(1) SEATTLE 2025 WORLDCON MEMBERSHIP RATES RISE TOMORROW. At least for a few more hours the cost of a WSFS Membership + Attending Membership Supplement for an adult over the age of 25 is $175. The other permutations are explained at the Memberships – Seattle Worldcon 2025 page.
Mark Roth-Whitworth sent a few editorial comments along with the foregoing reminder:
I just got our memberships for Seattle in ’25. Ouch. This far out, $175 each, and I think it goes up after tomorrow.
Was the same demographic going as did back in the Sixties and Seventies, it would be a *lot* smaller. Most of us were working class. Hell, my late wife and I together maybe made the median income, or maybe just under. In 1993 it would have been hard to pay for this.
Forget the graying of fandom, how about the economic stratification of fandom? Where are the folks who are making a living working construction, or flipping burgers, or barista, or drive a cab, or working in a thousand other jobs that we need, but make crap wages? Or people on SSI or other welfare?
I know I ghosted a con or two in my mid-twenties, when I just did not have the money. I don’t know a lot of folks who go to other than their local cons, and work them to afford it.
Have we become elite?
(2) EMMY AWARDS. Genre TV was shut out at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony which aired on January 15. The complete list of winners – largely repeated wins by Succession, The Bear, and Beef — is here.
(3) HISTORIC MOMENTS IN TELEVISION. There are, however, plenty of genre highlights in the Television Academy’s anniversary list of 75 “Top TV Moments”.
Arguably the first one on the list is genre, because fans voted the Hugo Award to TV coverage of the Apollo 11 mission. Beyond that, you have to wait ‘til way down the list before there’s another.
1. The Moon Landing. After Apollo 11 landed on the moon, astronaut Neil Armstrong proclaims “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. 1969.
40. The Twilight Zone. “Time Enough at Last” After a nuclear catastrophe, loner Harry Bemis (Burgess Meredith) is left with all the time in the world to read his beloved books, only to shatter his glasses, leaving him virtually blind. 1950.
50. Star Trek – Kirk and Uhura kiss, 1968
51. Game of Thrones — “The Rains of Castamere” At Robb’s (Richard Madden) wedding, Catelyn (Michelle Fairley) reveals chain mail under Bolton’s (Michael McElhatton) clothes just as Robb’s wife is murdered, Robb is shot with arrows, and his men’s throats are cut.
And there are several more beyond that, from The Last of Us, Lost, another from Game of Thrones, and the Mary Martin version of Peter Pan.
(4) DEEP IMPACT. Animation World Network’s Kevin Geiger anticipates “The Impact of AI on Hollywood in 2024: 12 Predictions”. Short version: AI will take away a bunch of existing jobs. Here’s an excerpt of what he forsees.
4. Deepfake filmmaking has become the new paradigm.
The continued evolution of deepfake technology enables filmmakers of all resource levels to create younger versions of living actors or bring deceased actors back to the screen. This has already been used to tell stories that span different periods. While the technology offers exciting creative opportunities, it raises significant ethical concerns regarding consent and the potential misuse of digital likenesses. Seeing is no longer believing.
5. Rise of the AI-driven extras and stunt doubles.
The use of AI-generated virtual extras and stunt doubles will be a game-changer in reducing production costs and logistical complexities, particularly in scenes requiring large crowds or dangerous stunts. However, the application of AI technology will accelerate the reduced employment opportunities for human extras and stunt performers.
6. The visual effects industry becomes more director-driven.
AI’s ability to produce sophisticated visual effects quickly and cost-effectively is set to enhance the visual storytelling in films. The prospect of generating visual effects via “prompting” (otherwise known as “directing”) will make VFX more director-driven, and encourage greater creative expression and experimentation. The number of “technical directors” required on a film will be reduced: a benefit to major studios and indie producers, but a threat to hired guns.
7. AI-assisted editing is now the default starting point.
AI-assisted editing is revolutionizing work reels and post-production by autonomously selecting takes, suggesting edits, and assembling rough cuts. This can significantly speed up the editing process and reduce costs, but over-reliance on AI could reduce the editor’s creative control, lead
(5) AAFCA AWARDS. The 15th Annual African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) Award Winners include Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Best Drama: Origin
Best Comedy: American Fiction
Best Musical: The Color Purple
Best Director: Ava DuVernay (Origin)
Best Screenplay: American Fiction
Best Actor: Colman Domingo (Rustin)
Best Actress: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Origin)
Best Supporting Actor: Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction)
Best Supporting Actress: *TIE* Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers), Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple)
Best Ensemble: The Color Purple
Breakout Performance: Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Emerging Filmmaker: Cord Jefferson (American Fiction)
Best Independent Feature: A Thousand and One
Best Animated Feature: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best Documentary: Stamped From The Beginning
Best Music: The Color Purple
Best International Film: Io Capitano
Best Short Film: The After
(6) EKPEKI Q&A. Paul Semel interviews “’The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022’ Co-Editor Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki”.
