Fan Cinema Today

The second NY Comic Convention was a hit this past weekend, sloughing off the bad planning and extreme crowd control that marred the inaugural 2006 edition. Instead, this year’s event gave fans what they’d wanted all along–a great con with lots to do, whether you were a collector, gamer, cosplay enthusiast or even a fan film fan. In order to bring you, the reader, the most comprehensive coverage possible–and to get out of changing diapers more than usual–Fan Cinema Today was at the Jacob Javits Convention Center all three days to see what there was to see.

FRIDAY
Most of Friday, the convention was closed to the public, and was merely open to the trade and press. Nonetheless, there was info to be gleaned from sitting in on a few of those panels, most of which were “How to get more people into your comic shop”-type stuff. Even so, there were occasional bits that were of interest. Some of that will turn up in Wednesday’s weekly analysis article.

The show opened to the public at 4PM, and on hand to garner lots of attention in the main entrance were the principals of the prolific fan film outfit Blinky Productions. Writer/director Chris Notarile, dressed as Blue Beetle, Niki Notarile, done up as Catwoman, and Tawnya Manion, garbed as Power Girl, spent plenty of time posing for fans’ photos and being interviewed by a camera crew from G4 Network. At least a few Blinky-ites were spotted at the con the next day as well.

The Comics Bloggers panel, run by Publishers Weekly’s Heidi MacDonald, was understandably only interesting to people who blog–as evidenced by the moment that Chris Butcher of Comics 212 asked “How many of you in the audience are bloggers?”–to which the entire audience raised its collective hand. This led someone on the panel to quip, “Well, I guess we’ll all have to run home and write about this panel.” Oh the wit! Oh the knowing chuckles! Oh…brother. Still, as a comparative novice to those guys, I gained a few tidbits here and there; I’d never read any of their blogs before, but am now inclined to, particularly Ron Hogan’s Galley Cat and MacDonald, simply because they came off the best (As the old saying that I just made up goes, “When you talk too much, you tell people everything they need to know”).

SATURDAY
The big stories of the day were the Ryan Vs. Dorkman II fan film New York premiere and the debut of Paula Peril: Trapped In The Flames. That film was preceeded by a panel that featured director Bill McClellan (left), Peril creator James Watson (center), and actress Valerie Perez, known in fan film circles for her work as Lara Croft in the fan film Tomb Raider: Tears of the Dragon. We’ll be covering the Paula Peril debut and Atlantis Studios in depth later in the week, but it should be mentioned that both RVD2 and Peril were scheduled at the same time–late, at 8PM–so there was fretting among those who wanted to catch both; as it turned out, there was nothing to worry about.

Ya see, RVD2 was still being downloaded from a soooper-secret server somewhere by the folks at NY Jedi…or at least maybe it was. No matter how many times one went to their table to find out when/if the screening was taking place Saturday, no one seemed to know anything about it, except one helpful Jedi towards the end of the day, who explained that screening was moved to Sunday. Returning the next day a few times, again, nobody knew squat, so we at FCT have no idea if it ever screened or not (we bet not).

SUNDAY

A fun panel, despite plenty of technical difficulties, was The History of Comic Book Movies. Curated by author Arie Kaplan and NYU Professor Eddy Friedfeld, the program revolved around movie and TV clips, starting in the 1940s and heading up to today. In an effort to keep things fresh, the duo largely steered away from the usual material you might expect; for instance, George Reeves appearing as Superman on I Love Lucy was used instead of a clip from his own show; similarly a few scenes from recent movies were taken from DVD outtakes rather than the feature films themselves.

Somewhat surprisingly, there wasn’t any fan film content; one would have thought the movement would have qualified by now but perhaps not. Nonetheless, with a few enlightening asides (apparently Michel Gondry wrote a Green Hornet script–the mind boggles) and gut-busting laughs (a screen test of Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin that would make the Ambiguously Gay Duo blush), it was a fun hour. As a bonus, comic genius Kyle Baker, of Why I Hate Saturn fame, sat in towards the end, present for a book signing of Kaplan’s Masters of the Comic Book Universe Revealed, since he was profiled within its pages.

A few asides from the show, most of which have nothing to do with fan films:

Last year saw the debut of the New York Comic Con, and it was the biggest thing to hit NYC since King Kong punched a few picture windows in the side of the Empire State Building. The city that never sleeps hadn’t had a proper, full-on con in years, and it was greeted with great enthusiasm–in fact, too much enthusiam.

The first full day of the con–the Saturday–had 4,000 tickets presold, but 20,000 people showed up to buy ducats onsite. That meant thousands of people were turned away, including folks who’d pre-bought tickets and had turned up late to get them. Fire marshalls shut down access to the show floor for a few hours, and once they opened it back up, the lines to get onto the floor were over an hour at some points. Once you finally got inside, the only way to get down the tiny aisles was to literally go with the flow and let the crowd take you where it wanted to go. If you were a VIP, it didn’t matter–you weren’t allowed on the floor when things were shut down; reportedly Frank Miller got turned away and was unable to make a signing session, as was the esteemed Patrick McDonnell–creator of the newspaper comic Mutts (very popular in the FCT household). In short, it was about as hellish an event as you could ask for.

