The BBC writes about problems in presenting the first film premiere on the Internet.
Actually, it's not. Party Girl was. I helped launch the first official full-length movie premiere in 1995 in my offices in Seattle. The film was broadcast to several hundred people worldwide over a CUSeeMe reflector at Point of Presence Company's offices in downtown and then a few minutes, it was projected at The Egyptian in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Parker Posey was in our offices to hit the start button on the broadcast.
I was one cog in a larger set of wheels that involved the Seattle International Film Festival, Film.com (now part of Real Networks), First Look Releasing, and the film's producers, as well as another online development company and a CUSeeMe consultant who also worked for the government down in Texas.
The launch was shown on NBC Nightly News in a five-minute segment on the bottom of the Sunday broadcast that week. If you don't believe me, we had witnesses -- we invited a bunch of folks up for the cameras. Amazon.com confirms my story. You can also read this first-person account from Quinn "The Eskimo!".