The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

This is somethiong that I spoken to a few individuals about over the years and has been touched on here and there in the forum but with the recent announcement that this years marathon will be all digital it seemed like a good time to start a thread about The Marathon Experience VS The Movie Line-Up...

What is your main reason for attending the Ohio Marathons, The Film Line-Up or The Marathon Experience???

We have all been to a marathon where we felt the movie line up wasn't very strong but the The Marathon Experience was great, I am sure we have all also been to a marathon that had a very strong line up but for some reason the Marathon Event itself wasn't the greatest. And than we have the "Perfect Storm" of Marathon Where everything comes together perfectly (Not Even Automatons could kill The Marathon Experience of the 24th Annual Sci-Fi Marathon)

So what makes you come back year after year??

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Jaws3dfan®
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For me it is more about the expereince than the film lineup. i've been going since the first year at the Arena Grand. One example during the Arena Grand era there was about a bunch of Star Trek Red Shirts demanding a union since their life span is short.

Then there was Spaceboy. I was hook.

I like getting up early talking to fellow Marathonoids asking what they want to see in the lineup. The snarking when a bad movie is being screen. The semi choherent speeches past midnight from a tired man named Bruce. Ro-Man.

I do like the films that are screened every year at the Science Fiction Marathon. The SF Marathon help to expand my taste to watch more of the classics and more of the offbeat SF films as well. I was estactic when Logan's Run finally screend at the SF Marathon. There was many naysayers that a 35mm print will never be shown. Bruce proves them worng. Watching premires of movies that that will never have a regular run in theaters. Ink is one of those films.

That is all for now.

For me it's a mix of both. My first sci-fi marathon was last year and my (then girlfriend, now wife) and I had a blast and got to meet some interesting people. Some of these people are now friends, even though I see them on a monthly basis (I don't live in Columbus), it's always great experiencing film with other people. I went to the horror marathon last year as well (again, my first) and had a blast (all except the jerk who stole my marathon shirt). I'm also a movie trailer junkie. Half the fun is seeing what they are going to show!

I know I was in the minority, but I LOVED Manborg. Since then, I've been talking to the guys at Astron-6. Manborg is available on DVD in the UK, but not the US yet...grrrr. I had seen Electroma beforehand and was going to use that as "sleep time", but the riffs were so fun, it kept me awake. Sadly, sleep hit me hard during Reptilicus

For me, this is a lot like going to a concert with a bunch of bands you want to see, a few you haven't heard of and a couple you don't care for. Only the audience is smaller and your are more likely to enjoy the majority of it. I love live music, I'm not fond of festivals (went to Bonnaroo last year and it was a miserable experience).

You and me Both, wish that had played earlier.

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Manborg has been picked up by Dark Sky and will be out sometime in April in the US on DVD. Enjoy.

Thanks for the info!

Raven Banner is also releasing it in Canada. All depends on the special features for me. Manborg isn't going to be some hi-def picture some dvd will be fine. The Astron 6 guys mentioned that it wouldn't have a Blu-Ray release...

Great can't wait to get my copy of Manborg.

For me it is more the experience than the movies. I've been going since SF1 when I was in High School. Even when livign in Washington DC I always found a way to come back. I've had friends come with me in the past, though now I am pretty much coming alone. My older son is 9, and may come in a few years but he isn't a big fan of violence in movies or TV. He will watch Looney Toons, but has no interest in Clone Wars, Thundercats, etc.

Anyhow, whether I am alone or not, I come to sit in line and chat with folks I olnly see once or twice a year. Even when I have firends coming, they tend to get there later, I just like to be early and like to talk. I am usually happy with whatever Bruce shows. I've done a bit of volunteering, but I don't like missing anything on the screen or on the speakers. I've spent more years of my life going to marathons than not. This year I thought I would miss part of the marathon, something that I've never done. My wife tolerates the marathons. She used to go years ago but her health wouldn't permit it now. But it is one of my few vices and is only a weekend or two (if I do horror) a year.

I actually now work with a guy who used to go to the marathons. I passed this years info on to him. He was talking about Frequency to a younger guy here who has never seen it. He then talked about Killer Klowns which he didn't think he would like but enjoyed it at the marathon. He had tried to watch it again but doesn't like it as much. I think that is true for many of us. I seriously doubt I would have watched a number of movies that I have seen at marathons unless they were there. You need other people to get through Automotons.

