July 31, 2012

Lyric looks to make the leap to digital

Ben Mozer, a Fort Collins native, is the catalyst behind The Lyric Cinema, the city’s only independent movie theater. But after more than five years in business, The Lyric could soon go dark, thanks to the shift to digital film formats. Catching up to today’s technology will take a lot of money. Mozer is in the middle of a campaign to raise $150,000 that, he says, is critical to keeping The Lyric alive:

Q. Let’s start at the top. What spurred the idea of The Lyric?

When I was 14 my family went to Spain, where theaters with couches and beer were significantly more abundant. At the time “Pulp Fiction” was the film to see, so we went to a theater in Granada where they had a bar and couches inside the theater. As an impressionable 14 year old, sitting on a couch and drinking a beer while watching “Pulp Fiction” was a momentous occasion. Years later, after I majored in film, my back-up plan to becoming a famous director (not totally realistic in hindsight) was to open up a theater like the one in Granada (also, not a great “back-up” plan in hindsight). So we moved back from L.A. to raise our child and open the theater.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Solar Operations and Maintenance for Commercial Properties

One key qualification to consider when selecting a solar partner to install your system is whether they have an Operations and Maintenance (O&M) or service department. Since solar is a long-term asset with an expected lifecycle of 30 plus years, ongoing O&M should be considered up front. A trusted O&M partner will maximize your system’s energy output and therefor the return on your investment.

Q. What were some of the biggest challenges faced in the startup phase?

First, I had to figure out how movie theaters work. Something you don’t learn in film school, oddly enough, and something that is not readily available in any books or classes. So I talked to a lot of theater owners and patched together all the information I needed to start the process, which took a couple years. I got most my information from a blog about another theater opening in Missouri. Once we had the business plan written, finding investors and loans ended up being the easiest part because this was before the financial collapse. From there, getting into the space took time, and construction was what proved to be the hardest part to that point.

Q. What have been the biggest rewards to you personally?

Once we figured out how to run the theater, the reception the community has displayed has been the most rewarding. My idea was to create a business that had character and a sense of humor, but was also personable and made people feel at home. We don’t take ourselves seriously and we wanted to create a welcoming environment, one with a very identifiable flavor that may (or may not) be for everyone. I think the personality of a business is what endears it to a community, and without that you’re just another cookie-cutter business trying to make as much money as possible. To have people really respond to my personal business philosophy, which seems to be contrary to all the business books I’ve read, is validating in the most selfish way. But it’s really rewarding to have the opportunity to really get to know a wide variety of people because of it.

Q. Tell me about the fundraising effort.

We’re running a Kickstarter campaign to raise $150,000 for the mandatory conversion to digital, and we’re up to about $90,000, which is well within reach of our goal by Aug. 5. It’s an all-or-nothing kind of deal, which is nerve-racking. The whole campaign was one of my employee’s ideas. Without Michael Putlack putting everything he has into this, I think I’d be in a pretty bad situation right now. We originally thought the conversion would be a couple years away, but in May I got word from my film booker that, with all the chain theaters converting sooner than expected, 35mm film production would basically cease in spring of 2013. Anyone without a digital projector wouldn’t be showing movies anymore.

While I took this news as a death sentence, having spent the last six years just trying to survive on what we make, Michael really saw it as an opportunity to not only raise the money for the conversion, but also to give The Lyric a marketing push. He has gotten all of our billboards, Facebook ads and other marketing tools for trade and created a monster of a marketing campaign. That said, I also think that if I had modeled this theater as just another cineplex with no ties to the community, and didn’t value the people and organizations that make Fort Collins a great place, there’s no way people would rally the way they have. I’m really thankful that we have such a tight-knit community that values businesses like ours.

Q. You have built quite a reputation with your eclectic and unconventional weekly email blasts. What’s the creative process behind the movies you select and the emails you craft to promote them?

The emails started with me blogging about opening the theater. I never thought anyone would read them, but they developed quite a following. I guess it just goes back to creating a business with a personality, and it makes a lot of sense that it would be my personality. Having had jobs where my sense of humor wasn’t welcome in the soul-sucking atmosphere of PC corporate culture, I decided at the beginning that if I’m going to open a business, I’m not going to hold back. However, if I let out all my brain vomit, I’d probably be exiled from the United States. There really isn’t any creative process though. I just start typing and whatever ends up on the page is what I send out. As far as the movies go, I have the movies I can get, the movies I might be able to get, and the movies I can’t get. The movies I can get usually do poorly because no one’s heard of them, the “mights” do well because they have a marketing budget and the “can’t get” are all the superhero movies that I don’t need to show. That part of the business is full of limitations, contradictions and frustrations. So I just let off some steam in the emails.

Brian Schwartz is a publisher and eBook consultant. He can be reached online at KindleExpert.com

Ben Mozer, a Fort Collins native, is the catalyst behind The Lyric Cinema, the city’s only independent movie theater. But after more than five years in business, The Lyric could soon go dark, thanks to the shift to digital film formats. Catching up to today’s technology will take a lot of money. Mozer is in the middle of a campaign to raise $150,000 that, he says, is critical to keeping The Lyric alive:

Q. Let’s start at the top. What spurred the idea of The Lyric?

When I was 14 my family went to Spain, where theaters with couches and beer were…

Sign up for BizWest Daily Alerts