The Portland Freeze 2008
Dec 12th, 2008 by Agent Webb
This is the place to post your story for last year’s freeze, the Portland Freeze 2008! Leave comments about your experience of the Freeze below. If you have video footage from the event, send us a link at videos@pdximprov.com. If you have photos from the event, send us the files or a link at photos@pdximprov.com.
I arrived at Waterfront Park a bit early (11:20), so I wandered around the Saturday Market until noon. At noon, I headed to Waterfront Park again, where I found some friends (who I had not know were coming) and chatted with them. Half an hour later, we headed to Pioneer Square, following a guide with red and green balloons. Two minutes after we arrived, red balloons were released and about 90% of the people in the square froze on the spot. Others had no clue what was going on, but conformed–One person said, “What’s goin–” and stopped to freeze. A woman behind me told her partner, “Honey, i think we’re supposed to freeze.” They both did so.
While we were frozen, there were people coming around with cameras, gold tinsel, and music, but it seemed like almost everyone was “in” on the freeze in one way or another.
The freeze seemed pretty short; I had guessed it was only about a minute when I saw green balloons go up into the air and I began wandering around the square again, trying to blend in.
Overall, it was great fun, but it seemed like we didn’t surprise too many people…
Overall it was a pretty cool event. When we got to the bridge my first reaction was “holy **** there’s alot of people”, which i thought would make for a really cool showing. How cool would it be to have 1000+ people frozen?? Anyway when we split off into groups, our group leader decided to take a very conveluted route to the square and we ended up being late and only able to freeze for about a minute. Oh well. It was pretty sweet anyway and seeing a group of little kids looking at you like ‘what are you doing?’ is pretty rewarding!
im sure it would have been more awesome if i was able to actually participate for the whole thing, but unfortunately our group leader was either confused or not a portland native, since we arrived 4min 30sec too late after we took the scenic route around downtown.
i think i will follow the guy with the megaphone next time.
I have always wanted to participate in something like this! I’m glad I went and am totally up for future public improv!
Well done at not doing anything guys!
freeze was taken a little more litterally than I thought it would be, man was it cold out, but hey it was worth it!
maybe next time we can do it in the summer?
to me it seemed a little shorter than 5 minutes, but the balloon idea was genius and everything was well-planned.
i can’t wait for the next freeze!!
maybe in warmer weather we’ll get a better turn out? ;p
This was awesome! The whole thing was an unforgettable experience. Hope we do it again!
Hey!
This was a great time…
Honestly, we need to do a Portland Thriller.
That was sick with it.
I was surfing this morning about 11:30am when I came across this event. I barely made it downtown in time with my camera. I got a timelapse of the whole thing, will post it tomorrow. I was the guy standing at the lectern thing at the top of the square with a camera on a gorillapod.
Man, that was so much fun. I think it was well worth every bit of effort put into it, thank you to all who helped make it happen. Can’t wait for the next event…
Wow! What a fun experience! I loved how silence swept over everyone when the balloons were released! Can’t wait to do it again
This was really cool! It was actually really hard to be still for about 5 minutes. It was awesome!
I was also in the group that arrived late. We walked in and froze as soon as we could….but I think we were only there for about two mins or something. Next time I hope that we take a head count of all the group leaders before letting go of the balloons. But yeah, I also noticed that everyone seemed to be in on it….hopefully we can do it again in a couple months with a greater turn out and somewhere with more unsuspecting people-lloyd center was a good idea. Can’t wait to see the vids!!
It was pretty cool
2 one this time I held up a sign.
Yeah it was really disappointing that our group leader took a SUPERRRRRRRRRRR long route from the waterfront to pioneer square so i basically froze for like.. 30 seconds only. lame
but i’m sure if we were able to participate during the whole 5 minutes it would have been more fun
this was definitely a great event.
it didn’t really feel like we stood still for five minutes,
but i think we definitely surprised the tuba christmas attendees.
hah.
Today was soooo much fun! The freeze itself didn”t seem to last that long but thats probably because I was having a good time. It seemed like most of the people in the square were frozen, it got really quiet when it started, that was cool. Probably the best part was when people applauded at the end, it was good to know that they enjoyed it. Overall the freeze was great and I can’t wait to do another mission!
My video is up, I only got one half of the square though.
http://www.vimeo.com/2518104
My friend Teri ‘force-choked’ (like Star Wars telekinesis) me. The guys next to us were posed in a thumb wrestling match. People moved around us and stared and took pictures and said What the hell is going on. I haven’t had this much fun in ever. Can’t wait for another mission!
I went with my friend and my dad. Was a lot of fun.. except I got caught with my phone open. lol
Great fun! Hope to do this again next year.
I had a stellar time! My friend Jess and I froze while she was putting a glove on and I was leaning in to talk to her. Someone came by and tried to hang ornaments on the hand that she was putting a glove on. It did seem like a lot of people were in on the freeze. I wish it could have been longer, but it was definitely worth the cold!!
I went with a couple of my friends who were from out of town and were totally up for it. They didn’t think that they could stand for so long without moving so they sat on the stairs while I posed as if I were taking a picture. One woman actually stopped, thinking I was taking a picture – looked at me…then at my friends, then at me…and then walked right on through. I was hilarious! I had a lot of fun, looking forward to doing something like this again!
I thought this was planned out quite well for the most part. I don’t know if it lasted the whole five minutes, but my boyfriend and my friends and I had a really good time, I’d definitely consider doing it again! Thanks to whoever planned it!
The freeze was so awesome! Unfortunately our group leader took a really long route and we were late to the initial freeze. The red & green balloons were a fantastic idea. It was a great thing to participate in and I would definitely do it again! Nice job getting this put together you guys!
I was also in the group that got there late :[ But it was fun anyway! I liked seeing everyone look at me weird.
IT WAS SO FREAKING AMAZING!!! I loved it! However our group got the longest rout to Pioneer Square that when we finally got there the freeze had already started but I still had fun!
I went with a group of friends. My boyfriend and I posed together, almost by accident. It was kind of funny standing still for that long. It didn’t feel as long as I thought five minutes would at all. At a couple points it was a little awkward making eye contact with other frozen people. I kept blinking whenever they brought the cameras around. There was one time when I cracked a little; this guy was running around yelling, “I FROZE ALL THESE PEOPLE! I’M THE BEST FREEZE-TAGGER EVER!” and I couldn’t help but smile at it. He ran right by me. Anyway, it was an awesome experience; I’m glad we went and I’ve been wanting to do this for months. I didn’t mind the cold as much as I thought I would.
Hey—if I have a video that might be good footage for the Portland Freeze video, who should I give it to and how? It’s a Quicktime MOV file off my digital camera.
This was my first freeze experience. It was really fun. I realized that my purse gets pretty heavy after holding it out for 5 minutes. I can’t wait to see the video because I couldn’t see others faces very well.
This was great! Surprisingly well organized. I can’t wait to do it again some time.
I didn’t get to see much of the freeze, as I was on the periphery and turned away from the square… I wanted to be one of the first that people encountered as they entered the square. I got caught mid-step with one foot halfway off the ground. Not easy to hold for five minutes! (If it was a full five minutes — didn’t feel like it.) For the most part, people walking by me were oblivious. It was so Portland — no one pays attention to one weirdo looking up at nothing. But as folks passed me by, even bumping into me w/ an umbrella at one point, I could hear them behind me as they realized how many people were frozen. Conversations stopped once they got a good look at the square. There were a few comments, too… “Look at all the people!”
This was my first improv event, and it was so much fun! I went with one other friend, and we had a long day ahead of us, so it was nice to be able to do something so memorable beforehand. However, we thought that it would have been much better to do in the Lloyd mall because then there would have been more people NOT frozen, and we would have gotten a better reaction. We both look forward to doing another improv event soon!
Until this gets posted on here, for those who wish to look, here are the official photos:
http://socsaint.deviantart.com/gallery/#Portland-Freeze-08
I was the one wandering around with a tripod in the middle of the square. The security guard didn’t seem to mind me photographing the event with a tripod, but I also was cheating by not locking my tripod, just in case. When I picked it up, the legs would fold back in, so it wasn’t technically “set up”. I have a hunch this wouldn’t have worked under normal conditions, but when are there normal conditions when Portland Improv is involved?
