"Let's Make A Movie" Workshop Films

Intergalactic Bad Astra
The Matricks
Run Frodo Run
Ultimate Survivor Norwescon
Con Of The Dead
CSI: Norwescon
March of the Fenguins
Manslugs! The Making of A "Sci-Fi Original"
31
Cult of the Giant Brain
KNWC
Machinechete/World's Deadliest... Convention
Blood In The Hall
It's A Terrible Life
It Came From The Elevator!
Conception
Fantiques Roadshow
Steve: Portrait of a Minion
Warehouse 36

I was contacted early in 2000 to participate in a filmmaking workshop at Norwescon, Seattle's big regional science fiction convention. The plan was to shoot a movie at the convention and let folks participate in the making. I have to be honest and say I thought it would never work. However, every year we have shot a movie in two hours (sometimes cheating a bit over) and they have turned out so well, I eagerly show them to people.

Intergalactic Bad Astra

The theme of Norwescon in 2000 was "Ad Astra," latin for "to the stars."  Everyone agreed we should do some play on this for the title of our movie which naturally enough, concerns itself with a science fiction convention. Yes, it's the old "fish out of water" gimmick as an alien ("transmogrified" from a pet rat that someone had brought along to the con) attends the convention, not realizing the mixture of fantasy and reality is interfering with his attempt at human reconnaissance. Fortunately for the human race, the invasion is called off due to the erroneous perception that humans have incredible powers and weapons that the rat race would be unable to overcome. This movie was shot entirely "in camera" with no editing.

Credits:

Intergalactic Bad Astra
5 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two hours on April 22, 2000.
Cast ... (if you are in this movie (since we never do any credits), please write me and tell me who you played!)
Written, Produced, and Directed by Edward Martin III and Leopoldo Marino. Photographed by Ryan K. Johnson.

The Matricks

Edward wasn't able to make it to the convention due to illness and Leopoldo had no interest in participating a second time, so it was left to me and Adam Buckner to pull off the filmmaking workshop this year. We were all set to go with another idea (which I've since forgotten) when someone suggested doing a parody of The Matrix. I couldn't resist. Edward's wife Katrina agreed to play "Zero" (our version of Keanu Reeves' Neo), and Janet Borkowski would be "Morpheus" because she looks nothing like Laurence Fishburn. Rounding out the cast was my roommate at the time, Erik Prill, as Agent Jones.

Friday night at the convention, I sat in our hotel room and rewatched The Matrix on the in-house video to come up with material to use. Ten minutes before we were to begin shooting on Saturday morning, I had my wife Kate Waterous take notes as I dictated the entire script. Adam did a great job directing, and we quickly moved from location to location to film the spoof. In our version of The Matricks, Zero drinks from a red Coke can (instead of a blue Pepsi can) and finds out from Morpheus that all of fandom is a construct by evil computers to enslave humanity. There's even a revelation of the truth about chocolate ice cream! Eventually, Zero and Agent Jones fight it out, sadly without the multi-million dollar budget afforded the Wachowski brothers on their epic (the bullets here are on a stick and the actors have to freeze in place as the camera whirls around them). For a second time, scheduling forced us to shoot the entire movie "in camera" with no editing, although later we did add some music and sound effects.

Credits:

The Matrix
5 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two hours on April 14, 2001.
Cast...Katrina Martin as Zero, Janet Borkowski as Morpheus, Erik Prill as Agent Jones.
Produced by Adam Buckner, Ryan K. Johnson, and Brian D. Oberquell, Directed by Adam Buckner, Written & Photographed by Ryan K. Johnson. Post-production audio by Erik Prill.

