How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Taking place over the Bank Holiday weekend, 21st - 25th August 2014
sandwoman
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by sandwoman »

So, as other people have said, it's looking more and more likely that the sleepy queue will be the only reliable way to go for 2015 onwards.

Well that's just great - there's absolutely no way I'll be queuing overnight, not least because nobody else I know ever wants to come to Frightfest for more than the odd film here or there, so I'd have to queue on my own, which I do not want to do ... I can't see it being much fun camping out on Leicester Square all night "alone", and I don't think I'd necessarily feel safe, me being a girl an' all.

Last year, I almost gave up on Frightfest because of the trouble getting a pass online - then by some miraculous chance some time in mid-July, I had a look at the passes available in screen one and got my perfect seat.

This year, I had high hopes that with three screens' availability I might just get a seat even if only for one day. Vue pissed all over that idea today.

So ultimately, I'll be missing out because I'm a female loner ... Beginning to think my Frightfest days are coming to an end, which is really sad, as I've loved my August Bank Holidays, geeking out to my heart's content.
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by Garbord »

Just to check (and I really should've checked this before I actually bought a ticket...) the screen no./sponsors are the following right?

Film4 - Screen 5
Arrow - Screen 6
Horror Channel - Screen 7

I could only find one post that said the mentioned the screen numbers and sponsor names together.

The ticket craziness earlier was just awful, my bank are holding approximately £360 in limbo off my credit card for the next 7 days due to the false transaction madness. I really hope the Vue find a suitable way to compensate the organisers for the negative association this will have no doubt caused for some.
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by sandwoman »

Garbord wrote:Just to check (and I really should've checked this before I actually bought a ticket...) the screen no./sponsors are the following right?

Film4 - Screen 5
Arrow - Screen 6
Horror Channel - Screen 7

I could only find one post that said the mentioned the screen numbers and sponsor names together.
Yup - Ian said this at the start of this thread ...
Screen 6, The Arrow Video Screen will generally always start first, followed by 5, The Film 4 Screen which is followed in turn by 7, The Horror Channel Screen.
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by GrimEffigy »

sandwoman wrote:So, as other people have said, it's looking more and more likely that the sleepy queue will be the only reliable way to go for 2015 onwards.

Well that's just great - there's absolutely no way I'll be queuing overnight, not least because nobody else I know ever wants to come to Frightfest for more than the odd film here or there, so I'd have to queue on my own, which I do not want to do ... I can't see it being much fun camping out on Leicester Square all night "alone", and I don't think I'd necessarily feel safe, me being a girl an' all.

Last year, I almost gave up on Frightfest because of the trouble getting a pass online - then by some miraculous chance some time in mid-July, I had a look at the passes available in screen one and got my perfect seat.

This year, I had high hopes that with three screens' availability I might just get a seat even if only for one day. Vue pissed all over that idea today.

So ultimately, I'll be missing out because I'm a female loner ... Beginning to think my Frightfest days are coming to an end, which is really sad, as I've loved my August Bank Holidays, geeking out to my heart's content.
Make some buddies at the festival or on here maybe? I'm sure I won't be the only happy approachable dude at FF this year. I met a couple of cool people either side of me in the queue this morning and I only rolled up at about 9.50am.
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by sandwoman »

GrimEffigy wrote:Make some buddies at the festival or on here maybe? I'm sure I won't be the only happy approachable dude at FF this year. I met a couple of cool people either side of me in the queue this morning and I only rolled up at about 9.50am.
Thanks, Grim, I appreciate I'm being a bit melodramatic ... :) but I'm just an old, shy introvert ... hence my oft-stated preference for an aisle seat at the back :lol:

Good to know I could try an early morning arrival, though ... maybe I'll give that a go next year ... when the queues stretch all the way to Forbidden Planet ;)
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by LaidToRest »

I phoned was on about 17mins altogether got my day pass for the Thursday showings.Time to go back to the Empire or Odeon for 2015 me thinks.
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by GrimEffigy »

sandwoman wrote: Thanks, Grim, I appreciate I'm being a bit melodramatic ... :) but I'm just an old, shy introvert ... hence my oft-stated preference for an aisle seat at the back :lol:

Good to know I could try an early morning arrival, though ... maybe I'll give that a go next year ... when the queues stretch all the way to Forbidden Planet ;)
Haha, I usually go for the back aisle too. That's more out of being 6ft 7in and not wanting my head to ruin anybody's movie than it is out of introversion though. :lol:

Looking at all the chaos that's gone on today, queuing is just a no-brainer for next year anyway.
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by valido »

JimmyTheZeke wrote:Just to throw my next concern into the mix. When I booked my ticket (at 13:15!), the guy's screen showed no weekend passes in screens 5 & 7, and a few in crappy spots in screen 6. As I'm attending on my own, not a huge issue and I chose one at the front. What concerns me is that hours later on I checked the website to see if it was up and running yet. It was, but showing seats available in screens 5 & 7? Also, refreshing the booking showed seats in these screens that were not available 15 seconds before?

