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Fandomonium
in Tampa Bay Event and Film Festival 001
01. Introduction
02. The
Journey into fandom begins
03. The
story of the swag bag
04. Role
call
05. Independent
film screening
06. Interviews
07. Photography
shoot, closing and event score card
Fandomonium
in Tampa Bay 001
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Interviews
I did not spend all of my time in the theater watching independent films.
When the feature film “The Brain from Planet
Arous” began, I told Marcus that I did not have time to watch
the film, as I had work to do. I packed up my gear, and realized that
the special guest of the event, actress Joyce Meadows, who was the star
of the movie, was seated behind me and that she could see me getting up
to leave. Realizing that, and not wanting her to think that I was being
rude, upon loading up my gear and breaking down my tripod, I took a detour
over to her table and apologized. She was gracious about it. At that point,
I left and returned to the lobby.
I talked to a lot of people in the lobby, and interviewed Rick Danford,
Andy Lalino, and Marcus Kempton, as well as R.J. Smith. We talked about
a variety of things, such as the absence of video games,
Marcus hating on my film titles, and nuclear
war. I talked to both Andy Lalino and Rick Danford about
the neglect of video games, as the event did state that video games were
included in the Fandomonium format, and they told me that video games
and video game fans were a big part of Fandomonium in Tampa Bay.
Except that they were not.
I can’t fault them for the neglect, however, because you have to
go where you heart is. Seriously. In my opinion, they
are not gamers, and that is fine. I am, however, a serious gamer, and
have a strong video gaming background. I suppose that I will
have to develop my own video game event, and I will state
that the Reverence Film Festival, which is an
independent horror and exploitation film festival and theme event inspired
by both Lalino’s Horror and Hotties film festival
and Danford’s Halloween Horror Picture Show film
festival series (The Reverence Film Festival was developed
originally to fill the void in the market left by the, at the time, discontinued
Halloween Horror Picture Show events, and it is now designed to coexist
with it in a symbiotic relationship and to help promote it), will
have a strong video game component to it, with free-play video
games such as Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Castlevania,
Splatterhouse 3, Ghosts and Goblins,
Darkstalkers, Resident Evil 2,
Deception, House of the Dead
(I would love to include Sega’s House of the Dead, which
is a gory gun shooter, but the Columbine B.S. of the late 90's made Sega
decide to not release a proper light gun for the Dreamcast, so that game
may not be technically possible. I’m looking into it), Mortal
Kombat 2, and many more set up in kiosks.
I am looking into newer video games, too, such as Dead Island,
Dead Rising, and some others, too. This video
game selection may increase, also, because I am toying with the idea of
adding science fiction to the Reverence format, too, which would be cool,
although, with independent films a big part of that annual film festival,
it could be an issue because I do not see many independent films in the
science fiction genre, unless you count Lalino’s Brainjacked.
Going back to my video game event series in development,
well, that has been in the works for years. Although some of the anime,
comic con, and other convention events DO have video game components to
them, they are not technically video game festivals. Mine would be the
only one in the Tampa Bay market, unless you count that Church
of Nintendo events and some of the fighting game events.
My video game event would have a huge emphasis on retro gaming
and arcade games, fighting games, with
a fighting game tournament and games such as
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Soul
Caliber, Tekken 5, Virtua
Fighter’s 2 and 3, Gorou:
Mark of the Wolves, Samurai Shodown 2,
and The Last Blade II, video game collecting,
with a swap/ buying and sales component, portable gaming consoles (Bring
your 3DS’s and other consoles set up for
tagging and receive a discount on admission!), independent video game
development, independent video games, cosplay and video game fashion,
and much more. Even PAX (Penny Arcade
Expo), which is in Seattle and New York, wouldn’t
be anything like my event. I am even adding features to my video game
event such as an Atari 2600 set up where the
crowd can play Howard Scott Warshaw’s
E.T. and discover that it isn’t a bad
video game (It isn’t. Once you learn the game, it is actually quite
playable, and can be fun. As a kid, I enjoyed it, and was able to stay
out of the pits, too!), and a fighting game wasteland for the banished
where players which are defeated in the main tournament are forced to
play horrible fighting games such as Kasumi Ninja
for the Atari Jaguar or Way of the
Warrior for the 3DO for a chance
to claw their way back into the main fighting game tournament (Yes,
I am sadistic, because those games both suck, but it would be hilarious
entertainment to watch people try to play those games for a chance to
get back into the main tournament).
At any rate, going back to Fandomonium in Tampa Bay,
it would be nice if they had Cosplayers there,
because it was in the event description, but it’s a new event property,
and I am looking forward to seeing it grow.
Anyway, going back to interviews, during the interview with Danford, I
asked about Halloween Horror Picture Show 2014,
since he resumed the film festival series in 2013 after a five year hiatus,
and he said that he wasn’t going to have one this year,
which would have been a mistake because it would have killed the momentum
of the film festival series which was re sparked in 2013. I tried to talk
him into reconsidering, which may have worked, because now he is doing
Halloween Horror Picture Show 2014, and it is looking awesome; it may
be the best Halloween Horror Picture Show EVER!
Toward the end of my interview with Andy Lalino, he mentioned that the
last feature film of the day, The Brain from Planet Arous,
was about to end, and that he had to go. That’s when the interview
disintegrated into awkwardness (watch the video and decide for yourself.
It was no one’s fault, really, and I felt bad about it. It just
became.... awkward. I tend to have that effect on people, sometimes).
So, Andy left to take care of things.
Joel Wynkoop did an interview with actress Joyce
Meadows, the star of the 1957 science fiction film "The
Brain from Planet Arous", which was amazing (The interview,
not the movie). Because I had to scramble into the auditorium at the last
moment, however, due to lack of communication with the organizers, I was
unable to set up my tripod, and I had to shoot the 40 plus
minute interview freehand, which was not easy, or fun. Because
of my freehand video taping, I had to figure out a way to
shoot some still photos, too. My professional
Canon DSLR camera was nearby, but I could not get it out of the case and
I could not operate it with one hand. So, I used my Galaxy
S4 camera to take stills, and adjusted the angle
and took pictures with one hand over the FS200 video camera held by my
other hand, and managed to shoot good video and pictures from two different
cameras, and two different angles at once. I was not sure
that I could do it at first, but I did do it, and I pulled it off. I’m
still amazed that I was able to pull it off, and this has got to be my
craziest moment ever as a professional photographer! The video and the
still photographs came out well, too!
Regarding the interview, too, again, Joel Wynkoop did an incredible job
interviewing Joyce Meadows, and he did a great job as the event MC, too.
Just take care of that voice of yours, Joel.
The opinions expressed in this review are those of the author, alone, and may not be shared by Tampa Bay Film or anyone else named on the Tampa Bay Film web site, which includes, but is not limited to, affiliates, contributors, filmmakers, sponsors, and advertisers. Information in this review consists of opinions unless otherwise specified.
NEXT: Photography shoot, closing and event score card.
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