👽 Dragon Con: behind the scenes

Dog days and Dragon Con Aug Happy Friday and happy early Labor Day But alas while a long weekend might be in our future in the present day we are mourning a loss and celebrating one of the greatest celebrity feuds of Frisbee late-night host Seth Meyers dog and also the mortal enemy of Andy Samberg has passed away If you haven t been listening to any podcasts featuring Saturday Night Live alumni in the past couple of months you might be late to this party But Andy Samberg hated Seth Meyers little Italian greyhound perhaps more than anyone has ever hated anything His reasoning Oh just the general appearance and vibe and essence There is no one-sided beef more sacred than that of a man and that man s friend s dog But it appears Frisbee hated Samberg just as much In one last bit of spite she died the day after his birthday ensuring that their names would be linked for the foreseeable future and raising suspicions about what exactly Samberg wished for when he blew out those candles RIP to a true legend Without further ado Action Dragon Con is happening from now until Sept and passes can still be purchased online More on the convention below For all you filmmakers out there remember that the regular deadline to apply to next year s Atlanta Film Festival is Sept The nonprofit Audio Video Club is hosting its second annual AVC Fest from Oct - at Eyedrum The Reelies an awards show dedicated to content creators and marketing professionals will take place at The Plaza Theatre on Sept The SCAD Savannah Film Festival plans to honor Jennifer Lopez with its Virtuoso Award this year The festival will take place Oct Nov The Telluride Film Festival which takes place this weekend just published the lineup for its nd festival including Chlo Zhao s Hamnet and the Bruce Springsteen biopic Springsteen Deliver Me From Nowhere Anthropic has settled a lawsuit from authors who accused the company of illegally using their books to teach its AI system Twi-Hards rejoice The Twilight Saga will be back in theaters over the Halloween holiday And eventually in various of worst news I ve heard all week and that s saying something the AI-enhanced version of The Wizard of Oz playing at the Sphere in Las Vegas has replaced two of the munchkins faces with the faces of Sphere Entertainment Co CEO James Dolan and Warner Bros Discover head David Zaslav I will be having nightmares about this for weeks This week s newsletter includes a behind-the-scenes look at Dragon Con a review of the new movie Caught Stealing and the final episode of my podcast Crash Zoom Plus what s playing at theaters over Labor Day weekend and certain reading and listening recommendations for your lunch break Thanks for reading Sammie For countless students and young adults entering the workforce can be a challenge without the proper skills information and society endorsement Learn why Georgia Power joined other partners to launch the You re Employed and Skilled YES Workforce Academy SPONSOR MESSAGE Photo by Sammie Purcell Behind the scenes with a track director at Dragon Con Dragon Con is one of the biggest pop way of life and gaming conventions in the country But here in Atlanta it can feel a bit old hat If it s Labor Day weekend it s Dragon Con that s the way it s been for years Because we Atlantans are so used to Dragon Con and its presence it can be easy to forget how much work goes into putting on a convention of this size So ahead of this year s event which runs through Sept I spoke with Renee Cooper director of the Animation Track at Dragon Con about how the sausage gets made Cooper started volunteering with Dragon Con roughly eight years ago but before that had been attending the convention since She s got plenty of experience under her belt and was the perfect person to show me around Check out the article here Play eat repeat SPONSORED BY DISCOVER DEKALB Just minutes from Atlanta Chamblee is where events and experiences come alive From games and live concerts to art festivals and culinary celebrations the city offers something for every interest Downtown Chamblee is also a place to gather with friends enjoy shareable dishes and uncover new adventures around every corner Loved by locals and embraced by visitors it captures the true spirit of region creativity and fun Plan your visit in contemporary times and see why Chamblee continues to inspire unforgettable memories Photo provided by Out on Film I Was Born This Way Four Mothers included in Out on Film lineup The lineup for this year s Out on Film Atlanta s LGBTQ film festival includes a documentary about disco artist Carl Bean an animated film about a lesbian space princess and more The festival runs Sept -Oct with films centering around