PROBOT NEWS

RADCON 5 ROUNDUP
by Damon Wellner

Vexor & Carla

Last week, the core members of Team Probot: Carla Remy Norton, Sebastian O'Brien and myself, took a roadtrip up North to Pasco, Washington to screen our movie, ALIEN 5², and compete in the FanFilm Festival. I am pleased to report that after an adventurous 2552 mile journey, we have returned from RADCON victorious! WINNER of the BEST FAN-FILM AWARD (over 10 min)

We decided to drive up since none of us had been to the area before and we all wanted to see the sights on the way. We stayed one night Portland, Oregon and all fell in love with the city instantly. Carla found some great books at Powell's City of Books, where I scored Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, (paperback) and a Rubik's 5x5 Professor Cube. We also found a great vintage toy store just one block away.

RADCON was all we expected and more! The hotel was completely booked and we almost didn't get a room, but in the end it worked out. The theme of RADCON this year was "Pirates of the Galactic Main", so there were pirates (about 100 Jack Sparrows,) and Klingons everywhere, bellydancers, a LOT of Goths (of all ages), Medeval warriors, Ninjas, Trekkies, people with stuffed animals on their shoulders, a large pajama/slipper contingent, lots of teens with animal tails, but no full-on Furries, and surprisingly few StarWars costumes. It was a strange mix I must say, and rather clicky, not a lot of mingling between groups. But considering there were about 1000 people there carrying "weapons" who all signed forms releasing the Con and Hotel of any liability, we could have been caught in an actual war between Klingons and Orcs!

Filmmakers were easily spotted, as we were the only click without costumes. We met some cool people, other fan-filmmakers (Spidertron, Vangelis, Aquaman, and Quest for the Golden Rod) writers, and I even signed an autograph.

Probot Panel
Damon speaks at the Micro Movies on a Micro Budget panel.
Also pictured is Danielle Dorsey of Run And Gun Pictures

On Saturday afternoon we hosted a panel with some other fan-filmmakers on ultra-low budget moviemaking. We talked about our techniques and showed some of our best clips. We also showed a clip of our upcoming feature film, The Gibbon.

We screened ALIEN 5² Saturday night and I was really pleased with the response. We gathered a respectable audience and people seemed to enjoy the movie. It was the first time we have ever screened the movie in public (in the US), and our first fan-film competition, with 60 other films in our category, so it was really encouraging to come home winners! We all had a great time at RADCON!!! My only regret was that I missed (watching) Klingon Kareoke! Thanks to Nat Saenz for an adventure we will surely never forget!

Pasco, WA sunset