Run Frodo Run

In 2002, both Edward and Leopoldo returned to the workshop and if we were going to do yet another parody, clearly there was one movie in everyone's mind: Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. We decided to combine this with a clever German art-house movie, Run Lola Run (check it out!), and show three possible outcomes of Frodo's attempt to take the One Ring (in our case, a bagel) to Mount Doom and rescue Sam. Everyone really got into the spirit of the movie and we had a huge cast and crew with us as we kept running around the hotel having to do the same scenes in the same places three times in a row (but all shot in sequence with no editing). The movie begins with Frodo, while waiting around a pay phone, receiving a call from Sam telling him to bring the One Ring to Mount Doom. Gandalf emerges from the nearby women's restroom and thus advises him: "Run Frodo, Run!" Frodo's adventures take him past a white rabbit, a large scary fan, a Balrog, Darth Vader, and screaming fans, until the final confrontation (after dying twice, just like Kenny) at Mount Doom (or something fairly similar).

Credits:

Run Frodo Run
6 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two hours on March 30, 2002.
Cast... Theo Hill as Frodo, Brian D. Oberquell as Sam, Jesse Brocksmith as Bunnyman, Brian Hunt as Sauron, Mark Dranek, Kate Waterous, Rachel as Orcs.
Produced by Edward Martin III, Leopoldo Marino, Ryan K. Johnson and Brian D. Oberquell, Directed by Edward Martin III, Written by Edward Martin III and Leopoldo Marino. Photographed and post-production audio by Ryan K. Johnson.

Ultimate Survivor Norwescon

With reality shows being all the rage in 2003, it seemed only natural to do a parody of them. Hence doing an "ultimate" version of Survivor set at Norwescon "where there is no immunity," our host gleefully informs us. In fact, the show begins showing all the former contestants who have already met their demise including Ryan (killed by the "voodoo message board") and Edward (an entire pack of cigarettes crammed in his mouth). We then meet the six finalists who describe themselves in turn and then are given fannish challenges. The first, the "Survive the Panel Panel," was to see who could sit through a 26 hour panel. The second was to safely walk through Day Six of the gaming room where "no personal hygiene" existed. After one character was stabbed in the back by another, the final challenge was a bagel eating contest, but two of the bagels were leftovers from Norwescon I! Only Mike in his Hawaiian t-shirt survived, although when he learned what the grand prize was, an erotic massage from William Shatner, he committed suicide. The host wasn't concerned and urged us to watch next week for "Ultimate Survivor Westercon." As a surprise, we added a gag after our traditional "We made this!" cast shot, just for a change of pace. This was the first production to actually be edited after we shot it, although keeping with our tradition of doing everything on the spot, it was completed in under four hours.

Credits:

Ultimate Survivor Norwescon
6 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two hours on April 19, 2003.
Cast... As themselves: Bob, Dana Halfhill, Lori Hillard, Mike Reddig, Kathleen, Runia.
Produced by Edward Martin III, Leopoldo Marino, Ryan K. Johnson and Brian D. Oberquell, Directed by Edward Martin III, Written by Edward Martin III and Leopoldo Marino. Photographed and post-production audio by Ryan K. Johnson.

Con of The Dead

Probably for the first time, we cheated and Edward and I had a brief chat ahead of time to discuss possible themes we could use for our fifth production in 2004. As I recall, I said to him, "What's left to parody? We've already done The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, and Survivor." And without missing a beat he said, "Well the two most popular movies in America currently feature people rising from the dead [Dawn of the Dead and The Passion Of The Christ], so how about zombies?" That was the magic word. As soon as I heard "zombies" I knew we had a winner. So on Friday morning at the workshop planning panel we told everyone our great idea and everyone agreed. Lori Hillard offered to do makeup (and buy -- with her own money -- a fake arm (thank you, Lori!)), people shouted out possible ideas, and we were off and running. An alternative title we considered was "Dawn of the Living Impaired."

It's been pointed out that Shaun of the Dead (written and starring one of my favorite British comics, Simon Pegg) is also a comedy with zombies but at the time we shot this, none of us had seen it, so I don't think it really counts as plagiarism. Besides, the essential joke of our movie is zombies are the latest oppressed minority demanding equal rights, which I think is unique.

