“Let’s make some choices.” (or “It doesn’t really matter does it!”)

Not too long ago Simon Pegg was quoted (or mis-quoted) as saying something along the lines of wanting to “retire from geekdom”. Granted he was pretty much talking about growing up rather than lording over the things we loved as children (superheroes and such).

However I’m starting to see his point, but not for the same reasons.

2016 has been a bad year for geek culture. It’s been pretty bad for a lot of other reasons as well to be honest, but I haven’t go the patience to write a Chilcot report. So let’s focus on the geeks.

We suck. It’s not all our fault. In a lot of cases the stuff we wanted to see sucked, but it’s how we’re reacting that is making the city of Geektropolis a terrible place to live.

Years ago there was a sleepy little village called Geekton. It was small, only had a few permanent residents, but a hand full of visitors. It struggled to strive, being overshadowed by it’s sister city – erm, Jocktopia? Real Life City?  It’s not the best, but let’s go with Real Life City, mainly so we can talk about the Adult-hood later. All you need to know is there’s a place to go other than Geekton.

Anyway, people used to laugh when you visited Geekton. You needed thick skin to go there, and that’s if you told people what you were doing.

But then something happened. Business in Geekton started to boom. People were visiting and staying. They were investing, expanding the small quiet village into the massive place it is now. Over the last few years Geekton has become Geektropolis.

Real Life City on the other hand still exists. Business continues as usual, investment has gone down a little. It will always survive, but at the moment it’s coasting. The Adult-hood is still a scary place to be though. Basically it’s just a little bit dull. Whereas next door, Geektropolis is booming. It’s like Vegas on acid, or one of those sayings. So more people are moving over.

However there’s one thing missing from Geektropolis. One thing that the settlers forgot to establish when they invited all their friends in to play. Tired of being looked down on for what they enjoyed, they decided that anyone living in Geektropolis would have a voice. You don’t need to shy away from your likes and dislikes here. This isn’t Real Life City where you have to be careful what you say in case someone calls you ignorant, or gets you fired, or punched in the face. No, in Geektroplis, say whatever you want to, you deserve your say.

And that’s the problem.

Most of this is actually covered in this article – but it’s my launching off point. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-comic-con-fan-entitlement-20160722-snap-story.html

 

So why is having a voice a problem? Isn’t free speech a good thing?

In theory it is, unless you’re going to be a dick about it. As Buckaroo Banzai said “Don't be mean; we don't have to be mean, cuz, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.”

 

There have been several films released this year that have not been received with the open arms that the makers expected or would have liked. I’m going to discuss a few here to given my opinion. You don’t have to agree, it’s just my opinion.

Ghostbusters (2016)
The worst thing about this film was that it makes us have to quote a year next to the title to distinguish whether we’re talking about Ghostbusters (1984) or Ghostbusters (2016).

This film got a lot of flak. A hell of a lot of it was undeserved. Apparently a lot of people out there don’t like females and they needed to tell people about it. This wasn’t even really an issue. The main problem with this film was the fact it was a remake, in a slew of remakes. It was generally agreed that the weaker parts of the film were the references to the original Ghostbusters (1984). If they’d just made a sequel I think it may have fared better. It would also have helped if it was funnier.

I still enjoyed it, and there is a lot in there to like, and technically if it keeps the brand alive, gathering more fans, that’s a good thing. However I found the main problem with the film is that you couldn’t talk about it without mentioning the shit-storm that surrounded it and the people using their voices.

However in this case, it’s not just the fans using their voices but also the film makers. There were a few interviews with the cast and director where they made a few snide comments about the Geeks who were complaining. The problem with this is they don’t help the matter. We all know the best response to a bully is to ignore them. Even in the film, a key theme is about the protagonist, Erin Gilbert, being was teased as a girl because she saw a ghost, and how we all need to learn to accept each other rather than pointing and laughing.

Surely the filmmakers should have taken this to heart and possibly used it to promote the film. Why is this an issue? Well, it’s not, the mouthy geeks were not helping things, and were far from being right. The fact is though that they got a rise out of the filmmakers which most likely gave them boost. Their voice was heard. We should have just ignored them all, then we would all agree that the film could have been better, the jokes funnier etc and that Kate McKinnon’s Holtzman was the best thing about it. Rather than jumping on one of the band wagons of either side’s arguments. At the end of the day all that matters is whether you enjoyed the film.

Enough about that one. What’s next?

Batman V Superman (and possibly a bit of Suicide Squad)

Ok, this is a big one. Mainly because I really like DC Comics and they struggle bringing their characters to life, but I want to defend BvS a little.

The problem here is in a similar way of trying to talk about Ghostbusters (2016) without mentioning the anger over women in proton packs, it’s hard to talk about BvS and DC’s films without comparing them to Marvel (and I’ll hopefully show how pointless that is). There will be a bit on that, but there will mostly be an explanation as to why I’ve grown to like it. Let me say form the get go, Batman V Superman is far from perfect, but in no what deserved the backlash it received.

I was looking at past releases to see what comic book films were being released and it seems the trouble started in 2008.

In 2008 we had The Dark Knight, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Indiana Jones 4. (But that’s not a comic?!?!? I know, it was an interesting year for blockbusters).