Can anyone explain this? Were they releasing tickets incrementally? I am hoping that this is not the tell-tale sign of a 'double booking' fiasco.....
It's because people were selecting seats on line and the system was holding them for a few minutes while they were trying to pay for them (with little to no success)
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by valido »

Anyway, my personal two cents: it's probably time to get rid of single movie tickets and just go with day/weekend passes?
After all, they usually sell out in a few days and it's not like you can go to Glastonbury and spend £10 just to see one band mid-afternoon.
The previous years was a bit frustrating to see dozens of empty seats on less famous movies while knowing that some friends couldn't find a weekend pass because they all sold out in a few hours.
Why not fill it properly and with real fans, and resort to single movie tickets only as a last minute option if needed?
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by ukpirate »

So, all in all pretty shambolic really. I know it's all been covered, but that really was a total waste of time and ridiculously infuriating. I managed to end up with nothing. Once it became apparent that the site was in meltdown, it just wasn't financially viable to buy individual day tickets unless I could get one for everyday (which of course I couldn't). Incredibly disappointed.
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by anaana »

Forget about not feeling safe on the queue. Queuing is just not an option for us outside England.

The booking system was a shambles yesterday, but maybe it's just a case of too much success. Maybe there's too many of us for the available screens. Seeing how empty movie screens normally are, I can't imagine FF couldn't fill both the VUE and EMPIRE on the FF weekend over what general releases get.

This will be my 8th FF in a row (having missed only last year's), and it would be a shame to have to miss it altogether due to booking/availability problems.
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by WJB »

I know I'm only repeating what others on here have said, but here's why I'm rather annoyed:

Gave up buying online due to issues.

Got to Vue to buy in person. Told they had TOTALLY sold out of weekend passes. Gave up, posted on here.

Found out a minute ago that they HADN'T sold out after all, and I could have got one later yesterday afternoon, DESPITE WHAT I WAS TOLD BY THE GUY AT THE VUE COUNTER!

Now I don't have a pass, and they've now all sold out.

In conclusion, due to the technical failures, yesterday turned into a ticket lottery. Some (like me) who tried online from midday went without, whilst some who logged on much later were successful. Even my visit in person didn't work, despite there being tickets available.

I'm not hugely interested in who's fault it was- the fact remains that it was a total balls-up for many Frightfest fans- some far more loyal than I am. Trudging up to Leicester Square in the rain to no avail, plus wasting half a Saturday on the internet, plus now having 2x £170 charges on my card I need to sort out has really left a sour taste in my mouth. The thought of buying day passes instead and rewarding Vue for their incompetence is beyond the pale. No FF for me this year, and unless there are dramatic changes made to the process, I dare say ANY year from now on.
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by Critter Egg »

I got the first train out of Portsmouth yesterday at 4.48am to get to the queue at about 7am, and the experience of queuing this year was much improved for me. To reiterate what others have said, the Vue staff in Leicester Square were brilliant and really efficient. I got the seats my other half and I wanted in record time! (I queued on my own as he had to work).

I really feel for everyone who has had problems with booking online, and I really hope you manage to get something sorted through the swap shop or by tickets held by the system becoming available. I don't think it's to do with site traffic, I think the Vue online system is just rubbish - I tried to book two tickets for Godzilla online for my local Vue a few weeks ago and it wouldn't accept my card, even though there were more than enough funds in my account.

If the fest is sticking with Vue in the future, how about they look at selling FF tickets in person at any Vue across the country? The sleepy queue would still get first dibs at 10am, but at 12 when the online & phone sales start people could also buy in person from their local Vue. There's plenty of them around the country now, and this would hopefully solve some of the card issues, as these don't seem to happen in the cinema. All it would take is Vue converting one till at each cinema temporarily to show the Leicester Square screens for booking and training their staff up. Although of course, converting one till temporarily maybe beyond Vue's IT capibilities.
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by Eddie Krueger »

anaana wrote:, but maybe it's just a case of too much success. Maybe there's too many of us for the available screens.
I don't think this is necessarily the case.

In my 6.5 hour experience online yesterday and 5 phone calls to Vue, it is apparent the problem was entirely caused by the settings on their ticketing system and I think they will want to hide behind the "heavy traffic" excuse.

The problem as I see it was entirely caused by the Vue system being set to reject transactions over £300, and therefore two festival passes could not be bought together. To confound this, single seats could only be selected if they didn't not leave another isolated single seat. This is also why they couldn't sell you tickets on the phone, as they couldn't override the £300 cap either.

The result of this was that instead of people being able to but their tickets and move off the site, everyone was hitting refresh etc thereby multiplying the activity on the site massively.

So those of us who were ready before noon to get our passes, and tried all day to get through the system, were ultimately doomed to failure.

I couldn't be more angry and upset, but it's all at Vue, not the FF boys. I too would have assumed that Vue would have ensured that they were capable of selling more than one pass at a time.
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Re: How Film4 FrightFest will work in 2014

Post by bloodyburger »

A thoroughly horrendous experience, as most others have complained of, trying to buy tickets. Compelled to post to find some answers.

I guess it's fact now that those trying to buy 2 weekend passes were thwarted by a ridiculous £300 cap on the Vue website, causing me to miss out once that was realised. And anyway sitting apart from my partner isn't what I expect from Frightfest.

Anyway, it's a real shame Frightfest and Frightfesters have been treated so badly. All in all though I think a full explanation of problems and errors encountered would be greatly appreciated.

Hopefully, something will happen and I can be there even just for a few films!
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