the theme of Queer Propaganda This year s lineup features feature films five streaming-only films and short films Tickets are available online now The opening night film of this year s festival is I Was Born This Way a documentary from Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard about the disco artist Carl Bean and his song of the same name Four Mothers an Irish film directed by Darren Thornton about a struggling novelist in Dublin taking care of three older women will be the closing film Learn more about the lineup here Photo by Niko Tavernise Austin Butler finds his pitch in Caught Stealing WEEKLY FILM REVIEW Caught Stealing is a funny name for Darren Aronofsky s new film not just because of how much baseball factors into the plot but because in reality every character kind of gets away with everything Unless they end up dead Caught Stealing is about Hank Thompson Austin Butler a former high school baseball performer whose professional promising was ruined by a drunk driving accident Now he bartends on the Lower East Side drinks too much and lives vicariously through his beloved San Francisco Giants No one loves the Giants or hates the Mets more than Hank During a sex scene he takes off his Giants cap in order to take his shirt off then at once puts the hat back on A true fan After being requested by his punk rock neighbor Russ Matt Smith to watch his cat while he goes to see his dying father in England Hank is attacked by two Russian gangsters interested in Russ whereabouts Hank fast becomes embroiled in a web of crime with no earthly idea what s going on It s a wacky premise and one that is mostly well-served by Aronofsky s direction Except when it gets a little too well Aronofsky and suddenly becomes a little too nasty for the tone it s trying to strike Read my full review here Photo by Jaap Buitendijk Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures At the Movies If you re looking for a movie to see in theaters this week here s what you ve got to look forward to Movies releasing this weekend The Roses pictured Caught Stealing The Toxic Avenger Almost Popular Special Events El Topo in K The Plaza Friday-Wednesday Commando with Bill Duke Q A The Plaza Saturday Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in mm The Plaza Saturday-Thursday Soul Cinema Sundays Judas and the Black Messiah The Plaza Sunday Jaws th Anniversary The Tara Friday-Thursday Jaws Drive-In The Springs Cinema Taphouse Sunday Experience the power of story at Art Farm s first Film Showcase Weekend Join us for a special screening of Parrot Kindergarten and a live conversation with the director and the film s subject on Sat Sept Get tickets here SPONSOR MESSAGE Photo by Lola Scott design by Aaron Strand Crash Zoom Out last episode Welcome to Crash Zoom a podcast where we take a deep dive into film and entertainment industry news Join my cohost Aaron Strand and me as we explore how things happening at the highest level trickle down and affect the independent artist This episode marks our last and we can t thank you enough for sticking with us over the past months For our last episode we ll be discussing the spec script boom and why Aaron finds Austin Butler uninteresting I for the record do not subscribe to this belief Listen to the last episode here Lights Camera Action I feel like I keep recommending Blank Check episodes about the Coen Brothers but I can t help it This series has been wonderful so far and this preponderance new episode is likely the best yet The one and only Seth Rogen joined Griffin and David to talk The Big Lebowski dish about Los Angeles in the late s and drink White Russians Listen up here The Venice Film Festival started earlier this week and if you like me cannot attend in sunny Italia why not live vicariously through the internet For Vulture Bilge Ebiri has his run-down of the greater part exciting movies at Venice this year including Yorgos Lanthimos Bugonia and Luca Guadagnino s After the Hunt If you re interested in something a little more visceral The Ringer s Amanda Dobbins is on the ground and posting the key things on Instagram for example George and Amal Clooney s arrival You perhaps didn t see Megalopolis the new Francis Ford Coppola movie that hit theaters last year Almost nobody did you re not alone But I can guarantee you the film which was a passion project of Coppola s that he craved to make for decades is worth a documentary Megadoc directed by Mike Figgis is about the making of the film and attempts to demystify the legendary director s process Check out Bilge Ebiri s review here In the modern day s Scene was edited by Julie E Bloemeke The post Dragon Con behind the scenes appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta