On Thursday, October 13, 2022, I went to the New York City premiere of the movie, The School for Good and Evil. Following the premiere, there was a Q&A with the author, Soman Chainani, who had written the book that the movie was based on. The event was held at the Paris Theater in Manhattan. This theater is owned by Sheldon Solow but has been operated by Netflix since November 2019. It is Netflix’s flagship theater in New York City. There are special events and premieres held there are well as other screenings. This was one of those events. It was a nontraditional version of the literary event, but it still focused on a novel.
Finding any background information about this event has proven to be quite difficult. I did not have a lot of information about the event before I went and trying to find any information retroactively has not been successful. I presume the event was being hosted and paid for by Netflix since it was a Netflix movie and was hosted at the theater they use, but I could not find any information to either back up this claim or dispute it. I attended the event through a link I was sent by another Pace student where I had to fill out a form with my information and put my affiliation as Pace University. The day before the event I received an email that provided the time and date of the event, the address, and that the seats were first come first serve. It also mentioned that there would be a Q&A with the author that night. The next day, while I was waiting in line to go inside the event, a woman went around asking people if they had received an email from her about the event and providing wristbands to those who showed her their email. We were then told that people who had these wristbands could go right inside, and I remember being confused since most people in the line ahead of us did not move. I am not sure if these people in line were let in afterward, or how they knew about the event.
Once we were sat inside and other people began to come in, I noticed that the people who were attending varied vastly. There were people there who were involved with the book and/or movie. There were also a lot of Pace students who were there, presumably people who had also been sent the same link to sign up for the event. There was a woman in front of me who was there with her daughter who looked to be around 10 years old, the age range of the intended audience for this book, and was very excited to be there. One of the only things I could find about the event mentioned that superfans were also in attendance, but it is unclear how these superfans made it to the show and if they were invited or not. Before the movie began it was also mentioned that this was an “influencer event” and we were encouraged to post about the movie online and encourage others to go see it.
When entering the building to get to the theater they had a table set up with free nail polishes that people were able to pick one out, they featured the logo for the school on it and had names to match. Next to the nail polishes were piles of books being handed out to everyone. Then, through the next set of doors, they provided free popcorn and free drinks, which is something that does not happen at every event held here. Once inside the theater, there were sections and rows that had been blocked off and had the names of people who would be sitting there. They ended up being reserved for the author and his family, people who had been involved behind the scenes for both the book and the movie. There was also the teacher that had inspired one of the characters in the book. Finally, as a last-minute addition, there was a space for one of the two leads in the movie, Sophia Anne Caruso. They ended up putting her and her family in the seats behind me and my friends. Since she was right behind us, we asked if she would be willing to sign our books, and she wrote a different message for each of us.
The Q&A that followed the movie screening provided the most insight into the literature being highlighted. The author, Soman Chainani, was interviewed by a writer for a newspaper here in New York, and had been tutored by Soman in the past and while he was writing the book. This portion of the event began with him speaking about the book and seeing the world that he created come alive. He spoke about his inspirations to create these characters and the world and the way it felt surreal seeing it become real. He also spoke about the tutoring that he did up through the fourth book being published and said that there were two main reasons for this. One was that the children he was tutoring were the perfect people to bounce his ideas off of. They did not see him as cool, nor did they care that he already had New York Times best-selling books and they were not afraid of telling him the truth about the story. If they truly liked a chapter and were interacting with his work, then he knew that he was doing something right. His other reason was that having another job, and having a backup, gave him the freedom to write what he enjoys and not have to worry about being successful and making money off of his work. Lastly, he spoke about the fact that he originally wanted to be a filmmaker and that he had no interest in writing, it was just something that happened to him. Many people who end up becoming writers never intended to do so.
This event was attempting to create a community around this book and the movie, but it is not what we traditionally think of when we think of literary communities. The focus of this community is for people to market this story and get other people involved with it. It puts pressure on the attendees to get the word out about this story and get other people to interact with it. The presence of the book and nail polish given out, something that I haven’t seen at other events held at this theater, are reminiscent of PR packages used to promote brands. The audience was expected to participate in the marketing of this event and make it a successful movie for Netflix. The event also involved a certain level of interaction with people reacting to the story in real time with the author and one of the leads. They were in the crowd before and after the movie and people were able to interact with them and speak to them about the story. This class has shown that literature is not just the books that people read, although that is a part of it. It has evolved to include all different parts of technology and the different ways of finding and spreading these stories. Social media is a huge aspect of that, and this event was trying to capitalize off of that. It was creating a community of people to interact with the book and then using them to get others to do the same thing. It brings into question what a community truly is and if this manufactured community built to market this story is less valid than a community that is created organically by people simply enjoying the same thing.