Madison, WI FilmCon- Media Convention

Dear Fellow Fan Force members,

Eric Larson here with news about FilmCon 4. Yes that crazy, fun, media convention in Madison, Wisconsin.

First thing is YES the convention is still going to be held...but in Feb. The reason is our great University decided to have many games of football in November- thus all hotel rooms are pretty much blocked. Also the only weekend free was up against WindyCon. That I could not do...so the dates for FilmCon 4 are Feb. 20th-22nd, 2004 in Madison. Same hotel and everyhing, just a different month!

We are also trying to get another hotel that is close by for lower room rates- if we do, those who want to save a little cash have an option where they can stay.

Now about the convention. This year has been a very difficult year to find people. Everyone is either working, just starting a job, or is looking for work. That makes it hard for me because we get people from behind the scenes...well, things worked out!

We have 2 guests right now, and will most likely bring that to 4 by the end of the month.

Mark Nelson- art director and designer for Raven will be one of our guests. Some might have met him before. Mark is one of the talented guys behind the Star Wars titles at raven, he also works on many other games. He is one of the guys who designs the ships, and creatures...not to mention a lot of other things. Mark is also knwn for being the artist for the ALIENS comic book. He will be on hand to talk about his video game work and his other endevours. As most people who attended last year will tell you- he is a lot of fun and always entertains the group with his drawing skills, and stories.

Our second guest is a big surprise. I must thanks my friends at ?Men behind the mask? for this. We will have our 2nd Emmy winner as a guest this year.

Lee Stringer- A computer artist and designer for films and television. You are probably asking...who? Well to make it short Lee worked on a show called ?BUFFY TVS?, his contribution...the destruction of the bad guys (he did the turns to dust effects). He just won an Emmy for his work on ?FIREFLY? and is currently working on and will bring behind the scenes footage from ?GALACTICA?. Lee is the head of special efects for the new Mini-Series.

What makes this so much fun is all he can talk about- computer animation, design, concepting, working in the industry,on and on and on. This will be a rare treat for everyone attending, and promises to be just as much fun as last years guests Paul Topolos- from Pixar films.

We will have the usual costume contest...even bigger I hope...last year 1/5 of the convention was in it! We will also be doing our white bantha sale and auction for Breast Cancer!

The bad news is the web site is down, and we are trying to fix it. By the 1st of Nov. 2003. it should be back up.

So if you have questions or want to know how to sign up...PLEASE write to me. Either PM me or email at- filmcon@earthlink .net

I know many from the various clubs and groups had a great time last year, and this year looks even better! So please- if you are interested write to us...and for those in the Fan Force who came- tell other people about the convention.

*****A reminder- we cap attendace at 250- and we did sell out last year! Hope to see everyone again this winter!

Thanks

 

awesome! cannot wait. Now that I got the official dates thats really good to know so my family doesn't decide to go on another vacation at that time. Ugh...anyway yes I will definitly be their again this year. I hopefully should get the check made out this week. So I make it out to you Eric? or to Filmcon 4? cuase I think thats what I did last year.

Forcebewitya!

 

I know another sure fire way to save money dont rent a room =P

 

Hi Mad City Force! My ex-husband and I taught one of the lightsaber classes at FilmCon last year and we will be back to teach a class geared more towards Lord of the Rings this time! Our bios and a brief description of the class should be up on the FilmCon website soon.

I just want to say that, if you are interested in going to FilmCon, please register now! If Eric doesn't have at least 100 pre-registered (and paid) attendees by January, the convention could be in jeopardy and cancelled.

I hear that someone will be there who worked on Lord of the Rings...the guy who taught the actors to speak Elvish! Isn't that exciting? It is to me!

Anyways, please register and send in your checks as soon as possible!!!

 

I definitly have to register asap. hopefully I should pay by this week.

Forcebewitya!

 

Well, I have payed, and so should all of you. Like I have said Filmcon is always a blast, and you wont regret spending the 25 bucks. Also I just talked to Eric today, and he said that it would be best if you could all pay before, the end of the month, I know that might be hard with taxes and Christmas, but that would be an ideal time for Eric, to assertain the numbers coming. So register now! only 25 dollars its a good deal don't miss it.

Forcebewitya!

 

Hello fellow fanforce members, well this is my last reminder here on this board, if you want to go to filmcon now would be a great time to send your money in. Like I said before its a lot of fun and would be even more fun if we got the whole fan force to go as well, see some familiar faces. So, just send your money and registration form to Eric (mailing adress is on the form), and the form can be attained at Westfield Comics, on Odanna Road, or I believe at Waldenbooks in the mall. Hope to see you all there!

Forcebewitya!

 

Maybe I'll try and get it on Sunday when we meet

 

Hey, speaking of that, if I do come to the meeting (which I most likely will) I can bring a bunch for anyone who wants one, that way it'll save you the trouble of finding one at one of the stores. well, see you there.

Forcebewitya!

