If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, or don’t have the internet available at home yet (which makes me wonder how you’re reading this), then maybe you’ve been obliviously to the explosion of fan films. These are movies produced with the intent of taking an existing property and breathing new life into it, with sequels, prequels, or “what ifs.” In some cases these films take on a life of their own, which was the case with the childhood friends who decided to make a shot-by-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark with a VHS camcorder.
Author Clive Young has put together a book that charts the progress of fan films (starting in the 1920s!), and how the internet and inexpensive filmmaking tools have taken these otherwise obscure short films and fan efforts into new arenas. We talked to Young about the fan film dabbling of Hugh Hefner and Andy Warhol, the distribution future of that Raiders remake, and why fan filmmaking is a boy’s club.
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Talk is brewing on Nikki Finke and Jeff Wells‘ sites of promoting a movie theater boycott over Thanksgiving weekend as a show of solidarity with the striking writers. The concept, says a commenter calling him/herself “writer/producer”, is simple: “All you have to do is stay home and spend more time with your families…Thanksgiving is one of the biggest weekends of the yeah and lowering the box office take that weekend will really hit the studios hard. Hard core fans could even picket their local movie theaters if they wanted to…”
For his part, Wells says he’ll support a boycott if it happens–”Hitting the producers and studio chiefs where it hurts is pure Frank Capra, but I love it”–but maybe he should take minute to think it over. Another Finke commenter says advocating such an organized show of solidarity would be illegal: “Secondary Boycotts are illegal Big-Time! While it might help a lot to boycott the theaters over the thanksgiving weekend it is very illegal to advocate that, especially on Nikki’s board which would surely be closed down when the first Studio Mogul secretly objected.”
A couple of hundred potential ticket buyers picketing on CityWalk would certainly cause a media-friendly ruckus, but I seriously doubt such a boycott could happen on large enough a scale to make any real difference. The fact is, there are five major studio films opening that weekend, many of them family-friendly films with aggressive ad campaigns. It seems hugely unlikely that anyone outside of New York or LA with plans to take the whole family to see Enchanted or This Christmas is going to care enough about a labor issue (especially one that they perceive impacts rich people) to stay home.
It’s true. A few people in the world don’t have any trouble having fun. They can throw together a party, gather up a bunch of cool people, and generally make memorable things happen. But most of the rest of us could use a few idea-starters, it seems. At Spout we’ve been talking a lot about more ways to get people watching and talking about films together. Some of our ideas revolve around DIY-type party planners for different types of film-watching experiences–some crazy and fun-driven, others more contemplative and conversation-driven.
Anyway, I got kind of excited about this Battlestar Galactica party planner idea when I ran across it yesterday on Boing Boing. Zack Exley, the online activism strategist from the political organization MoveOn, has had plenty of success with his politically-driven house party concept. Now Exley and others have applied the idea to fan parties for Battlestar Galactica. Not exactly my cup o’ tea, but pretty cool nonetheless. The site helps you organize a party if you want to host, or you can find a party that’s being hosted in your area if you’re looking to hang out with other fans during the season opener. How cool would that be for films? (Especially if you’re into a somewhat obscure director or genre.)
The idea of many people doing the same thing on the same night in dozens of homes across the nation is pretty exciting, too. After all, those of us who love the same things are connected–we’re a part of one big community that’s usually just inhibited by geography.
So here’s my question: What do you think would be the best first Spout film-party planner concept, if we were to do such a thing? What would the theme be, or the featured film?