I got some good photos, but it was difficult to shoot in such a short amount of time. Next time I hope we can have another photographer present so we can get double the coverage. All in all, I thought it went well.
I never even realized it began until everyone got quiet (even though I got a slightly belated shot of the balloon floating away). It was eerie as I started setting up my tripod. It felt like all eyes were on me as I fumbled with my frozen fingers.
Everyone did an excellent job of staying frozen. No one was moving enough to blur my photos, and that’s what counts!
It also came as a shock when everyone unfroze. I can tell for certain it was less than five minutes (I’m guessing three) because I should have been able to get more shots. It was still a good thing we unfroze early; I was afraid we’d be losing our fingers to frostbite if we went any longer!
My take: I’d call this a major success. If we do this in the summer, I’m sure we can beat Paris’ record hands down! I look forward to photographing you guys at more events in the future
I showed up with the other group leaders at Waterfront Park a little before everyone else did. The best part of the experience for me was being able to watch everyone show up and the excitement that built as we realized that this was actually happening. I had several conversations with people while we were waiting to go over about how this was “a wonderful idea” and “just the kind of thing they wanted to see more of” and such.
Once we got to the Square and the Freeze got started I froze bent over to pick up some gum I dropped. The best response I saw was a family that stopped right in front of me. They were talking on the way in and stopped mid-sentence when they saw everything.
Woman: “What’s going on.”
Man: “I have… no… idea.”
7 year old kid: *walks up to me, leans over and looks in my face*
(it was sooo hard to not break when he did that)
Man: “Oh this must be one of those… exhibitionist… tableaus or something.”
Awesome experience, can’t wait for more!
The freeze was amazing. There were a lot more people then I thought. Facebook said around 3000, but it ended up being about half that. It was still very fun. And some people had no idea what was going on. I think we should try another down town in the spring. Like in the park blocks!
I was excited when we got to the bridge, there was a good showing of people, but I went with this girl leader who took us four blocks in the wrong direction… i think she was a little confused by her map… and we arrived four minutes into the freeze. It was a big disapointment and lame to walk into the square four minutes late. I guess next time I will follow the guy with the microphone or someone who has walked around down town before. Maybe the leaders should walk the routes they are given before hand, so they don’t end up taking the scenic way.
It was AWESOME! I’m so glad I went.
And the WHOLE POINT was to get the majority of the people to freeze and only have small groups of people not in on the freeze. It would be LAME if only a few people were in on it, and 2,000 people were bystanders. Then they probably wouldn’t have even noticed we were freezing.
Me and my friends went and did it and had a great time. About halfway through the freeze this old lady walked by us exclaiming to her husband, “Honey! I think there is a mime convention going on!”. It was very difficult to keep a straight face during that but it was definitely a lot of fun. I think it should be inside pioneer square next time though. There would be a lot more confused people
I arrived as early as I could, as a group leader I was supposed to be there around 10, but prior engagements led me to be there more around 11:30 or 11:40. I was also supposed to bring balloons, the night before I considered not getting balloons as the other leaders seemed to sound as if they had it covered, the next morning I decided last minute that I should go ahead and get some anyways, apparently this was the right decision. I showed up with 5 red and 5 green balloons in hand and was greeted quickly by Reid and told that we’d already lost 2 or 3 green balloons and didn’t have anymore. I quickly handed some over to the leaders without balloons. And we began to organize ourselves, handing out the maps and figuring out if we needed to add a few last minute leaders or not. We seemed ok and in the end I think we had 9 or 10 groups.
When I was first handed my map I was told I had one of the long routes. Surprisingly the 10 or 12 blocks we had to walk went fairly quickly, between telling a large group of people to turn here or there and the excitement that was floating around them it seemed like we had run there. Some of the most fun was on the walk over trying to make sure that when these big groups of people passed each other we didn’t lose anyone and yelling at other groups to get out of our way, at one point some of our group actually considering talking someone into switching into our group, as he had a rainbow striped guitar case that a few of us were eyeing. Also the Santa Woman (real name unknown) whom I believe ended up in Kory’s group. We actually made it in time to freeze, with such a long route I was worried we wouldn’t. When we got there I asked my group to scatter and they quickly did.
