Eat See Hear sure to impress cinema fans


In the movie capital of the world, a popular outdoor movie series offering good music and good eats delivers a cinema experience fitting of its famous setting. The Eat See Hear series, hosted in neighborhoods throughout the Los Angeles area, re-imagined the idea of a drive-in movie by incorporating pre-show performances by live bands, a curated selection of food trucks and picnicking attendees. Created by Los Angeles-based Trailhead Marketing, Inc. founders Jeff and Sharon Sperber, the Eat See Hear series will run on Saturday nights for 19 consecutive weeks from May through September. The series was prominently featured in Curbed LA’s “2015 Guide to Los Angeles Outdoor Movie Screenings” and will include fan favorites such as Almost Famous, Zoolander, Back to the Future and the Breakfast Club.

“Our backgrounds are in experiential marketing and event marketing and production, so we created this series that brought together our different skillsets, coupled with what is quintessential to Los Angeles: movies, music and food trucks,” Sharon Sperber said.

This year’s venues include Santa Monica High School’s Memorial Greek Amphitheater, The Autry in Griffith Park, Centennial Square at Pasadena City Hall  and one show at La Cienega Park in Beverly Hills. During its first season, Fandango sponsored the Eat See Hear series, but this year, the program is partnering with Showtime, which is in its third year of sponsorship.

“When we started, we did 12 different venues over 17 weeks, and now we’re in four venues over 19 weeks,” Sharon Sperber said. “What we realized is that when we had 12 different locations, is that is was like going from L.A. to San Francisco to Chicago to New York to Boston . . . every market that makes up L.A. County is completely different. We really just created efficiencies of scale.”

The series offers viewers a high quality visual experience on a three-story high, 52-foot-wide image on a Harkness inflatable movie screen — boasted as the largest west of the Mississippi — with 15,000-30,000 lumens and state of the art line-array audio. The producers of the series utilize separate audio systems for the live music performance and the movie, including JBL VRX932 line array tops, VRX918 subs,and a 42,000 watt sound system.

This year, as some former outdoor movie options such as Grand Park have discontinued movie series, Eat See Hear now battles for the top spot with competitors Street Food Cinema, hosted by TIL Lifestyle Marketing, and Cinespia, in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

“We really put together the highest quality production, and that’s what sets us apart . . . That and all of our events are 100 percent dog-friendly,” Sharon Sherber said. “We love dogs, and at the end of our season, a portion of our ticket sales goes to Best Friends Los Angeles Society and the No-Kill Los Angeles movement.”

Leashed canines of all kinds are welcomed to the event with a free biscuit, and water bowls are located around the venue.

Each week, Eat See Hear hosts a different set of L.A. food truck favorites, including options such as Peaches Smokehouse BBQ, Roll’n Lobster, The Pudding Truck, Coolhaus, Farmer’s Belly and Brasil Kiss. Highlights of the Peaches BBQ menu include the Fried Okra, the Southern Patty Melt with Pimento Cheese, and the “Redneck Nachos” (waffle fries topped with tangy pulled pork and seasoned sour cream).

Eat See Hear also offers music to listen to while attendees chow down. This season, Eat See Hear has hosted groups that include the Dark Furs, Dutch Party and Milo Bloom. On July 25, the series will host USC favorite The Neighbors, featuring senior Max Subar.

“We keep our finger on the pulse of what is going on in the music scene . . . We stay more on the indie side. It’s a little bit of our own taste,” Sharon Sherber said.

This fall, Eat See Hear will be expanding to Las Vegas, launching a nine-week series just outside of Vegas in Henderson, Nevada, beginning Labor Day weekend on Friday nights through November.

Jeff Sperber expressed plans to continue offering top-quality outdoor movie experiences in the future.

“We really just wanted to be best in class. This is a town that’s built on movies and music, and we wanted to be able to provide both of those in a way that nobody else in town is doing . . . It looks the way we wanted it to look, and it flows the way we wanted it to flow.”

Tickets are $12 for advance general admission, $14 at the door, $8 for children under 12 and free for children under 5.