While other Best Of type anthologies only consider short stories, The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022 also includes poems. I recently interviewed Stephen Kotowych, the editor of Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy And Science Fiction: Volume One, which also includes poetry. Is there something going on in the speculative realm where poetry is becoming more popular or respected?
Speculative poetry is such a wide and important form that we decided to include this year to make the book separate from last year’s. Hopefully, it’s something that matches up with the vibrancy the speculative poetry world exudes [and this is a] chance to showcase some of that speculative poetry vibrancy going on
(7) THE METERS OF MIDDLE-EARTH. And CBR.com studies “How The Lord of the Rings Made Poetry Exciting”.
…The characters of The Lord of the Rings used poetry as a coping mechanism to deal with negative emotions. Shortly after leaving the Shire, the hobbits were overwhelmed with uncertainty and weariness about the journey ahead. To raise their spirits, Frodo recited “The Road goes ever on and on,” a poem that Bilbo had taught him. In Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf and Bilbo both sang sections of this same poem. As the hobbits rested at Weathertop, poetry again assuaged their worries. In the chapter “A Knife in the Dark” from Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn “began to tell them tales to keep their minds from fear.” These tales came in the form of poems, such as the song of Beren and Lúthien….
(8) FREE READ. Entries in the Quantum Shorts flash fiction contest are available to read at the link. The shortlist will be announced in March.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
Born January 17, 1931 — James Earl Jones, 93. This Scroll you’re getting James Earl Jones, most notably known in our circles as the voice of a certain Sith Lord whose voice he did up to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but he’s got much more, and sometimes surprisingly diverse career here. So let’s see what he’s done…
His film debut was as Lieutenant Lothar Zogg, the B-52’s bombardier in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
In 1969, Jones participated in making short films for what became Sesame Street. These were combined with animated segments, then were shown to groups of children to see if the format appealed to children. As cited by production notes included in the Sesame Street: Old School 1969–1974 DVD, the short that had the greatest impact with test audiences was one showing a bald-headed Jones counting slowly to ten. And yes, it was shown on the show when it aired.
I truly love him in Conan the Barbarian as Thulsa Doom, an antagonist for the character Kull of Atlantis. Thulsa Doom was created by Robert E. Howard in the “Delcardes’ Cat” story. Neat character for him, I’d say.
He’s in Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold withthe name of Umslopogaas, a fearless warrior and old friend of Allan Quatermain. I looked him up in the original novel, Allan Quatermain. Please don’t make me do that again. Really. Don’t.
Ahhh, Field of Dreams: “Ray, people will come Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they’re doing it.” Great role. To say more would involve spoilers, right?
He voices Mufusa, the lion murdered by his brother in The Lion King and its sequel, who death does not stop from being present. Really present. Extraordinary performing by him.
Did you know that he narrated Stallone’s Judge Dredd? Well he did. He was uncredited at time but as is with these things, it didn’t stay a secret permanently, did it?
He had series appearances on Faerie Tale Theatre (as, and I simply love it, Genie of the Lamp, Genie of the Ring), Highway to Heaven, Shelley Duvall’s Bedtime Stories, Picket Fences, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, (he was the uncredited narrator of 3rd Rock from the Sun (maybe he’s the nameless narrator for all of the multiverse?), Touched by an Angel in which he’s the Angel of Angels, cool name, Stargate SG-1 , Merlin and finally as himself on The Big Bang Theory.
He hosted Long Ago and Far Away, a children’s series that lasted thirty-five episodes with each of them based on a folk or fairy tale. Stop motion animation, live actors and traditional animation were all used.
That’s it, folks.
(10) COMICS SECTION.
- The Argyle Sweater features Star Wars dessert puns.
(11) PAYDAY FOR COMIC OWNER. “Rare copy of The Amazing Spider-Man No 1 sells for more than £1m” – the Guardian wanted you to know. And weep if you ever owned a copy in your youth.
A rare copy of the first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man has sold for more than £1m.
The comic, published in March 1963, reached a record-setting $1.38m (£1.1m) at auction. It is one of only two copies of The Amazing Spider-Man No 1 rated “near mint/mint” by comic book grading service Certified Guaranty Company (CGC).
