This past Friday night, the Campus Activities Board (CAB) invited students and faculty to gather on the great lawn for this year’s first Outdoor Movie. CAB operated in conjunction with the Memorial Union Building to put on the viewing. Students flooded the open field as early as a half hour before the movie was scheduled to start. The excitement and uniqueness was palpable—the very same aura that has made Outdoor Movie worth returning to for movie-buffs and TV-haters alike. The Outdoor Movie experience has created an environment that’s alluring for all audiences.
Freshman Holly Eisenberg was seeing “Deadpool” for the first time. “I really like Ryan Reynolds and I’m excited for the field setting,” she said.
Despite not being very interested in movies at all, Eisenberg said she enjoyed the experience and would do it again next time.
Even in previous years the event has seen high numbers and positive reviews. The crowd size is always relatively large, but the great lawn saw an especially heavy load due to the nature of popularity that “Deadpool” holds. Last fall, CAB brought “Pitch Perfect 2” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” to the big screen. CAB Director William Boyce expected a large crowd for the event, which he certainly got. Sophomore Ryan Anastasi had a spot close enough to the screen that he had no idea how many people were there until he turned around at the end.
“I knew it was going to be successful, but I was still surprised. I love the idea of relaxing on the lawn—especially on a warm night—which I think appealed to a lot of people,” Anastasi said.
It was Anastasi’s second time to Outdoor Movie, and he said he would go again. The movie wasn’t free, however. In the past, CAB has needed to secure the rights to show these movies, which certainly didn’t change this year. Copyright laws are rather particular, but Boyce claims to have stayed ahead of the curve.
“We paid for the rights to publicly show ‘Deadpool,’” he said, “…just like we pay for the rights to show every Outdoor Movie.”
For the amount of planning that goes into the Outdoor Movie event, the crowd is only there for about three hours. Still, CAB does more than its fair share to make sure everyone is catered to, which included the distribution of popcorn. CAB does more than put on the Outdoor Movie. They put on a variety of free events ranging from Bingo to the Grind (UNH’s coffee house/open mic night), and even larger events like Homecoming and the May Day Carnival. The organization is hard at work to start up free events for all students year-round. Fans of the Outdoor Movie should keep an eye out for the next showing, along with any other future CAB events.