Naturally, we at FCT had a kick-ass time and have been looking forward to this weekend’s return of the show all year.

Show organizers have moved the show floor to the main section of the Jacob Javits Convention Center and the aisle will be much bigger this time out, so the disasters of last year will hopefully be ancient history. I’ll be wandering around, probably handing out flyers and definitely being a nusiance to anyone who’ll listen, so if you spot me, don’t run the other way–say Hi.

However, I’ll definitely be spending lots of time down in the dungeons where they hold the panels, ’cause that’s where the real action is. Getting a few comics signed? Always fun, to be sure, but there’s a few fan-film centric events going on, plus some other things that just look like they’re gonna be a blast. With that in mind, here’s our picks for the best fan film-related events going this weekend:

FRIDAY
Most of the day is relegated to the trade and press, with the show not opening to the public until 4PM (so no skipping school, kiddies). Frankly, as a member of said press, Friday’s my favorite day–you can walk the show floor without feeling like you’re swimming upstream, and actually have a conversation without screaming over the racket. The industry panels are pretty cool, too. Nonetheless, since most folks won’t be able to get in until 4PM, I’m not mentioning trade-only picks.

4 PM NYCC Comics School: Comics, Concepts, & Copyright. Location - 1E04
If you’re a fan filmmaker, here’s a great panel (one guy equals a panel, apparently) talking about issues related to how legal your little production is. There’ll surely be a Q&A session, so it’s a great chance to ask a bit about what you can and can’t get away with when playing with someone else’s characters.

5 PM Star Wars: Men Behind the Masks. Location - 1E14
Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Ray Park (Darth Maul) and Daniel Logan (Boba Fett) talk shop. Park was actually in an amateur Star Wars film a few years ago–and no, I don’t mean The Phantom Menace. [Ed. Note: Park didn't show for the panel, so I couldn't ask him about it; however, a cursory web crawl revealed no indications that he actually appeared in a fan film, so consider that to be BS until proven otherwise.]

SATURDAY
6:30 PM Masters of Horror. Location - Special Events Hall
Originally, this was going to be held earlier in the day in a small room, going head-to-head with Stephen King’s keynote speech in the Special Events Hall. Someone must have gotten a clue (or complained, more likely), because now it’s later and in a better location. Why’s it such a big deal? Two words: John Freakin’ Landis–the director of Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Coming To America, An American Werewolf In London, Michael Jackson’s Thriller and plenty of other great stuff. Need more convincing? Another word: Meatloaf–as in Rocky Horror, Roadie, Bats Out Of Hell I, II and III and more. Whatever they show has to be better than the recent pile of crap VH1 TV movie about Mr. Loaf’s career. Other people are on the panel, too. If you’re an aspiring director, you could do a lot worse than to sit in and bask in the presence of these guys

8 PM Re-Creating a Comic Book Character on Film. Location - 1E04
This one features the charming Valerie Perez, known in fan film circles as the star/producer of Tomb Raider: Tears of the Dragon; not only does she look the part of Lara Croft, in real life, she’s an IT specialist, so she’s smarter than you, too. Perez is now premiering a new short, Trapped In The Flames, based on a comic book character I’ve never heard of, Paula Peril.

8 PM Ryan Vs. Dorkman II. Location - Special Events Hall.
Note: This is tentatively scheduled but not on the NYCC website at this time.
It’s one of the most anticipated fan films of the year, and it’ll get its New York debut a week before it hits online. Here’s your big chance to see it on the big screen with your fellow fan film enthusiasts…if the respective R and D get it done in time to mail to the Con.

SUNDAY
10:30 AM The History of Comic Book Movies. Location - 1E04
Comic historians will be looking at different superhero flicks through the years; will fan films come up? Find out.

There’s plenty of other cool stuff going on at the convention–these are just the events that have a whiff of fan film to them. Catch you at the con!

After doing the big write-up on RVD2 yesterday, I realized that I hadn’t seen the original Ryan Vs. Dorkman in a few years, so as the week builds to the premiere of the sequel on Saturday, I figured it would be a good opportunity to go back and revisit the original. It’s probably pointless to review a movie that has over 1 million views on YouTube, but know what? So’s running a site about fan films, so it’ll fit right in.

If you’re looking for plot, you’ve come to the wrong fan film. This is a duel, pure and simple. There’s a few fan productions that are simply lightsaber fights, but this one probably is the most famous. The key to its success isn’t the effects–Duality beats it cold in that department–but rather the choreography, and while that makes sense, since it was originally produced for a duel choreography contest, it really is the sticking point. Instead of making a short filled with the whack, whack, whack of lightsabers, they actually sat down and tried to figure out, ‘what haven’t we seen done with these weapons?’

