A double-feature blast!
Back to Baycon and this time, it was us that learned the lessons! Well, sorta’…
The second year we run the Let’s Make a Movie! workshop at a convention, there’s always a little wondering if we’re going to find traction, or spin our wheels. People aren’t quite sure if we are serious, or not sure if we can do it again like we did last year (and the answer is always “Of course we can!”).
Baycon was no exception and admittedly, we had a shaky start. The bar was set high by last year’s hit Cult of the Giant Brain, but we pulled through with not only one clever project, but two!
The first was World’s Deadliest Convention, a peculiar dip into the madness that exists in these kinds of reality shows where cameras follow people around on various “deadly”-like things. In this case, our host, a washed-up has-been still desperately clinging to his former life as an exciting Aussie-flavored host, walks the viewer through progressively more and more boring elements of a sci-fi/fantasy convention. However, his career ennui is so strong that he fails to notice the very real and very deadly escalation of mayhem happening behind him!
Three cheers for being jaded!
The other short movie we included (which is connected to World’s Deadliest Convention) is Machinechete, a brief tutorial on the ways of using and abusing a Mark IV Machinechete. If you’ve never seen a Mark IV Machinechete in use, then you have missed a truly terrifying machine…
…that hurls machetes.
Because there is nothing cooler than a big black gun that throws machetes.
No matter what you hear “on the street.”
The two most valuable lessons we all learned on these two projects are: Always pay attention to the various sound levels, and rein in the special effects!
However, we managed to get it all done and assemble very nice DVDs, which very few people will ever see (you get one if you’re in the workshop).
Learn a little more about the movie by checking out Ryan’s writeup on it!
Cast
Crew
- Produced and Written by Edward Martin III and Ryan K. Johnson
- Directed by Edward Martin III
- Photographed and edited by Ryan K. Johnson
- Visual effects and sound by Edward Martin III
