Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Write-up for Show #2 and new format announcement


So, VCinema II has come and gone and I, for one, was generally pleased with the results. At one time, we were able to draw twenty people in, a most generous increase from the first show, which drew thirteen. More impressively, we were also able to draw in people outside of the Varied Celluloid and real-life circle of friends. In fact, blogger Micah of Reel Distraction stayed for pretty much the whole event and even wrote up a nice blurb about the whole affair:

When I got my first "real job," I bought Meet The Feebles and [Riki Oh] on VHS. Feebles because I'd read about it online, and [Riki Oh] because I knew it was the movie that Craig Kilborne used an excerpt from on The Daily Show. I was just getting into "weird" movies back then, and remember being constantly amazed by how over-the-top everything in this film was. I'd never seen anything like it before.

I'm not sure if I ever watching Riki-Oh a second time, so when I found out on twitter that Varied Celluloid (http://www.variedcelluloid.net/) was hosting an online chat/webcast of this film, I decided to check it out. It was the first time I'd watched a movie online with a crowd, and I had a blast watching the film while talking to other film geeks. They put on a show at the end of every month, and it's definitely worth checking out. Next month is Shogun Assassin.

Not much to say about the movie itself... it's patently ridiculous... but a lot of gruesome fun.
On the production side, Josh and I really upped the ante for this show; content was basically tripled across the board - there were three movie reviews - Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Heroes of the East, a much longer introduction with thanks to a couple of podcasts who assisted with promotion (The Gentlemen's Guide to Midnite Cinema and Zombiegrrlz) and everything, several announcements, a contest, and live voting for the next show (of which Shogun Assassin was the winner, see VCinema event announcements for more details). This pre-show added up to over an hour whereas the first show was about half that long. In addition, I had to handle all "studio duties" (sound design, cuing up videos, and equipment changes) by myself so there was a lot for me to do in addition to talking. I'm sure the audience probably got a little bored of me talking while I fumbled around, my eyes darting around everywhere, trying to master the controls. If you don't think that can be disconcerting, try to have conversation with your parents while looking around everywhere except in their face. Most likely, they will suspect you're on the reefer.

During the show, I brought up having impromptu film events. VCinema, as you may already know, broadcasts once a month, on the last Sunday every month. After the first show, there was a such an immediate 'high' (not sure why this post has so many drug references in it) among the attendees that Josh and I immediately put thought into the next event. In addition, the Varied Celluloid forums started drawing more members and they became much more active. However, between shows, there is a lot of prepping, touching bases with people, promoting, posting information, movie watching, music and sound production, not mention real life to contend with. This being the case, a month between events is a long time for people to remember the sort of community that both VCinema and Varied Celluloid want to create: a strong active genre film community. In order to keep our community active then, I decided to do impromptu "hit and run" shows under the moniker of the "Varied Celluloid Secret Society" or VCSS. VCSS shows differ from the 'regular' ones as follows:

  1. VCSS shows will be announced only a few days before they occur to keep with their "impromptu" nature
  2. VCSS shows will only be announced on VCinema and Varied Celluloid 'fan' channels (Twitter, Facebook, Steam, and the VC forums) and word of mouth.
  3. VCSS shows will focus on more obscure films, genres, filmmakers, and personalities than the regular shows
  4. The movie shown will not be announced until the actual event. Clues of the title, however, will be given.
  5. Pre-movie segment will be shorter and there will be no music mix beforehand.
With that said, again as you may know, the first of these impromptu events is happening today (09/07/09 as of this writing) at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern so we hope to see you there. Feel free to leave comments on what you think of these impromptu events either here, on the forums, or message them to me personally.

Enjoy and thank you for supporting VCinema and Varied Celluloid.

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