 General events and times for G-FEST XXI are listed below, but are subject to last minute changes.
Interview, event, and autograph sessions with our special guests can be easily found with the G-Guest icon: Thursday, July 10th Special double double-bill at the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, IL 1:00 PM: King Kong 3:30 PM: King Kong Lives 7:00 PM: Gamera vs. Barugon 9:00 PM: Yongary, Monster From the Deep Friday, July 11th Registration (9:30 AM - 9:00 PM, Concourse A) Video Room (10:00 AM - 10:00 PM, Midway) - Open to the public for viewing. Modeling - Kaiju Krazy: 2014 Update (10:00 AM - 11:00 AM, Balmoral) - With Stan Hyde. Tokusatsu Room (10:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Ballroom 5) - Open to the public for viewing at 10:00 AM. Open for sessions and observation at 11:00 AM (Check posted schedule). G-FEST Orientation (11:00 AM - 1200 PM, Ballroom 1) - If you want to maximize your G-FEST experience, this session gives answers to any questions you might have by convention chairman J.D. Lees. Modeling - Building Kaiju Figures of All Kinds (10:00 AM - 1:00 PM, Balmoral) - Panel discussion. Ghidrah’s Fiftieth Anniversary (12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, Ballroom 2) - With Kevin Horn. Ifukube: Man, Myth, and Music (12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, Ballroom 1) - Panel discussion. Minya’s Place - Kids’ Crafts and Coloring Contest (12:00 PM - 2:00 PM, 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM, Dulles) Artists Alley (12:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Metro) - Open for setup at 12:00 PM. Open to the public for viewing at 1:00 PM. Video Gaming Room (12:00 PM - 7:00 PM, Love A and B) - Video game tournament sign-up and warm-up. G-Pardy Game 1 (1:00 PM - 2:00 PM, Ballroom 2) - With Skip Peel. Godzilla 2014: The Good, The Bad, And ? (1:00 PM - 2:00 PM, Ballroom 1) - Panel discussion. The Power of Kaiju Music (1:00 PM - 2:00 PM, Kennedy) - With Johnny Snyder. Photo Scavenger Hunt (1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Love A and B) Art Room (1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, La Guardia) - Open for setup at 1:00 PM. Open to the public for viewing at 2:00 PM. Dealers Room (1:30 PM - 7:00 PM, Ballrooms 3 and 4) - Open to staff only at 1:30 PM. Open to the public for shopping at 2:00 PM. Mothra vs. Godzilla 50th Anniversary (2:00 PM - 3:00 PM, Ballroom 2) - With Kevin Horn. Kaijucast: Sound of Monsters (2:00 PM - 3:00 PM, Ballroom 1) - With Kyle Yount. Godzilla Stories (2:00 PM - 4:00 PM, Kennedy) - With Stephen Schilling. Modeling - Painting Kaiju Figures of All Kinds (2:00 PM - 4:00 PM, Balmoral) - Panel discussion. G-Pardy Game 2 (3:00 PM - 4:00 PM, Ballroom 2) - With Skip Peel. Kaiju Collectibles Part 1 (3:00 PM - 4:00 PM, Ballroom 1) - Panel discussion. Kaiju Combat: Make a Monster (4:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Ballroom 2) - With Matt Frank and Simon Strange. Godzilla 2014: The Future of the Franchise (4:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Ballroom 1) - Panel discussion. G-Force: The Okinawan Connection (4:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Kennedy) - With Scrooge Jones. Modeling - Popular Mythconceptions (4:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Balmoral) - With Larry Tribula. Goohead Gamera Cinema (5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Ballroom 2) - Turtle lovers united! Gamera fans can watch their hero on the big screen. G-Pardy Game 3 (7:00 PM - 7:45 PM, Ballroom 2) - With Skip Peel. Opening Ceremonies (7:45 PM - 8:15 PM, Ballroom 2) - The official opening of G-FEST XXI, introduced by our Special Guests, as well as members of the committee that produce the convention. Amateur Videos (8:15 PM - 9:30 PM, Ballroom 2) G-fans will laugh, scream, and be amazed at the talent on display in the latest batch of videos produced by their fellow G-fanatics. Godzilla vs. Destroyah (10:30 PM, the Pickwick Theatre)
2 Comments
 It’s their party and they’ll smash things if they want to! San Diego Comic Con is almost here and the kaiju want to party. If you are in the San Diego area on Saturday, July 26th, come down to Rising Sun Creations in Mission Valley for the World War Kaiju launch party! We’ll have advanced copies of the book, meet and greet with the creators, a raffle for rare kaiju prizes and more. Rising Sun Creations is conveniently located on the trolley line. Exit on the Mission Valley stop and walk across the street. For driving directions visit rsc-online.com See you there!!  About World War Kaiju
“What if Doctor Strangelove created Godzilla?” World War Kaiju is the story of an alternate history, one in which the atom bomb was never created and the ultimate weapon of mass destruction is the kaiju—fifty foot tall radioactive beasts spawned from the mysterious KAI-235 isotope. Follow the journey of one journalist as he teams up with a retired CIA operative to uncover the truth about the conspiracy behind the monsters… …who are the architects of the inevitable Kaiju War? …what is the shocking secret behind the mysterious KAI-235 isotope? …where did Cuba manage to hide a crab monster the size of an aircraft carrier? …why are rogue monsters appearing all over the world? …how long can Tricky Dick keep these truths from the people? Learn this and more within the pages of World War Kaiju, a graphic monster epic told in six parts! World War Kaiju is a tribute to the kaiju genre in all its forms (both high and low). This story would never have been possible if not for the visions of Ishiro Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya, Shinichi Sekizawa, and Willis O’Brien. The brainchild of sci-fi author Josh Finney, WWK is a love letter to the golden-age of kaiju cinema. Brought to life on an epic scale by renowned fantasy artist Patrick McEvoy, it looks back to an era when the world loved atomic monsters, but feared the atomic bomb, and warps history in ways that only men in rubber suits can.  What is Godzilla: Heritage?