My friend Kate and I grabbed a spot with a nice vantage point and along the side so we could hear passers by. Once we got there I felt a little conspicuous holding a bunch of red balloons. I was relieved to see Reid, Josh, Kory and other leaders scattered about, I had been getting questions as too when we were going to freeze so I called Josh and due to a bit of last second hectic-ness and confusion didn’t really get an answer so I positioned myself to see Reid and his balloons and just waited for their signal. Kate was helping a woman near us up onto the ledge we were on and I was helping them not fall, as soon as we stood up I noticed Reid let go of his balloons, I actually had to grab Kate and say the word “stop” before she realized what was going on.
During the freeze itself I was a tad disappointed, not many of the action or the mobile people seemed to be around us until the last minute or so. I was a little surprised to see people I remembered being in my group moving amongst those who were frozen, I finally figured out what they were saying though and realized they were having their own fun and adding to ours. Yes boys, it really was the coolest and best game of freeze tag ever
I do agree I’m not entirely sure it was a solid five minutes, I had no idea when it was set to start therefor I had no way of setting a timer myself but it certainly didn’t seem like 5 minutes.
When I saw the green balloons released I quietly told Kate to let ours go too. We quickly made our way towards Starbucks and the other leaders. Everyone seemed pretty happy with how it went down. There were a few glitches that I think we can sort out for the next one, and **yes we are hoping for one during the summer and hopefully the warmer whether will bring more people out**. But overall it went well and considering how cold it was the turnout was pretty good.
Wish I could have stayed for the core dinner but I’m a broke college student and had to pay for my parking so it wasn’t really an option
As for Logistics in case people are wondering and I’ve seen a few questions and comments on it above:
-Thank you I agree the balloons seemed to work very well as a cue.
-Next time we will probably set up some sort of leader check in system so we can ensure all groups have actually arrived at the event.
-While Lloyd Center would have been better for spectators and warmth we decided, through speaking with friends and family in the security business that it couldn’t plausibly happen without participants being caught at the door and not allowed to entire the mall itself. Without being in the mall the event would lose it’s effect entirely, hence the location change, while we would have loved to be at Lloyd we didn’t want to risk complete cancellation, and the Pioneer Square welcomed us with open arms.
-If you have any questions on how to get video or pictures back to us to post please refer to the homepage of this site or the facebook Portland Improv site or the facebook event page itself.
After that ridiculously long post I think I’m done. It was great seeing everyone and hopefully we can make the next one bigger and better!
Look forward to seeing you all again!
The Portland Freeze went wondefully. The morning started with me picking up Josh and heading to the Beaverton Transit Center. When we got there, I realized that my megaphone wasn’t working. I couldn’t speak through it, but we accidentally discovered that the siren worked fine. After nearly missing our train by seconds, we were on our way.
We I arrived at the Pioneer Square Starbucks just after 9 a.m. to meet up with our homeless friend Mark that we had meet the previous Saturday, but he never showed up. Our prayers go out to him. I went to pick up a few new batteries for the megaphone, thank the Lord that it worked with the replacements. Our core team showed up along with a few other friends around 9:30 a.m. and we had a bit of a prayer meeting for the event. At 10, the rest of the crew showed up.
Thanks to the wonderful folks at Starbucks, we were able to leave some of our supplies in the store while we wandered down to the Waterfront Park and examined the route. We found a good meeting place under the Morrison Bridge, and walked back up to Pioneer Square. By now we had gathered nearly 30 people before the event even began. We blew up balloons with my pitiful little propane (helium) tank, gave a nice red one to the cutest little girl ever, and headed back down to the Waterfront after a few quick potty breaks.
By 11:40 we were there, and people began to gather. Eric Sadlo and his Red Bull crew were there with the Mini Coopers, and everything was going as planned. We looked around and saw people walking from every direction to meet us under the bridge. A bit of waiting ensued, along with announcements about the free Red Bull, and we were finally ready to go. We stayed until about 12:15 when I made the announcements. Of course, I forgot to say a few things, but all in all they went well. And naturally, I left my bag under the bridge the whole time too. Luckily no one ever came by to take it.