Ok, we need a little background before steaming ahead with this. It’s good to remember that Warner Brother’s own DC. Therefore the only studio making DC films will be WB.  However in the mid-nineties or whenever, Marvel went bust and had to sell off a load of characters. Therefore Marvel’s output has technically been a lot larger than WB as each studio releases their own titles. (Sony had Spiderman, Fox had X-Men etc). As far as WB were concerned they had 2 heavy hitters that had done well in the past Batman and Superman, so why bother spending all their money on more Superheroes when they can just focus on 1 of the heavies every few years. Superman was pretty much run into the ground after the excellent Superman 3 (I’m ignoring Superman 4 and Canon bought the rights) so they pulled out their 2^nd heavy hitter Batman in 1989. Then they ran him into the ground with Batman and Robin. Time for Superman to return in Superman Returns. Ohh, maybe not. Let’s go back to Batman with Batman Begins in 2005. Yay – a hit. There was much rejoicing. WB decided to run with this and ordered a sequel so in 2008 we get The Dark Knight – more rejoicing. However, whilst WB were making their single super films, Marvel were gathering money and thinking of the long game and how to make a shared universe. They released Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk in the same year. Iron Man good, Hulk not so much. Before then WB weren’t paying attention and were happy proceed and end the Nolan trilogy. They did try to get a Green Lantern film out, but there was no rejoicing so they focussed on closing the Nolan trilogy with Dark Knight Rises. There was a little less rejoicing, but rejoicing none the less. Marvel’s plans however were now known. Captain America and Thor were released, along with Iron Man 2. They were ready for the game changer, creating a fully shared universe with Avengers. WB suddenly sat up and needed a follow up for Batman, back to the drawing board – Superman. If they could also set it in the same, “realistic” world as Nolan then maybe, just maybe they would have a shared universe. Man of Steel is released as well as Avengers – everything blows up – including lots of buildings. The shared universe wins. Marvel are happy and off they go into Phase 2 with all their money! WB need to sort themselves out. Nolan no longer wants to make Batman films - fair enough, but they have Man of Steel – this becomes their Iron Man. Their planned shared universe will sit on the shoulders of a film that technically should have been part of a previous shared universe. Combine this with WB wanting to speed up the process, bad decisions were being made all and so we end up with BvS. Marvel went out on their own, set themselves up as their own studio for creative control and could make all the decisions (until Disney bought them, now the House of Mouse presumably makes the decisions).

Now I’ll be honest, I made most of that up. It could have gone that way, it could have gone another way. However it seems that if they truly wanted a shared universe form the get go, they should have drawn a line under Man of Steel and started from scratch – maybe from a lesser known character. But everyone knows this, and that forms a lot of their flak. However they made a choice to not do that.

So why is BvS good? Is it because they have the same name as my Mum? No, because they don’t but here’s a man crying which I think pulls it into focus a little better. https://youtu.be/rKRmMQaLZz8

When I first saw Batman versus Superman I was disappointed – it was grim, long, not very “Yay, Batman!” But then you start to look at in in another light. Sitting at home looking at a pile of different batman comics. They’re all written or drawn by different writers and artists but they are the same characters. At any one time there were issues of Batman, Detective Comics, Batman Beyond etc, all being released simultaneously. Basically what I’m saying is BvS is one iteration of Batman. A lot of the reviews mention something along the lines of him not being “my Batman”. However, there’s a bloody high chance they’ll never make your batman ever again. Adam West could be your Batman, but I doubt we’ll see Batman dance or surfboard again (Except they kin dof did that in Batman and Robin)  So his new Batman kills, is mopey, but most of all is addicted to being Batman. He’s flawed – aren’t we all? Except this flawed hero has an Alfred always telling him to calm down, maybe go out as Bruce Wayne a bit more. On top of that he’s older, tired, had years of being Batman, which means each night he’s going out because of a childhood oath he made to his parents, a childhood oath, meaning that despite his age, he never really grew up.

Then this new kid flies in and moves in literally next door, who can do all this amazing stuff, and most of all, he can go out in the daylight. He isn’t hiding in the shadows and although lots of people still hate him, he’s getting a lot of love – more love than Batman. Grumpy Batman hates this, and the only way to fix it is the only way he knows how – to punch it. Hence they fight. Now in back in Real Life City, this makes no sense. You’d have to talk first etc, but we’re in Geektropolis talking about a man who dresses up as a Bat fighting a Man who flies. Common sense doesn’t exist here. You’re dealing with character so pumped up in their own world that they are threatened by any kind of outside influence. They just had to punch each other.

In another time and place, we also saw Captain America punching Iron Man but their reasons are more clear meaning it’s easier to relate. It’s the difference between fighting for a strong, thought out belief or fighting for the sake of it (on the surface at least).

Anyway as I’ve segwayed, Civil War is good. There are more people fighting but I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t a sole Captain America adventure, rather than Avengers 2.5. My main issue though that is starting to annoy me a little, is that all the Marvel stuff tends to look the same – to have a shared universe I guess it means they all need to look and feel identical. Which means you come out of Civil War and think you’ve seen Avengers. You watch Thor and it could be Iron Man 4. This is something that I think may restrict them in the future, and a worry that eventually they will reboot everything to start again.

A good thing to say about Warner Brothers is at they are making choices. To proceed with a darker Suicide Squad was a bold move. To have a Comic book film with Suicide in the title was a bold choice. The problem here is they continued to make choices when they should have stepped back, trusted in the director to make the right choices and trusted there would be an audience.

