Comic Con International’s Influence on The Photon Effect

No hanging with Stan the Man this year :(

This year marks the first in several years that neither director Dan Poole or producer Doug Adams (who will be crafting most of the blogs, including this one) will be attending Comic Con International in San Diego.  Dan had a sweet gig as the PA announcer for Viz Media that unfortunately wasn’t renewed.  Good luck finding someone better on the mic!  It’s a shame since Comic Con has a lot to do with The Photon Effect evolving from an idea into a real moving picture show that will soon be out on the market.

For those not in the know, Dan has made a name for himself with some incredible fan films based on Marvel’s Spider-Man (which might still be on the web somewhere) and Wolverine (which definitely is http://youtu.be/c1YWJVK8X3g).  Back in 2004 he had the idea of making an Avengers fan film featuring Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America which he shared with folks in the biz at Comic Con, most notably G4′s Chris Gore.

While everyone loved the concept, the growing consensus was that Dan was too talented to spend time on another fan film, a stance on which I vehemently agreed.  There was no money in it and the big studios are doing everything they can to make sure indie filmmakers don’t go “tarnishing” their brand names.  Instead, it was advised he should try to make a movie with an all original story and characters that could be sold on the open market.  While Dan wanted to do it, how was he going to get the money to make this flick?  Well…….

These words likely carried more weight than intended

2004 was my first trip to Comic Con and I gotta say there was something in the air that was infectious.  No, I’m not talking about the rampant B.O. that’s lingering in those costumes after Day 1.  It was having all those creative people, the actors and filmmakers that make the films I love to see, in one place that flipped a switch in my mind.  I started to think “why can’t I join in on their reindeer games?”  But where do I begin and how should I go about this?

Long story short, I found out I had some equity in my home that turned out to be very close to the movie budget number Dan had calculated. I think it was that night I told Dan to get cracking on his script because we have a movie to make!

As you can tell from the date, this movie has been in the works for a looooong time.  We’ll discuss why in later blog posts.  Until then, thanks for stopping by and if any of you readers are out in San Diego this weekend, stay classy.