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The wages of sin are royalties.

It's definitely about the experience. The film line-up matters, but it's not the most important thing. What I love about the marathon is the community - the snarking, the comments between films, Bruce as host organism, trailers and shorts, and especially the early morning line discussions.

Last year when I arrived partway through the first film, I felt off the whole 'thon. I had missed the part of the marathon that really connects me with everyone else. Even though there was a great line-up, and I had fun with the costume contest, it was all about the community and I missed a big part of that.

Experience, is there any doubt?

I could sit around and watch 24 hours of great Sci-Fi movies at home anytime I want.

Watching movies with friends at 3 in the morning being totally sleep deprived, after eating both Graeter's and Jeni's and God knows what else? Especially after moving this year is a huge deal.

Yeah, this is the eternal chicken/egg debate, one which is greatly enhanced when you're on the other end trying to assemble a lineup. And it's true that if you boil this whole cinematic thing of ours down to its essentials, the group dynamic of the audience is the main draw. But the lineup will always have an effect, no matter what. And in some cases, a poor lineup can sap an audience of its energy, and thus make the experience factor a much lesser...um...experience.

And even then, it's tough to say what entails a poor lineup. Sometimes, it's a slate of fairly rotten films. Sometimes, it's a lineup that looks good on paper, but doesn't work as a whole. Over the years, there have been several lineups that inevitably have required 3-5 slower or less engaging films to play on top of each other from 10pm on, the result of which has been a collective knockout of the crowd. Most of you have attended Marathons in which the energy is consistent throughout; you know how fun it is to have the audience energized for the last few films, to cheer along with a final flick that happens to be particularly rousing. Knocking the crowd out early can often negate that final state of enthusiasm, which is no fun for anyone. Of course, there's also the matter of the graying of the Columbus crowd...but that's probably a topic for another thread.

But at the same time, poor looking lineups can also sometimes be great fun. Witness the 2009 CWRU Sci-Fi Marathon (right over here.) When my cohorts and I saw the initial list, we almost declined to head up north so bad it appeared. But we made the trek anyway, and were rewarded with a great time. For one reason or the other, this motley stew of B and obscure fare ended up playing incredibly well as a whole. And the surprise inclusions of A BOY AND HIS DOG and STAR TREK II only solidified the good times.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that the Mighty Marathon Machine is a multilayered menace (eat yer heart out Stan Lee!), featuring many working parts that all contribute to the audience enjoyment factor. Some of the parts are bigger than others, and the event can keep running if some of the lesser parts aren't fully working. But there's nothing like the Marathon firing on all cylinders.

Goodness gracious Joe.
I was at the 2009 CWRU Marathon (probably threw you some fruit) but I have no memory of at least four of the films - and little of at least a couple more that I remember as having seen elsewhere.
Must have been an exhausted year.

But to your original question. Of course it's a combination.

It's the event that makes some things that would otherwise be uninteresting worth the attention.

It's the group experience of sharing guilty pleasures with more nerds than one would think could be crammed into a single space. Guilty because the expenditure of time & money can't be defended on a basis of quality or spending the time vs. anything productive or esthetic that you could be doing.

And the full screen experience that makes even a turkey (think Dune) a joy to watch. (Well -
some of it a joy to watch.)

And there is the experience of discussion with persons you see once a year. Don't have many
Columbus friends of that type as yet, but do have more than a dozen of that sort with whom I have shared CWRU for more than two decades.

Then there are the more those occasions that I have discovered excellent films that I had no knowledge of. Had never heard of. Could perhaps have discovered otherwise - but my mechanism has been attendance at marathons.

In my dotage I do admit that attending something like the Cleveland Int. Film Festival is more interesting. There, you certainly bump into turkeys - but generally every film broadens horizons - and has been chosen over a dozen films that are not shown.

But do enjoy the Marathons to the extent that I have now been to three cities worth of them. And intend to keep doing so.

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Thar’s only two possibilities: Thar is life out there in the universe which is smarter than we are, or we’re the most intelligent life in the universe. Either way, it’s a mighty sobering thought. - Walt Kelly

Manborg DVD release date is now April 30th. So if you want Manborg, you can have Manborg.

Dark Sky is also giving it some limited theatrical play. I don't know what cities, but it will be around that date.