The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

First of all I want to make myself very clear..this is NOT about the movies that ARE in this years line up, it's about the movies the are NOT in this years lineup...

Below is a compiled list of suggested movies for the Sci-Fi marathon this year that was in the "2010 Sci Fi Marathon movie wish list" thread...(it's late so I may have missed a couple) although these movies are very different from one another they all share one thing in common, none of them made the final cut (except "2010" but that was a given) go ahead and look at the list:

2010
A boy and his Dog
A Scanner Darkly
Abbot & Costello go to Mars (1953)
Abyss
Alien Trespass (2009)
Altered States
Barbarella
Batman movie (Burt Ward Adam West)
Bill and Ted
Brave New World 1980
Brave New World 1998
Casshern
Dark City
Dark CIty Gorjia
Dark Crystal
Dark Knight
Dark Star (2)
Darkman
Day earth stood still (classic) sorry Keanu
Delicatessen
Devil Girl from Mars
Die Monster Die!
Donnie Darko
Doomsday
Dr Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog
Dr Who flicks
Dragonwars
Earth vs Spider
EVENT HORIZON
Gamera (Any)
Godzilla (Any)
Gojira (Any)
Green Slime (4)
Highlander
Howard the Duck
I Married a Monster From Outer Space
Ice Pirates
Independance Day
Invasion of the Saucer Men
JASON X
John Carpenter's Dark Star
Kaiju (Any)
Liquid Sky
Moon (3)
Mothra (Any)
Near Dark
Night of the Creeps
Outlander
Outlander the original
Peter Chushing (Any)
Phantom Of The Paradise (2)
Planet Of The Apes (Any)
Q
Quatermass and the Pit
Queen of Blood
Repo Man
S.H.E (1980's version)
Slither
Solaris
Soylent Green
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
The Adventures of Bukaroo Banzai
The Black Hole
The Blob
The Explorers
THE FOURTH KIND
The Guyver
The Incredible Melting Man
The Lathe of Heaven (British TV Version)
The Man Who Fell To Earth
The Terminator
The Thing (either)
The Time Machine (1960)
Time After Time (2)
Time Bandits
Time Rider
Village of the Giants
Voyage of the Rock Aliens
Westworld
Yor The Hunter From The Future
Zapped! (2)
Zardoz
Zeram

Year after year a similar list is created by the users of this forum and year after year we all seem to be ignored.

This forums main purpose should be to help the organizers and make their lives a little easier by telling them what we want to see but instead it seems to exist only as a sounding board so they can tell us what films they booked, ticket prices and dates of the marathons.

I would like to see more interaction on this forum from the people who are organizing the events. We want you to make your voices heard but also please listen to ours. We are all loyal to the marathons, Bruce, Joe and the Drexel staff and all we want is for you guys to be loyal to us as well.

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Jaws3dfan®
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Well said. I have nothing more to add as you have crystalized some of my concerns eloquently.

Dropping in every once in a while to explain the booking process, or why some films are unavailable, or why films that are available aren't booked would be nice. It used to happen, though infrequently, a while ago.

I do tend to take the "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" kind of approach most of the time, but more voices on this board would be nice. Even if it's not from those involved with the thing. Maybe there's just not enough of us loyalists for them to bother.

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Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

Okay, so I've heard some complaints and concerns directed my way over the past few weeks, and I'd like to make one thing abundantly clear: under the current setup, I have absolutely no involvement with the booking of the Sci-Fi Marathon. In fact, my only role is one of informal counsel and support to Bruce, and a lot of that is due to my friendship with him. For quite awhile now, I've relegated myself to being purely a member of the audience for this particular Marathon, so please don't think that I have more official influence than I do. It's absolutely no knock on Bruce, it's just that (to clarify) he and Jeff are currently the main movers behind the general direction of Sci-Fi. Now, Bruce and I both run the Horror Marathon (with Dave and Jen at the Grandview, 'natch) and I think that between the two of us we've done a fairly good job of explaining most bookings for the events we've planned over the last six years.

