The B-Movie Celebration 2011 | Call for Volunteers

Indiana is a really great place to be.

Every fall for the last 5 years a little known festival to most Hoosiers has been making large ripples in the B-Movie market worldwide. The B-Movie Celebration in Franklin Indiana hosts thousands of fans of the B-movie genre and the producers, directors, writers, actors, blood curdling screaming actresses, visual effects artists, and world renowned sound artists that make them.




Some famous B-Movies are Krull (1983), Killer Clowns from Outer Space (1989), and one of my recent guilty pleasures Sharktopus (2010).

What is a B-Movie?

According to Wiki- "In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature. Although the U.S. production of movies intended as second features largely ceased by the end of the 1950s, the term B movie continued to be used in the broader sense it maintains today. In its post–Golden Age usage, there is ambiguity on both sides of the definition: on the one hand, many B movies display a high degree of craft and aesthetic ingenuity; on the other, the primary interest of many inexpensive exploitation films is prurient. In some cases, both are true."

What is the B-Movie Celebration?

"For the past five years, fans of the often misunderstood genre of B-Movies gather in Franklin, Indiana – not just to watch classic films, but to, as the name implies, celebrate them!

What is the difference?

"Perhaps it is joy of seeing the films on the big screen of a cinema, or perhaps it is the camaraderie of viewing them with other fans. It may also be the rebellious feel of enjoying films that usually come from outside the mainstream Hollywood system. Whatever it is, it is real and the fans who journey through the cornfields of central Indiana to attend the celebration know it."

The B-Movie Celebration takes place for 3 days and 2 nights from Friday, September 23rd through Sunday, September 25th.

Volunteers are needed. You will have the chance to make great VFX contacts, compete in the Zombie Walk Nation, the possibility to drive a B-Movie heavyweights around for a day, and of course, watch B-Movies! Examples of volunteer positions can be found here.




If you are interested in volunteering and are looking for some great opportunities to network with in-state and out-of-state professionals email Founder Bill Dever @ devers03@netzero.net

As a volunteer you will receive:

Free popcorn and soda during your shifts at the B Movie Celebration
Boxed dinner when you work Opening Night (slots available for returning volunteers only)


Volunteering has its benefits — What do you get?

2-4 hours gets you a festival day pass
5-8 hours gets you a festival pass (films only)
9+ hours gets you a full festival pass (films AND parties)

"Friendly, Kind, Hardworking Personalities Required"
Volunteer, represent the state and the excitement for networking and B-Movie awesomeness!

Again, If you are interested in volunteering and are looking for some great opportunities to network with in-state and out-of-state professionals email Founder Bill Dever @ devers03@netzero.net

Siggraph 2011 | Vancouver

This year's SIGGRAPH had a lot of firsts for a lot of people. It was the first summer that SIGGRAPH was in another country (now we have SIGGRAPH Asia in the Winter[this year [Hong Kong]) Vancouver played host city to a very eager crowd! (Well done Vancouver!!! My first demo was this year. Many of my students had their first trip to another country, their first SIGGRAPH, and most of my students had their first missed flight! My fiance' attended her first SIGGRAPH for 1 day to check out my presentation, it happened to be her first time seeing me speak as well! And as always, I made many new friends and didn't get to see enough of old ones.



I was lucky enough to speak along with about a dozen other individuals throughout the week in the Studio under the 'Digital Artistry Workshops' led by Stephen Burns of Chrome Allusion. My topic was Creating Camera Rigs in Maya. A cheap way to minimize 'roller coaster' rides, and maximize 'Michael Bay' types of camera movements in a 3D program. The techniques are mostly just intimidating for many, but very simple to adopt with a little technical experimentation. It was a great experience, I was nervous for the the first time in a long while and spent much of the first days of conference fretting over small details. When Wednesday came the crowd seemed to like the content well enough. Most rewarding, I had several artists asking me to follow up with them and to stay in touch! I love SIGGRAPH.

Indiana and the Art Institute had a strong showing in the Studio this year. Demian Moon Stevens a friend and acquaintance of Stephen Burns helped get so many of us out there.

The Indiana Line up was often called the Art Institute of Indiana 'Dream Team' because myself and two previous students were presenters.

Brian Phillips of the Basement Motion + Design
Topic - 3D Motion Graphics with Photoshop and After Effects

David Ortel
Topic - Digital Abstract Art w/Real Flow and Maya

Demian Moon Stevens
Topic - Cross-Platform Concept Illustration
Topic - Zbrush Life Sculpting and Portraiture

and myself with Real World Camera Rig Creation in Maya

I plan on posting a detailed write-up for Camera Rigging and the techniques about it all in a few weeks.

The greatest part of the talks was that we had the opportunity to represent Indiana and its growing industry in front of so many people in Vancouver. Brian and I even pitched the 49hour Film Contest as well as IndianaUploaded. Both get huge support, hopefully we inspire other areas to do similar projects!



Great work to all the S.V.'s and Indiana's own Josh Grow and Eddie Pohill for another kick ass Electronic Theatre and Animation Festival!!! I can't wait for next year's SIGGRAPH and what happens in between. Hopefully we all get to see more of past friends and colleagues in L.A.

Stay thirsty my friends.