Since Godzilla's first attack in 1954, mankind has been under constant threat from gigantic creatures known as "Superfauna" - animals mutated by the coming of the nuclear age and man's abuse of the atom's destructive power. Humanity was united against a common foe and for almost 60 years, worked collectively to study and combat the creatures as millions died, cities crumbled and the world's economy continued to collapse. Now, the world seems to finally be bringing the threat under control. Jack Martin is a correspondent for United World News and the grandson of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Steve Martin, who's riveting coverage of the 1954 raid on Tokyo made him a legend. With his grandfather's shadow always overhead, Jack has spent his career attempting to forge his own legacy, showing great promise as a journalist before spiraling into depression. In the process, he has severally damaged both his reputation and his marriage to family friend, Kaori Ogata. Before leaving the agency, Jack decides to travel to a small pacific island with his life-long friend Mitch Lawrence, who now runs UWN's old newspaper division. While the two wait to attend a ground-breaking ceremony for a new building, Godzilla suddenly reappears after nearly 30 years of absence...and he hasn't returned alone. With the King of the Monsters' threat looming, Jack must decide whether to flee or finally embrace his heritage and report the attack as it happens - risking not only his life, but the lives of his best friend and his wife. Who is behind Godzilla: Heritage? Godzilla: Heritage's concept has drawn the interest of several talented artists and actors on an international level. The project was conceived by Upstate NY filmmakers Tim Schiefer and Greg Graves, life-long monster movie fans. Rashaad Santiago will be creating most of the film's creature effects. Rashaad is a very talented and upcoming effects makeup artist from The Bronx and the winner of the 6th season of Syfy channel's reality show Face Off. Rashaad is also a life-long fan of the film's titular character. Creating the film's non-creature makeup effects along with Rashaad is the wonderful Tess Laeh, another of the talented individuals featured in season 6. She will also be making some of the props used in the film. The creatures' concept art was created by Greg and Elden Ardiente, who worked together extensively to come up with new, naturalistic and interesting looks for the many monsters that exist in the world of Godzilla: Heritage. Elden is a graphic designer and creature concept artist residing in Sydney, Australia and his amazing visions are being transformed into creature suit form by Rashaad. The visual effects for the film will be created and supervised by Chris Bloomer. His VFX credits include Zombieland, Dragonball: Evolution, Warehouse 13 and Lost Girl. Mr. Bloomer's work is fantastic and he will be essential in blending the film's practical and visual effects. He has also recently completed his own fan film Terminator: The Final Transmission of John Connor. The writers include Tim Schiefer and Greg Graves, who wrote the film's story. Script drafts were written by both Tim and Val Roder. Valerie is a producer, screenwriter and performer working in New York City. In addition to her screenplays, she created and hosts a successful improvisation show in the city, Story Time. In addition, her writing has been featured in both The Washington Post and she maintains a popular blog East meets Midwest. The film has been produced thus far by Greg, Tim and Rashaad who have worked and networked extensively to put together the crew working, secure shooting locations, materials and actors to be a part of the film...and hopefully everyone donating to this project can be counted in that soon as well! Check out the full project and info on the Kickstarter here and support this great project.  Adobe’s Principal Designer Russell Brown is teaming up with the award-winning Stan Winston School of Character Arts on an amazing project for the Adobe MAX conference Oct 4-8 in Los Angeles. The Kaiju Project will gather some of the most creative minds in the entertainment industry to design and build two massive walk-around monster suits.