So the state of DC, they may not be the best, they may be listening to the wrong people, but still choices are being made in an attempt to make their films stand out; and I think that is a good thing. Just because Zack Snyder’s choices are not mine or yours, doesn’t mean he’s wrong.

So how does all this tie in with the Noise Pollution of Geektropolis? Well, I understand that I’ve been having my say and gone on about how Geeks are being too vocal and expecting their voices to be heard, and rambled on for however many words. But I’ve said my piece now. I’ve started to try and accept the choices made by directors in a hope to enjoy the films a little more. It’s hard to accept a lot of their choices because it’s not what I wanted to see. But you can’t please everyone. It’s one of the first things you need to learn as any kind of artist. If we all liked the same stuff the world would be pretty grey. So someone casts an actor you don’t like as a character you love – see how it goes. It may go well, it may not. Someone remakes a film you loved as a child, it could improve on it, it probably won’t (just my opinion) but see what happens. (I also realise that’s a whole different blog post about remakes and reboots. I think we’d all like to see more originality out there. Someone made Star Wars in the seventies. Surely we should be able to make something as awesome and original now, without just making a new Star Wars? (Once again, my opinion, and I like Star Wars)).

 

Basically everyone just needs to calm down, take a second to think before you start typing, and ask yourself “Does any of it actually really matter?”

 

I’ll leave you with a transcript from Spaced that could have replaced this whole essay:

Bilbo Bagshot:
I was like you once. Blond hair. Scraggly little beard. Childlike ears. Full of beans and spunk. I let my principles get in the way sometimes. I punched a bloke in the face once for saying "Hawk the Slayer" was rubbish.

Tim Bisley:
Good for you.

Bilbo Bagshot:
Yeah, thanks. But that's not the point, Tim. The point is I was defending the fantasy genre with terminal intensity, when what I should have said is "Dad, you're right, but let's give Krull a try and we'll discuss it later."

 

Movie time once again...

I've got billions of things to blog about, well four actually, so let's go back one week, a single day after my birthday and a second adventure geeking out in London at Collectormania.

So here's the obligatory opening picture of R2D2. I decided to attend yet another Sci-Fi convention to celebrate my birthday, this time Collectormania. I say this time as though it's a completely different event, however it clearly isn't. So with girlfriend in tow we took the train to old London town. It's the same old story, there are booths selling stuff, celebrities signing and talks, both free and expensive. The mine drive this time around was to see Anthony Michael Hall, he of Breakfast club fame and more recently seen in The Dark Knight. Unfortunately he cancelled. I also got excited about the possibility of meeting Jess Harnell,the voice-over artist of Wakko of the Animaniacs, who also featured in the film Comic Book: The Movie. Unfortunately he also cancelled. So I was left with two main choices, Steve Blum, the voice of Spike Speigal form Cowboy Bebop and most recently Wolverine in game and cartoon forms. I was also interested in meeting Katherine Isabelle, though not widely known she has popped up as a guest star in a variety of US shows, have a brief scene in Uwe Bolls Rampage and was the leading lady in the awesome Ginger Snaps.


So to cut to the chase, the reason I have a strange expression in this photo is due to the fact that I just had a strange experience discussing the film Rampage. I remarked that that was the last film I saw her in at which point she confessed that she hadn't seen it. I then wasn't sure where to go, I explained that I saw it at Phantasmagoria in case she smelled a pirate. It then got weird as I wasn't sure if she was happy with he film, hadn't been shown due to distribution problems, or if it was just considered a job. So i got my autograph, photo and left.

As this was the second convention this year I wasn't feeling as much excitement as before, there were things to take photos of, and people to see. George Takei was one, Billy Dee Williams, Shannen Doherty (looking miserable) and John Rhys Davis were others. Doug Bradley was in attendance but I didn't want to approach him for two reasons, firstly I'd have to mention Chris and Ten Dead Men and hope that he knew what I was on about, and secondly, I didn't want a repeat of last time and have Halloween quotes spat at me. So I left him alone.

We later attended a talk by Steve Blum. This was cool, not many people turned up so the atmosphere was very casual. Unfortunately this meant he went straight to questions. I managed to think of one, asking which medium he preferred to work in, anime, western animation or video games (he said he enjoys them all so which he's working on that day is his favourite). I did have another question regarding a point made in Comic Book the Movie about how, with all this voice over talent, major studios still feel they have to cast "stars" as the voices in their animated films. There was no way I'd be able to say all that, and the face that the question had become more specialised and fan related, I kept quiet.



And that as more or less it for the convention. Trains were all messed up so I was pretty stressed at we then had to make it to the south bank to experience the Movieum., the most hated word in the English made up language.

This was a strange place. It's straight-forward, being a museum of film props, but I tries to educate in the process on the making of a film, but doesn't succeed. Also a lot of the items in the corridors were just not labelled so I had no idea what some things were. I realise this was Batman, but what is if for, Is it just a decoration piece or did it serve some design purpose. Answer on a postcard please. So there were a lot of cool things in the museum. Costumes from Harry Potter and a lots of James Bond stuff. I got quite excited when I saw the Glaive from Krull.


The coolest part of the museum though was a temporary exhibition/shop of animation cells. They were hidden in a small room, where a lady offered us some sweets and told use to ask if we needed help. Which all seemed fair enough until we realised that all the cells were for sale. I wasn't sure if she expected us to buy anything. There was a lot of Batman stuff in there which was really cool to see. One day I hope to buy something like that as I really like animation cells. At the moment I cannot justify spending that much (£200+). I got a bit worried when flicking through a folder when I came across a sketch of Charlie Brown selling for £3000. There were so many expensive pieces that the public could just look through. So we left to continue the journey.

So we had a great time visiting the nations capital. We would've stayed longer but the heavens opened, pouring down on use. It was a cool, self indulgent, film geek day.

Some more photo's from the Movieum

It's KEVIN SMITH!!!!

So last night I went to see Kevin SMith live at the O2 in London. But I'm jumping the gun a little here, this story is a long and annoying one, however I shall condense it for you.

It is true that I was to see Kevin Smith, but the world being how it is at the moment, and its current dislike for all things me didn't want to make it easy, so it closed the Jubilee line, the only tube that gets you anywhere near the O2/Millennium Dome. So I spent the monring stressing out trying to find out how the hell anyone gets to this giant dome on the outskirts of civilized London. There were no bridges near so I couldn't just get to a close station and walk. I was originally planning on going to a smaller station but we found out that was at least 40 minutes away. It's not the getting there that's the problem though, it's the getting home as trains cease to exist after 1:00am. Anyway after much searching I decided the easiest way was to get a boat. Yes in this day and age the best way across London was a bloody boat. As Brother Chris pointed out it was a bit like King Kong going to some mysterious island and he advised to look out for dinosaurs. Unfortunately there where none.

So I head out to London town, nearly missing the first train I had to run a little, and those who know me know how much I hate to run for trains, or anything. So I pass stage 1. I went to London Bridge which you'd think I'd be familiar with after the E4 awards and the Paparbag filming, however I get a little lost, but eventually leave via the right exit and head to the river, pay the ferry man and get the boat. This would be quite cool if not for the fact that it still has to stop every few yards so there is no old timey magic about it. Then we approach the millennium bodge. Why was this thing even built? It really is just a massive space in the middle of nowhere that's a bugger to get to. Anyway, it was a bit like the Bond film, The World is Not Enough, if he'd paid to get to the millennium dome. So after all this mental planning i find that I'm now two hours early.

So I wander the halls of the O2. Inside there was a random security gate that seemed like an optional choise. I, despite having a bag and being prepard to be searched, chose to ignore the gate and just walked in with no hassle. Strange. Inside it's a bizarre place. There are loads of restarants and a cinema and the main O2 arena. Kevin Smith was in the smaller Indigo2 arena off to one side. After walking as far as I could I reutnred to wait with the rest of the early birds.

And wait I did. Then bouncers appeared and a queue was formed, however as I'd paid a little extra I was sent to an alternate entrance for the King's Row VIP area where I hoped to see some famous folk. In the meantime I had an awkward fandom converstaion with randoms, who will feature later into the story. Eventually the doors opened and I was told to go in, take a left and use the lift. At which point I wondered whether I should wait until more people got in the lift but then decided to go up alone.

So I got in, found my seat and wathced as the place took ages to fill up. Knowing that time was precious when leaving I became concerned when I found out he wouldn't be on until 8pm. The tickets all said 7pm so I got a little panicked but there was nothing I could do. More people came in, people sat next to me. There were no famous folk on my row, although some did look slightly familiar. However on the row behind me was sitting Noel Clarke from Dr Who. He has done other things, and directed films, however I like to take him down a peg or two.

And then the show began. Kevin Smith came out and began.

The night was excellent. Questions were asked, answers where given, both long and short. Stories of Bruce Willis were told, the teachings of Wayne Gretzky, the hatred for Jonathon Ross (with applause from the audience) and interview with a pre op transexual (who I was talking to in the queue before the show)

Towards the end people started to take advantage of the niceness of Kevin, and a lot of hugs/photos where requested which slowed down proceedings, but the night ended well enough with an explanation of how he met Malcolm Ingram, a regular on his SModcast.

Then he left. At which point I legged it to the boat as I had just enough time to make the last boat and trains home. I managed to get them all and arrive safely, however the boat is possible the slowest way to travel when full, made worse by the guy checking or selling tickets to everyone. When you have a train to catch this becomes inconvenient as you just think "Why can't he just let everyone go for free?". But it is London after all. I made all my connections, and got home safely.

On an interesting side note on the train from London Bridge I did overhear a conversation by four formal dressed party goers praising Zack and Miri make a Porno. Which was nice to hear, as it kind of showed how widely Kevin Smith's films are seen, not just by the devoted fans who pay £40 to see the man talk for three hours.

And that's it for the fun for a while.

Have a week.

A second weekend of AWESOME-NESS. Day Three

Day Three. The final day of the festival and check out day at Dark Water hotel. I'd survived.


There was a winding down feeling on this day and not so many Q&A's for the films. Also the schedule was catching up with me so I was tired. I'd also only had an ice cream for my dinner the night before.

We checked out of the hotel but Deckard must have got Jens as she was nowhere. Instead was a woman, who I'm sure didn't actually work there, especially as she asked us for a rating of our stay, maybe she knew about the Dark Water stains. Anyway, under pressure we gave a good rating. She didn't make a note of this, maybe she was just interested. Maybe she knew something we didn't. We handed over the key and left the Dark Water room to take its next victim.

Breakfast time once again. No one joined us today so we took the time to fill out the feedback questionnaires. First on the bill was Dogs of Chinatown. This film had some of the same people in from Contour, which was shown at last years festival. The fights were good, but it suffered from the criminal element. It's hard to feel sympathy for criminals. also there was a good visual style at the beginning, which returned at the end, but was lost in the middle. Still, it entertained with fighting.

