Dangerous Media Fan

[kevin_standlee]

Some of you know that I directed two amateur Doctor Who productions back in the 1980s, and played The Doctor (Tom Baker incarnation) in the first of them, The Zombie Legions. For years, the only version I've had of this movie and its sequel, Those Darn Daleks, was on VHS video. Lisa finally found a video converter she could stomach and is in the process of converting the films to digital format. I have permission from my friend Rick Hallock, who produced the films, to distribute them.

Each of the two films is a three-part episode, done in the style of 1980s Doctor Who. YouTube doesn't allow uploads longer than ten minutes, and Google Video no longer accepts uploads at all. I'm trying Vimeo, which allows longer uploads, but also limits the amount you can upload per week. Each episode will use up most of a week's allowance, so I'll be releasing episodes as the service allows me to upload them.

So, in response to the requests, here comes the first part of my 1980s movie making:

The Making of The Zombie Legions (Short behind-the-scenes film about the production)

The Zombie Legions, Part 1

Comments

[ashi.livejournal.com]

This is great news! I had fun showing these at Worldcon in Japan. It was also fun getting a 1000 yen VCR on Tokyo Craigslist and giving it away after one use.

I've been quite pleased with digital rebirth of my own old fan videos. I look forward to watching yours again.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I wanted to come by while you were showing them, but the People Soup on the Party Floor was too think to cut through.

[cobrabay.livejournal.com]

Nothing wrong with one episode per week, it seems to work for the BBC.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Now I just have to remember to upload part 2 next Monday when my limit resets.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I will try to remember to get back to this (I don't generally watch videos from work, strangely enough). I'm particularly interested in the behind-the-scenes film, so will probably start there.

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

I didn't know there was an audience for fan films in Science fiction fandom. Anime fandom has people who do parodies, everybody seems to tape the masquerade and the Anime Music Video Contest is a guaranteee draw on a Friday night of a con. I also know that Balticon is one of the few cons (I know) that does a Science Fiction/Fantasy film festival as part of the convention.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Good grief, there are scads of them. Google for "Star Trek: The Pepsi Generation," for instance; the guy who produced that did at least four Doctor Who movies of which I'm aware. He also was doing "Instant Movie" at BayCon, where he shot a movie at the con based on who he could get to show up. (I didn't have time, or I would have participated more than just the one insert shot they took of me.)

The two DW films we did in Chico only scratched the surface. We showed The Zombie Legions at a bunch of conventions the year we finished it. I still somewhere have my "Zombie Legions World Tour" T-Shirt. There was fandom before the internet, you know. :)

Anime music videos have never seemed interesting to me, as they just look like setting existing video to existing music. There's a creative element to it, but it never did anything for me. Our two films aren't parodies (although Those Darn Daleks is a bit tongue-in-cheek); they're independent stories set using existing characters; fanfic, if you like.)

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

I know there was fandom before the internet. I will have to watch Star Trek: The Pepsi Generation soon. Also, on an unrelated note, Which hugo awards is that picture from or is there some other fannish story about the picture I don't know about?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

That picture is the 1994 Hugo Award trophy, and the photo is of me giving the "Care and Feeding of your Trophy" speech at the pre-ceremony reception at ConAdian in Winnipeg that year. (That's a little speech advising potential winners of the best way to handle the trophy should they win, and warning them that the thing is heavier than it looks and explaining what not to do with it.)

As it was taken fifteen years ago, I still had a full head of hair, and none of it was gray. I'm especially proud of this one because the basic design of the 1994 trophy base was mine, although several other people contributed important design elements after I sketched out the initial idea.

[ashi.livejournal.com]

My fan films from the 80's were anime parody dubs, though I was involved in a Battlestar-Galactica-based Western that never really came together all that well.

Eric in the Elevator is a fun little talk show filmed on the elevators at BayCon.

Would be fun to host another party promoting fan videos some time. The one I did in Yokohama: http://anysize.org/~ashi/fan-videos-nippon2007/ Too bad there was a horrible crush of people crowding the party floor, and the air conditioning was unprepared for us (the manual dial only went down to 22 C!).

availability

[crotchetyoldfan.livejournal.com]

Ashi
are any of those available online in a stable location? I'd like to link to them

Re: availability

[ashi.livejournal.com]

Looks like Guidolon is streamable from the frankwu.com. Eric in the Elevator is not available online, only seen at room parties at Baycon, Worldcon, and a few other conventions. I'm working on figuring out how I want to release the Scentinels, figuring out some things I may want to add before releasing. And, of course, release of Kevin's Doctor Who videos has been covered in this post.

[petrea-mitchell.livejournal.com]

In fact, some of the classic Doctor Who DVDs have been including fan films as extras. IMHO, the best so far is "Oh Mummy", included with Pyramids of Mars (and I'm sure it's found its way onto the interwebs as well). Brief description near the bottom of this page (http://www.purpleville.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/rtwebsite/Pyramids.htm).

There's also an entire convention (http://www.vividcon.com/) out there dedicated to "fannish vids".

And I have to mention that the first sf music video I ever saw, at the 1986 Westercon, was actually a manually operated slideshow of stills from the original Star Trek accompanied by "Banned From Argo" and "Time Warp".

[randy-smith2.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, Good! I'll finally get to see Those Darn Daleks!

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Yes, eventually.

Lisa is very picky about technical details. The machine she really wanted to use is a five-figure professional job. I can't fault her taste. It frustrated her mightily that the only affordable technology for video conversion that we could find was made in China, because Lisa tries to avoid buying any Chinese-made stuff whenever she can.

[crookedfeet.livejournal.com]

Maybe we should show these at Westercon? Or will you be there? Lee thinks he may still have a poster for this..

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'll be at Westercon; I'm chairman of the Business Meeting.

If you'd like to schedule showings, that would be fine with me. Those Darn Daleks hasn't been converted yet; I could ask Lisa to do so.

I should not be impossibly difficult for me to turn these files into a couple of DVDs, if that would be the easiest way handle them.

[crotchetyoldfan.livejournal.com]

AWESOME!

I will be linking to this from The Classic Science Fiction Channel!

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[petrea-mitchell.livejournal.com]

*spittake*

Well I sure didn't know! Whoa! And now, with a busy few days coming up, I probably won't get a chance to look at it until Sunday, argh!

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

That's okay; it's been twenty years -- a few more days won't make much of a difference. *smile*