A blog should be more personal, don't you think? Oh wait,
I said that already.
But I can't describe what it's like to finally tell the world for real about THE CON OF WRATH, the documentary we've been plotting for some time now. If the infamous Star Trek convention itself back in June 1982 was amazing, goofy, sad and uplifting all at once, this documentary now in motion as its namesake story is nothing if not serendipity.
The press releases are all sent out now, so for those of you not at cons where I "sneak-peeked" it this spring... I'll just say here that, yes, this IS a personal story: For starters, I WAS THERE. You don't forget your first big road trip out of college, even if it was only one-tenth as infamous as this one: the first "megashow" Star Trek convention, and consequently the first big crash.... and save.
But not til just last summer, when I ran into the show's original technical director at the SoonerCon 2010 "dead dog party," did the memories really come alive, the potential loomed large, ... and the light bulb for my very first film project suddenly popped on. It was hearing Jim Parker from across the room, telling some great and incredible stories, that sparked the
aha! moment from my inner voice... and literally, as brains do in both trauma and in epiphany, set the gears in motion:
—(
click) "Wow, after all this time, I've got to get these people's stories down in print."
—(click) "No, that's so '80s. I've got to get this on film."
—(
click) "NO, that's so '90s. I think this will hang together as a great documentary. Let's get a big marker and connect the dots!"
And so the madness began. We have a long way to go and have only just begun filming, but we
are off and running! At the very least we'll have a great archival project preserved... but with the assets already lining up, I think it will be so much more: "an incredible and yet inspiring tale of dreams, debacle and dumb/dorky devotion" in my first documentary: THE CON OF WRATH.
Hey, I should have used that in the press release!
What’s great is, I didn’t even make up the title. That was among the choice epithets making the rounds by Sunday afternoon of That Weekend, but hey—like all good traumas, it's only a matter of time before the war stories" turn into badges of honor.
The
web homepage is here, yes ... complete with a video hello from me. Of course, in 2011, I don't need to tell you (or ask politely) to
please "LIKE" the Facebook page as well.
BUT YOU CAN DO MUCH MORE:
If you attended, we need your memories—"Where Were You in '82?"— and yes, we could use your grass-roots money help.
The PayPal donation link is now active on the home page to take your much-appreciated gift of $10 or $25 all the way up to $1,000 (or more!) in exchange for some appropriate collectible CON OF WRATH thank-you goodies, including a screen credit for all ... details to come soon. I'm putting my name and two-decades rep and fan cred on the line here, folks, so I hope that's good enough for ya.
And, soon we'll let you "survivors" know how you can share those memories for possible inclusion in the film as well. Stay tuned for that one, too—read it here or on Facebook, too.
For now, just know that if you survived that humid Houston weekend, we want to hear from you—or if you care about preserving the most landmark moments of Trek history, we could use your help.
I couldn't think of a finer debut in film, finally, than wading hip-deep into all this! Or to the friends/professionals who have already showed faith and jumped in with me. Where will this go? We're got a roadmap, but who knows where the trip will end up!
