- March 31st, 2008
- Filed under New Media
Well it has been quite a week! Since my last post there has been all kinds of attention being paid to IMA technology efforts. Richard is still flying high on the blogosphere success of his Wikipedia hijinks, journalists have been in touch with us and Daniel and I even passed on our sage wisdom to a group of IUPUI Museum Studies students last Thursday night. All in all, it feels great to be in conversation with a variety of different audiences and honestly, it feels good to have fans! Though, we have really only just begun.
I think it should be a Nugget Factory goal to someday inspire the same fervent fandom that generated the film project Fanboys.
I was reading through stuff on the Wired blog yesterday (I must admit to being a little behind on catching up with non-IMA blogs lately) and couldn’t help but giggle about this project and feel a little envious. According to Wired, Ernie Cline, the film’s screenwriter, created the story that, “centers on a group of wannabe Jedis who travel cross-country and break into Skywalker Ranch to sneak a peek at a rough cut of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace before its release.” Brilliant, I say, as a Star Wars fan, though I am sure I wouldn’t last long in a themed game of Trivial Pursuit. But as the article points out, Star Wars fan films aren’t anything new, there are tons of them. So what made this one any different? Cline got a big break and his project boasts the support of some Hollywood heavy hitters.
So what does all this have to do with IMA? Well, nothing….yet. However, the Nugget Factory frequently discusses ideas like this one. Nearly always ridiculous, and seemingly impossible to achieve, we brainstorm about the perfect project that would allow us to indulge in our own fan-idol relationships. (Perhaps this topic would be a good one for the next Nugget Factory audio experience. ) Recently, 50% of the Nugget Factory chatted about the inherent coolness of an Angelina Jolie-filled project (sans Brad Pitt) while 25% of the Nugget Factory desperately wants Iggy Pop to blog about his art interests (It’s me…Iggy, if you are reading this, PLEEEEEEASE consider blogging!). And there are many other celebrities populating our guest blogger wish-list.
It seems that there are layers to this notion of fandom. Indulging in your own interests, getting others excited about whatever you are obsessing over (like me and Facebook!), and admiring those who created the interest in the first place, and in the case of Ernie Cline, sometimes you can turn the tables and become the subject of fan admiration yourself. So, this is where the Nugget Factory needs to be! Maybe this time next year we’ll be hosting a NF fan video competition, where people have hunted down just the right sweater vest, pair of shorts, layered look or sunglasses to parody us. But I think we would be just as happy if the phone rings and it is Iggy Pop or Angelina Jolie. You know which one I would vote for.
But feel free to use this forum to suggest your own ideas for fan-indulgent projects.
March 31st, 2008 at 8:18 am
Star Wars could be relevant to the IMA. I mean, Indianapolis has that HUGE Gen Con convention every year, right? I know Daniel knows what I’m talking about.
But seriously, how about Michael Stipe as a guest blogger? He’s a photographer himself, so maybe he’d like to talk about his practice as a photographer?
March 31st, 2008 at 11:35 am
Despi, as long as you’re on my team for Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, you’re fine.
May the force be with you.
March 31st, 2008 at 3:43 pm
There was a star wars fan movie filmed in Indianapolis called Saving Star Wars. http://imdb.com/title/tt0387563/
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:30 pm
A little known fact…I appeared briefly in an amateur Star Wars fan film as a teenager.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Comparing to what I’ve read about this before, it sounds absolutely impressing. I’m an old internet user, and have read a lot about this kind of stuff, but what I read here today is absolutely different.