The movie opens with what I think is probably the best-acted scene we've done so far: a hick couple talking about their daughter marrying a zombie. These two were great, with perfect accents (topped only by the guy we recruited at the last second to play an intolerant bus driver) and the look of disdain the guy gives when forced to use the politically correct term "living impaired" instead of "zombies" is priceless. Edward spent the night before coming up with an amazing animated graphic using Adobe After Effects, as well as graphics for our "sponsor" Zombagra. From that point on, it's just joke, joke, joke: zombies picket a theater for showing Dawn of the Dead, Steve Irwin discovers that babies and zombies don't mix, a Kurt Cobain fan isn't impressed with Kurt's zombie version (hilariously performed by David Tackett), and even Jesus gets into the act pointing out he was the original person to rise from the dead. We had our biggest group ever to help out, which meant for the theater scene (shot in the parking lot just outside the back lobby of the hotel) we were able to have dozens of extras in addition to at least 10 zombie protesters. My largest crowd scene ever! We finished shooting in the hotel coffee shop where one of the waitresses even stepped in to assist with the joke. The final gag in the movie was one that Edward lobbied heavily for: having a zombie lose an eyeball in a cup of coffee. This seemed to amuse him to no end.

All the filming was completed in just two and half hours, and Edward and I quickly headed up to his hotel room to edit everything in time for our 4 PM panel. As we edited, Edward's wife Katrina (our "Zero" from The Matricks) just couldn't get enough of the "zombie moan" that our head zombie, the quickly drafted Leopoldo Marino, kept doing throughout and no matter how many times she heard it, she broke up laughing. Hopefully the rest of the world would feel the same way. Despite Edward's computer doing some bizarre crashes, we managed to throw all the shots together more or less in a manner ready for public consumption. Only a few minutes late, we were able to present them to our assembled editing workshop and the result was a huge success.

As usual, the official premiere was Sunday at the Fandance Film Festival (after Edward had sweetened the audio slightly Saturday evening) where it received a great response. Only Edward's quickie "Shadow Dog" got bigger laughs all afternoon.

Edward's webpage for Con Of The Dead with downloadable version.

Credits:

Con Of The Dead
5 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two and a half hours on April 10, 2004.
Cast... Leopoldo Marino ("Keanu Reeves" and head zombie), David Tackett ("Kurt Cobain" and Charlton Heston), Debbie Lentz (Redneck Wife), Daniel Kaufman (Redneck Husband), Alexandra Paris (Zombie Translator), Katrina Martin (Zombagra Voiceover); Theo Hill, Chris Anderson, Thaddeus, Runia (Zombies); Laurel Parshall (Scared Woman), Sera Hartman (Pamphlet Reader), Mike Reddig (Jesus), Mark Dranek (Bus driver).
Produced by Edward Martin III, Ryan K. Johnson and Brian D. Oberquell, Directed by Edward Martin III, Written by Edward Martin III and Ryan K. Johnson. Photographed by Ryan K. Johnson. Editing and sound by Edward Martin III. Props by David Tackett and Janet Borkowski. Make-Up: Lori Hillard.

CSI: Norwescon

Our rainiest Norwescon yet, and fortunately we planned a movie that could be shot entirely indoors. Not only that, but most of it took place inside a bathroom! After toying with the idea of doing "Klingon Eye For The Con Guy" (which apparently has been done already) we decided the glut of TV police procedurals were ripe for the Norwescon parody treatment. This was helped by the fact our own Brian D. Oberquell has an amazing resemblance to CSI star William Petersen. Former bunnyman (Run Frodo Run) Jesse Brocksmith quickly volunteered to be our featured corpse even though this meant being immersed in a bathtub full of ice!

Two CSI investigators arrive at a con hotel to find Cuddles Jackson dead in his bathtub and all his organs missing. Was it organleggers? Aliens? Or something much more sinister? The crack CSI: Norwescon team (working out of their Seattle World Headquarters) eventually solve the baffling case.

Because so much filming took place in a bathroom, most of the participants of the panel weren't able to directly see what we were doing, hence it wasn't really much a "Roll Your Own" workshop as we intended. Also, we bit off a little more than we could chew in terms of production complexity and ran way over our alloted two hour shooting schedule. Editing was even slower, with Edward finishing a rough cut mere minutes before its premiere on Sunday, nearly 24 hours after we had shot it. Next year, we plan to scale things back a bit, involve everyone more, and keep things simple so we don't spend the rest of the convention doing post-production.

