A Blessed Event

It was a movie event over forty years in the making! Off the back of our hugely successful NASCAR activations, TimeZoneOne was approached by two gentlemen in black suits, black ties, black sunglasses and black trilby hats.

We're On A Mission From God

“Are you the police?” “No ma’am, we’re musicians.”

Ok, so it wasn’t quite like that. It is fair to say that we were beyond excited to be involved in the first ever Blues Brothers Convention Aug. 19-20 in Joliet, Illinois.

Blues Brothers fans will know that the movie opens with Jake Blues (played by John Belushi) being released from Joliet Prison. So, it made sense for this iconic landmark to host this incredible event.

What Does A Convention Need?

There’s a lot of un-sexy, logistical planning that goes into turning a good event into a great event — such as lanyards, posters and signage so people know where to find the stage, food or the toilets. We’ve got heaps of experience bringing events to life, so we know exactly what’s involved.

From movie screenings, to musical performances, the convention weekend was packed with entertainment. To showcase the upcoming festivities to the world, we designed a program booklet, using supplied material and advertising, that helped visitors navigate the prison grounds and enjoy all of the fun scattered throughout.

Finally, there’s the real fun stuff. We set out to create a series of Instagrammable moments, so people could literally picture themselves as part of the movie. 

Creating Movie Moments

One major asset was already available to us — The Bluesmobile! Having seen how popular this replica movie icon was at the Enjoy Illinois 300 NASCAR activation, we knew it would be an even bigger hit here.

For a movie built from iconic scenes, which ones are the most iconic? A few came to mind for our creative team, as they designed larger-than-life backdrops for visitors to pose alongside and share on social media.

Jesus H. tap-dancing Christ, I have seen the light!

The Reverend Cleophus James, played by the iconic Godfather of Soul James Brown, instills the holy fervor in the brothers to get the band back together. The dancing congregation works itself into a fever pitch until we see people performing (equally hilariously unrealistic) jumps and flips by the church’s stained glass windows.

For safety reasons, we weren’t encouraging back-flipping behavior, but we did welcome star-jumps in-front of a ‘stained glass window’ of our own.

Many people would love for Blues Brothers Con to become an annual event, including Joliet Area Historical Museum Executive Director Greg Peerbolte, and Judy Belushi, widow of original Blues Brother John Belushi and one of the people who envisioned a Blues Brothers performance at the Old Joliet Prison. Whether or not the Blues Brothers make another comeback remains to be seen. We’re just thrilled to have been part of this blessed event.

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