Following this was The Assessment. A horror film, similar to Severance. It also starred the awesomely named Keith Blaser. Anyway, it was a bit dragged out, with a lot of moaning of what to do in the middle by the characters. There was a good lake death towards the end, but it's nothing special.

The Bodyguard: A New Beginning was up next, a film by Chee Keong Cheung. Filmed in both Hong Kong and London, once again it had good fights, especially a good chase scene through a shopping mall. It does suffer from the sympathetic criminal though. Rival triad bosses going after each others daughters for revenge of some kind. I didn't quite follow the reasoning behind it, but you stopped caring. Action was good though, and the Hong Kong setting gave the film a higher visual dynamic. Chee gave a Q&A after the film with actor/fighter Mark Strange which was interesting, especially the stories surrounding Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.

We then said our goodbyes before attending the final film, Underground, again by Chee Keong Cheung. This is basically a tournament film. And that's it. A string of fights, good fights but towards the end you didn't really care. And that's about it. It stars Danny John-Jules as a shady businessman type and Mark Strange as a homeless fighter. It could have done with a more developed storyline between the fighters, but the choreography was good.

And then we ran away in order to get our train home. So we began the long drawn out wait for trains. Sunday travel is never good. But eventually we made out connections and arrived safe and sound, back in reality of day to day life.

In summary it really was an awesome weekend. Great films and cool Q&As. It was disappointing that the attendance wasn't larger. I'm not sure why the turnout wasn't greater, you;d think the guest speakers would have got some attention. I just can't help thinking that Swindon isn't the best place for a film festival. However, I'm glad I attended, as I said at the beginning of this three post adventure I doubt it will be topped in the near future.

Now I really should get back to making music videos and stuff.

A second weekend of AWESOME-NESS. Day Two

Day Two -

After watching a bizarre kids program (in which one character gave another a moustache as a present) whilst we woke and got ready, we set off for breakfast at the festival. We sat and ate when who should come over and join us but Uwe Boll. Awesome.

We talked about films and the state of the world, and the state of films in the world, until it was time for the first screening of the day, Side Effx. This film has problems. It was followed with a Q&A by the director, who was brought on to edit the film into something watchable after the first director was let go. He was aware of the problems with the film, mainly due to the pacing. It was a good try, but did suffer from random corridor wanderings. Good fights though, and wire work.

This was followed by The Disappeared. Described as an urban ghost story it didn't fail to deliver. There were a couple of creepy moments but towards the end it fell into run of the mill story telling, getting a little predictable. Still, I felt it was well shot and acted.

After this was the Star Hyke series preview and cast Q&A. Star Hyke is an independent comedy, drama, sci-fi series with obvious comparisons to Red Dwarf and Hyperdrive. It kind of stands on its own, the CGI is well done and Jeremy Bulloch (of Boba Fett fame) is awesome as the ships doctor, providing most of the laughs. However, we were shown episodes 4 & 5 so it was a little hard to follow having missed half of the series. Brother Chris has seen the whole series and did say that it's best to see the first three in one block in order to grasp the concept. I'd still watch it when it airs on TV though, and think it would probably get better as the series goes on. The Q&A afterwards was cool, with cast keeping things lighthearted, and of course the awesome Jeremy Bulloch.

Then was the "dinner break" a long gap between films in order to get something to eat, so of course we just ended up chatting with friends. It was good to hear some industry speak and see how easy/difficult it is to get films released these days. So no food was had. Whoops.

The penultimate screening of Saturday was The Passage, directed by Mark Heller and written by and starring Neil Jackson, who attended the screening for the following Q&A. This film surprised me. It does have a slow build up as you get to know the characters, but does deliver towards the end. When it was introduced, Neil Jackson explained it was based on true events, so I thought it would just be him wandering around Morocco. Which does happen to a degree, but let's just say, if all of it was true, he wouldn't have been able to introduce the film. Neil then held a Q&A which was awesome, especially as I asked a decent, Creative Screenwriting style question about treatments and such. If you didn't know, Neil has been in a bunch of stuff including the Blade TV series and more recently Push and this was his first produced screenplay. He seemed to love writing and said in a way he used that to get into acting in the first place. Anyway, it was really interesting talk and he's a nice guy.

I then attended the final screening of the day, Mark of the Devil., directed by Michael Armstrong, who also attended for the Q&A. This is a film from 1970, starring Udo Kier and Herbert Lom about witch-finders. As with Witchfinder General, it's not really a horror but I feel always comes across more like an educational video but just a little bit nastier. It was also described as an early example of "torture-porn", a concept taken to extremes with the likes of Hostel and the umpteen thousand Saw sequels. Mark of the Devil is ok. Not a brilliant film but it still made me squirm in places, plus it was good to see something from a different era on the bill. The following Q&A was excellent. Again, Michael Armstrong is a director form a completely different time of filmmaking and due to this questions were few. He was a friendly guy and did have a passion for films, even if he was a little tipsy at the time. He also mentioned the original Haunting as one of the scariest films made, a point I definitely agreed with.

It was time to leave and find Brother Chris, who had left to seek his fortune. I said my goodbyes to friends and to Neil and Michael and left. Meeting up with Chris in a shouty Italian restaurant we left for the hotel. Once there we took pleasure in the Ice Cream vending machine once again, I'd yet to have any dinner so a mint magnum would have to do. Excellent.

