It’s a craze that seems to be sweeping the internet and Cineworld Broughton got involved last night as they got together people from the area to take part in their very own Star Wars-styled Mannequin Challenge.
On Wednesday the Cinema put out the call on their official Twitter account asking for people to drop them a DM about taking part in the viral Mannequin video. This was certainly going to be a night to remember and a fun one that would certainly be one of the strangest things I’ve been involved with at a cinema.
Here at Blazing Minds, we were intrigued by what was happening, so scanned the internet for other videos from people that have been doing the challenge we couldn’t believe how many were out there and there was one really caught our eye.
What is the Mannequin Challenge?
The Mannequin Challenge is a social media craze that has gone viral on the internet, it seems that the viral craze was started by teenagers from the USA and most of the clips featuring the music by Rae Sremmurd’s Black Beatles featuring Gucci Mane playing in the background. Of course, the celebs, such as Holly Willoughby & Phillip Schofield and Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton & Bon Jovi, jumped on board and started doing their own Mannequin Challenge videos.
Behind The Scenes of the Star Wars Mannequin Challenge at Cineworld Broughton
We were lucky to be invited to Cineworld Broughton to be able to go behind the scenes and see how the video would come together and although I was planning it, I was pulled into being part of the video as one of the “mannequins”!
So after spending a couple of hours reviewing Arrival, I got all my gear together, headed to Starbucks in the foyer for a much-needed Gingerbread latte and then went over to catch up with Robert Moore (operations manager at Broughton IMAX) who I’d been in touch with about the evening and the video.
Some people had come in their normal attire and some had come as Star Wars characters including, Jedi, Jawa, Princes Leia, Hand Solo, Stormtroopers and a Wookie!
Now my role for the evening was to grab some photographs of everyone setting up for the late-night shoot of the Cineworld Broughton Mannequin Challenge, it is always great to see so many people having fun at these types of events and the evening showed that people are certainly up for a laugh.
There is more than just turning up for a Mannequin Challenge, everything had to be organised right to give the video the feeling that everyone was frozen in time and waiting for the movie to start, but Rob Moore (Cineworld Broughton) did a fantastic job organising everyone and working out the route of the camera around the screen. But there was some waiting around, which is always a great opportunity to grab some of those, one-off photographs.
It also gives a Jedi the chance to work his Jedi Mind Tricks on other local press to see if he can get their attention for some candid moments!
As the time was rolling on, it was almost time to get filming the video, so several cosplayers grabbed that moment for some well-deserved selfies and photographs and then made their way to their positions they would be as still as a, well as a, Mannequin.
Wow … Wait a Minute!!!
The surprise for me was that I wasn’t just there for photographs, I was also brought into a part in the Cineworld Mannequin Challenge at the Broughton cinema. Yes I know, I’m always on the other side of the camera lens, so it was certainly a change for me to be in the video and very early in the video as well. But was all good fun to be part of, but good grief it was hard to keep still, my advice to anyone doing one of these videos is …
So Why Did Cineworld Do A Mannequin Challenge?
As you may have noticed this challenge was Star Wars based and it’s all part of the cinema’s promotion for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story which opens in UK cinemas on the 15 December. The Broughton cinema has an amazing 3D IMAX screen and they will be showing Rogue One in all its 3D glory on the massive, IMAX screen.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Jedis and Siths, The Cineworld Mannequin Challenge
I caught up with Robert Moore (Operations Manager at Broughton IMAX) and chatted with him about the video.
I asked him about the mannequin challenge and why do one, he told me,”The mannequin challenge was something we really wanted to pull off! We had a few ideas floating around but another Cineworld beat us to our first idea, so to shake things up we thought we should theme it Star Wars, we’re all film fans and are super excited for Rogue One so we thought this would tie in nicely.“
Using social media, was he pleased with the response? “We put a tweet out to call in some extras, which we had a great response to and it also generated a fair bit of media coverage so we were really pleased with that. We reached out to our local community of cosplayers to try and gather some characters; we were overwhelmed with this response too!“
“We were delighted to a have a such a variety of characters turn up to take part in the challenge, a fair few of our Broughton team joined in on the video.“
I asked Robert if he’d dabbled in directing a video before? “I’ve never done any kind of film directing so this was also something new for me!“
As for the video itself who filmed and edited it together? “The video was edited by a member of our Starbucks team, Sam Farrington who has a keen interest in film.“
Big thanks to Robert for inviting Blazing Minds over to take part in the video’s production and a well done to everyone that took part on the night.
Coming soon! I’ll be adding a behind-the-scenes video, but for now, I hope you enjoyed the photographs from the evening and the video.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