Which brings us back to Tim's main point about the annual want list. A few things come into play here:

1. The list you provided is great and varied. It also hasn't been checked for the current availability of those titles. Even fairly well known films can go out of distribution on a year by year basis, and I'm willing to bet that some of the aforementioned titles either currently have no prints or are not available. Of course, there are quite a few that might be available, and anyone that posts on this board has the absolute right to push for certain titles that they'd like to see. Hell, I do it every year on the Boston site, and I've done it here in the past (although, granted, I've levelled off a bit in recent years.)

2. The flip side of that absolute right to push for certain titles? It doesn't guarantee much. Like it or not, the regular posters on this forum form a fairly small contingent of the overall crowd for the event. Same thing on the Boston site. This is not to discount the validity of anyone's opinion, but ultimately, what the small percentage who post here want to see and what works best for the lineup is not always the same. There have been a few years in Boston where I thought that the lineup wouldn't draw many people, only to be proven wrong when the crowd is solid.

I'll give you an even better example: I generally despise the films of Larry Blamire. I think LOST SKELETON is boring at best and I sat through TRAIL OF THE SCREAMING FOREHEAD without one laugh. I've been pretty vocal about this on the board before. But if he were to be booked as the guest for the Sci Fi Marathon, I don't think that my complaints, or the complaints of four or five other vociferous posters, should get him booted from the event. Simply put, he would sell tickets and his presence would not signal the end of the event. That doesn't mean that I can't state that I'd be taking a dinner break during his hypothetical appearance, but I wouldn't expect my personal tastes to overwhelm what is probably the crowd consensus (that most of them would enjoy his hypothetical appearance.)

3. Just because the films in this list haven't been booked doesn't necessarily mean that they're lost thoughts shuffled into a vacuum. From years of being behind the scenes, I can tell you for a fact that there have been titles suggested by posters which have made their way into lineup, even if they don't appear during that specific year. And more specifically, there have been genres and directors who have appeared again and again because the crowd at the actual event dug them.

4. Ultimately, this forum (at least in my opinion) should be for discussion of all of the above and more. But it's not a voting site, plain and simple. Over on the Boston site, we regulars have bitched and moaned about many a film over the years (ahem, TRANSFORMERS two years ago, ahem) but we still went to the event. One of that board's stalwarts and I have pushed for ZARDOZ for quite awhile. You know the result? Still no ZARDOZ. But the event is always good enough and the crowd enjoyable enough that I keep attending. Now a few years ago, the Boston regulars had the opportunity to vote in the two final films from a list of around ten, which was a nice addition. But I think that's the exception.

In my experience as a booker for the Horror Marathons, I've found one thing to be true: variety make the best lineups. As we go further and further down the home theater rabbit hole, screening films that aren't as readily available becomes more of an attraction. At the same time, many classics and more well-known titles go over like gangbusters on the big screen, even if they're on DVD. And at the same time, well-known films from the past year or so usually aren't the building blocks of a long term audience building strategy, especially in an era when every quasi-blockbuster is shoved down an audience's throat through months of viral marketing, trailers, official websites, tv ads, magazine stories and fairly quick DVD turnarounds. Achieving that variety can be challenging, and not always 100% successful, but please know that I put these thoughts into what films show and I know Bruce does that same for both events.

I can't speak for Bruce or Jeff on this, other than to say that suggestions/wishlists are not ignored and are most definitely considered and discussed. It comes down to sometimes prints aren't available, things have played "too recently", they aren't in the budget, etc. I've been asking for Casshern for years. I also asked for many other films that have yet to make it. So trust me, I feel your pain. But again, atleast from my knowledge, it goes back to the aforementioned about availability, pricing, et al.

As for providing info, from the standpoint of my role in this, I can only provide confirmed info as it is provided to me. So if I don't know it, and/or it isn't "for sure", then I can't do or say anything.

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Six side is heaven/Nine side is go

Thank you for your responses, Joe and Jen.
I understand that the booking process is long and probably tedious. I want to be clear that I am never upset about the absence of specific requests. I understand that this board is only a tiny sampling of the audience for this event, and what we as individuals say is not always the general consensus.