-Today I also bought a book called "I Am Batman" which was awesome. I'll give a little excerpt:
My name is Bruce Wayne.
My home is Gotham City.
I live in a big apartment.
I own a boat and a plane.

I have nice clothes.
I have a fast car.
And I have lots of other fancy toys and gadgets.
...

The Joker is a tricky foe.
His jokes are never funny.
Sometimes they hurt people.
...

Fighting crime is not easy.
But my gear and gadgets help make it all possible.
I am not just Bruce Wayne.
I am Batman!

Awesome!

A second weekend of AWESOME-NESS. Day One

These days it's getting pretty hard to beat the awesome-ness of past events. This past weekend is so high up on the scale I doubt it will ever be knocked off the list.

Last weekend Brother Chris and I attended the Phantasmagoria Film Festival held in Swindon. A great showcase of independent genre films from horror to martial arts. For us this was just the beginning.

Day One -

We took a train. So far so good, then found our lodgings in the form of the Travelodge. Then the weirdness began. I'm convinced that the girl checking us in was called Jens. Which just conjures up images of Blade Runner-esqe androids. So we took our key, gave warning to keep away from any Harrison Ford looking types, and made out way up to the room. Brother Chris settled in easy enough. I on the other hand was disturbed by the freaky Dark Water-esqe drip stains on the wall, just above my bed. I did not want to be dragged away in the middle of the night by a long haired Japanese ghost girl.

For the time being I managed to suppress my fear and we left for the festival. Well, sort of. We left on the hunt for dinner, where we passed a pub. At which point we stopped as Uwe Boll was inside with two people. We decided to go in, find something to eat and stare at him. Instead, we went in, Chris recognised one of the people so we went over and joined them. Having a drink with Uwe Boll. Awesome.

We later left for the Arts Centre for the first film of the first day, Gnaw. A good horror film. It was a little predictable at times but the effects and acting were good enough. After a brief Q&A with director Gregory Mandry. We had a time for a quick drink before the last film of the evening. In this time I was introduced to Julian Richards, director of The Last Horror Movie and Darklands as he'd met Brother Chris before. We then went in to see Uwe Boll's film Rampage. It's a brilliant film. Well shot and edited. Uwe Boll comes under a lot of bad press because of his video game movies, which aren't that great but as he pointed out, still sell a hell of a lot more than his regular films, which are always better. Rampage should definitely be checked out though, and Brendan Fletcher is quite convincing as the young guy whose is tipped over the edge to go on the titular rampage.

So a great first day. Now we really needed to get some food, and head back to the Dark Water room. After an encounter with take away food we got excited by the Ice Cream machine in the travelodge, with the the futuristic method in which fridge opened and suckers gripped the ice cream to dispense out of the front of the machine. We were still in Blade Runner territory. Thanks to that machine, and watching the end of The Howling, I could ignore the evil water stains and went to sleep, ready for the next full day of films.

London Film and Comic Con

Today I attended, as if you couldn't guess, the London Film and Comic Con. That's Con as in convention to those not in the know. It's one of many UK based conventions trying to create something on the scale of the San Diego or New York Comi Cons in the USA. They don't quite succeed, but I still enjoy them. Ask if I was having fun whilst I was there and I'd be thinking long and hard, but now I'm safely home I think all the queuing was worth it.

Before I go any further I want to set a few things straight. I'm not a full on geek, in the sense that I know every episode to Stargate. Nor do I dress up to look like a Jedi or other such Sci Fi characters. I dabble. That's all I can say. I enjoy Star Wars as readers of this blog will know, I watched a few episodes of Star Trek, not religiously though. And I've seen episodes of Stargate, but I'm not really a fan (this may disappoint one of my readers. Sorry) Anyway, I do have an inner geek, I know more about comics and films than the average joe, and that's where my interest lies. I still get annoyed when I see charity figures dressed as Batman hanging out with Spiderman. (Side note it was funny today seeing a Star Trek Captain discussing the finer points of phaser handling with a Stormtrooper) So my inner geek needs feeding once in a while, which is why I like this kind of convention. Completely from a fans perspective. There are people there that frankly scare me. Each to his own I've always said, but it is a little strange. But if they leave me alone, I'm not going to bother them.

Anyway, let's continue with point 2. Point 2 is the notion of celebrity. I've discussed many time with Brother Chris, who attended a couple of these events with me in the past. Who decides what will be charged for autographs? It is made clear that if you want something signed you have to pay a fee, which is clearly stated is for the signature not the photograph, which are considered free. (By this reasoning I could get a one of each photo available and just the one signed, but I'm sure if this was tried someone would stop me. Maybe next year) For example, today Mr Scott Bakula was charging £25 for his autograph. Fair enough, I can't afford that but I'll go to his talk, not a free talk though so I queue to get a ticket. Another £20 for this talk. Obviously I make my excuses and left sharpish, keeping hold of my monies. So who set this up. To whom is this cash going to. Not everyone was on my wavelength and forked out the cash, so he must be raking it in. But who decides? Where does it go? All good questions to which I have no answers. So I did pay a couple of £15 for signatures. Which brings me onto point 2B. You pay your money, you get a brief chat (very brief in my case 'cause I'm kind of rubbish at it) and you get a signature. When you think about it, it really means nothing. I could scribble an indecipherable name onto a photo and joe public wouldn't know the difference, or even care. So why is it a good thing? I guess it's an idol/hero thing. I guess if I said more you could say you shared a moment with someone you admired. Or you could just say it's so you can have a brief gloating moment the next time said person appears in something. I don't know for sure but, as I said. I do enjoy it. It brings the famous a little closer, even if it's in a forced transaction based environment. Anyway, I still think I'm a little different to the masses of attendees, a little more grounded, but hey, wouldn't it be cool if I started hanging out with Chris Sarandon.

