The Grand Illusion Cinema is Seattle’s oldest continually operating independent movie theater, run entirely by volunteers. As the cinema’s general manager, I took on the redesign and redevelopment of its public-facing site to reduce volunteer workload and bring the theater’s online presence up to modern standards.
You can explore the live site at grandillusioncinema.org or click on the images to view full-size screenshots.
The Approach
The previous site required volunteers to manually enter every screening into the calendar, a tedious, error-prone process. I built a custom WordPress plugin that integrates with the Agile Ticketing API to automate the entire workflow:
- Film and screening data imports automatically on scheduled cron cycles
- Timezone normalization ensures showtimes display correctly regardless of server location
- Deduplication logic prevents duplicate entries when data is refreshed
- Screening data syncs to ACF fields, giving editors flexibility without breaking the automation
- Automated nightly backups with a tiered retention policy protect against data loss
The theme is custom-built on Underscores with a Sass/Gulp pipeline, adapted from a design supplied by a local artist. It includes custom post types for films, series, directors, formats, and countries, plus an Ajax-powered monthly calendar that keeps the page fast even with a full schedule.
This project reflects how I like to work: identifying a real operational pain point, building a solution that’s robust enough to run unattended, and staying involved as the organization evolves.
