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By Root 870 0

to top the biggest event to date, which was the 1993 IAS event. In order to do that it would require more people and be on a bigger scale than the LA Sports Arena event. Dave decided that the Sports Arena was the venue to hold the event, but that it would be bigger in size and scope. And this time there could be not one empty seat in the whole place. When Dave briefed the event crew on this, it was like déjà vu all over again. We knew this event was cursed for sure. If there had not already been enough bad mojo attached to it, this was now guaranteed to turn into a giant crap sandwich. The LA Sports Arena was like a black omen to a Gold crew member. It held the special significance of being the one place that Gold had produced an event and not one single thing had gone right. We were on course for certain death.

For the next three months Dave Miscavige would go between the editing bays in the Upper Lodges and the Lower Lodges conference room and yell at people and demand better speeches, better video edits, better music scores and better anything else he wanted. He would detail out what kind of video shots he wanted, what types of instruments he wanted in music tracks, how he wanted a video to end and the next one to start, how he wanted a speech to segue into a video, you name it. He dictated every breath that we would or would not take for three whole months.

As the dreaded event grew nearer and Dave constantly changed speeches and videos, it was clear that everything would not be ready for the big night. He had dictated that there be two huge screens on either side of the stage showing moving video footage during his speech. So we essentially had four hours of moving footage that would need to be shot and edited to his speech, a speech that was constantly changing. Even Dave knew this was an impossible task with only a few weeks left until the event date. We knew Dave knew this when he ordered that LED tracking markers be installed in the frames of the screens on each side of the stage. These tracking markers would be used by the Visual Effects crew at Gold to re-insert the proper footage into the video screen after the live event took place. At least the final video of the event would be correct, even if the live show were botched.

The live show was now only a week away. The Sports Arena had an army of Rehabilitation Project Force members from LA and at least a hundred crew from the local stage unions. The RPF in LA numbered in the hundreds by this time. They were like a swarm of ants that would attack giant set pieces on semi trucks and within minutes the stage items would be carried by hand down the long ramp into the arena and handed over to the union crews. It was a sight to behold.

The stage was a bit bigger than the one constructed for IAS 1993. It had a very similar look with the usual giant pillars and tiny podium. This event was for New Years instead of IAS, so a more celebratory motif replaced the earth logo and torches that were historically linked to the IAS.

In addition to the huge projection screens on either side of the stage with moving video footage, two additional even larger screens were placed on either side of the hall to project the live event for the crowd. Then another 20 projection screens and 50 giant plasma television screens were placed all around the arena so the audience was able to see Dave Miscavige clearly throughout the event.

And there was no projection department left to execute it all. I was tapped to do all of the projection and replace the guy that had gone to the Rehabilitation Project Force. Even though I was directly over the Departments that were supposed to build the stage and over the Stage Manager himself, I was also going to have to somehow get all of the projection set up for the biggest event in all of Scientology’s history in my “spare” time.

The planned event was to open with a very large flag procession with Sea Org members from all over the world marching around the arena carrying the flags of their countries and their orgs. Then there would be a twirling color