes before showtime, KILLED my attendees,
knocking me from over 120 committed to about 40 people
(nearly 10 of whom were comped since they helped
set-up, etc.). So he knew I made no money off the
thing. I've dealt with theater owners before that got
angry when you make more money than they do - and they
try to pull some shit, but never the opposite. So I
told him I would not sign off on the new amount, I was
offended he would act like everything was fine the
entire time we set-up and tore down and then throw
this at me. Nowhere in the original contract does it
say ANYTHING about overages, etc. The contract is
literally a word document as vague as could be. We
even specifically talked about people hanging out
afterwards and he was completely cool with it since
the theater wasn't being used for anything else.
There's just no other way to put it - he was scammin'
me. So I told him if he charged anything more than we
agreed on, I'd dispute it. In fact, I got that one on
tape. LOL. You know me:
And as you can
see, getting left behind because everyone thought I
was riding with the OTHER person. Hahahaha. So funny
to feel all badass for "telling off the manager" then
walking out into the cold, completely alone, at the
back of the theater. Good times.
Part of me thought
he wouldn't have the balls to actually run my card at
twice the amount without my signature, but he did. So
I of course, disputed the charges and faxed the
contract and a letter summarizing what happened to my
credit card company, and I'm still waiting to see what
happens. In the end however, the money is an asterik.
I'm still just amazed at how remarkably poor this
guy's business decisions are. The only rational
explanation I can muster is the place is going out of
business relatively soon, and the guy is grabbing
every dime he can before it goes - 'cause he would've
made FARRR more in the longrun had he not pulled this.
'Cause he not only soured my opinion of him, Peter
John Ross is heavily involved in the film community in
Columbus and you can kiss ALL of that business
goodbye. And seriously, what he did is simply illegal.
He crossed out the agreed upon amount, doubled it, and
ran my credit card anyway. <shakes head>.
Baffling.
Oh well, that's
The Journey. I'll let ya know what happens
next...
Adam
PS - how funny is
Jess in the 2nd half of that video? She looks scared
as hell. Love it. We got the shot though!