“It was obvious this Spider-Man was an opportunity not likely to come around, and the final price reflected that,” said Barry Sandoval, vice president at Heritage Auctions, the company that ran the auction, according to Fine Books magazine.
The copy sold for nearly three times as much as a CGC-rated “near mint” version sold in July last year for $520,380 (£410,184)….
(12) TODAY’S THING TO WORRY ABOUT. The lede is the most interesting part of Variety’s article “When Superman and Batman Copyrights Expire in a Decade, Will It Be Kryptonite for DC?”.
About a decade ago, Zack Snyder developed a storyline for the DC Extended Universe that involved Bruce Wayne impregnating Lois Lane.
The subplot in which Batman cuckolds Superman was poised to unfold in “Justice League,” with Batman dying in the sequel and Lois raising their spawn with Superman. Snyder’s vision for Wonder Woman was equally unorthodox, with visuals featuring a superheroine who brandished the decapitated heads of her conquered enemies like an ISIS jihadi.
Warner Bros. and DC Studios — which hold a firm grip on their intellectual property — rejected Snyder’s ideas, which were deemed “super creepy,” according to a source familiar with the back and forth. (DC declined to comment for this story. A representative for Snyder did not respond to a request for comment.) But in the next decade, artists and rival studios won’t need permission to create their own take on the characters.
A sad fact of Hollywood is that while superheroes never truly die, all copyrights do. On Jan. 1, Disney lost control of “Steamboat Willie,” and within 24 hours two horror-comedies starring Mickey Mouse were announced. The DC characters are the next major expirations looming on the horizon. Superman and Lois Lane will enter the public domain in 2034, followed by Batman in 2035, the Joker in 2036 and Wonder Woman in 2037….
(13) FIREFLY ON THE CHEAP. SYFY Wire admires “How Serenity Slashed Its Budget from $100 Million to $39 Million” and was able to get greenlighted.
…In a 2005 interview with the Los Angeles Times, the effects crew and film’s creators opened up about the ways they shaved tens of millions off the film’s cost. Basically, they shot it like a TV show, creating only what was necessary and meticulously storyboarding things out so no resources were wasted.
One of the movie’s most ambitious set pieces, a wild chase scene early in the film, was projected to be one of the costliest segments in the film. So instead of trying to build out a massive CGI chase, they built a trailer with a cantilevered arm big enough to hold the on-screen hovercraft and actors. Then they just shot the scene on Templin Highway around Santa Clarita. For the Reaver vehicle chasing the crew, they hacked an old pick-up truck together with some CGI overlays for final effects. In the end, a scene expected to take 30 days was finished up in five.
To create the spaceship models in the space-set scenes, they used a common cost-cutting approach called “kit bashing,” where you combine several different ship models and kits and mix them all together to create something new. It’s a cheap alternative to full-on spaceship design, and it saved time and money for plenty of those space scenes.
They even had to rebuild the Serenity ship itself for sets, using old blueprints and DVD screen grabs for reference, a process they knocked out in a brief 14 weeks and under budget. All the explosions and pyrotechnics in the film were also done on a tight schedule, filmed across three nights at Mystery Mesa near Valencia. Traditionally, that level of sci-fi action pyro work for a blockbuster movie would’ve taken around two weeks….
(14) KLINGONS DON’T DRINK MERLOT. TrekMovie.com invites as to watch as “Paul Giamatti Auditions For Star Trek, Recreates His Iconic ‘Merlot’ Moment In Klingon”.
Danish movie journalist and friend of TrekMovie Johan Albrechtsen has once again used a non-Star Trek promotional junket to recreate a Star Trek moment. As Paul Giamatti was promoting his award-winning role in The Holdovers Albrechtsen brought up the actor’s previously expressed interest in playing a Klingon in Star Trek. And he persuaded the Giamatti to recreate his famous “I am not drinking any f###ing Merlot!” moment from the 2004 wine-themed film Sideways, but this time in Klingon. The moment was then edited to create a new Star Trek “audition tape” with Giamatti as a Klingon captain, cut into a scene from The Next Generation….
[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Kathy Sullivan, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]
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(1) Dang it, I was waiting for an e-mail to purchase my upgrade (voted in site selection). The eternal question: did I miss the e-mail, did the e-mail miss me, or has there been no e-mail yet?
(1) @Mark–Sadly, for as long as I’ve been in fandom, we’ve had some people quite vehement in their insistence that if the cost of congoing is an obstacle for you, you should just stay home. Those types are not receptive to the idea that it’s bad that cost is shutting out the economic demographic that originally built fandom. Classist idiocy.
