(no subject)
It is now a few days after the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and a cold has invaded my body. I can only think that the contagion came from a person at the festival, a fellow volunteer I believe, who I recall coughing occasionally. Then again, it might have been riding my bike home from the pub in the small hours of the morning--drunk and in charge of a bicycle; my cold might have come from that.
The festival was a good time. I attended as a volunteer this time, acting as security in the vendors' room where I spent many hours walking around and among the tables trying not to seem too gestapo-ish, but rather more friendly and approachable. While my duties were rather boring for the most part, I took the opportunity to talk to some of the vendors, some of whom were artists, authors, publishers, and filmmakers. A couple of the vendors in particular were interesting.
At the Dark Horse Comics table I chatted with Jemiah Jefferson, a horror writer and currently an assistant editor at Dark Horse. It wasn't until way into our conversation that I realized I saw her read at Wordstock a couple of years ago. Nice lady. Smart as a whip.
At another table--actually, just across the aisle from Dark Horse, I met and got to hang out with Rose O'keefe, a publisher of the newer sub-genre of "Bizarro Fiction" (a kind of mash of wierd, surrealistic influences like Dr. Seuss, Kurt Vonnegut, etc.) Rose was nice to talk to and during a lull in the vending activity, when everyone would be in the theatres watching The Thing or one of the blocks of short films, Rose invited me to sit behind her table with her and a couple of others and flip through old issues of Locus and Wicked.
I didn't get to watch hardly any of the flicks but for In The Mouth Of Madness and a block of shorts. The shorts are always a mixed bag, while a lot of films are rejected by the festival organizers, a portion of those that get through the screening process still end up falling a bit short on quality. Don't get me wrong, some of the shorts are fucking cool, and even the more questionable selections are still capable of entertaining.
Example: A Legend Told was a 39 minute submission from Sweden that held some of the Lovecraftian elements: a book of evil, an unknown evil thing kept under wraps by an old man thought mad by his neighbors, and an unwitting relative who inherits the old man's place after he mysteriously croaks. Not a very engaging film for the most part; it ran kind of slow, didn't really invoke much in the way of dread. Meh. However, there were occasional mistakes in the subtitles, some technical errors that mismatched dialogue and ended up getting some good laughs from the audience. People exiting the theatre quoted some of these mistakes, and I myself might from now on exclaim "Jens!" (a character's name) rather than "fuck".
Fortunately, I will still be able to view more of the shorts and features, as being a volunteer I'll get opportunities to view these flicks at another time.
The festival was a good time. I attended as a volunteer this time, acting as security in the vendors' room where I spent many hours walking around and among the tables trying not to seem too gestapo-ish, but rather more friendly and approachable. While my duties were rather boring for the most part, I took the opportunity to talk to some of the vendors, some of whom were artists, authors, publishers, and filmmakers. A couple of the vendors in particular were interesting.
At the Dark Horse Comics table I chatted with Jemiah Jefferson, a horror writer and currently an assistant editor at Dark Horse. It wasn't until way into our conversation that I realized I saw her read at Wordstock a couple of years ago. Nice lady. Smart as a whip.
At another table--actually, just across the aisle from Dark Horse, I met and got to hang out with Rose O'keefe, a publisher of the newer sub-genre of "Bizarro Fiction" (a kind of mash of wierd, surrealistic influences like Dr. Seuss, Kurt Vonnegut, etc.) Rose was nice to talk to and during a lull in the vending activity, when everyone would be in the theatres watching The Thing or one of the blocks of short films, Rose invited me to sit behind her table with her and a couple of others and flip through old issues of Locus and Wicked.
I didn't get to watch hardly any of the flicks but for In The Mouth Of Madness and a block of shorts. The shorts are always a mixed bag, while a lot of films are rejected by the festival organizers, a portion of those that get through the screening process still end up falling a bit short on quality. Don't get me wrong, some of the shorts are fucking cool, and even the more questionable selections are still capable of entertaining.
Example: A Legend Told was a 39 minute submission from Sweden that held some of the Lovecraftian elements: a book of evil, an unknown evil thing kept under wraps by an old man thought mad by his neighbors, and an unwitting relative who inherits the old man's place after he mysteriously croaks. Not a very engaging film for the most part; it ran kind of slow, didn't really invoke much in the way of dread. Meh. However, there were occasional mistakes in the subtitles, some technical errors that mismatched dialogue and ended up getting some good laughs from the audience. People exiting the theatre quoted some of these mistakes, and I myself might from now on exclaim "Jens!" (a character's name) rather than "fuck".
Fortunately, I will still be able to view more of the shorts and features, as being a volunteer I'll get opportunities to view these flicks at another time.