Fan films have long been a staple of sci-fi and comic book conventions, and that won’t be changing any time soon, despite the fact that the flicks are now all over the internet these days.
It’s a win-win situation: If you’re a fan, you get to see some cool flicks on a big screen instead of your computer, and if you’re a filmmaker, you get your movie in front of people who might otherwise never come across it. And if you own the franchise that’s having its copyrights blatantly violated, well, think of it as free publicity. In that spirit, here’s three upcoming conventions, all looking for fan films, so if you’ve got one, drop these people a line.
• Mountain-Con 4, a “fandom celebration,” in Salt Lake City, UT, will take place September 19-21 this year, and is holding its first Mountain-Con Fan Film Festival. If you wanna get your film in on the action, the Festival entry form is on the mountaincon.org website under Downloads.
The festival’s rules are pretty straight-forward; they want entries in the following categories–Sci-Fi, Horror, Fake Trailers (any genre), Fantasy, Music Video, and Student Submission (17 years old or younger, with parental permission). No “R” rated content, pervasive adult content, or other objectionable material (Oh well—scratch the Big Love fan film).
• Con-Cept 2008 bills itself as Montreal’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy convention. It, too, needs fan films, as well as independent genre fare. You can find out more and get an entry application at Con-Cept’s video page.
• Here’s an event so new, it doesn’t even have a name. UK Star Wars fan Francesca Calemma is coordinating a fan film festival to take place in London in 2009 or 10. She’s looking for start-up info for getting sponsorships, funding and film entries. For more info, visit this thread on theforce.net forums.
To close out the day, here’s something that goes to show how much people get into fan films–and conventions: The cast and crew of the departed Star Trek: Hidden Frontier recently held their own convention (not a Trek convention; a convention about the fan film series!). More than 80 people showed up from around the world; my mind is officially blown. Trekweb has the wrap-up report.
When will we be doing one just for Fan Films?
Well, there was Fanzilla, held in MA a few years ago, which featured the Raiders guys, Trey and Amy from Pink Five and some other A-list fan filmers. I’ve heard that people loved it, but given that they only held it once, I can only presume the organizers took a bath on it. There’s loose talk of a new event to replace it sometime next year, but nothing solid enough that I’d even write-up a post about it yet. For folks who want to see fan flicks on the big screen, come see some of the fan film programs I do at libraries and conventions, conveniently listed next to this blog entry.