The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

Unfortunately, my red diaper is at the cleaners. But I'm still focusing on how the gun is good, and the penis is evil.

And speaking of the big Z! We'd absolutely LOVE to show ZARDOZ at a Marathon. It's so damn strange, and yet it's also a pretty cool, pseudo-avant garde genre film. And we've tried to get it for several years now. However, 20th Century Fox owns the rights to it, and they have recently instituted a very strict policy about what type of film rentals they will allow. If they have a DCP of a title, they'll rent it out to a venue. And they've also been known to clear screenings of collector prints in the past (which is how we screened that gorgeous print of SUSPIRIA last fall.) But they've also instituted a policy that doesn't allow for clearing screenings of DVDs or Blu-Rays, mainly because they want to maintain control over what materials involved in the video release are shown (for instance, they probably don't want a venue to show the film with the director's commentary running.)

So we're a bit limited as to what we can show when it comes to Fox titles. And we haven't been able to track down a good 35mm print of ZARDOZ. But don't give up hope.

Some quick hits for Mr. Cail:


Yes.



Not sure as of this minute.



Unless there's a Martian conspiracy, yes.



The Drexel remains committed to making the food situation as strong as possible. They (and we) were happy with the improvements made at the Horror Marathon. But ya know what? They're not satisfied with that. They want to keep getting better. So expect more of what you saw in the fall, but with continuing tweaks to ensure that the faithful are happy for 24+ hours.

Although no White Castle run this year. Which I'm sure is a relief to some of you.



As far as I know, we're screening it without an intermission.



Geez, you just want the whole Marathon script, don't you? You'll have to subscribe to the http://www.scifimarathon.com Executive Club Account for that (just six easy payments of $29.95, payable to Bartoo/Neff Worldwide.)



See previous answer.



Weeeellllll....if there's one constant to the Sci-Fi Marathon, it's our friend Mr. Duck kicking things off.

Boy, there's a million dollar question. Uhhhhhh.....hmmmm.........I guess the best way to put it is that (at least in our minds) the Troma trailers are usually FAR better than the actual films. And I'm mostly speaking about the pictures that Lloyd Kaufman and company made themselves (as opposed to indie and foreign flicks that they've picked up for distribution.) I don't think that we've ever had an inherent bias against showing Troma films, but there are a whole lotta good titles, both new and old, that either haven't shown at all or haven't screened in a long time. But hey, maybe we're just wine sipping, secret anti-Troma elitists or something.

Can the official Sci-Fi Marathon Twitter Hashtag be: "#OhioSciFi" (without the ") starting now and lasting until twitter dies? And Likewise for the Horror Marathon "#OhioHorror"???

_________________
"If you have GHOSTS you have Everything" - Papa Emeritus II GHOST B.C.

And now, to our old pal Mr. Einhorn with some meaty inquiries (not that I would expect any less from him.)



Whew. In a lot of ways. Obviously, the changing formats have had a big effect on the event. Back at the Drexel North, there was a two projector setup and all of the studios (major and minor) distributed exclusively on film. And there was a lot of it to go around. As the years passed, film prints became more scarce, and finding a venue that had a dual projector setup became much more challenging. Keeping the event alive has been of paramount concern, so we've been holding it mainly at venues with platter systems, which has begun to make it more difficult to secure archival prints. One of the nice things about our years at the Grandview (as we said many times to the audience) was that their reel to reel projector system allowed us to screen some very rare film prints (the new print of POSSESSION, the once in a lifetime 35mm screening of GOKE: BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL, the BFI's print of THE HITCHER.) But the advent of DCP is (slowly but surely) also reopening some doors that had been shut. Universal, in particular, have done an outstanding job converting many of the their catalogue titles to DCP (like THE WOLF MAN, which you all saw last fall...wait, I'm just now realizing that most of the people posting in this thread missed the Horror Marathon last year.....ok, that WE saw last fall.)

In terms of the makeup of the lineup, the early days of the Marathons placed an emphasis on screening mostly repertory titles. But after a few years, the programming strategy changed to integrate more and more premieres of all stripes. And in the early 90's, when there was still a plethora of indie studios, premieres were very plentiful. As time has passed, we've had to adapt to the changing priorities of the studios. It's tougher to get premieres now (more of that for the next question), so we stay with the philosophy that's served the event well for years: an eclectic and diverse lineup with a little something for everyone.

This is one of the major changes that the event has undergone. As I stated before, the death of many indie studios has made booking legitimate premieres much harder. One of the great moments in the excellent special edition DVD of THERE'S NOTHING OUT THERE is director Rolfe Kanefsky (who stole the show from Brian Yuzna back at the 4th NIGHT OF THE LIVING DREXEL) reminiscing about his producer telling him to take his film to the Drexel Marathon because that was the place in the Midwest that you promoted a film like that. For many reasons, that's changed. Like it or not, many of the studios don't see the Marathons as true events or festivals worth catering to. A big part of that is the massive growth of multi-week film festivals over the last 20 years. And over the years, we've kicked around the idea of expanding to a festival format, with the Marathon at its heart. But because of these factors and others, it's become much harder to ask for a new film, even a small one.

