Syra, NY Interview for Post-Standard

I was contacted by Laura Ryan, a writer for the post-Standard. She said that she got to me though here, and e-mailed me on if I'd like to do an interview for an upcoming article.

I'll post the e-mail interview here. Did anyone else get contacted by Ms. Ryan?

I'll also post when the issue comes out

1) What is your full name, age, occupation and city of residence? (I take it your occupation is student... so where do you go to school and what are you studying?)

Andrew Hookway, 19, student at SUNY Institute of Technology majoring in Computer Science. I live in Sherrill, NY and go to school in Utica.

2) How old were you when you saw the first Star Wars movie? (If you're a student, I'm going to assume you did not see the 1977 film in the theater. How and when did you see it?)

*chuckle* Oh, God, I honestly don't remember. You know how you really can't remember your early childhood? Well, it was back then. My Dad had the movies recorded off of TV and would occasionally watch them. I loved the Battle of Hoth that is in The Empire Strikes Back, even if I didn't understand any of the rest. I slowly grew to like more things of it, and one of the earliest video games I remember playing was the Empire Strikes Back game for Atari.

3) Tell me as much as you can remember about your initial reaction to the movie.

The amazement of a little wee tyke at the Imperial walkers *laughs*. For me, it was first and foremost about the technology. Star Wars made me a science fiction fan. But the story itself, past the technology, is what keeps me coming back for more.

4) Why are you a fan of the Star Wars films? Can you put into words what you love about the films?

As I said before, Star Wars is first and foremost science fiction to me. These wonderfully advanced starships, the weapons, all of these wound into a plot that might otherwise seem basic with a large amount of "classical components" that are in danger of becoming cliches. If the story was in a more normal setting, I don't think that it would have been nearly as successful, but because the story was set up against the backdrop it was, it turns an above average story into something truly exciting.

5) How do you express your fandom, i.e. do you post on fan sites? attend conventions? wear costumes to the movies? collect memorabilia?

The biggest thing that I do is that I make fanfilms. Fanfilms are films made by, as the name suggests, fans of the saga. A very notable film that just recently came out is Revelations (www.panicstruckpro.com/revelations/). The production quality of some of these films are enormous, and if I do say so myself, the originality that some of these amateur filmers take it upon themselves to turn out can make a fanfilm- and an independent film in general- better than some of the bigger Hollywood productions. Also, chances are that none of us will ever be in a Star Wars movie. No more are being made after Episode III, and even if a TV series is done, chances are George Lucas won't be looking for Joe Schmoe to come and act. Even an average fanfilm lets the creators say, "Look, I'm in Star Wars!" And there is truly nothing better than watching yourself holding an actual, glowing lightsaber- after a fair amount of hard work putting that glow it, anyways *grin*.

6) What are your plans for Episode III? Going to a midnight showing Wednesday night? Etc?

There's a bit of a story to this. At our school, finals are the week of the premiere. So I plan to show up to my Wednesday final in costume. After the final, I'm going back home (about half an hour away) and picking up a friend of mine. We'll hang out, then when we're both in costume, we're going to my litle sister's high school to escort her out of class- even if it is just as the final bell rings- and to her locker, almost acting as Sith bodyguards of a sort! Then we're going back up to college, and we're picking up six friends from there to head to the premiere in Oneida.

7) Do you expect to have any kind of emotional reaction to the saga ending? After all, there won't be any mor

 

Yay Canada! Wish someone here cared enough to do an interview. Then again, I don't read the London paper.

 

Wow! Nice! Does mom know? Do you know when it may be in the paper? We'll have to look for it. Interestingly enough, we didn't get our Post-Standard today for the first time in a long time. Did you e-mail her a picture in costume? Even if they didn't plan to put a picture in, if you send one with the 'glowing' lightsaber they might decide to use it.

You are becoming quite the cult celebrity. Newspaper interviews, SU paper interviews, Radio interviews (I think thats what the Baltimore one was). You may be advancing beyond just the stage of having your own bagger groupies!

 

she contacted me and I told her yes and she never got back with me. bummer
Congrats on the article

 

The article is due to run on Tuesday. She got back to me and asked what costume I'd be going to my final in, and I sent her a couple stills from End of the Order filming earlier this year, sabers and all.

 

Is she a blond. Because if she is then she is the one I did an interview with while walking the St paddies day parade. I was taking care of everyone and as we walked and I kept an eye on everyone she asked me alot of questions about fanforce and everyone else.

I do believe I did drop your name Strawbary. buts its a bit hazy as we walked fast and talked fast as well.

 

she contacted me here on the boards I responded...........to her but no response... *sighs * LOL oh well

At least one of us from the group made the paper

 

I have no idea. She contacted me over e-mail, I responded over e-mail. It didn't occur to me to ask her about her physique.

Umm, but her letters in the e-mails suggested she was quite a looker. Happy? j/k, all in good fun.

 

Yep, Andrew received top billing in the article. Page E-1 of the Post-Standard today WITH a picture. Also, on page 2 is a picture of a few of the group from the Rochester Lilac Parade Raef and I went to Saturday. we'll try to get it scanned into the comp and posted. Thats a Raef job though, so if she forgets, make sure you bug her.

 

[image=http://raefwolfe.kitsunet.org/pictures/swstuff/pg1.PNG]

[image=http://raefwolfe.kitsunet.org/pictures/swstuff/pg2.PNG]

sorry that page 2 got a bit hard to read...


Also andrew, I have to ask: Why is the top pic with Luke, Leia, and Han 'Courtesy of Andrew Hookway'? XD

 

Lol, dunno...

I'm going to be scanning them on my own, so I can put them together fairly well... so offense, Raef, but the MSPaint job is a bit lacking But for those curious as to what was said, it's all there!