Our twelve groups walked their different routes, with mine heading straight up Morrison. We arrived first, with no one else yet in the Square. I lost track of Jessica and her sister, which left me with just one red balloon, but no green. After a few frantic phone calls from random people, friends, and group leaders, we were finally ready to go. Jess was on my side with the three green balloons, and to my knowledge, all the group leaders were now inside the Square.
Two chief regrets here: Next time, we’re going to make sure there is some kind of strong communication between each and every group leader. I sincerely apologize to all who weren’t able to make it to the Square in time. We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen at the next Freeze. Also, we’ll make the Freeze longer next time. We didn’t officially time it, so everyone is probably right that it was less than five. We’ll shoot for a solid seven minutes next time.
We released the red balloon, and what a sight it was to see. Twelve (or so) red balloons all synchronized and rising into the sky at the same time. As bystanders began to notice them, they were distracted until the sudden silence came over the crowd and those not involved saw that everyone was now frozen. All of the organization and planning was worth it to be a part of just this moment. I didn’t realize it at the moment, but later someone pointed out that even the Tuba players there got quieter.
A few minutes later, as the balloons were about to slip from Jessica’s fingers, we released the green balloons. Others rose to accompany them, and suddenly the square came to life again. The time lapse shots I’ve seen really show how impressive this was. All of a sudden my phone began to ring, people came running up to me, and I began to hear all the incredible stories people were telling. I heard about my friend Tina getting Tinsel strung on here while she was frozen, while some frozen cameraman got an ornament stuck on his finger. All in all, it was an incredible day, and I’m looking forward to planning and taking part in the next!
Thanks again to everyone who participated and made this all possible!
I thoroughly enjoyed this event, and had been looking forward to it for months. I would have liked a larger not-in-on-it crowd, but it was a great time otherwise. Anonymous made their presence felt, their cause known, and their candy canes tasty. Signage was held, truth was spewed, and freezing was chilled. And my trenchcoat was awesome.
Expect us…at future events. We love you guys
The freeze went spectacularly.
I was one of the three (main) videographers you may seen walking around with a large camera. And it was a ton of fun, I can’t wait to see the video put together by all of our footage.
Anyway, so, the day started early as I left to go scout locations to shoot from (around 10am). But, there really isn’t a lot around the square or morrison to shoot from, so I ended up joining the team that had met up at starbucks earlier. We walked (back) to the waterfront and the square to set up for the festivities.
Around 11:30 we made our way back down underneath the morrison bridge where we waited for the *hopefully* large crowd to appear. Slowly, but surely, the crowd started growing. And grow it did! To around 1500 people!
I then followed a group down to the square, running ahead and grabbing shots of the groups from different places walking. When we all got the square I waited for the freeze to begin.
The best part was how silent it became once everyone froze. Let me tell you, it was surreal walking through 1500 frozen people. Imagine a movie scene where someone is walking through a silent, non-moving world. It was seriously THAT surreal.
Then everyone started moving and it was back to normal again.
Thanks to everyone who participated! Hope to see you all at future freezes.
To all who have suggestions, please direct any suggestions, ideas for future missions, etc, to Suggestions@pdximprov.com!
Thanks!
–
Corbin
Well, I got there and met up with some people who I hadn’t seen in almost a year or so. Good people, we talked for a while and then we all headed off to the square. We were wondering what we were going to do and we decided on action poses, 3 ninjas and 3 random people being attacked. Good fun holding that for a while. After that about a block away there were star wars people lined up everywhere, so we all got pictures with them. It was awesome. Then we walked over to coffee people I believe and saw the entourage for the president of Ireland on the way. Went to coffee people, talked for a while. And went our respective ways. It was an excellent time.
I accidentally continued to talk to a guy for about 20 seconds until I realized everyone was standing still. Pretty sad, yeah?
