After the screenings, 1,200 guests from the bigger theater, the Village, made their way across Westwood to the Hammer Museum, where a party took over the garden-level courtyard and the second story. The fete's design inspiration came from the rainy Pacific Northwest, where the film is set. Towering juniper, fir, and hemlock trees from Jackson created a lush look, and fog machines generated a mist that permeated the crowd. "We used the forest as our backdrop to the party. The art direction of the movie is very mossy and wet—it's shot in Twin Falls State Park in Oregon. I was in contact with their production designer and studied up on the trees from that area," Hudson said. "Unfortunately, you can't get trees bigger than about 20 feet into the Hammer."

Another big set piece borrowed from an important prom scene in the film: A central bar got the look of a romantic gazebo ornamented with white lights. "That's what the teen girls love," said Hudson of the piece's saccharine look. A 12-foot sphere from Airstar hung overhead, evoking a full moon, and lighting filtered through trees, forming moody patterns on the Hammer's exterior walls and floor.

Wolfgang Puck passed bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with parmesan reggianno, wild mushroom and mascarpone tartes, and demitasses of roasted chestnut soup with juniper cream. Stations offered stuffed vine-ripened tomatoes, smoked duck proscuitto, slow-braised short rib, and handmade butternut squash ravioli. "It's a seasonal menu playing off of the best ingredients to use right now," said Hudson.

In spite of the crowds that still lingered outside behind barricades, the event ended without major incidents. "My three guidelines that I gave all the vendors were safety, security, and fun—in that order," said Mayer-Siskind. "Everybody could do their own thing as long as they followed those three rules."