blog.starwreck.com

We had a discussion at the office the other day about Star Wreck. We were talking about spending the whole summer at different places promoting our film, and how people still like to hear us talk and love Star Wreck no matter what the situation - science fiction and roleplaying conventions and computer festivals to name a few. The only events we very rarely get invited to are Finnish film festivals or related parties. It’s way strange, but then again, I think our audience is of a very different mold than those visiting film festivals, and the few we’ve been to, we’ve never felt at home there. Maybe it’s the fact we’ve never worked too much with professional film people until now with Iron Sky, or that we’ve never been to film schools - who knows. Either way, this summer is not an exception - first Finncon, then Assembly and now the next place we’re about to drag our asses to is Ropecon, a roleplaying convention taking place in Espoo, Finland. Later on there’s one con in Denmark and another seminar in Japan (more about those later).

To be honest, at first we thought that we’re not going to go anywhere this summer - these past 2 years, we’ve been to all kinds of places presenting our film, and we’ve always had something new - a new film, a roleplaying game, whatever. This year, we don’t - although a lot has happenend since last year. We were specifically invited and asked to come over to all of these events, so although at first we were about to decline, we decided that hey, probably somebody still wants to hear what we have to say.

Presenting Iron Sky is fun, and it’s definitely nice to talk about a totally new film for a change. It takes a little bit of adjusting for us to talk about this, since before it’s either been about Star Wreck, or collaborative filmmaking and Star Wreck Studios. I think we’ve pretty much covered both subjects thoroughly, so it was about time for us to find something new to talk about.

The reason Iron Sky is being brought up at such a very early stage of the production is because we want people to start adjusting to expecting it. I don’t believe in the way films are made and marketed today - first a little hype with a trailer, then the film is out and pretty quickly forgotten and the success is largely bound to the opening weekend or even opening day - if that fails, the film will flop. What I love about filmmaking and watching films with others is expecting the film over a long time, slowly seeing it come together piece by piece, and by knowing that I’ve been among the very first ones to know about the film.

And I want it to last - if I like the film, I want to be able to talk about it when it is released, but also for a long time afterwards, and to hear people’s opinions that have survived and changed since the initial “big bang” of the release. That’s why I love Lord of the Rings - I was waiting for it for about 7 years, and I can still come back to the subject, talk about how much I loved the film and watch it over and over again and it doesn’t feel like a worn-out subject. Unlike Narnia, which suddenly appeared and very quickly disappeared, just to give one example. I think the same happens with Transformers - but then again, 300 seems to last, although I didn’t like the film that much.

I got a bit carried away there. What I wanted to say is, come and join us at the Ropecon Iron Sky seminar, since it’ll be the last one this year in Finland, and although we don’t have much new stuff to show you, we still have some pretty cool stuff on the big screen, a little bit of concept art for Iron Sky - and as usual, we’ll throw a helluva good show there!

Here’s a description of the event:

La 22.00 – Su 00.00 Rautataivas: Natseja kuussa Auditorio Esitelmä

Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning (2005) oli jättimenestys, joka ylsi kaikkien aikojen katsotuimpien kotimaisten elokuvien joukkoon miljoonien latauksiensa ja kansainvälisen levityksensä ansiosta. Tekijät eivät kuitenkaan tyytyneet tähän, vaan halusivat tehdä jotakin vielä massiivisempaa ja sekopäisempää. Näin syntyi Rautataivas, elokuva natseista kuun pimeällä puolella. Ropecon 2007 -tapahtumassa tekijät viettävät reippaan tunnin kertomalla, mihin soppaan ovat lusikkansa tunkeneet. Jättimäinen elokuvatuotanto ei Suomessa ole helppo nakki, eikä yleinen ilmapiiri scifielokuvia kohtaan kaikkein hellävaraisin. Star Wreckin tekijät yhdistivät voimansa kuitenkin Jadesoturin onnistuneesti tuottaneiden Blind Spot Picturesin ja Petri Jokirannan, sekä kaikkien aikojen menestyneimmän suomalaisen tieteiskirjailija Johanna Sinisalon kanssa, ja lähtivät härkäpäisesti työntämään leffajärkälettään eteenpäin. Mikä tärkeintä, he aikovat kutsua kaikki elokuvanteosta kiinnostuneet mukaan urakkaan, tehdäkseen kaikkien aikojen parhaan eurooppalaisen tieteiskomedian.

Järjestäjä: Timo Vuorensola

We are in the primetime slot in Ropecon’s main auditorium Saturday 22:00-00:00 - there’s plenty of time for everything, and we try to cover as much as we can.

Antti has also promised to organize a roleplaying session for the Star Wreck Roleplaying Game on Saturday from 16:00-19:00. Be sure not to miss that, as the last time was, I hear, hilarious!

See you in Espoo!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 14:51 and is filed under 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.