I went to portland freeze with a bunch of my friends–like twenty of them, it was alot of fun. i was pretty happy about them giving us red bull and all that jazz. it was really freezing though–excuse my pun. lol I kinda had hoped that they would of done the freeze in the mall… just cuz it was so much warmer. but it was a blast. me and my friend britney we bought bhindi’s from gifts from afar and pirate eye patches… and wore them to the freeze. lol i felt like a dork when the freeze was actually happening lol cuz i was ready adn i was trying to fix my jacket and not drop the christmas songs book that they gave me,… lol and we didn’t even sing the christmas songs! ha ha … oh and i liked the guy at the freeze that was goin around to everyone and saying “freezetag! your it! no tagbacks!!” it was hillarious. and my friend rob got ornamented,… it was great. we should have more gatherings like that, i was suprized at all the people that came! :]
I started my day by getting picked up by Reid at 8 AM then taking the MAX downtown to play a part in Portland Improv’s biggest mission to date. We arrived at Pioneer Square about 3 hours early, and had a final logistics meeting, at Starbucks, with the rest of the Portland Improv core group. I was concerned about the frigid temperature effecting event attendance but was encouraged when close to 30 people arrived for the “little” meeting. All of us walked up and down the event route, then returned to Starbucks to blow up the red and green balloons that the group leaders would hold.
After having a short prayer meeting, everyone backed up at 11:20, and headed towards the Waterfront Park staging area. Instead of walking the 6 blocks we decided to cram on a departing MAX train. I can imagine how peculiar it was for the riders when a merry group of thirty suddenly boarded, carrying a billowing wall of balloons, only to exit one stop later. It was a blistery 30 degrees at the waterfront that morning, and the plan was to group the crowd up and get them inland as soon as possible. It was really spectacular watching the crowd grow from nothing to about one hundred people at 11:30, one hundred to three hundred people at 11:40, then spiking to about 1,500 people at around 12:00 noon. We waited about 15 minutes past the hour before Reid made the final announcement, split everyone into groups, and had everyone head towards Pioneer Square.
It took us about 5 minutes to get to the square. It was an incredible sight to observe everyone’s red balloon rise towards the sky at exactly the same time. It was even more surreal to be hearing the chatter of that many people at one moment and then a second later to have there be absolute silence.
The Portland Freeze was a pretty awesome way to begin Christmas break. Thanks everyone for braving the cold, and for participating in the west coast’s largest freeze event to date. The goal of the freeze was to break the world record (get over 3,000 participants). While there wasn’t quite that many people it was an epic event nevertheless! The plan is to have the Portland Freeze be an annual event, but during the summer, not during the winter season. The date of Portland Freeze 2009 is scheduled for June or July.
The Official Event Video will be edited and posted by next weekend on PdxImprov.com (as well as on Youtube & Vimeo).
Cheers!
Josh
The freeze was amazing! I had been looking forward to it for months, and it was an awesome experience. It was certainly a literal freeze as well as a flash mob though. It was pretty cold out there, and the ice cold red bulls (though very, very necessary) didn’t warm everyone much. It was pretty crazy with everyone under the bridge, and really funny criss-crossing other groups on the way to pioneer square. It was great to be there and instantly see everyone (except the few who were left in the dark) freeze in place, and then all of a sudden go about their lives. Great job and thanks to everyone who helped plan and run everything! Cant wait ’till the next one!
Pretty awesome, not gonna lie. I was “santa claused” so people put garland around me and I was thinking… Okay? Thanks? Haha, but the freeze was fairly short. I’m sure it was because you were thinking people were starting to twitch a lot, but if you were aiming for 5 minutes, actually clock for 6 because by the time everyone notices the balloons and everyone else freezing, than it would be around 5 minutes. But, no, it was fantastic! I was talking, looking around, then I noticed it got really quiet, and still.
Guess I better freeze now!
Thanks for organizing!
I had a late start and didn’t get to the waterfront till about ten after noon, fearing I was going to be late but I showed up too late but found I had nothing to worry about. I had went alone cause all of my friends still hadn’t come home from college yet. But I met a lovely stranger who decided we should pose together. It was great, we got there and immediately started climbing on things all over the square. I climbed over the stairway with one foot lodged on the rail and another on the water structure. A cop told me I had to get down but I don’t think he realized the importance of me standing over the stairway lol. So the girl and I ran around the entire square until we got to the tree and tried multiple ways to sit on eachother’s shoulders and failed. We were both brushing ourselves off when the balloons were let go. I was looking up standing on one foot(I don’t know why…?) pointing to the sky at the balloon saying “Oh Shit” when I realized I now had to sit like that for 5 minutes. I guy came around and decided to Tinsel me and I couldn’t help but giggle at-and I got scolded haha. I heard this guy behind me talking to his friend
“Do you think if I talk to them they’ll respond?”