(9) I can hear his voice in my mind as I read this tribute!
In the early 1980s, I saw James Earl Jones as Othello in Baltimore (with Christopher Plummer as Iago) — this was before they brought that revival to Broadway. I wish I had worn my glasses (I was a dummy who was afraid of classmates making fun of me). But even though the people on the stage were a bit fuzzy, they were still very impactful. That voice was not fuzzy at all.
sigh No Jetpack.
(1) After I emailed you that, Mike, I was thinking back. When I was in my late teens, I went to my first Worldcon, having only been to 1.5 cons (my first con, I only heard about it to show up Sat early afternoon). At the time, I was a part-time library page at Temple, and I think the minimum wage had, by then, gone up from $1.25/hr to $1.41/hr. Having saved up, I could afford to take the bus from Philly to NYC, pay for a room myself (didn’t know about sharing), and pay for the Worldcon membership. And eat meals in (cheap) restaurants. I haven’t run into a library page in years, only librarians.
Birthdays: did he try to use the Force on Carrie?
(14) And what’s wrong with merlot on occasion for vin ordinaire?
mark: Inflation lets us play all kinds of games. I will point out that my own and my friends’ reluctance to spend $8 for the 1972 Worldcon banquet led us to invent the “Ranquet”. We held it at a McDonald’s in the days when you could still “get change back from your dollar” after buying a burger, fries and Coke.
Mike – sure does. Using mark’s economic indicators (which in spite of people arguing with me over the years, proves continually to be as good as the Economists’ – mine being, at a non-chain restaurant that only serves breakfast and lunch, what’s the price of a breakfast special (two eggs, home fries, toast, and coffee)? In ’79, it was $1.39; now, it’s $5? $7?). Remember as well that I said I was working part time…. Then there were the couple years I ghosted my home con, because I was driving a cab, and, oh, yes, paying child support. I should look around at cons, and see how many cab/uber/lyft drivers there are.
Mike, most of the last 40 years, when I had the money to go to cons, I didn’t have time, and when I had time, I didn’t have money.
Mark, that breakfast spacial here in Portland, Maine will easily run you at least ten dollars, if not twelve or more. I picked up a breakfast sandwich at Market Basket last week and it was six dollars, so I suspect you’ve not eaten out lately.
(10) Drop the light saber, bring the cannoli.
11) News items like this always remind of how I bought comics like AMAZING FANTASY #15 (Spider-Man’s origin story) and many other comics of the era, now worth thousands or more dollars each to collectors, off the spinner rack when they were first published.
So why aren’t I rich?
Kids, never store your comics in an open-topped box where your cat can get at them.
(For the record, this was early enough on that most of that box of comics had only slightly grown in value.)
(1) An attending membership for ConFrancisco, if bought in January 1992, was $85, the equivalent of $183 today. Seattle is charging $8 less.
[1] To Kevin and others, I wrote to the Seattle registration folks a couple weeks ago asking about converting my supporting membership to an attending, because I had not gotten the instructions by the end of the year as stated on the website. I was told they were running behind and still working on the software but would definitely get it ready soon. Obviously they did not, and I never received the promised email. I hope someone from Seattle sees this and follows through, and honors the pre-deadline conversion rate.
Thanks for the Title Credit.
1.) The cost of conventions has cut out a lot of younger people. I do see some conventions trying to work around that issue, but there are factors that conventions can’t control, such as the expense of hotel rooms these days.
Being high risk for Covid has ruled out a lot of convention participation for me, unless it’s virtual. I’m disappointed that there aren’t more virtual opportunities, and that the ones which exist are not being widely promoted. As a writer, I’d sure like to have the visibility and networking that comes along with in-person participation, but frankly I lack confidence in the ability of large numbers of people to cooperate with ventilation and masking safety requirements. Cooperation seems to vary by region (and I’m in an allegedly blue region with low compliance), and despite claims by oh-so-many people that masking is happening, I see too many bare-face convention pictures to have confidence in others to consistently and safely mask.
And with measles on the rise…egg allergies impact my ability to be vaccinated, and I have two titre tests that contradict each other as to whether I have any immunity against measles. So yeah, virtual is safer in my situation.
Economics, innovation, and (yes) capitalism change relative value over time.
I worked for McDonald’s in the early 80s. If you worked a 3-hour shift, you could get $2.35 in food on top of your hourly wages. Everyone had their food preferences worked out to maximize the food they got for that $2.35. I think that was enough to get a cheeseburger, small fries, and a medium Coke back in the day.
