The MacGuffin

Filmed at Crypticon 2011, interviews include: PJ Soles (Carrie, Halloween), Alex Vincent (Child’s Play), and Jewel Shepard (The Return of the Living Dead).

Filmed at Crypticon 2011, interviews include: Tom Fridley (The Karate Kid), CJ Graham (Friday the 13th Part VI), and David Katims (Friday the 13th Part 3).

The MacGuffin team covers the 2011 Emerald City ComiCon and discuss the crossover between film and comics, before closing out with their DVD picks of the week.

There I was, standing in line at the concessions stand. I hadn’t had anything to eat the entire day, had stayed out way passed my bedtime the previous night, and now was suffering the consequences. A buddy of mine had called me at 9:00am to wake me up, excited about going to this convention for the very first time in his life. Now, 9:00am isn’t exactly the crack of dawn, but when you go to bed around 6:00am that morning, it can be a little tough. But that didn’t deter my enthusiasm for being there. Emerald City Comicon is one of the biggest conventions the Pacific Northwest has during the year, attracting thousands of geeks and nerds out of their parents’ basements, dressed to the nines in their most detailed and extravagant costumes, ready to mix and mingle with their fellow peeps regarding everything in the world of comic books, video games, and sci-fi film and television. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that people can be as passionate about something as these people are; I read comics as a kid but unfortunately not as much now a days. I think events like the ECCC are great and lots of fun, but at that particular moment all I wanted was a bag of peanut M&Ms and a soda.

Filmed at ZomBcon 2010, interviews include: Terry Alexander (Day of the Dead), John Amplas (Martin), and Jeffrey Reddick (Final Destination).

Filmed at ZomBcon 2010, Spencer and John interview Timothy Patrick Quill, Danny Hicks, Adam Deyoe, Betsy Baker and Ted Raimi as part of their Evil Dead spectacular.

The Landlord (2009) is a shoestring indie horror comedy, written and directed by Emil Hyde. It tells the story of brother and sister Tyler (Derek Dziak) and Amy (Michelle Courvais), who have the unenviable task of being the owners of an apartment building that a couple of human-eating demons are treating as a personal buffet. To complicate matters, Amy, a cop, has various dubious street deals going on with a gang of vampire-ish thugs, and Tyler starts to develop feelings for the latest tenant, Donna, (Erin Myers) who will soon probably become a demon snack. And there are some detectives who would like to know a bit more about all of these missing tenants. And Donna is on the run from her abusive husband and looking for an abortion. And Amy is having an affair with her partner. And one of the demons has a bit of a home shopping problem.

The Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (M.I.F.F.F.) takes place every year in Seattle, Washington and is dedicated to screening independent genre films from around the world.  As their website states, “The event was created to offer exposure to films that traditionally are overlooked by the festival circuit from genres including action, fantasy, horror, and science fiction.”  This year the festival was held over the weekend of September 17th through the 19th at the Seattle International Film Festival theatre in the neighborhood of Queen Anne.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend as many screenings as I’d hoped, the line-up looked great with several blocks of different themed short films playing on Saturday and Sunday such as, Animation, Fantasy, Horror and Action/Science Fiction, followed by four featured length Horror films in the evenings.  I was able to catch the Animation short film block on Saturday which particularly caught my interest since it wasn’t just an animation showcase, which I love, but a showcase of animation films dealing particularly with genre subject matters, which is something I love even more.

This Labor Day weekend I spent my time at the three day video game festival PAX, here in downtown Seattle.  Taking up most of the Convention Center, exhibitors lined the floor with massive, eye-popping displays of the latest, the coming soon, and the most cutting edge in video game entertainment.  Most of my time there was spent exploring the connections in the video game industry to the world of cinema, which I found to be quite overwhelming and prevalent everywhere.  In order to better explore this perspective of video games in relation to movies, and vice versa, I directed my attention to the exhibition floor and interviewing representatives of several games that are forthcoming.

Director, and friend of the MacGuffin Film Podcast, Marc Clebanoff (you may remember him from Episode 7 – Breaking Out) wanted to pass along some event an event he is hosting this weekend for filmmakers.  If you are in the Hollywood area this Saturday, it looks like the have an interesting list of speakers and this could be a good opportunity to network.

I’m including his press release below.