 

Okay, people, just about 1-1/2 weeks until Filmcon so hopefully there'll be a great turnout. I'm taking my Firefly boxed set for Lee Stringer to sign and my ROTK CD for David Salo to sign.

Go to the website Filmcon.net and see the schedule (should be up by tonight, I think). I'm really looking forward to the LOTR and SW panels etc...and the costume competition (and the sword class, of course).

Looking forward to the convention!

 

So who all is going besides me?

Forcebewitya!

 

Since my vacation was pushed back to March, I will be there.

Since I couldn't find any set programming plans from the FilmCon website, I can't tell you exactly when I'll be there.

 

Hi again!
Eric is having problems getting the schedule up on the website so if you want it, PM me with your email address and I'll send it to you.

 

Well I'm having money problems, I won't be able to work it
Plus I'll have to work most likely with Evanesence the 21 and I'm meeting my grandmother and uncle and aunt for my grandmothers birthday

 

So How was FilmCon

 

In a word - BRILLIANT!

 

You missed out on a lot, unfortunately.

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I thoroughly enjoyed FilmCon 4.

Some people go there for costumes, props and fan films; while others go there for the meat and potatoes of actual film making (script writing, special effects, how the business works and etc.).
I sort of fall into the last part, since I am interested in how CGI is done. The script writing panel was also very helpful to me, since I have all these ideas for films popping into my head, but never make it to paper or disk because I didn't know how to go about it. Now I have an idea how it works.

Since I was constantly attending panels, I didn't get to mix and mingle with a lot of people I know from the boards here. But I think I gained a lot from those panels.

There was a little bit of Star Wars mixed in tothe rest of it all. Not at all as much as last year's. But it's really not a Star Wars convention. All Sci-Fi is represented in some way or another. The convention is a film making convention with some extra stuff added for fun and fans. Eric said that the reason there is so much Sci-Fi at this convention is because Sci-Fi contains a lot of the qualities that film makers use in making their films. Well, he might not have said those words exactly, but you get the picture.

There will be a FilmCon 4.5 April 2005. It will be mixed with OddCon, so if you planned on going to OddCon, you might as well pre-register for FilmCon 4.5

Fall of 2005 will be a full-blown version of FilmCon (FilmCon 5). I'm planning on going to that as well. I already pre-registered for 4.5

Lee Stringer (Firefly, ST Voyager, Battlestar Galactica and many other projects) was wonderful. Or as Eric would say, "Brilliant" (sort of a joke...had to be there). His abilities to make things look so real is incredible. Of course he is too modest at times. In his mind, he's just an ordinary guy, but to us who admire his abilities, he is much more. Also, he is very easy to talk to. He listens to what you have to say and is very friendly. Would be great if more people were like him.

The other guests were very good too. It seems that each FilmCon tries to out do the last, but the guests remain a constant high caliber. I commend Eric on getting the people he has and applaud his ability to make every FilmCon fun for everyone.

So, in short (yeah, I know, too late), FilmCon 4 was incredible, as was last year's FilmCon 3. I didn't go to the other FilmCons, only because I didn't know about them. If I had known about them, I'm sure I would have gone.

And thats what I got from it. I know Brent was there, and I saw Jon for a few minutes. Maybe they can tell what they thought.

 

Plus I'll have to work most likely with Evanesence the 21

Well, hey that doesn't sound so bad, I would have liked to go, but I had priorities.


In a word - BRILLIANT!

heh, yes BRILLIANT indeed!

His abilities to make things look so real is incredible. Of course he is too modest at times. In his mind, he's just an ordinary guy, but to us who admire his abilities, he is much more.

Yeah, Lee was awesome, luckily I got his autograph on my "best novice costume" award " *yes I won something, it was...BRILLIANT!* And I liked that he was actually a fan as well, and went to cons like all of us fans. That was cool. Unfortunatly I didn't get to go to many of his panels, but I thouroughly enjoyed his work on Firefly, and of course BattleStar Galactica (that I watched at home), also his animated show RoughNecks was AWESOME I really enjoyed that show. (It's based on Star Ship Troopers).

Also David Salo was really interesting the Elvish languages fascinate me, so that was cool he sure put a lot of time and work into learning and understanding them.

The other things that I enjoyed was the Episode III spoiler talk, that was great, I finally got to see the Hyperspace stuff, that I never payed 20 bucks for, Thanks Eric! So of course I liked all the Star Wars stuff the most but all of the other film stuff was great as well. I saw an awesome, and very professional WW II horror fan film. That was sweet. ummm lets see... ah yes the Auction was great too! I didn't as much stuff this year (like I really need it anyway) but I got an awesome Episode II banner, and some video game stuff. And the costume pannels were very helpful as well, I now know how to make an Imperial officer hat...now about a sewing machine.....

But all in all it was great, Brilliant (it's a British thing apparently in case your wondering) I did get a chance to talk to Rick, and Jon as well, so it was nice seeing them again. And Eric's voice imitations ROCK! hope you can come next time Ryan!

Forcebewitya!

 

Well if things go as I plan then I'll be there