Edward's webpage for CSI: Norwescon with downloadable version.

Credits:

CSI: Norwescon
8 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in three and a half hours on March 26, 2005.
Cast... The Victim Cuddles Jackson: Jesse Brocksmith; Investigators: Brian D. Oberquell & Enid Borgerding; Policeman: Mark Dranek; Seductress: Julie Andrijeski; Lab Assistant: Thadeus Wilson; Coroner: Tracey Ernst.
Produced by Edward Martin III, Leopoldo Marino, Ryan K. Johnson and Brian D. Oberquell, Directed by Edward Martin III, Written by Edward Martin III & Brian D. Oberquell. Photographed by Ryan K. Johnson and Eric Morgret. Editing and sound by Edward Martin III. Make-Up: Lori Hillard.

March of the Fenguins

Another rainy Easter weekend, but as promised, we shot this in the allotted time, and editing only took six hours. Ryan had been nursing this idea for a while and quickly persuaded the rest of the workshop to make it this year's movie (though his preferred original title was "March of the Fanboys." This was thought sexist, so it was changed to "Fenguins" -- "fen" is the plural of "fan"). Edward still has not seen the original documentary but he was quickly brought up to speed. We had dozens of quality extras and everyone was able to get face time on screen this year. Brave Theo Hill (Run Frodo Run) dove into the pool and provided a stunning underwater swimming shot. His mother informed us he's going into the Army for six years later this year. See you again at Norwescon 35 in 2012, Theo! Many other familiar faces made an appearance this year including Runia, Dana Halfhill, Katrina Martin, Janet Borkowski, and Jesse Brocksmith.

The humble narrator explains how the fen congregate each year at the same time and place, grooming each other, feeding their young, and attempting to mate with their own kind. We meet the only natural enemy of the fen (disapproving parents), as well as sinister scheme to steal their pelts.

Edward's webpage for March of the Fenguins with downloadable version.

Credits:

March of the Fenguins
5 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two hours on April 15, 2006.
Cast... Narrator: Leopoldo Marino; Baby Feeder: Mike Reddig; Swimming Fenguin: Theo Hill; Boot Hill Guy: Nathanial Woodbury; Berating Parent: Fern Francavillo; Daughter: Kelly.
Produced by Edward Martin III, Leopoldo Marino, Eric Morgret and Ryan K. Johnson, Directed by Edward Martin III. Original idea by Ryan K. Johnson. Photographed by Ryan K. Johnson. Editing and sound by Edward Martin III. Stills by Ruth.

Manslugs!
The Making Of A "Sci-Fi Original"

Just to prove we don't always come into these workshops with pre-set ideas, this parody of those awful TV movies The Sci-Fi Channel foists on us every Saturday was about the twelfth suggestion the audience made at this year's planning panel. It was by far the best (and successfully avoided us having to do a parody of "300"--ugh!). We shot an amazing amount of material in just two hours, including Hollywood's worst writers pitching their ideas to brainless executives, the casting session, production and post-production... the rough cut ran over 12 minutes!  It was eventually trimmed down to nine and half, the first time we'd ever had deleted scenes and outtakes of any note.  

Three executives from the Sci-Fi Channel listen patiently to some of the lamest story pitches ever.  The only one they like is for "Manslugs!" The writer is ecstatic although her nightmare begins as the tie-dyed shirt wearing director (previous credits: "Leprechaun 8") decides that Bruce Willis, Nicolas Cage, Johnny Depp and Dakota Fanning are "kind of overexposed," and instead casts unknowns with no experience.  Budget cuts cause further rewrites as the army of manslugs is reduced to a single manslug. Shooting begins with the smallest camera ever seen, no tripod, and a blind cameraman. The special effects consist mostly of slime and black garbage bags. No one listens to the frantic pleas of the writer that they aren't following her script. Finally, the promotion department gets a call alerting them of the title change ("Take out the 's'") but as the trailer reveals, there is a slight miscommunication...