Another mitigating factor is another theater in town. Since they started their weekly horror series, the Gateway has pretty much had a lock on new horror titles that roll through town, often booking them months in advance. We've run into a few problems with this. Notably, we wanted to book Park Chan-Wook's THIRST in 2009, but were told that Gateway had a hold on it. In 2011, we wanted to book THE LAST CIRCUS, which was scheduled to play the Gateway late in November. We offered to advertise our screening as a sneak preview and to promote the hell out of their week of shows, but they declined.

That's not an overwhelmingly negative knock on them. But it's also part of why we've had some more difficulties. So a few years back, Bruce and I made the decision that if it came down to booking a cruddy premiere or playing a recent film that most of the audience hadn't seen without the Premiere tag, we'd rather do the latter. It's worked out pretty well for the Horror Marathon, and we hope to integrate more of that philosophy into the Sci-Fi Marathon. But don't give up hope, 'cause we'll always try to secure premieres.

Audience size is always a concern. And we'd like to be doing better than we are. The Horror Marathon had a nice run of steadily improving numbers, but last year's later date threw us back a bit. But we're hoping to rebound this year (which is back in its normal slot of October 18-19, far in advance of Halloween.)

With the current audience size, we've done fairly well. But film rentals, etc. aren't getting any cheaper. And those of you who attended the Horror Marathon last year know how a sizeable reduction in audience can affect the crowd energy. Don't get me wrong: SHOCK AROUND THE CLOCK #5 was a blast. But the energy of the previous year (which was our best attended Marathon in ten years) was quite different.

It's why we stress to the Marathon faithful (and to newbies) that we need them to attend the events to keep them alive. We still too often meet attendees who, even if we announce the date, lineup, etc. months out, still take the attitude of "eh, maybe I'll show up if nothing else is going on that weekend" or "but do you have a guest?" (more on that later.) A few too many people seem to take the events for granted, but we need large crowds to keep these things alive...and vital.

Sorry, hope that didn't sound defensive. It's just the reality of the situation.



Yes, the current plan is to keep them coming. When is a question, but we're all in agreement that they should happen.

Would it be reductive to say "The Drexel North"? Seriously, I still contend that our dear, departed home was the perfect venue for the Marathons: single screen, 700 seats, a spacious lobby, a decidedly funky vibe.

But until I win the Mega Millions tonight and resurrect the Drexel North, I'll deal in realities. If any of you ever have the chance, you should visit the Somerville Theatre in Cambridge, MA, the home of the Boston Sci-Fi Marathon/festival. It's a palace of a theater, 900 seats with a balcony, a large screen with a stage, and both digital AND reel to reel 35mm projection, with one of the best booths I've ever seen (operated by the indefatigable David Kornfeld). Seriously, the film projection there is just otherworldly. Ian Judge, the proprietor of the theater, has done a bang up job restoring it, and the venue itself has convinced me to head up to the fest more than once. If there was some way that we could move all of you up to Cambridge and put the Marathons on there, we'd do it in a heartbeat.....although we'd have to take the Columbus spirit with us....and.....ummmm....yeah.

In a macro sense, getting to work on these bad boys with Bruce has been one of the highlights of my life. When I was just a crazed teenager attending the Drexel North Marathons, I never thought that I'd be up there with him...and behind the scenes.

In a micro sense, my personal proudest moment is booking SERBIAN FILM.



Oh boy.....the many definitions of funny. Gamera pushing the Trekkie off the stage in 1996 was pretty funny, albeit potentially fatal. But hey, comedy=tragedy + time, right? And no one was REALLY hurt. Except for Gamera, who retired soon thereafter.

Past that......god, I'm going to look like a humorless fool now, 'cause I'm drawing a blank. I tell ya, the penis and baby from SERBIAN FILM entering last year's Horror Marathon Costume Contest was both funny and mortifying.









Wait, you guys really took me seriously when I said that booking SERBIAN FILM was my pride and joy. HA! Please. The rancor in the discussion thread AFTER showing SERBIAN FILM was my shining moment.

Okay, I'll be serious. The personal highlight of my years organizing (and co-organizing) Marathons is undoubtedly the final NIGHTMARE AT STUDIO 35 in 2003. We had one of the most fully realized themes in the Zombie Invasion focus, with a film lineup that played well as a whole and some cool premieres (KING OF THE ANTS, ICHI THE KILLER and VERSUS.) We were able to augment the theme with some fantastic decorations (courtesy of our hard-working, dedicated Decorations Crew of Shawna Fahey, Todd Babbert, Rose MacDonald and Matt Harris.....you guys should REALLY buy them a drink at the next Marathon).We had the WORLD FREAKIN' PREMIERE of Kevin S. O'Brien's SANDWICH. And we had the personal appearance of one of my cinematic heroes and a MAJOR influence on my life: the one and only George A. Romero. I've worked on some great Marathons since, but I don't think I've topped that one yet.

