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Entry tags:
Hugos, Hugos, Hugos (and some panels)
One of the biggest reasons I love Worldcon is the Hugo Award ceremony. I love reading through the nominated works. I love the suspense of voting and checking my list of choices against the winners. And I love the ceremony itself where you see seasoned veteran writers and new, young writers all get recognition.
Mars and/or Bust!
Michael J. Martinez, Karen Burnham, John K Strickland Jr., David D. Levine
The panelists were reps from National Space Society, 2 sf writers, and a NASA electrical engineer. Why and how to go to Mars: colonies as Earth back-up, don't do it in a rush and make sure components are reuseable; we know it was once habitable & understanding why it isn't anymore will help us here will be useful; in person because people are more flexible & self-programming than robots; in Great Age of Exploration the gov-sponsored trips always reaped profit, a good cost-benefit ratio, except for Antarctica, which is primarily scientific, we don't know which will apply to Mars; political, social, and business factors.
NASA faces lack of consistent focus. Commercial ventures need a profitable reason to invest and pursue it. If we do go, the reasons will probably be complex and political and impossible to predict today. Example of making money off of exploration - old West gold miners almost never got wealthy from mining, but those who provided goods and services did.
Technological, scientific, logistical requirements - build docking base near the moon as staging point. Sets up a reusable infrastructure.
The Legacy of Omni
Ellen Datlow, Howard Waldrop, Ben Bova, Robert Silverberg, Pat Cadigan
Ben Bova was the first fiction editor, he was thinking of stepping down from Analog when he got an invitation from Bob Guccione to do Omni and started with the 2nd issue. It provided an outlet for stories that he hadn't been able to buy for Analog, the hard sf magazine he had previously edited. He eventually stepped in as general editor. Not a science magazine, but a magazine about the future.
Robert Silverberg was coaxed to step out a retirement around 1980 to write a story for it and this got him into writing short stories again.
Crowdfunding: the Good, the Bad & the Ugly
Tobias Buckell, Howard Tayler, Christopher J. Garcia, Catherynne M. Valente
The kinds of crowdfunding the panelists had experience with included a pay button on web site, indiegogo, fan funds, kickstarter, and a flat rate monthly subscription
Failed projects, reasons: misunderstanding the amount needed and asking for too much, misuse of funds raised, tried to fund features on web site that showed little interest. Better to fail to fund than to fail to deliver, one damages your reputation, the other gives you a chance to rethink and try again.
What works: build reputation, think things through and not put things forward until it is well thought out, avoid market saturation, rethink a failed project and try another method. You need proof of ability to deliver. Demonstrate previous quality, established brand. Kickstarter does filter projects that are accepted. Know your audience (esp the audience that has the disposable cash). For subscription stuff, each week leave them wanting more so they come back.
If you're successful, keep your funders up to date on what's going on. Can be as simple as tweeting regularly. Podcast called Funding the Dream talks to people with both good and bad experiences. Kicktraq - gives you data regarding your project during the funding period to help you see how things are going.
Make sure you figure in costs right at the beginning (kickstarter, amazon, postage, production)
Weta Digital
Norman Cates
Worldcons don't usually get the kind of media panelists you find at DC or SDCC, but Weta Workshop sent one of the digital effects guys this year. He began his career by doing prosthetics in a local sf club because he wanted to break into film. He started at Weta with pre-production for Lord of the Rings and sequeed into digital effects.
He started the panel with a montage of digital effects for a range of Weta movies. Then he showed a finished commercial that they did and showed how they manipulated film and still shots, green screen shots and CG additions. Then he showed us some work from The Hobbit, especially the changes in Gollum and a bit about Rivendell as computer rendering instead of a model. He talked a bit about the challenges of shooting in 48 fps and stereo, the false perspective tricks that were harder and showed a short bit about compositing. Bit about simulation software for rivers, waterfalls, fire, smoke, sand, etc. Bit about the goblin king. Also a section about entirely CG shots.
Iron Man 3 short bit about the production, especially the dock sequence at the end that was almost entirely CG. Also a bit about Prometheus.
Reading by John Scalzi
From the beginning of the panel he seemed a little nervous, which is understandable since he was up for best novel for Redshirts. An award which he won later in the evening. After joking a bit the audience and reminding them to silence their phones, he read from the novel he's currently working on, Locked-In. Halfway through his phone rang, which cracked everyone up. His teenage daughter was calling to ask him where something was at home. He explained he was in the middle of a panel and then held his phone up so we could all say 'Hi'to her.