Credits:

Manslugs! The Making of A "Sci-Fi Original"
10 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two hours on April 7, 2007.
Cast... Executives: Ryan K. Johnson, Julie Andrijeski, Don Lake; Executive's Daughter: Runia; Director: Mike Reddig; "Bruce Willis": Daniel Kaufman; "Dakota Fanning": Dana Halfhill; Pitches: Ron Lake, Dave Tackett, Laurel Parshall, Jesse Brocksmith, Anita Taylor, Janet Borkowski; Actors: Larry W. Lewis, Cherise, Miranda, Phil Jones; Grip: Eric Weber; The Effects Guy: Brian D. Oberquell; Script Girl: Kate Waterous; Promotion Guy: Edward Martin III.
Produced by Edward Martin III, Brian D. Oberquell, Eric Morgret and Ryan K. Johnson, Directed by Edward Martin III. Written by Edward Martin III. Photographed by Ryan K. Johnson. Editing and sound by Edward Martin III. 

Edward's webpage for Manslugs! with a low-res downloadable version.

31

I figured we'd be doing the obvious parody this year, "Cloverfield," but someone suggested doing a Department of Homeworld Security training video and that quickly morphed into a parody of "24" despite the fact Edward has never seen the series.  As is tradition though, gamers were the subject of a lot of the humor, although by making them the deliberate bad guys at least they had a chance to defend themselves.  The Sony TRV-9 camcorder I have been using for the past eight years broke on Thursday afternoon, so I quickly had to locate a replacement camera for Saturday.  R.I.P. TRV-9, you served us long and well.  Although there were plenty of parts for everyone, it seems all the speaking parts went to people who had previously appeared in our videos.  We aren't allergic to new people, they just never seem to volunteer to act.  Theo Hill returned from active military duty to attend the convention and we cast him as Agent Jones. As Edward, Brian and I plotted out the story, we couldn't decide whether Jones should live or die, so we opted to shoot alternative endings and see which one played better.  On Friday night, I jumped on Edward's computer and in advance created the graphics we needed: the "31" logo, and the ticking clock. For music, we totally lucked out, Brian had the entire score on his iPod!   

Credits:

31
7 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two and a half hours on March 22, 2008.
Cast... Director Smith: Daniel Kaufman; Shifty: Mark Dranek; The Dungeonmaster: Brian Hunt; Female Technician: Kate Waterous; Agent Eddie Bauer: Larry W. Lewis; Agent Jones: Theo Hill; Illegal Alien: Dana Halfhill; Tortured Gamer: David Tackett.
Produced by Edward Martin III, Brian D. Oberquell, Eric Morgret and Ryan K. Johnson, Directed by Edward Martin III. Written by Edward Martin III, Brian D. Oberquell and Ryan K. Johnson. Photographed by Ryan K. Johnson. Editing and sound by Edward Martin III. 

Cult of the Giant Brain

Credits:

Cult of the Giant Brain
6 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two and a half hours on May 25, 2008.
Cast... Voice of the Giant Brain: Edward Mokuri Cherlin; High Priestess: Taunya Gren; Gamer: Daniel Edmunds.
Produced and Written by Edward Martin III and Ryan K. Johnson, Directed by Edward Martin III. Photographed by Ryan K. Johnson. Editing and sound by Edward Martin III. 

KNWC

Credits:

KNWC
10 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two hours on April 11, 2009.
Cast... Anchors: Lori Hillard, Sandi Hogben; Roving Correspondent: Dave Tackett; Scared Guest: Deborah Olson; Gamers: Laurel Parshall, Brian Hunt, Don Lake; War Correspondent: Cory; Financial Correspondents: Kate Waterous, Dana Halfhill, Ron Lake, Doug Staudt; Traffic Correspondent: Mike Reddig; Sports Correspondent: Megan; Entertainment Correspondent: Anita Taylor; Soap PSA: Deborah Olson; Lifestyle Correspondent: Tina; Magical Con Fairy: Daniel Kaufman.
Produced by Edward Martin III, Brian D. Oberquell, Eric Morgret and Ryan K. Johnson, Directed by Edward Martin III. Written by Edward Martin III, Ryan K. Johnson & the cast. Crawl Written by Mike Reddig and Brian Hunt. Photographed by Ryan K. Johnson. Edited by Ryan K. Johnson and Edward Martin III. Graphics: Tristan Levine. Sound and DVD authoring by Edward Martin III. 

