Geeks and the City
Posted in Okie Film on June 4th, 2008 by Dwight – 4 CommentsI’m not the target audience and I know that. I have no objection to it, either.
Well, those are Jim Emerson’s words in regards to the Sex and the City movie. But, they also apply in my case in regards to science fiction conventions. I like sci-fi and horror and all that, but deep down I’m not really a genre guy at heart.
Anyways…there are a couple of “Sci-Fi” conventions coming up in the area with attendant film screenings. This weekend brings SoonerCon to the OKC Metro. They’ll have two days of movies as part of their SoonerCon/Bare Bones Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Film Festival.
Then in late July, Conestoga 12 arrives in Tulsa. They’ve got a short film contest going on as part of The Conestoga International Film Festival. They are still taking short film submissions until July 1st. Then at the convention, the winners in various categories will be awarded and screened.
In both cases, the film screenings are perhaps not worth the full cost of convention admission if that’s all your going for. Still, I’m curious about these sorts of conventions if only in a sociological sort of way. I see that SoonerCon has a session entitled “Is Blogging Helping or Hurting your Career?” What career? There is another session called “Creating Believeable Aliens.” Is “believable” really the appropriate word to be used here? Really? In any case, I’d like to know what sort of consensus they achieve. Which characteristics differ between a believable alien and one that just requires too much suspension of disbelief? Which brings me to perhaps the most fascinating session which takes place Sunday morning–”Morning Worship Service.” After digesting the wealth of material you’ve learned in a previous session about how to create believable aliens, you’re going to wake up on Sunday for a little worship. How nice. And, who or what will they be worshiping exactly? And, furthermore, is this deity more or less believable than the alien? Oh, how I wish I were a fly on the wall. Hmmm, I wonder if there’s a session on achieving believable human-to-fly metamorphosis…