Quite a few. See the response to Aaron's question above. The most infamous missed premiere in Marathon history is still MST3K: THE MOVIE in 1996....but that's a story for another time.



Yeah, that would be pretty cool. And it's been too damn long since we ran most of a serial. The Drexel has been so supportive of us this past year, giving us complete creative control over everything. So now, with both events under the same roof, maybe we can get at least a partial serial in one of these days.

I'm not sure of the exact figure. It's somewhat sizable. Achievable, but sizable. But we've had discussions with them, and they seem open to the idea. We'll see.

This is another aspect of the event that's grown more complicated. Simply put, having 700 seats makes it MUCH easier to book a guest. 300 seats? Less so. Hell, even the 350 we once had a Studio 35 were enough to offset the costs of bringing in Bruce Campbell (2002) and George Romero (2003.) Both of them were fairly affordable, but expensive enough to make us have to crunch the numbers.

And much like modern Hollywood films, guests now tend to mainly fall into two categories: very expensive and dirt cheap. There's variance, but it's on a case by case basis.

Our top financial priority is to pay for our costs (film rentals, programs and fliers, etc.) and to make the theater some cash. Extra money after that is nice, but in the right situation it's negotiable. Example: Bruce and I have LONG wanted to bring in David Cronenberg as a guest. He'd probably command a decent appearance fee, etc., but we're confident that (at least for one year) we could raise ticket prices to offset the additional financial outlay. Because hey, who wouldn't want to see Cronenberg regale us with stories? But as with any guest, we're beholden to their schedule. And for several years in a row, Cronenberg hit a purple patch in his career and was working or promoting his new films in the fall.

On the other hand is a near miss of a guest from a few years back. In 2011, we had confirmed a cult movie star to attend. He's someone who many genre fans would recognize, although he's not really known to a mass audience. And then we found out that his original appearance fee was $10,000. He knocked it down to $5,500, but that was also before travel, lodging and expenses. Now, it we were in L.A. or New York, we could safely make that bet. But trying to potentially sell $50 tickets to a Columbus audience that probably wouldn't know who the hell we were promoting (and by Columbus audience I mean those who aren't the hardcore faithful) was too much of a risk for us. It was sad, because this person is known for giving far-ranging, wildly eccentric yet highly literate Q+A's, and the audience would've loved him. But we weren't ready to totally lose out shirt.

And that brings up something that we're always aware of. I started attending these events when I was 16. We're always trying to keep the ticket price at least somewhat affordable for younger attendees (and new blood), especially in these tough economic times. But that's limited us somewhat in who we can book.

Another factor is the boom in Horror Conventions. We often have people asking us why we can't just book the people they see at HorrorHound or other weekend genre events. The difference is that those cons can accommodate thousands of people, and can sometime defer appearance fees by allowing the guests to charge for autographs. As a much smaller event, we're limited in what we can do. And even for a smaller guest, we have to be wary of how many people will attend. In 2009, we loved having Stuart Gordon back at the Horror Marathon. He's a true gentlemen, one of the best film people we've ever met. And he wasn't prohibitively expensive. And yet, after the event we joked that Stuart was the only one who made any money off of the Marathon. A big part of this was attendance: we were convinced that bringing back the 24-Hour format, a kickass lineup and Stuart in person would ensure a sell-out. And yet, we labored to sell tickets. We still recovered our costs, but it was disappointing.

But hey, we haven't given up and hopefully with out new relationship with the theater, we'll be able to pursue more guests.

Hmmmm...ya know, there are now less and less dream films than we once had. For a few years, we dreamed about seeing WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS on film. And then we found it. And then we screened it. Yikes!

I'm struggling to think of something off the top of my head. As I mentioned at last year's Horror Marathon, it's a crime that uncut, domestic 35mm prints of Dario Argento's films are so rare and hard to get. I'd love to show TENEBRE, but the only close to uncut print is at the Academy Film Archive in L.A., and the chances of us prying it away from them are slim. PHENOMENA would be cool, but the only prints we know of are severely cut.

There are a lot of obscure or lost Sci-Fi titles that would be cool to screen, but I can't think of one right now. But the digital world has had a decent evening out effect on that realm.

And believe it or not, in Marathons in which I've been involved in planning, the venue has never talked us out of a title. Even SERBIAN FILM (which we thought would garner press for the controversy) was booked by the Grandview with no complaint.

It's something we've kicked around here and there. But I'm not 100% sure that Kickstarter is the way to sell more tickets. We could probably make a bit more cash off of the hardcore devotees (and that could have some merit....hope that didn't sound too exploitative), but right now we need to expand the base audience and continue to draw newbies in. And keeping a base ticket price and trying to lure them in with the other attractions is still probably the best way to go.