I Love My Job...

So... I have to tell you about an experience I had Tuesday night.

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you probably already know that Trish and I attended a special advance screening of the new Twilight movie, Eclipse on Tuesday (oh, you DIDN'T know that? Well, you should really look at these photos of Trish on the Q&A Panel with Ayanna Berkshire, Solomon Trimble, Cathrine Grimme and Lana Veenker before the show!)

This is one of the many benefits Trish has gotten from appearing in the original Twilight - every time a new Twilight movie opens, she's invited to come to a screening and talk about what it was like to work on the original film. It's great - the fans really love seeing her.

Anyway... that's not the experience I'm writing about here. The experience happened IN the theater, WHILE we were watching the new movie. Now, as you might expect, the house was packed... and it was packed with fans. Real really super-REAL fans. People (not just pre-teen girls, thank you very much...) who knew the Twilight books inside out, who knew exactly what was going to happen... even if they didn't know how it was going to happen in the screen adaptation.

There was a moment, towards the end of the film... a moment after the climactic battle, when the elders of the Vampire and Werewolf clans interacted. I'm not going to be more specific than that because, hey... you may be headed to the movie this weekend. Suffice it to say, when you see it you'll know what I'm talking about.

People in the audience applauded at this moment.

Now, keep in mind, these aren't live actors on stage, performing for the audience... this is a movie. No one associated with the film is in the house to hear the applause (especially since Eclipse was shot in Canada, not Oregon...) but it didn't matter. The audience applauded for their own sake, not the production's sake... the applauded because the felt the magic of that moment.

And I felt that moment... as a worker in the medium. As a person who's been a part making these little moments of magic, whether on stage or on screen... I felt the audience feeling the moment, and I felt their need to applaud. And all I could think was... I feel privileged. I feel privileged to work in this medium, and to bring these little bits of magic to the world.

Go out and see a good movie this weekend, folks. The magic is waiting for you.

-Harold