You say that "the powers that be" do take us seriously and listen to what we have to say. I'm sure that is true, but my concern (and I think Tim's as well) is that it feels like nobody ever lets us know that, until someone like Tim speaks up and makes the subject of a post "the Rant."

These are all good points about budget/availability concerns. But we are never told why certain things are the way they are. As an example, for the past few years it seemed a majority opinion that John Carpenter's The Thing would be a popular booking, and a good fit for the marathon. No one who has any influence in the matter ever chimed in with a "hey, I know everyone wants to see this happen, but this is why we're not showing it this year..."

Just a little more feedback is what I am asking for. I realize it is not my job to program the lineup. I don't think I would want that job anyway.

For the record, I have sent private messages to Bruce and others and received prompt and polite responses. The public area of this board is slow moving at times and it just feels like "no one's listening."

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Aliens? Us?
Is this one of your Earth "jokes?"

the key word in the above qoute is "seem" I feel regular updates on the process of the marathon will calm these feelings and we will be assured our voices are indeed being heard



I think everyone on this board should know this by now and when I used your name I was referring to the Horror marathon sorry for any confusion



well this may be true I think the members of this forum are marathon veterans and should be taken seriously. If word got out that forum members are being heard participation would probably rise and more attention would be paid to the site.

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Jaws3dfan®
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Well, again, to iterate, I can only post what I know. I often do not know why a specific film isn't booked (with the exception of like this year with regards to Buckaroo) so I can't say anything...That's something for Bruce or Jeff to say.

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Six side is heaven/Nine side is go

Certainly nothing more I can add that hasn't already been said ... except, of course ...

... I WANTS ME SOME ZARDOZ

(Which, of course, shows just how much control I have over the lineup.)

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David A. Zecchini; Creature of the Wheel, Lord of the Infernal Engines
"Damnati Im Ludum" (VitruvianZeke@att.net)

I dunno. I mean, while it's nice for us to have wish lists on these forums, I don't consider it the job of Bruce and Jeff (or Joe for the Horror 'thon) to patrol the boards.

It seems like they give us updates as soon as something is booked - and considering that for neither Jeff nor Bruce is running the marathon their day job - that seems to be all I would ask for.

Very few forums get regular input from the people in charge - and knowing that Bruce at least does occasionally look at the forum is helpful.

I'd also like to point out that of that list, there are several films that don't really merit a decisive "This is why we didn't get it," mention. Quite a few films on that list have played in the last five years (The Abyss played in '05, Alien Trespass played last year, The Day The Earth Stood Still played 2 years ago, The Thing (original) played last year) as far as the Godzilla/Gojira/Kaiju (any) entry goes, we do have one in the line-up, and Jen has talked about why Buckaroo Banzai isn't here.

Getting on the forum and explaining why we didn't get all of those films would take a lot of time - and Bruce already sacrifices a lot of free time to get this organized each year.

I understand some of the frustration, but honestly, I think the rant isn't the best way to express it.

Not entirely accurate. You missed:

Moon (3)
Godzilla (Any)
Mothra (Any)
Kaiju (Any)

Which are all represented in the lineup in addition to "2010"

I stand corrected.

But my hope is that everyone will post Primal Screams, Rants, Flamewars, and all things unsavory and unmoderated here and not on the main board.

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Jaws3dfan®
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Maybe not but that may be a good idea. Every Marathon allow the fine people of the forum to "vote in" one movie title. Basically the organizers could look over the want list and start a voting thread of 3 or 4 possible titles (that are available on 35mm) from the list and let us all vote and the movie with the most votes gets a slot in the marathon. It's only one slot but it shows us we do have a voice and the voice is being heard.

Just an idea!!

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Jaws3dfan®
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hehe

As much as budget would permit it, I like this idea. It'd be fun, and it would encourage people to check out and use the forums, but it wouldn't make it so forum users dominate the choices that Bruce and company make in putting together the marathon.

I for one do not wish to dominate the marathons and would be perfecly happy with 1 or 2 fan suggest films and the remaining line up is theme based be the organizers.

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Jaws3dfan®
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