The answer is played out throughout the flick–holding lightsabers upside-down like daggers (a dumb move if you’re fighting, apparently); lots of getting close enough to punch out your opponent (Dorkman gets in most of the hits); horizontal fighting (the rolling shot is fabulous); fighting dirty by going for the groin with an upwards swing; and more. Creativity is great, of course, but in a flick like this, without the moves, it’s not worth much. Smartly, the fight starts with a looong shot of sharply staged saber-swingin’–it pulls you in and yet also acts as the jumping off point for the creativity to come, because it serves up typical, if heated, lightsaber moves as mere preamble.

The two filmmakers each have their own style of fighting–Michael “Dorkman” Scott tends to have the moments laden with attitude, whether adjusting his glasses with a smirk or fighting with one hand behind his back, just because he can. Dorkman also gets one of the few outright comic moments as well; the look on his face when he realizes his glasses have been broken is a riot. Nonetheless, Ryan Wieber still gets a few flashy moments, using a handspring to get back on his feet, and soon after letting loose with a barrage of spins and turns as he waves his weapon around himself like a whirling dervish.

Strangely, the only real weak point of the movie is the very end; without giving it away in case you haven’t seen it, the last moment of the flick is a cop-out, since there was nothing prior to set it up. It comes out of nowhere, but rather than being a clever twist, it feels like a cheat. Hopefully the sequel won’t end in such a manner–either that or perhaps they’ll take the concept and amend it until it’s plain out of control.

What makes a movie a viral video smash? Beats me, but clearly this is one of those rare fan films that has struck a nerve with both diehard fans and the general public. If the RVD team had just left it at that, it’d still have been a very cool feat, but it’ll be very interesting to see in a few days how they expand on this popular short.

Ryan Vs. Dorkman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NE5elL30w4

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It’s one of the most anticipated fan films of recent memory and it’s debuting in less than a week: Ryan Vs. Dorkman II will hit the big time Saturday, with simultaneous public screenings in Los Angeles and New York.

The L.A. showing will be held at the Wilshire Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills, and as Weezer would add, “That’s where I wanna be.” With an hour-long mix of the two RVD fan films and a Q&A session with the filmmakers, it’s proving to be the cooler (free) ticket, particularly since it will be preceeded by an hour of lightsaber-centric fan films, including Duality, Art of the Sabre, Eclipse, Three In The Afternoon and Contract of Evil, among others, starting at 4PM.

The NY screening, meanwhile, is tentatively set for the New York Comic Con, and that’s where the details start to peter out. Supposedly it will take place around 8-ish or 9-ish in the Special Events Hall, perhaps with the hour of of other fan films beforehand…however, there’s no mention of it on the NYCC website yet. But nevermind all that–we’ll have a full rundown of Fan Film-centric events at the NYCC on Gray Areas day (Thursday), and hopefully things will have firmed up by then (I hope so, since I’ll be at NYCC and I wanna see it).

For those who can’t make either event, RVD2 will be relased online on March 1, four years to the day after the original short debuted. A creation of Ryan Wieber and Michael “Dorkman” Scott, the original movie was produced for a lightsaber duel choreography contest on TheForce.Net Fan Film Forum. Popular within certain circles, the short even helped Wieber land a gig for a while at Lucasarts, the Big Guy’s videogame company.

However, once RVD appeared on the fledgling YouTube a year ago, the short’s popularity exploded; to date, it’s been seen by more than 1 million people at the popular site–it’s also available many other places on the web–and has also inspired plenty of homages as well.

Can R and D top their original? Effects-wise, probably so, as they have years of professional experience now, and likely better software with which to work. Music-wise, they definitely can, as they’ll have a brand-new, 55-piece orchestral score written by professional film composers Gordy Haab and Kyle Newmaster. Recorded at Capitol Studios, the soundtrack will feature percussionist M.B. Gordy, who has provided similar services for the popular Battlestar Galactica revival series.

When viral videos like the original RVD are a hit online, assessing their popularity can be difficult; that’s not a problem, however, with this flick. Over 21,000 people have watched an RVD2 teaser documentary short on YouTube and the RVD2 thread at TheForce.Net Fan Film Forum sports more than 2,630 posts across 106 pages at press time. Will it be worth all the anticipation? We’ll find out Saturday.

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Hasbro is jumping on the “user-created advertising” bandwagon with its new Show Us Your Lightsaber Contest, running through March 11. Entrants must make a short video clip or ad where they use–and therefore have purchased–the new Force Action Lightsaber (oooh, ahhh), and then post it to the contest’s own special YouTube group. Entries are not allowed to disparage the toy, nor can they show it being used to hurt other people–which kinda misses the point of having a lightsaber, don’t you think?

There won’t be any judging of a “best” ad; rather, by posting, you get put in a drawing to win a trip for four to Really Long Line Fest IV Star Wars Celebration IV in Los Angeles and a one-of-a-kind chrome Force Action Lightsaber.

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