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Finncon, the two-day science fiction convention - biggest one in Nordic countries - took place in Jyväskylä last weekend. The Star Wreck team was invited to join there to talk about Iron Sky and genre films in Finland in general. Empror Pirk had also been asked to give an inspirational opening speech at the event, so we had our hands full during the whole weekend.

Last year’s Finncon in Helsinki was an interesting event as well. There we announced some news about Iron Sky - mainly the fact that Johanna Sinisalo was going to write the script for the film. This year we didn’t have that much to announce, since our demo is still in the works and main thing we’ve been focusing lately is funding the film. Talking about funding isn’t really too interesting, since it’s mostly about whining about lack of money, and gets people off the track, though the most imporant thing is the film itself.

Before Iron Sky -program we had a nice chat with film critic Marko Ahonen about future of films in Finland, mainly genre films. We also promoted few interesting new films that are going to be out there - go check out some of them here.

At the main Iron sky -speech we had prepared a little facts and fiction -part, where we talked about nazis and space in a wider perspective - what’s true, what’s fiction, and what’s in between. We did have a little surprise to show to people there as well - we digged out of our computers the very first video about Iron Sky, which is mainly a collection of photos and a song by Laibach to give a some sort of a feeling where the film would be heading. This video is mainly meant for ourselves to define the atmosphere of the demo, but as well to our partners to describe more abou what kind of a film we are working on. It’s not planned that we release this video, but propably those who didn’t get to see it at Finncon can do so at either Assembly or Ropecon.

We of course had our sales table at the event, and boy were we busy the whole weekend. People were going nuts over Iron Sky -T-shirts and Raumsturmführer caps, and Imperial Editions found many new good homes as well. We were very happy to see that people are still interested on us, although we haven’t had anything really new out since Imperial Edition’s release half a year ago. Support is more than essential now, so a warm thanks to everybody who supported our case!

The Finncon team had organized us lodging at a summer cabin close to Jyväskylä, far away from city noises, in the middle of the most beautiful Finnish landscape one can imagine. Peaceful surrounding with a sauna and lake and everything. So to stir things up a little bit we took out a camera and filmed a short Star Wreck -episode, which we will *never* *ever* release, if it’s up to us. It was about Pirk at the summer cabin, and had scenes of Pirk in the sauna, Pirk drinking vodka and passing out in the front porch of the cabin.

After that, and few beers, we headed out to Bar 68, where the official Finncon party was held. Met a bunch of good old science fiction fans there, talked about Wreck, life and the universe in general, but managed to get out of there before it was way too late, so dagen efter (the hangover-day) wasn’t bad at all.

To sum things up, Finncon this year was great. We had a possibility to check few panels here and there, and most of them I think I liked the interview with Joe Haldeman, although the monster-panel (where Petri Hiltunen introduced us a horror film about man-eating plankton, called Plankton) was also very fun and interesting. Suprisingly the “things you do not want to see in science fiction” panel ended up with the conclusion that there really isn’t much you wouldn’t want to see, but that there can never be enough films about nazis, zombies or sharks.

Next year’s Finncon will be held in Tampere, and it’s our duty to organize something spectacular there. But what? If you have great ideas, drop them as a comment!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 10:11 and is filed under Energia, English posts, General, Iron Sky, Travels. You're welcome to comment below, or link to this post. The comments are not moderated, but behave or Santa will smack you with a shovel.