The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

I wanted to start a topic for general commentary on favorite trailers and extracirricular activities.

My thoughts on this year:

I really enjoy the themed trailers before each feature. Bruce does a good job of playing old favorites, while at the same time mixing in new ones. Shorts and extras are part of what makes the overall marathon experience unique.

That being said, I was disappointed this year by the lack of actual previews of coming attractions. If memory serves me correctly, we had exactly two: The WALL-E teaser and the first INDY 4 trailer. Maybe there were more on the reel that was cut out before PITCH BLACK.

One of the things I loved about marathons past was seeing previews of upcoming summer blockbusters with the rowdy marathon crowd, and they seem to have gotten away from that lately. Sometimes they also show up in the wee hours of the A.M. when not all of us are present or coherent. I would love to see a return of a block of at least 4 or 5 anticipated crowd pleasers in the primetime slot.

Anyone else with me on this?

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

Agreed on the future trailers. On the subject of shorts, where is Hareway to the Stars? It's quoted in the topics on this board (Where's the KaBoom?) and is sorely missed.

I agree. I was hoping for a Dark Knight Trailer, or Iron Man, or The Incredible Hulk. But I do love the themed trailer blocks.

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Remember ... no matter where you go, there you are.

I was suprised at the lack of summer trailers, but I wonder if this is one of the side effects of everyone being able to watch them on the Internets. Many of us can see new trailers in high quality at home. there are some folks here who complain too few movies and too many trailers. I wonder if Bruce trimmed down the summer trailers in response to that, and only showed trailers you would have much more trouble finding online? It seemed to me there were fewer trailers this year and the only cartoon shorts were Duck Dodgers and the one about life in the future, where the guy had an affair with his clone. No bread films, no Gravity (which was explained,) no Chub Chubs. I don't know that I missed them that much, but it just seemed more of a movie year and less of a trailer short year, which is a nice change of pace, I guess.

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The wages of sin are royalties.

I don't really care about the future trailers. I missed seeing more of the old ones. But, if Brice gives us more trailers, we complain there should be more movies and vice versa. It was a great lineup and a great guest.

These are the trailers that were intended to be shown before PITCH BLACK and were dropped to make up time:
SUNSHINE
NIGHTWATCH
SPEED RACER
IRON MAN
QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE
BARBARELLA
All in Cinemascope.

One issue with programming the trailers is trying to minimize headaches for the projectionist. Sometimes it's necessary to call for a lens change between the trailers/shorts and the feature. This year, with only two scope features, it worked out that no on the fly lens changes were needed. All of the new summer trailers I had were scope.

There were many others that I would have liked to include, but when the SPUTNIK MANIA premiere came along, many of those got slashed. I wanted to honor last year's Hall of Fame choice, FLASH GORDON, with at least one more episode of the original serial.

Before the STAR WARS rip off BATTLESTAR GALACTICA I would have liked to have trailers for STAR WARS and other wanna be's like BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY and MESSAGE FROM SPACE.

Before SPUTNIK MANIA I might have added MAN INTO SPACE, CONQUEST OF SPACE, COUNTDOWN, MAROONED, APOLLO 13, DR STRANGELOVE and MATINEE.

With THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL I'd have added EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS.

I'd have liked OUTBREAK, CHOSEN SURVIVORS and SATAN BUG with ANDROMEDA STRAIN, but that would have required a lens change, so I skipped those and went with WALL-E, BUBBA HO-TEP and INDY 4.

For BIG MAN JAPAN there could have been another hour's worth of Japanese monsters, shrunk kids, blown up baby, THE THIRTY FOOT BRIDE OF CANDY ROCK, INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN, on and on...

Might have added GATTACA, HANDMAID'S TALE and SLEEPER to the future dystopia medley.

Would have included EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY and THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH with STRANGER FROM VENUS, but I chose to stay with mostly 1.37 ratio stuff to match the feature.

Toyed with the idea of STARSHIP EROS and SPACE RAGE with the originally X-rated A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, but thought that might a bit much for some very tired marathoids. CAFE FLESH would have made sense with CLOCKWORK, but I'm not going down that road again anytime soon.

I'm also disappointed that we couldn't work Mike Olenick's HESTON OF THE APES into the Heston tribute, but here's the link again:
http://www.mikeolenick.com/videos/hestonapes.html

24 hours is never quite enough...

Bruce you do a fantastic job every year, don't mind us. As I've said a few times, while I may complain about a movie choice or not getting to see a specific trailer, I have never ever been anywhere near leavig a marathon with the thought that I had just wasted 30 some hours and x amount of dollars. You put out a great product, year in and year out and we really appreciate it.

As a side, note, thanks for sharing your thoughts on what you had thought about putting in trailer/short wise before you secured Sputnik Mania. I find that kind of information really cool.

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The wages of sin are royalties.

Bruce, these are minor grumblings from a crowd that loves the job you do. Many people wanted another movie. Me, I would have sacrificed another for more shorts and trailers. You struck a happy medium. The only reason I post here is because I love the event.

That said, I'd love to see that Loew's Muppets welcome again. "Movie, movie, movie..."

Personally I think AEinhorn's video over at Columbus Alive should open the 'thon every year.

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The wages of sin are royalties.

Aside from the potential of public humiliation (which is there, I'll grant) what would be the point?

The people already at the Marathon know everything I'm going to say in that piece. The people who need to watch it are the ones who think "Gee, that kind of sounds like fun, but do I really want to lock myself in a theatre full of nerds who live in their parents' basement for 24 hours?"

And why, oh why, do I think that video is going to haunt me for years to come?

Thanks for the info, Bruce. I hadn't thought about it from the lens change perspective. It's unfortunate that that particular block of trailers was the only one dropped, because it would have been a major crowd pleaser. It's too bad, without the lens change issue, it would have been perfect filler for the unexpected reel change delay instead of the forgettable Sputnik related stuff.

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

True. I wonder if our webhosts can get a copy from Columbus Alive and have it in the scifi primer, or a link off the home page. And perhaps, give it to our brethern in Boston as well.

Seriously, if I had any mad film skillz, I think we could have some fun creating a little faux educational film in (in B&W, of course) about the marathon. Sort of a Goofus and Galant approach.

_________________
The wages of sin are royalties.