So here we go. This is just the beginning.

To set the scene, as Brother Chris has a lot of work on at the moment he couldn't spare the time to join me this year. The last time we both went was about two years ago, failing to get Nathan Fillion's autograph and tiring of the day we went for a mercy greet and meet with Alan Tudyk, who had no queue. Then we left. Due to these circumstances, we both agreed that it was a little rubbish and weird and vowed (maybe) never to return. That was until I moved down to Brighton. With the convention now more or less on my doorstep I decided to go. And go I did. Alone.


So I braved London on a Saturday, not the easiest of things, especially with Tube delays, but I successfully arrived at Earls Court and entered Queue 1 to get in. This is where first photos were taken solely for this blog. Here there were Stormtroopers hanging around. I contemplated asking about their state of New Zealand-ness but instead just took the photo. There were also Clone Troopers wandering around. The same musings were thought about but I left them alone, chuckling at the fat Cylons I'd just seen. Not to mention the smallish Jack Sparrow. So I'm inside and I queue for some talks. Having missed the Red Dwarf talk I opted for the Doctor Who (Yeah, I know I don't like Dr Who) as I'd heard that Tom Baker was in attendance (see that's why) I also wished to attend the Danny Trejo talk and the Stargate talk (Again, I know I'm not a fan) which will be explained later on. This is when I literally discovered the price I had to pay to see Scott Bakula talk. No go. I then moved onto the signing alley or whatever they call it, to see who was there, and whether to get any autographs later on. Many faces were seen as illustrated with my assorted photographs.

A lonely Sean Maguire


A bad photo of Chloe Annett. Bonus points - her father directed the film The Beast Must Die as mentioned in Brother Chris' blog here

Interesting fact: the most costumes today were of Paul Foote - a character from The Beast Must Die. Which one was the werewolf though?

It's David Prowse. He was Darth Vader.

It's Bruce Boxleitner. He looks bored.

This is kind of mean. This is a funny picture of Jake Lloyd - he played young Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace. He looks the same.

The stars of Heroes - Jimmy Jean Louis (The Hatian) and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Suresh)

So I took the ticket of Scott Bakula. Number 969. The place had only been open to the general public for 40 minutes and already his tickets were up to 969. No way was I going to see him today. I got a quick glimpse of him through the queues, and that was all. Knowing it was never meant to be I took the tickets of Michael Ironside, to discover once and for all how many arms he actually had, and a ticket for Jewel Staite, star of the excellent Firefly and Serenity, and more recently Stargate: Atlantis (hence attending the Stargate talk), which I'd probably have seen if Channel 5 hadn't stopped showing it. I'd always been a fan of her character, Kayleigh, in Firefly so was happy to fork out the cash. But I'd gotton pretty high numbered tickets so I had time to kill. A lot of time.

So I wandered the hall, looking at stalls, wondering if the DVDs were legal, but generally just waiting for the first talk. Despite me spending money on autographs, I still didn't have much to spend. I can no longer buy any random thing, so I was just looking to see if any cool stuff existed. Plus the novelty has kind of worn off since the invention of the internet shop.

With still hours to kill I decided to get a present for my friend who had just passed a life changing exam in accounting, and he won't mind me saying that it isn't any more interesting than how I made it sound. As I haven't given it to him yet I'm blanking it out as a spoiler. You can still highlight it to read it, but if you're reading this Mr. Martin, just stop and wait patiently. (Click the tiny picture for a massive reveal. So as he'd passed this exam I decided to get an autograph for him from a Red Dwarfer. So after a curious text of who he like best, The Cat, Kochanski or Female Holly, and receiving confirmation that it was indeed The Cat, I entered Danny John Jules' queue. I was determined to get it super personalised, with some kind of well done, but it was hard enough getting the name across that I settled for that alone. Basically his name is Anthony and because we're all lazy we now just call him Antnee. Explaining this for an autograph is one of the most difficult things I've had to do, ending up with me just saying something along the lines of "Just spell it A. N. T. N. E. E. He'll get it, it's a nick name" Still unsure, Danny wrote it. I then got a photo to prove it's real and so I'd get something out of the transaction.)

Finally it was time for the Dr Who talk. I made my way to the talk area and joined Queue 2. For a while I wasn't quite sure what the queue was for, but it lead me into the strangest talk I've attended. Present were Alexandra Moen (from new Dr Who I guess), Philip Madoc, Bernard Horsfall (I guess) and the legend that is Tom Baker. Tom was awesome, not quite sure if he is a comic genius, or actually senile.

