Why I'm taking a break from fan conventions
Plus, Tempe taints Indonesian
television.
We're now officially less than 2 weeks away from
Twisted Nightmare Weekend, which was billed in the recent Tempe eNews as our
"last hurrah" for conventions. A number of folks have asked me what's up with
that and a select few have even gotten to hear me bitch about the shows in
private...so allow me to explain.
I
started attending conventions as a dealer in the fall of 1991. On the heels of
shooting KINGDOM OF THE VAMPIRE and ZOMBIE COP, the executive producer tells me
about this horror convention he's attending in New Jersey which I believe was
called Horrorthon. (Trivia: The following spring, the show would become Chiller
Theatre...undoubtedly the biggest show on the East Coast, and certainly one of
the more obnoxious.) I think this particular executive producer got a free table
at the show which he didn't want, so he tossed it to me. I drove out with my
co-producer, Scott P. Plummer, and we set up shop with the handful of flicks we
had made up to that point. I seem to recall it was moderately fiscally rewarding
— can't remember exactly how well, but I was encouraged to start buying
tables at other shows, a key one being the annual
FANGORIA
Weekend of Horrors in New York City.
Now
the FANGO
shows back in those days were a big deal...lots of cool guests, lots of dealers
and lots of folks attending. And that meant lots of sales and lots of money! I
would even load up the car with folks and make the trek across country for the
Los Angeles shows in those days, usually driving 36 hours straight. By the
January, 1992 show the Tempe mail-order operation had rolled out in full force
and the table was literally filled with $10 VHS tapes. The fans ate them up, and
in those days the overhead was much lower so it was a nice little cash
injection.
Flash-forward to 2000. I had
pretty much given up attending the shows after moving to Los Angeles three years
earlier, with the "finale" being, ironically enough, the fall Chiller Theatre
show in October, 1996. But in early 2000, I had just returned from shooting
WITCHOUSE 2: BLOOD COVEN in Romania when I heard about a horror con taking place
in my hometown of Akron, Ohio. It sounded like fun, so I contacted the fellow
who ran the show and he rolled out the red carpet for what would be my first
Frightvision show. It was also the first show I attended as a "celebrity" (for
all intents & purposes) rather than strictly a
vendor.
Frightvision became an annual
event (and a fun one to boot) until March of this year, when the very same
promoter decided to play games with the airfare and hotel for some of the Tempe
guests that he had gleefully committed to. I had paid for my own airfare and
hotel, but decided only 2 days before the show to pull the plug on my appearance
as a silent protest for the mess this guy had caused. Some of the Tempe gang who
were within driving distance attended anyway and manned our free table (and even
that was a disorganized mess), but attendance — and therefore sales
— were pretty dismal. It also didn't help that another, competing show was
going on just a short drive away...thankfully I had been smart and placed some
product with a Tempe cohort there as well, so the weekend wasn't a total
loss.
But Frightvision 2004 was a clear
indicator that the bloom was off the rose. The financial rewards of attending
these conventions had seriously waned since the early '90s, and instead they
became just a place to hang with pals or an excuse to wind up back in Akron
visiting family. Certainly nothing wrong with that, but the shows have a
downside, too.
Low income aside, the
shows have really become a barometer for a shift that's happening in the
industry. The fans are just not attending like they used to, and the ones who do
come out fall squarely into two camps — those there to see the "A-list"
big-studio celebs and those who making their own backyard movies. There's
certainly nothing wrong with either of those things, but the fans of the
big-budget flicks aren't too eager to buy no-budget movies they've never heard
of, which leaves only the wanna-be filmmakers, who are usually too busy pimping
their own creations to bother watching everyone
else's.
As time has gone on, I've met a
ton of fledging filmmakers at these shows, and usually return with a suitcase
full of videos that folks have given me. Most of the stuff winds up being
painful to watch, but occasionally something catches my eye, such as the work of
Speed Freak Productions, which led to our releases of SPLATTER RAMPAGE
WRESTLING, MIDNIGHT SKATER and DEMON SUMMER, or Canadian actor/director Brett
Kelly of THE BONESETTER fame. I have a hard time saying "No" to someone that
offers me their movie...I just wish the stuff I was given was a lot better than
it is.
And then there are some of the
other "personalities" in attendance at these shows. I'm a pretty jovial guy and
it takes a lot to annoy me, but some of the jokers that gravitate toward this
convention scene are just off the charts. Many of the shows have become less
discriminating about who they consider "guests," so the shows wind up with a lot
of folks with big egos who have done very little, if anything. There are even a
few of these so-called guests that keep shooting movie after movie, yet they
never seem to finish any of them, let alone ever get them in some kind of
packaged form so people can buy them and actually decide if they are worthy of
being guests at all. In the last couple of years, it's become pretty unbearable
to be in the company of some of these folks — I consider myself someone
who has their ego in check and I generally prefer to stay low-key. If you want
to buy our stuff, you know where to find us...if you don't, we won't beat you
over the head with it. I wish some of this new generation would take the same
approach!