And then I went back to the hotel to get ready for the Hugos. I always feel like I should at least make an effort to get out of jeans for the ceremonies. For the most part, my top picks all came in at least second. At least this year there were no winners that I strongly disliked, which has happened in the past. In case you're curious, here are the Hugo winners and picture of this year's winning base design.
Mars and/or Bust!
Michael J. Martinez, Karen Burnham, John K Strickland Jr., David D. Levine
The panelists were reps from National Space Society, 2 sf writers, and a NASA electrical engineer. Why and how to go to Mars: colonies as Earth back-up, don't do it in a rush and make sure components are reuseable; we know it was once habitable & understanding why it isn't anymore will help us here will be useful; in person because people are more flexible & self-programming than robots; in Great Age of Exploration the gov-sponsored trips always reaped profit, a good cost-benefit ratio, except for Antarctica, which is primarily scientific, we don't know which will apply to Mars; political, social, and business factors.
NASA faces lack of consistent focus. Commercial ventures need a profitable reason to invest and pursue it. If we do go, the reasons will probably be complex and political and impossible to predict today. Example of making money off of exploration - old West gold miners almost never got wealthy from mining, but those who provided goods and services did.
Technological, scientific, logistical requirements - build docking base near the moon as staging point. Sets up a reusable infrastructure.
The Legacy of Omni
Ellen Datlow, Howard Waldrop, Ben Bova, Robert Silverberg, Pat Cadigan
Ben Bova was the first fiction editor, he was thinking of stepping down from Analog when he got an invitation from Bob Guccione to do Omni and started with the 2nd issue. It provided an outlet for stories that he hadn't been able to buy for Analog, the hard sf magazine he had previously edited. He eventually stepped in as general editor. Not a science magazine, but a magazine about the future.
Robert Silverberg was coaxed to step out a retirement around 1980 to write a story for it and this got him into writing short stories again.
Crowdfunding: the Good, the Bad & the Ugly
Tobias Buckell, Howard Tayler, Christopher J. Garcia, Catherynne M. Valente
The kinds of crowdfunding the panelists had experience with included a pay button on web site, indiegogo, fan funds, kickstarter, and a flat rate monthly subscription
Failed projects, reasons: misunderstanding the amount needed and asking for too much, misuse of funds raised, tried to fund features on web site that showed little interest. Better to fail to fund than to fail to deliver, one damages your reputation, the other gives you a chance to rethink and try again.
What works: build reputation, think things through and not put things forward until it is well thought out, avoid market saturation, rethink a failed project and try another method. You need proof of ability to deliver. Demonstrate previous quality, established brand. Kickstarter does filter projects that are accepted. Know your audience (esp the audience that has the disposable cash). For subscription stuff, each week leave them wanting more so they come back.
If you're successful, keep your funders up to date on what's going on. Can be as simple as tweeting regularly. Podcast called Funding the Dream talks to people with both good and bad experiences. Kicktraq - gives you data regarding your project during the funding period to help you see how things are going.
Make sure you figure in costs right at the beginning (kickstarter, amazon, postage, production)
Weta Digital
Norman Cates
Worldcons don't usually get the kind of media panelists you find at DC or SDCC, but Weta Workshop sent one of the digital effects guys this year. He began his career by doing prosthetics in a local sf club because he wanted to break into film. He started at Weta with pre-production for Lord of the Rings and sequeed into digital effects.
He started the panel with a montage of digital effects for a range of Weta movies. Then he showed a finished commercial that they did and showed how they manipulated film and still shots, green screen shots and CG additions. Then he showed us some work from The Hobbit, especially the changes in Gollum and a bit about Rivendell as computer rendering instead of a model. He talked a bit about the challenges of shooting in 48 fps and stereo, the false perspective tricks that were harder and showed a short bit about compositing. Bit about simulation software for rivers, waterfalls, fire, smoke, sand, etc. Bit about the goblin king. Also a section about entirely CG shots.
Iron Man 3 short bit about the production, especially the dock sequence at the end that was almost entirely CG. Also a bit about Prometheus.
Reading by John Scalzi
From the beginning of the panel he seemed a little nervous, which is understandable since he was up for best novel for Redshirts. An award which he won later in the evening. After joking a bit the audience and reminding them to silence their phones, he read from the novel he's currently working on, Locked-In. Halfway through his phone rang, which cracked everyone up. His teenage daughter was calling to ask him where something was at home. He explained he was in the middle of a panel and then held his phone up so we could all say 'Hi'to her.
And then I went back to the hotel to get ready for the Hugos. I always feel like I should at least make an effort to get out of jeans for the ceremonies. For the most part, my top picks all came in at least second. At least this year there were no winners that I strongly disliked, which has happened in the past. In case you're curious, here are the Hugo winners and picture of this year's winning base design.