There were jokes and slightly detailed description of which actor he'd like to "bed" when asked in an interview for the radio (Johnny Depp by the way, and he went into some detail to do with pirates.) Very strange, very weird but excellent. An annoying follow up to this talk, a group of fans took the opportunity to ask Tom for a photograph. I was with them, however I ended up taking their photo for them, then in the time it took to return their camera, Tom was off with someone else and we were being moved on. So close.
Straight after this was the Danny Trejo talk. Not as weird as the previous talk but very entertaining. Two highlights. First off, when asked about when the film Machete was going to be made he took out his mobile and rang someone, then asked us to shout "Hurry up and Make Machete" I'm guessing, like so many others, that he called Robert Rodriguez. So in theory I'd just spoken to Robert Rodriguez. Cool. The secodn highlight was an answer to the question "Which of your films do you consider the worst?" He simply answered, "None of them. I'm in them" Awesome. He also wouldn't stop when he was supposed to and continued taking questions. Well, it's Danny Trejo, would you go and stop him. So we over ran into expensive Scott Bakula's talk. So there.

Now I had time to kill, time to collect on some autographing. So I headed for Michael Ironside. Closed it said. No reason stated, just closed. Had he left in an angry storp when someone questioned the number of arms he owned? Who knows? I had to move on.

My next port of call was Jewel Staite, who now had an open queue. Now a quick side note - when I get things signed I always like them to sign things to Pete, this is so it's a little more personal than my full name. However, it always seems to confuse everybody, and they repeat it back as though I've given them the strangest name in history. Anyway, back to Jewel. I was thinking after the bizarre interaction with Danny John Jules I'd be better at the whole experience. Not so. Foiled by the lack of interaction with the single (or dual) armed Ironside I reverted back to my good, polite, quiet self and handed over the photograph. It was still cool, and she was very nice, but I failed to get a photograph. This was mainly due to the fact that I was abiding by the "No posed photograph" sign, rather than the fact that there was no queue behind me. Bugger.

So now I felt that I should see someone else. Then I remembered Chris Sarandon. Still not too sure, I approached his stand behind what I thought was a small queue. I took this opportunity to peruse his photographs while deciding if it was the right decision. Then the queue vanished, and I was left on my own in front of Chris Sarandon. Now I had no chance to create any rapport and awkwardly began the transaction for his signature. During this I noticed a photo from Child's Play, the problem on discovering this was all I could think of saying was, "I forgot you were in Child's Play" which would further the awkwardness. Silent I stayed. But I did get a photo, so a small victory on my part. Now I'm just a little fed up that I didn't get the Jewel photo seeing as I did with every other autograph. Anyway, what's done is done.

All this didn't take as long as expected so I wandered the hall once again before joining the Stargate talk queue. Weirdness ensued when I played a couple of tracks of Guitar Hero World Tour. First off, Rebel Yell by Billy Idol. I was reduced to bass on this track, which isn't that interesting, and I began to slip up when I got a little bored. I decided to move on, but when no one took the guitar of me when offered, I stayed for one more. This was well weird due to the fact that the girl next to me wanted to sing. This is fair enough, and good on her to sing in the middle of the exhibition hall. It's not like anyone more than a couple of metres away would hear, but I don't even sing on the game at home, so I was impressed. Luckily she was good singer on What I've Done by Linkin Park. This time I was on guitar so more fun was had.

I then left but had forfit a good place in the Stargate queue. Also after the small victory of extending the Danny Trejo talk, Scott Bakula overran. Eventually we began to move and in I went. No I began to feel like an outsider. As mentioned before, I wasn't really a fan of Stargate, only there for the star of Firefly. The audience was clearly made up of fanactics who knew every episode title and synopsis, as proved when asking and answering questions. The talk was fun, even for a stranger like myself. Firefly was mentioned so I was happy.

And that was it. With no more talks to keep me there I took one last tour of the hall in case I was going to miss some free stuff or something. This is when I found out that Michael Ironside had now returned. Still, it clearly wasn't meant to be, forever wondering how many arms he has. It was time to leave. And leave I did.

So now I reflect on the day's events. As mentioned at the begining somewhere, the London Film and Comic Con still has a long way to go to rivial San Diego. There's just not enough quality really. It's heart is in the right place, but there's a lot of open space, and various stalls just look thrown together. This year the Cos-Players were out in force and there was a CosPlay contest. There was also a lot of support for the two anime voice over actors which was suprising. With a little work it could be as big as San Diego. Overall I still find these events special. Despite all the weird and strange people there is an overall sense of community. I don't think attending is a bad thing, and shouldn't be seen as so. As I said, I'm not the biggest fan in the world, but the chance to see people I admire is a chance I don't what to pass up on. I just wish you didn't have to pay for the chance. I think the stars attending realise what they are a part of. Although at times people can seem a little crazy and a little strange, they're basically keeping their fanbase alive by appearing at such events showing that they care for their fans. They're giving something back. So what if it's at a price, as they say, nothing in life is free.

As a final note, if you're interest in anything I've just said you should check out two films. The first is a short documentary directed by Bruce Campbell entitled Fanalysis, in which he examines the world of fan conventions and what makes a fan into a fanatic. The other is sort of mockumentary called Comic Book: The Movie directed by Mark Hamill. I say mockumentray but this is only half true. It stars Mark Hamill as Donald Swan, a comic collector making a documentary about the new movie based on his favourtie comic Commander Courage. All fictional, but in it he interviews a variety of personalities who, when taking about the Commander, are clearly taking about some real life experiences they've had within the industry. Alongside this he documents his journey to the San Diego Comic Con. I've tried to explain it too much but it basically explores the whole convention culture.

So in a Jerry Springer's Final Thought moment, I say fandom shouldn't be looked down upon, whatever the level of your involvement. I mean, there are thousands of people who dress up in costumes each week in support of their idols. It's just that their conventions are called football grounds.