These eight-foot-tall Kaiju will be brought to life as part of the Russell Brown@MAX preconference session that will focus on movie poster design. Attendees will learn how to photograph, edit, and composite compelling movie monster posters using Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop CC. When they're done, each student will have mastered some great new skills in advanced image editing and discovered unique ways to use Adobe’s latest mobile tools. Even if you can’t attend the MAX preconference, you can still get involved by helping us design these marauding mega-monsters. To enter the Kaiju Design contest, simply share your ORIGINAL giant monster art on the Stan Winston School Facebook wall, where it will be seen by millions of creature fans around the world. Be sure to include the hashtag #KaijuProject with all submissions. The deadline for submission is June 30. Once we've selected the final designs, 12 lucky students will be hand-picked to assist in the Kaiju builds from start to finish, learning pattern-making, foam carving, mechanization, and everything else they'll need to know to transform a 2D concept design into a walking, wearable giant monster suit. And all MAX attendees will get to see these amazing Kaiju monsters in person. Don’t miss out - register for MAX today! 
GODMERA: Champion of the World
By Michael Farrah The beginning... This is the story of how two of the greatest monsters ever became something even greater. As many may know there is the Godzilla universe and the Gamera universe, "parallel" universes so to speak. In both universes the government of Japan wanted the self defense force (military) to finally get rid of the constant threat of the monsters, they in turn enlisted the help of the greatest scientists to develop a weapon that would stop the monsters once and for all. After many failed attempts one had a hope of promise, a weapon that would open a portal to another dimension. Most of the scientists felt it was a bad idea and didn't like it, fearing it could be used for the wrong purpose and wondering if it would even work, but the self defense force didn't care they just press them on wanting to be rid of the monsters and all the death and destruction they caused. A select group of scientists created the weapon, when activated will open the portal, where to is not known. The self defense force set up a plan to activate it in a remote area of Japan after luring the monsters there. As it turns out both of the self defense forces from each universe plan to and do this in the same place at the same time. They both at first think it is working since something seems to be happening but it stops and appears to have failed. They decided to try to figure out what went wrong and try again. What they don't realize is the weapons canceled each other out at first, this is why it appeared to fail, but then there is a unknown side effect it opens a portal between the two universes. At first minor problems occur, small objects from one universe end up in the other and vice-a-versa, then people, and then larger things. At first the self defense forces and the governments claim everything is fine but the scientists that didn't want to use the weapon start going to the public with the fact that this is being caused by the use of the weapon. The governments want the self defense forces to fix the problem, feeling they caused it by pushing for the use of the weapon to begin with, so they turn to the scientists that were against it's use. Things continue to go down hill, the monsters start showing up in the other universes, making the original issue of wanting to get rid of the monsters even worse, the universes continue to get more "mixed", and people are even more confused as to what is happening. But those problems are nothing compared to what happens next, something happens that no one foreseen, the universes merge into one. No Godzilla: King of the Monsters, no Gamera: Guardian of the Universe instead there is Godmera: Champion of the World. But it is not alone, King Gaos, Angruagon, Viran and other monsters are there as well. Not alone have the monsters merged so have the people and with this they have the knowledge from both universes. With this knowledge they manage to create another weapon, which they believe will reverse what has happened. They feverishly work on it and set it off in the same place where the original weapon was used, at first nothing seems to happen but then something does, a "wave" spreads out and in it's wake everything seems to go back to normal again. But is it, unbeknown to those in each restored universe is the fact that the Godmera universe, and all that it is, remains and will for a long time, and it's story has only just begun... Godzilla is a registered trademark of Toho Co., Ltd, Gamera is a registered trademark of Kadokawa Pictures, no rights are implied to these characters by me and are used solely for this story. Godmera: Champion of the World created by Michael Farrah. © 1996, 2011 Michael Farrah/Godmera's Fandom, All Rights Reserved 
From the folks from Godzilla: Heritage Alrighty guys. The crew will be attending Denver Comic Con June 13-15th and the gracious folks over there have been nice enough to give us a panel to discuss "Godzilla: Heritage". It will also be the unveiling of the completed HeritageGoji suit! If you happen to be going to the Con, we hope to see you there! For those of you who can't attend, later that night Rashaad, Tim and Greg will be holding a Q&A session on Google Hangouts so you can ask us your questions there. We'll also be launching the project's Kickstarter campaign at the Con and we've got some awesome prizes in store for donors, so we hope you'll help us make this a reality! After that, we'll be at G-Fest XXI July 11-13th. The HeritageGoji suit will be on hand there as well and Rashaad will be in the art room this year giving presentations on suit building. You'll be able to stop buy, ask questions and watch him work on the Anguirus suit for the film. Dates and times for the Denver panel and the Google Hangouts Q&A will follow shortly. We'll also have pictures and video. Last but not least, another big thank you to Heritage's fantastic graphics designer and creature concept artist Elden Ardiente - the man behind the monsters! Check out his new posters for the film and Denver below as well as the banner up top. Stay tuned for more of his creature designs in the future!
|
RSS Feed