Machinechete/World's Deadliest... Convention

Credits:

Machinechete/World's Deadliest...Convention
5 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two hours on May 24, 2009.
Cast... Host: James Collum.
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. 

Blood In The Hall

Credits:

Blood In the Hall
7 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in three and a half hours on April 3, 2010.
Cast... Narrator: Mark Dranek; Bible Study Members: Laurel Parshall, Larry Lewis, Jesse Brocksmith; Hallwall Sleeper: Don Lake; Carpet Scraper: Ron Lake; 6-2-1 Drunk: Daniel Kaufman; Severed Arm: Edward Martin III; Clueless Maid Tipper: Janet Borkowski; Line Cutter: Erica; Room Stuffer: Brian Hunt; Japanese Cleaning Woman: Deborah Olson; Peacebonder: Dan Murphy; Chopped Arm: Dana Halfhill; Passed Out Drunk: Runia; Slapping Girl: Megan; Bartender: Dave Tackett; 5B Security Victim: Lori Hillard.
Produced by Edward Martin III, Brian D. Oberquell, Eric Morgret and Ryan K. Johnson, Directed by Edward Martin III. Written by Edward Martin III, Ryan K. Johnson & the cast. Interns: Amanda Kundert and Julie Andrijeski. Photographed by Ryan K. Johnson. Lighting: Doug Staudt. Edited by Ryan K. Johnson. Sound and DVD authoring by Edward Martin III. 

It's A Terrible Life

Our third year at Baycon and the turnout was not for lack of publicity on the part of the convention: there were ads in the program book for the workshop and several nice articles in the con newsletters.  We also were given the largest venue at the convention center to shoot in, the grand ballroom where the masquerade was held.  What were we going to do in such a large space? In the end, not much, we only shot three quick scenes there and then did the rest in the hallways like usual. Folks were very interested in doing a horror movie and the idea was developed to have a demon come to the convention in order to do mischief and get promoted.  Quite near the end, it was decided to make it more a comedy but with a rather sinister end which we hoped we could get away with. In the end, we decided it was an inverted version of "It's a Wonderful Life," hence the title. The music is even stolen from the original movie.

A gamer rolls seven critical failures in a row. Unknown to anyone, this invocation summons a minor demon from hell who is now free to roam the convention in an attempt to earn her horns by tempting people into sin. She has to get 10 points, and during a conversation with a fellow demon on her hellphone (which she obnoxiously uses in public), gets her first point by telling a mother her baby is ugly and causing her to hate it. A man in a bar finds the iPhone prototype and rather than return it, the demon suggests in his ear that he could make a lot of money by selling it to Gizmodo. She angers Guest of Honor Peter S. Beagle by telling him that his panel has been replaced by "Twilight" filking. She stands behind a SCA braggart with a sign saying, "Liar." An attempt to get a nerdy fan to pick up a girl by slapping her on the ass goes wrong when the girl likes it and they begin kissing passionately.  The demon loses points and can't believe it. Trying to encourage a goth girl to kill herself fails as well and even a lawyer talking on the phone mocks her as an amateur. Tempting a woman on a diet to go ahead and gorge herself results in a point though. She encourages a boy to throw away a banana peel and litter which then causes a hapless man to slip and fall all the way down the escaltors. The demon sings a truly diabolical song in the filk room, and even though she is off-key and the song points out what hypocrites they all are for applauding, they do so anyway. She tells a woman to check out her room and when she does she discovers her husband has been having an affair and it breaks her heart. Sitting despondently, the woman is surprised to see TV's David Tennant standing in front of her asking her out on a date. It's love at first sight and the demon loses nearly all her accumulated points. She shouts out, "Curse you, true love! And TV's David Tennant!" A fan confronts the demon, having realized what she is up to.  The demon tries to deny it, then bribe her with winning lottery numbers (which turn out to be only the numbers from "Lost" which she recognizes). The fan then tweets the entire convention to be on the lookout for the demon and not succumb to her tricks. Ruined and with hardly any points, the demon slowly walks out of the convention. With only minutes left of her time on Earth, our hapless demon is locked in despair, sure she'll never earn her horns. Until, however....