Haha…. No, what do you think? lol
I had someone come up next to me and look at me and look up to where I was pointing and back at me… He was a little confused.
It was great and I would LOVE to see videos and more pictures maybe?
I thought this event was awesome! I agree with the previous posts that mentioned a few hitches in timing and ratio of participants to crowd members but keep in mind that this is just our first one! For a first shot at the money this thing was close to dead on! It was so cool to see all the different ways people froze. I was breaking up a frozen fight between 2 guys arguing over the game of portable fusball they were playing, I saw sneezers, and cell phone people, and some of the most convincing- people dressed in city-style urban clothes frozen doing nothing more crazy than walking along, maybe with a head turned. I saw one guy in a black P coat do this out of the corner of my eye and it looked legit. Props to you man whoever you are! My friend got tinseled by the santa lady, a kid not in the freeze was yelling “I’m the best freeze tagger ever”, random awesome like that. I can’t WAIT to see this next time as a well oiled machine. We’re going to knock em even deader, Portland! Keep in touch with Portland Improv, give us ideas for events and most of all: keep participating. You guys are what makes this rad!
Portland Freeze 2008 – Pioneer Courthouse Square – Video
http://www.domesticblissinc.com/media/portland_freeze_2008.html
Thanks Everyone! -Hovering & Laura, Domestic Bliss Photography
We were in town for the weekend and decided to go to Pioneer Square to find our brick (placed there almost 28 years ago when we got married). We managed to get caught in the mass of people walking towards Pioneer Square. A man told us to hang around because “something big is about to happen”. After a short search we soon realized the Starbucks tent was covering our brick. Just as we stood up to leave we realized the area had become suddenly silent and that everyone (but us!) was frozen in place! It was hilarious! We loved it! We left before everyone started to move again. Now that I have found your site, we want to participate in your next adventure!
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!
When is the 2010 event? I would have LOVED to participate in this years event but missed it.
We were in town for the weekend and decided to go to Pioneer Square to find our brick (placed there almost 28 years ago when we got married). We managed to get caught in the mass of people walking towards Pioneer Square. A man told us to hang around because “something big is about to happen”. After a short search we soon realized the Starbucks tent was covering our brick. Just as we stood up to leave we realized the area had become suddenly silent and that everyone (but us!) was frozen in place! It was hilarious! We loved it! We left before everyone started to move again. Now that I have found your site, we want to participate in your next adventure!
I had a late start and didn’t get to the waterfront till about ten after noon, fearing I was going to be late but I showed up too late but found I had nothing to worry about. I had went alone cause all of my friends still hadn’t come home from college yet. But I met a lovely stranger who decided we should pose together. It was great, we got there and immediately started climbing on things all over the square. I climbed over the stairway with one foot lodged on the rail and another on the water structure. A cop told me I had to get down but I don’t think he realized the importance of me standing over the stairway lol. So the girl and I ran around the entire square until we got to the tree and tried multiple ways to sit on eachother’s shoulders and failed. We were both brushing ourselves off when the balloons were let go. I was looking up standing on one foot(I don’t know why…?) pointing to the sky at the balloon saying “Oh Shit” when I realized I now had to sit like that for 5 minutes. I guy came around and decided to Tinsel me and I couldn’t help but giggle at-and I got scolded haha. I heard this guy behind me talking to his friend
“Do you think if I talk to them they’ll respond?”
Haha…. No, what do you think? lol
I had someone come up next to me and look at me and look up to where I was pointing and back at me… He was a little confused.
It was great and I would LOVE to see videos and more pictures maybe?
Pretty awesome, not gonna lie. I was “santa claused” so people put garland around me and I was thinking… Okay? Thanks? Haha, but the freeze was fairly short. I’m sure it was because you were thinking people were starting to twitch a lot, but if you were aiming for 5 minutes, actually clock for 6 because by the time everyone notices the balloons and everyone else freezing, than it would be around 5 minutes. But, no, it was fantastic! I was talking, looking around, then I noticed it got really quiet, and still.
Guess I better freeze now!
Thanks for organizing!