The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

But programming something at home for your own taste with your DVD collection is easier than actually getting the rights to publicly present them to an audience of 300 with wildly different tastes. I can't go this year and don't really care if you go or not, but the insinuation that Bruce and Joe don't put any effort or thought into planning these is kind of offensive to me.

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"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."

I gotta be honest with you, Vince... I love your passion, and you have been a loyal marathoid for many years. Your intense devotion to genre filmmaking is very impressive, and without doubt you have seen (and probably own on home video format) more films with more diversity than most of us would be able to see in a lifetime.

With that said, isn't it time to just let this argument go? You've made your point again and again and again, not just on this message board but also on this particular thread. No one is doubting that you don't like the line-up. We know you want to see more titles on 35mm. We know you want to have a guest. We know you can list a dozen films off the top of your head that you'd want to see in a marathon off. No one is questioning your opinion, and no one is questioning your passion/knowledge of cinema.

In short, you've made your point. Is it necessary to keep repeating it because not everyone is agreeing with you?

I'll echo METAFLESH in that it is border-lining on offensive that you seem to be saying the Joe and Bruce aren't doing their best to put these events on. Considering so many factors both public and private, they do an incredible job, and they deliver a quality event. This is their passion, and it'd be much easier to drop everything and not do them. It's a labor of love for them, and there are so many plates spinning in this endeavor (some of which, I'm sure they cannot even address publicly). They don't owe an explanation of why they're not showing XTRO, or whatever.

Comparing the Drexel marathon to things like Fritz the Nite Owl and other single- or double-feature specialty programming is irrelevant. Getting a theater filled for two or four hours where you can enjoy some nostalgia and drink beer is vastly different than filling a theater for an all-night event. And $5 or $10 for a one-shot specialty screening is different than packaging a dozen films for a single price. (For that matter, $40 is a pretty great price for 24 hours of programming, considering there's so much more than just the movies themselves.)

In regards to programming your own at-home marathon versus one in a theater... these are entirely different animals. It's far simpler to gather a stack of DVDs and Blu-rays and show them in the comfort of your home than to arrange prints and DCPs to show up, pay royalty rights, book everything far enough in advance to advertise and market the event, and adhere to a general theme (which has been one of things often left unsaid that many of the marathons in the past tried to do). Even so, I doubt many at-home marathons have *any* 35mm prints or guests at them, either (and in regards to Tim's at-home marathon, THE GIANT CLAW and THE BLACK HOLE are only available on DVD, and I've been told that the Drexel marathons have pursued a BLACK HOLE showing before but there just aren't any reasonably decent prints available, and no Blu-ray release from Disney at all, leaving substandard DVDs that don't transfer well to the big screen).

So, I implore you, with all due respect... please stop beating this dead horse. I'd love to see you come to the marathon, but if you're not going to be happy about it, then don't come. But just be content with your decision without having to tear everything down with it in the process. No need to become "that guy" who will spend the weeks leading up to it trashing the event just because it doesn't fit into your tastes.

Wasn't really wanting to even chime in again but felt the need to respond to those who were responding. Didn't want to beat dead horses but was responding by explaining. I will keep off here from now on. I don't want to keep people from enjoying anything just because the marathons let me down. Perhaps there are a gaggle of 17 year olds who have never seen these films on the big screen and want to do so. Far be it from me to stand in the way of progress.