Finding PeeTimes – EXACTLY how I find those movie breaks

A few people have asked how I make those movie break  PeeTimes for Runpee.com. Well, let me tell you: it isn’t easy, or fun. But it must be done and currently I do the majority of the PeeTimes myself. Although my mother – AKA Dearest – and my sister – AKA MovieManiac – has helped quite a bit, and RunPee.com fans have chipped in here and there.

Recently I added moderation to the PeeTimes submissions so that we won’t see any more of the PeeTime reviews like, “This movie sucks so go pee and don’t return.” That’s really only funny once and might annoy someone who liked the movie in question.  We really just want solid PeeTimes to help people enjoy their movies more.

What I do to make a PeeTime

• For each movie I try and sit off away from the rest of the audience. That is oftentimes impossible since I see movies on opening day so that PeeTimes will be available ASAP.
• I have my phone – ringer off – that I can check the time with. And a pen and paper. If I can sit in a spot where it won’t bother anyone, then I can use my iPhone to record the audio of the movie during the PeeTimes.
• And of course I can’t RunPee during a movie so I make sure that I don’t drink much beforehand and I use the men’s room right before the show starts.
• The first thing I watch for is the beginning of the movie. We can’t time PeeTimes from when the movie is listed to start because commercials and previews can run anywhere from 10-20 minutes. Since the iPhone app will vibrate in your pocket just a few minutes before the upcoming PeeTime I need to make sure that the start time for each PeeTime isn’t off by more than a minute or so.
• As soon as the movie begins I write down the exact time on my notepad. And then I can sit back and relax for the first 30 minutes because PeeTimes must be at least 30 minutes into the show – you can hold it at least that long, right? I just received an iPhone as a gift so now I use the timer function to prompt me – vibrate – after 30 minutes so that I can start looking for possible PeeTimes.
• Now for the hard part. I watch the movie for scenes that I can easily sum up without missing in critical details to the movie. Many people think that PeeTimes are just the boring scenes in movies, but that isn’t necessarily true. Some PeeTimes might take part during a car chase or some other action scene. It just has to be something you can miss and still follow the plot when you return. Take the first PeeTime for Star Trek. That’s during the scene where they sky dive down to the drilling platform. You’ll be missing some nice action but most of that scene was shown during the previews that everyone saw. The rest of the scene is easy to sum up so that when you do get back in the theater you can slip back into the story.
• When I see something happening in the movie that looks like it might make a good PeeTime I write down the current time on my notepad. Then I start jotting down notes like who’s talking and the gist of the conversation. If the scene keeps going for a at least 3 minutes and nothing has happened that makes me say, “Crap, you can’t miss this scene,” then I have a good PeeTime candidate. Then as soon as this scene ends I write down the time again so that I know how long this PeeTime stretches.
• Rinse-and-repeat.

PeeTimes are of course subjective but here are a few tips I would offer that would make a bad PeeTime:

• Did something happen that a few people in the theater laughed at?
• Was there some character interaction that was purely visual and would be difficult/impossible to accurately describe?
• Say you’re watching an action movie with lots of fighting: was there some amazing scene that might be the best move, or special effect, in the movie. People probably don’t want to miss that.
• If shortly after your PeeTime something hugely important happens then really consider not using this PeeTime unless the person has at least 5 minutes to get back. For example if the movie goes for 3 minutes of watching a clothes dryer spin and then right after that Darth Vader walks up to Luke and says, “Luke, I am your father.” then you don’t want to use this PeeTime. Someone might not make it back in time.

And here are a few examples that I think make for good PeeTimes:

• Music montages that just show a character(s) training or doing whatever it is they do. This is usually very easy to sum up like, “Rocky goes out jogging around the city and eventually fans start following. He ends by running up the steps in front of a big building and then jumping around like a champion.” Now I won’t argue with you that that scene is iconic. But suppose you’re in the theater and you really have to pee and you know you can’t wait until the movie is over. Guess what, missing that music montage would be a whole lot better than missing the fight with Apollo Creed now wouldn’t it?
• Suppose you’re watching an action movie that has lots of gun fights. A few of the gun fights might be really good but there’s usually one of them that’s just sort of average. That sounds like a good PeeTime to me. I would even mention in the description that this gun fight isn’t as good as the other gun fights – or whatever the action is.
• Something really gross in an otherwise not so gross movie. Take for instance King Kong – the movie that started the whole idea for RunPee – there’s the scene with those huge bugs that eat people. The rest of the movie isn’t that gross and disgusting. There are a lot of people who don’t like scenes like that and so they would gladly miss that part.

Sometimes it happens that I have a good PeeTime candidate and then just a few minutes later a much better one comes up. I try not to group the PeeTimes to closely together so I’ll pick the best one. Or if the are different types of scenes, say one is an action scene and the other is a love scene, then I’ll leave them both so that the user can pick what to miss.

This reminds me; I will be adding a feature to RunPee to illustrate what type of scene occurs during a PeeTime: action, love/sex, music montage, etc. I know many of you have requested this kind of option.

I like to have 2-3 PeeTimes per movie and I try to group them starting around the 30 minute mark. I usually stop looking for them with about 20-30 minutes remaining in the movie. It is very rare that a good PeeTime happens near the end of a movie, but there might be exceptions. One that comes to mind is Heat – I’m sure you know what I’m talking about if you remember the end of the movie.

Of course I have to sit in the theater until the credits end to check for those post credit scenes. Then I can RunPee myself before adding the PeeTimes to the website!

There are usually 2-3 movies out each Friday that I must see, so I’m in the theater most of the day. This also gives me the opportunity to duck back into a show that I have already seen, if I feel that I might have missed a few details during some of the previous PeeTimes.

There is no question that some PeeTimes are better than others. To help with that I’m also going to add a voting feature to RunPee. The idea is that after you have watched a movie you can pop back to RunPee and vote on which scene you think would have been the best to use. Between that, and the scene type feature, I think the usefulness of RunPee will be greatly enhanced.

I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to get a movie reviewer pass so that I can get PeeTimes for movies before they are in the theater. That would be especially handy for blockbuster movies that lots of people see on opening day. If anyone can help me finding a resource to attain reviewer status, please let me know! :-)

Submitting the PeeTimes is simple enough. Just fill out the Create PeeTime form on RunPee.com. But here are a few tips anyway:

• First and foremost get the time right. The iPhone app has the vibrate feature for the Timer that alerts the user that a PeeTime is coming up. If you’re off by 3 minutes you might leave someone standing in the theater entrance for most of that time waiting for the cue for the PeeTime. That would be bad. :)
• Make the cue something distinctive and detailed but without giving away something in the movie. If the cue is something like, “Two people sit down at a kitchen table for breakfast.” then make sure you use the characters names – visit the IMDb.com if you need to – and say, “Jake and Karen sit down at the kitchen table for breakfast.” However, like I said, be careful not to give anything away. If Jake and Karen broke up early in the movie then mentioning them specifically in this cue would give it away that eventually they get back together.
• Be as detailed as you can in the description of what happens during the PeeTime. Include lines of dialogue if you can and certainly any relevant details.
• Even if the PeeTime is only 3 minutes long go ahead and give a description of events that happen past 3 minutes. Sometimes I’ll end with: you’re probably back by now but if not you’ll come back to the theater and see Han Solo and Princes Leah talking. She tells him that they are being tracked and he says, “Not this ship sister.” Then Leah replies, “I just hope the data in that R2 unit is useful” Then the Millennium Falcon lands on the moon with the rebel base.

I would love to hear your comments if you have any suggestions for improving this process.

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