Credits:

It's A Terrible Life
10 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in four hours on May 30, 2010.
Cast... Demon: Seanna Ladd; Mother: Taunya Gren; iPhone finder: Edward Goldstein; Himself: Peter S. Beagle; Slapper: William Tracey; Slappee: Miki Violet Sun Goddess; Goth girl: Kayla; Lawyer: Christopher Lipp; Cookie girl: Kathryn “Ryn” Bruce; Banana-eater: Chris Drennan; Banana-slipper: Mike Drennan; Girl with cheatin’ boyfriend: Meg Creelman; TV’s David Tennant: Jarrod Golgoski; “Lost” fan: Christine Doyle; SCA’ers: Trudi Villareal, Miki, Vega; Gamers: Jarrod Golgoski, William, Joe, Erin Mittmann; Filkers: Actual Filkers!.
Produced and Written by Edward Martin III and Ryan K. Johnson, Directed by Edward Martin III. Photographed and edited by Ryan K. Johnson. Sound by Edward Martin III. 

It Came From The Elevator!

We were asked by fellow workshopper Eric Morgret if we wanted to do it at his horror convention, Crypticon, in Everett, Washington.  Even though Eric was not available due to his programming duties, Ryan and Edward took up the challenge.  A last minute change of venue and lack of DVD player made for a rough planning panel. Because Crypticon is a shorter convention than either Norwescon or Baycon, we only had two and half days from start to finish.  This meant from the time we finished the planning panel Friday evening until we began shooting Saturday morning, there were only 13 hours.  And we also wanted to get some sleep.  We knew we had to keep it simple and a ride down the elevator provided the inspiration: a movie entirely set in an elevator. Of course we wouldn't have to shoot in a real elevator, it could be faked using any two walls of a room. There were only six parts and fortunately for us, six people turned up to do the workshop. 

Six fans at Crypticon board an elevator. The elevator stalls between floors and we can hear the thoughts of the passengers. Though unnamed in the movie, they are: Katy, a paranoid woman who thinks everyone either wants to bother her or come on to her; Vic, a would-be Lothario in the Zapp Brannigan mould; Johnny, who imagines the stalled elevator is a ticket to adventure involving aliens; Sunshine, an existentialist hippie; Norman, who has self-control problems; and Blankie who apparently has no real thoughts at all and just keeps a beat in her head. The elevator eventually continues its journey, but it's too late and everyone's fantasies come crashing into reality and It Came from the Elevator truly earns its wings as our first piece of psychological horror. 

Credits:

It Came From The Elevator!
8 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two hours on June 19, 2010.
Cast... Vic: Shawn Pack; Johnny: Jason Pease; Katy: Stephanie Ratliff; Sunshine: Jacynda Scott; Blankie: Kacy Anderson; Norman: Larry McConnell.
Produced and Written by Edward Martin III and Ryan K. Johnson, Directed by Edward Martin III. Photographed and edited by Ryan K. Johnson. Sound by Edward Martin III. 

ConCeption

Parody-time, although we mostly borrowed the concept of a hit movie (i.e. infiltrating dreams from Inception) to make our own statement about fandom.  Indeed, this is our most serious movie, with only a few deliberate jokes.  While it may not have the audience-pleasing power of a joke-a-minute Blood In The Halls, it was appealing to us to try something different, with a bit of heart. Edward was keen to exploit the likeness between frequent contributor David Tackett and Fran Kranz who played Topher on Dollhouse. Ryan was dead-set against any Dollhouse references but a scene was shot and put at the end as a punchline to the movie.

