New York weather can be so extreme. Sometimes it's snowy and wet, sometimes it's hot and sticky. And for the premiere of Fox's summer disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow at the American Museum of Natural History, it was all of those in the same evening.
To evoke the film's weather-gone-wild plot, Fox special events director Len Iannelli and Events in Motion coordinated a pre-screening arrival area with nearly 100 tons of man-made snow. The grueling set-up began at 2 AM on the morning of the premiere. The team flocked the trees in front of the museum as well as the building facade to a height of more than 150 feet. Additional fake snow—biodegradable, we were assured—blew from handheld snow blowers and trusses above the white carpet to give the illusion of falling snow for the dozens of journalists on hand to capture the arrivals of the film's stars, including Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal, who hurled snowballs at passing taxis on Central Park West.
With those celebs and others like Chelsea Clinton, Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon and Ja Rule in the crowd, long stretches of white velvet ropes helped keep gawkers at bay. Even if the puddles left by the melting snow on the hot afternoon created a serious liability issue for starlets in five-inch heels, the spectacle drew enough television and print coverage to cancel critics' complaints.
The venue was a natural choice for the premiere: The museum is featured in a scene in the movie. After the screening in the museum's Le Frak theater, about 1,000 guests moved to a party in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. The party itself was toned down compared to the large-scale arrival event. Restaurant Associates' catering included passed hors d'oeuvres and a buffet with pesto ravioli and a cubed watermelon and goat cheese salad. Pretty decor including white lilies and roses recalled the snowy demise of thousands of Manhattanites in the film—a quiet bit of irony amid the festive party with dance music and martinis.
—Alesandra Dubin
To evoke the film's weather-gone-wild plot, Fox special events director Len Iannelli and Events in Motion coordinated a pre-screening arrival area with nearly 100 tons of man-made snow. The grueling set-up began at 2 AM on the morning of the premiere. The team flocked the trees in front of the museum as well as the building facade to a height of more than 150 feet. Additional fake snow—biodegradable, we were assured—blew from handheld snow blowers and trusses above the white carpet to give the illusion of falling snow for the dozens of journalists on hand to capture the arrivals of the film's stars, including Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal, who hurled snowballs at passing taxis on Central Park West.
With those celebs and others like Chelsea Clinton, Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon and Ja Rule in the crowd, long stretches of white velvet ropes helped keep gawkers at bay. Even if the puddles left by the melting snow on the hot afternoon created a serious liability issue for starlets in five-inch heels, the spectacle drew enough television and print coverage to cancel critics' complaints.
The venue was a natural choice for the premiere: The museum is featured in a scene in the movie. After the screening in the museum's Le Frak theater, about 1,000 guests moved to a party in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. The party itself was toned down compared to the large-scale arrival event. Restaurant Associates' catering included passed hors d'oeuvres and a buffet with pesto ravioli and a cubed watermelon and goat cheese salad. Pretty decor including white lilies and roses recalled the snowy demise of thousands of Manhattanites in the film—a quiet bit of irony amid the festive party with dance music and martinis.
—Alesandra Dubin
Jake Gyllenhaal was one of dozens of celebrities caught in the snow storm coordinated by Events in Motion for The Day After Tomorrow premiere at the American Museum of Natural History.
In front of the museum, flocked trees emerged from piles of man-made snow.
The facade of the American Museum of Natural History was flocked to a height of more than 150 feet.
Decor at the party included white florals like lilies and roses.