That same $2.35 is worth $7.42 in 2023. Based on the products and my local McDonalds prices, the same cheeseburger, small fries, and medium drink currently cost roughly $6.00, maybe a bit more.
That $8 banquet ticket would be over $58 today. I’ve hosted wedding party dinners over the last few years. The cost was in the $20-30 per head range at very mid-level restaurants, not including adult libations.
There is a price tag that comes with success. My local con took place in a not terribly sophisticated meeting space. It wasn’t expensive to attend as a result. A larger space with multiple meeting locations, close to appropriate hotels and restaurants, and suitable for accommodating the needs of various attendees is going to be a more expensive place to build and thus more expensive to rent.
Supply vs. Demand is reality.
Regards,
Dann
What do you despise? By this are you truly known. – Frank Herbert
Joyce, the CDC says here that it’s safe for you to get vaccines containing the egg protein. You should at least go read it.
A friend of mine with egg allergies did get the vaccines. He was immune compromised being a kidney recipient so he needed them.
Joyce, plug for one of my local cons – come to Balticon, Memorial Day weekend. We (I’m in the club) run it hybrid, and our people really know what they’re doing. We were one of the first virtual cons after lockdown, and for the next year, we were seen as the gold standard (NZ begged a bunch of our people to help). And it’s a major regional – not sure, but we may be close to, if not having gone back over 1000 attending last year. (Masking required in program rooms, and requested out of them.)
mark–thanks. We’ll see. I wouldn’t mind doing virtual panels, so I’ll need to check it out. The complication is that we’ve loosely planned a trip to Yellowstone during that time, alas.
Cat, I have read it. I’m not willing to flirt with anaphylactic shock. And given my experience with restrictions around the egg-free flu shot, and the poor way I handle a lot of vaccinations to begin with, I’m saying nope.
This is not a sad fact, Variety. The public domain is glorious, as DC and Marvel should know because they’ve mined it for characters many times.
Here are some pictures from the 2023 Balticon – not 100% masked (though some photos are outside) but a pretty high percentage
Re: (3) HISTORIC MOMENTS IN TELEVISION.-40. The Twilight Zone. “Time Enough at Last”
I’ve always been baffled by SF fans gushing over this episode. I’m baffled by Rod Serling, of all people, putting it on the air, given his criticism of mediocre television programming, and his supposed dedication to good writing. This episode has always seemed to me to be a cheap shot at people who like to read, and best enjoyed by televison addicts who regard those who do as eccentric freaks. Modern sitcoms, even supposed “classics” like Cheers or Friends, perpetuate this stereotype, reinforcing the prejudices of ignoramuses and pushing it on young people.
@K: It’s not my favorite episode (because it’s so cruel), but I think of Bemis as a sympathetic character (trapped (by restrictive laws) in a marriage with someone who hated him, and unhappy in his work life). The reading part seems to me to be just a detail – the center of the story is that Bemis has a coping method for dealing with the mundane disappointments of life, he’s thrust into a much more miserable situation (one that drives him to the verge of suicide), he has a brief moment of hope – perhaps his usual coping method can keep him going here, too, and then that hope is snatched away. In popular memory, the reading aspect has overwhelmed the other aspects of the story, but you could tell the same story if Bemis’s coping method was music (in that case, he finds a violin in the wreckage, then stumbles while carrying it, smashing it to flinders).
Mm…. re the comments on Serling’s T/Z episode “Time Enough At Last”, whilst that is important, there are, IMO, a no of other Zone eps that also stand out: (1) “Two” (a nice twosome post WW3 item with just Elizabeth Montgomery (pre- Bewitched) and Charles Bronson), (2) “Eye Of The Beholder” (a brilliant critique on our obsession with physical pulchritude) and (3) “The Odyssey Of Flight 33”. Indeed the dinosaurs section in (3) was one of the most expensive sections ever done for a TZ episode.!! So indeed…. that signpost up ahead.. your next stop…!!
(1) If you take into account inflation, Worldcon prices aren’t that different between Confrancisco and Seattle in ’25. Up until the end of 1991, attending membership of Confrancisco would have cost $70, which according to https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ would be $156.60 now, a cumulative inflation of 123%. In January 1992, i.e. the equivalent of where we are now to Seattle in 2025, attending membership of Confrancisco would have been $85, which today would be $184.60, a cumulative inflation of 117%. Of course, for many it’s travel and accommodation which are the killer costs, and I don’t have a good comparison for those. In my case I was able to get to Magicon because I could get much cheaper flights from the UK to Orlando, compared to San Francisco, and even that is a measure of privilege. Would have loved to have gone though, it was a decade later before I was able to visit San Francisco.