My, how things have changed in
12 years, and it's a mighty depressing development. Sure, traveling to these
shows is a tax write-off...so who cares if we lose a little money or (God
forbid) break even or occasionally even make a few bucks. 12 years ago, I made a
habit of traveling to the New York area — a couple tanks of gas in those
days — and we'd crash on a friend's couch, so the expenses were nil. These
days, I have to fly to get to most of these shows, which usually means adding a
rental car at the destination...and having just turned 38 this year, I'm way
past liking the idea of crashing on someone's couch. Hell, I don't even like to
share a hotel room anymore. (Go ahead, call me
spoiled.)
So...clearly the economics of
the convention scene are at a crossroads! More expenses and less income is not
the way to do business.
The other big
factor is that Tempe's distribution reach has expanded in recent years, which
has also meant more and more folks showing up wanting me to autograph copies of
movies they'd already bought instead of buying them at the shows like they used
to. (This is not a complaint, mind you...I'm always happy to sign things and I
don't charge a dime for it, regardless of where you bought
it.)
So, after this year's Twisted
Nightmare show, I'm taking a long break from the cons. I've already done far
less of them this year and since I skipped Frightvision, the only two I have
attended were literally a 5-minute drive from Tempe World HQ — a nice
change of pace, even if they were yet again complete and utter
disappointments.
Sadly, the conventions
aren't the only part of our little industry that's out of whack. There are more
backyard flicks being made than ever before, with fewer and fewer places to get
them legitimately distributed. Even those that
do get out
there make less money than ever before! Thankfully we're in a great era where
young, resourceful filmmakers can finish their movies on their desktops and burn
DVD-Rs of them to sell in limited quantities...and for the foreseeable future,
that's going to be the route most folks will have to take. It could be
worse...back in my day, we had to settle for bad VHS dubs and shoddy color
copies for sleeves...
I believe these
situations will change — it's a seasonal thing. Right now everyone says
"horror is in" when what they really mean is that "big-budget studio horror is
in" — despite all their pissing & moaning, the fans have spoken
and they're spending their hard-earned money to go see FREDDY VS. JASON and
countless nonsensical remakes to classics that old folks like me hold dear.
(Note to the fans: If you don't want to see anymore of this crap, stop
supporting it. Don't buy those movie tickets and for God's sake, don't buy the
DVDs!) And if they're not doing that, they're investing in the new trend of
Japanese horror flicks.
The rest of you
are still steadfastly supporting the little guys — and believe me, they're
aren't many of us left. Full Moon has finally crashed & burned, Roger Corman
is fairly dormant and there's even tough times in Tromaville these days —
rumor has it that Toxie himself was spotted in the unemployment line recently!
Our direct competitors like Sub Rosa and E.I. have both started producing more
films in-house on ever-shrinking budgets instead of releasing films acquired
from outsiders. The writing is on the wall at Tempe, too — we'll be
concentrating more on in-house productions very soon and will start picking up
less movies. That means even more homemade movies without a...er,
home.
All of that said, I want to thank
everyone who has ever stopped by a Tempe table to say hello, talk shop or even
plunk down their hard-earned dough to buy some of our flicks. Everything I've
outlined above might sound like bitching, but it's really just me lamenting
better days gone by. Here's to those days coming
back!
In the meantime, Tempe won't
completely disappear from the convention radar. Even though I'll be absent
(along with some of the Tempe pals), there will be an odd little fellow named
Henrique Couto traveling to a city near you with a table full of fine Tempe
merchandise. I gotta tell you, this kid is a far better huckster than I've ever
been, and he's already dutifully churning out his own flicks (which are also for
sale at the cons). He's gotten a far earlier start on the marketing end of the
business than I ever did, so I look forward to seeing what he does in the
future! Stay tuned to the Tempe eNews and this space for a list of where
Henrique will set up shop.
Switching
gears...
As hard is it is for me to
believe, the people of Indonesia apparently like bad horror movies on their free
television.
Case in point: Through one of
our sales agents, we recently landed deals for three flicks, including OZONE and
GHOUL SCHOOL, of all things! They must like them zombies, maybe. No idea when
they actually start airing...if I hear, I'll let you know. Otherwise, if anyone
is reading this from that neck of the woods, give me a shout and let us know.
Those deals ain't makin' anyone rich, but it does help lube the chassis here at
Tempe. ;-)
Stay sick! -
JRB
Posted: Sat
- September 4, 2004 at 12:21 AM