REEL LIFE / FILM & VIDEO FILE : Crews Trying to Beat the Clock at New Cineplex : The 56,000-square-foot facility in Camarillo will boast 12 screens when it debuts for the public Friday. The VIP opening is today.

Building a movie theater is a lot like producing a film. There are swarms of people involved, it costs an unimaginable amount of money, and the product is finished just in the nick of time.

Deadlines have been very much on the minds of the people working at the county’s newest movie theater, the Edwards Camarillo Palace 12.

There was plenty to do within the 12-screen multiplex. One week ago the seats weren’t even installed in any of the theaters. The 80-foot-long concession stand was a dissembled jumble of stainless steel, and the enormous lobby that owner Edwards Cinemas is so proud of looked like a warehouse.

To make the deadline for the VIP opening today and the public opening Friday, crews have been working around the clock all week.

“It’s a race, but every opening I worked on was like this,” said Kurt Macfarlane, director of engineering for Edwards. “We always make it in time.”

The huge 56,000-square-foot facility located on the south side of the Ventura Freeway between Las Posas Road and Carmen Drive looks good even half assembled. Large curved vinyl screens stretch from wall to wall in each theater, and projection units have big burly sound systems.

“Each one of these booths cost $560,000,” Macfarlane said. “That’s just for projection and sound. Every one has a couple kinds of digital stereo, DTS and SRD. That’s the Dolby system. We’re negotiating with Sony to include their digital system also.”

The selection of films the cinema will show is something the bookers for Edwards are going to experiment with, according to Michael Tiemeyer, director of operations.

“Of course we’re going to have the first runs and regular releases,” he said.

“But it’s up to the community as to what they want. If they support art films, we’ll do it. We’ve got a theater in Orange County that shows only art films.”

The selection of films should be pretty orthodox through the holiday and into the summer season. That’s when the United Artist theater is scheduled to open, also in Camarillo.

Two theaters in the same town means they will be competing for prints of the dozen or so major motion pictures Hollywood has in release at any given time.

“When UA opens, it will become more of a horse race,” Tiemeyer said. The offerings might become a little more non-traditional. “Until then we’ll have mostly major releases.”