I'm a bit behind on my blog reading because I spent the weekend in Houston, attending ApolloCon. It's a fun convention, with the usual convention goodies like a screening room showing geek favorites. This year, I think almost all of them were amateur offerings like “The Hunt for Gollum” and “Troops”, the Star Wars spoof of “Cops”. The tools available to amateur filmmakers is just amazing these days. I'm tempted every time I look at things like these, and remember the old Blake's 7 or Dr. Who from the '70s and '80s to grab a group of friends and try to make something of my own along similar lines.
While I did make a few panels, I spent most of my time chatting with fellow fans and writers about all those things we talk about when we find like-minded, thoughtful, intelligent folks who share our passions. Really, that's the great thing about cons.
There were some fun costumes at this one, my favorite being the Dalek Queen at the Wholigans party. There was also a Firefly LARP with some neat costumes as well, and a group selling some awesome gothy hats in the dealers room.
The gaming room always had at least two large groups going with fun stuff whenever I poked my head in, including a “table-top LEGO first-person shooter”, lots of Munchkin, and other fun stuff. I even saw one group of folks playing Torg in the hotel lobby.
The folks who have taken on the challenge of organizing AggieCon this year seem to be doing a decent job of shouldering the challenge. I'll be watching to see how things shake out over the coming months.
In the dealer's room I picked up a copy of some of the Flinx stories I've missed, plus a copy of Joan Vinge's The Snow Queen
. Yeah, some of you who know my tastes are going to be shocked, but no, I haven't read it yet. It's an intriguing read so far, and I'm going to look forward to meeting her at ArmadilloCon in August.Yep, that's a blatant plug, and having had the chance to chat with the folks putting together ArmadilloCon's Writers' Workshop this year, I'm seriously considering submitting some writing. The deadline, however, is July 1st, so if that's something you're interested in, you'll need to move fast.
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2 comments:
The people I hang out with at college occasionally bring up the amateur film idea. Do you have any particular idea what you'd make?
I think a medieval-sci-fi mash-up. A post-apocalyptic space-opera sort of thing, where the Grand Republic has fallen and the universe is in chaos. A bit of sword-and-planet pulp, a bit of Flash Gordon and Star Wars, and a bit of Fading Suns RPG. Remind me sometime and I'll share with you sometime my scattered notes on the setting I'd come up with for stuff like that.
The other option, a slightly more "low impact" proof-of-concept would be to do a space-opera version of one of Shakespeare's histories, maybe Anthony & Cleopatra or Henry IV part 1 or something.
I know so many friends who are into theater and costuming and prop-building, stage combat and digital FX, I know it's do-able. The real problem is getting it organized and finding the time such a project would require.
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