Fri 2/26-Sun 2/28
If Wizard World Comic Con Cleveland’s successful debut last year taught us anything it’s that people-watching wasn’t limited to those celebrities making an appearance at the pop culture event.
Sure, attending this year is an A list of Comic Con stars – Chris Hemsworth (Thor, The Avengers), Cleveland-born directors Joe and Anthony Russo (Captain America) and Henry “The Fonz” Winkler (Happy Days, Royal Pains). But once again the true attraction will be the ardent Northeast Ohioans partaking in cosplay (aka costume play), which finds them dressing up as their favorite superhero, video game or cartoon and comic book character.
Taking this fandom even further is the phenomenon known as fan films, where diehards actually create their own movies as tributes. Over the past few years, Cleveland-based filmmaker Johnny Wu, who co-founded the Cleveland Asian Festival, has used his company, Media Design Imaging (MDI), to produce numerous fan films: A Joker’s Card and S: A Superman Fan Film, as well as Doctor Who fan film webisodes T.R.A.C.E.
The same spectacle is expected this year at Wizard World Comic Con Cleveland 2016, which takes place 2/26-28 at the FirstMerit Convention Center of Cleveland.
CoolCleveland talked to Wu about his love of fan films and how this genre fits into the Wizard World Comic Con Cleveland 2016 universe.
How was your Cleveland Comic Con experience last year?
We think we had more than 200,000 people pass through our booth all weekend. We had a really great experience. It was fun. In fact, we did so well that at the end of last year they immediately asked us to reserve for this year. I guess we did have a good impact last year in a sense of helping promote the event. Also, we gave a panel discussion on how to make fan films. We’re doing that again this year at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in room 26BC.
For those Comic Con neophytes, can you explain cosplay and fan films?
A fan film basically is a performing art to pay tribute or give homage to a character or movie or individual that you love. In our case, we did fan films about Batman and Superman. T.R.A.C.E. is a fan film that we’ve been working on since 2014. We now have five episodes, each of which is on Youtube with more than 40,000 viewers. It all starts with wanting to do our own story and our own characters. So what this ultimately means is when you go to Comic Con, people dress up. It becomes cosplay. It’s another type of performing art. And in a sense, fan films, cosplay, it’s the heart of the Comic Con culture. So in my opinion, you don’t have to wait until Halloween to dress up as a character you love. You can just go to Comic Con and nobody will ridicule you or make fun of you because they know you enjoy the character so much that you want to be that character.
How do makers of fan films skirt around the legality issue of using copyrighted characters?
Every time we do a fan film, we’re making sure we’re protecting the copyright holder. We’re not charging money to watch and everything has to be done for free. And with Dr. Who, I have a friend in the U.K. who helped organize the 40th anniversary of Dr. Who series for the BBC. So the BBC is very much aware of what we’re doing and they indirectly encourage us. But we don’t make money out of it.
For those folks reading this who exist outside of the Comic Con world, your explanation will draw plenty of eye rolls.
Well, it’s not only them. It’s other filmmakers who are like, “Why are you making a fan film? Why are you wasting your own money?” First of all, T.R.A.C.E. was a crowd-funded fan film. And everybody agreed they wouldn’t be paid. We all just love Dr. Who and wanted to do a fan film. The reason I’m doing this is because it’s a calling card. The more people that watch the show, the more people that know that Johnny Wu and his crew are capable of doing something like this. They’re going to become a fan of our production. And in the future they may use MDI Film.
Finally, is your goal to get the attention of Hollywood?
I don’t want to go to Hollywood. I want to stay in Cleveland because it’s my hometown and I love Cleveland. My career is making noise. At the end of the day for me filmmaking is a career. And I hope my company becomes a force that people say if you want to do a good quality filmmaking, go to Johnny Wu and his team. They’ll be able to do it.
wizardworld.com/comiccon/cleveland
Cleveland, OH 44114