A girl complains to her friends that her father won't let her attend a science fiction convention. They decide it's time for an inception. While reading his bible, the father falls asleep and suddenly finds himself in standing in line at a convention. He dismisses them as "loser weirdos" but overhears a conversation from others in the queue that makes them sound intelligent. But he must go deeper. He wakes again in the second level, a surreal panel. The agents burst in and tell him he's trapped in a dream and must escape with them. People in the dream are becoming aware of them and beginning to fight back. An exciting shoot-out still disappoints the father, so he is taken to the third level. Dressed strangely, he is at the dance where he sees his daughter having a great time and being complimented for her costuming. He realizes that this is what makes her happy. The agents kick him back to the second level where he joins in the shoot-out with much glee. They kick him up to the top level, a surreal scene where three people try to blow out a candle. The father walks in and says you need a badge to put it out. Later, in the real world we see him talking on the phone with his daughter telling her he'll drive her to the con. He then picks up the book he was reading: a Dungeons and Dragons handbook. One final scene has the father waking up from a familiar chair...

Credits:

ConCeption
6 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two hours on April 23, 2011.
Cast... Daughter: Lori Hillard; Inception Agents: Dana Halfhill, Ron Lake, David Tackett; Father: Daniel Kaufman; Line person: Mike Reddig; Fighters: Anita Taylor, Liz Dahlstrom, Andrew Kinman; Fighting Jesus: Jim Moniz; Candleblowers: Helga.
Produced by Edward Martin III, Brian D. Oberquell, Eric Morgret and Ryan K. Johnson. Directed by Edward Martin III. Photographed and edited by Ryan K. Johnson. Sound by Edward Martin III. Lighting: Lisa Sherman and Doug Staudt. Costuming: Anita Taylor. Intern: Heather Candelaria. 

Fantiques Roadshow

Doing a fannish version of the Antiques Roadshow format promised lots of opportunities to both do gags and feature a lot of different people in a short amount of time. We added an extra layer with it being the last-ever episode and some of the post-production staff becoming disgruntled. Most of the props were provided by the people who presented them in the movie, with usually an added gag we had devised earlier. Unlike most productions which used "done in one" set-ups, each sequence was shot three times with a wide master shot, and angles on each presenter. This added a bit of time in editing but helped recreate the look and feel of the original show. The opening credits were stolen from the PBS version of the series which is hosted by Mark Wahlberg (hence the Marky Mark joke we did).

Marky Mark introduces the final episode of Fantiques Roadshow from Norwescon 35 in Seattle, Washington. The items: The Deadly Pair of katanas, Titantic hat, William Shatner's orange, prop boy, mind control helmet, Matrix spoon, Braveheart kilt, Supernatural guns, dagger, steam punk carriage, scarf, sword, medallion, egyptian necklace, vase. Meanwhile, the increasingly frustrated caption writer expresses his displeasure at this being the last show and losing his job.

Credits:

Fantiques Roadshow
10 minutes. Mini-DV videotape. Filmed in two hours on April 7, 2012.

Cast...Marky Mark: Doug Staudt. Assessors: Brian Hunt, Lisa Sherman, Thomas Gray. Hat woman: Anita Taylor; Orange woman: Liz Dahlstrom; Father: Mike Reddig; Son: Griffin Reddig; Mind Control Helmet man: Dave Tackett (pictured, left); Spoon woman: Kate Waterous; Kilt man: Don Lake; Dagger woman: Tina; Gun woman: Gabby; Baby carriage woman: Lori Hillard; scarf woman: Dana Halfhill; Medallion man: Ray; Necklace man: Ryan K. Johnson; Vase man: Brian D. Oberquell.
Produced by Edward Martin III, Brian D. Oberquell, Eric Morgret and Ryan K. Johnson. Directed by Edward Martin III. Photographed and edited by Ryan K. Johnson. Sound by Edward Martin III. Lighting: Doug Staudt. Interns: Todd Gardiner, Hank. 

Steve: Portrait of a Minion

Credits:

Warehouse 36

Credits:

Back to Ryan's Homepage
Escape From Seattle | Kill Roy | Doctor Who | Star Trek: The Pepsi Generation
What's Ryan Watching | The Wolfe Project | Mystery Science Theater 3000
Have I Got News For You | The 2001 Movies | Let's Make a Movie Workshop | Meltdown