Summer Media Fest

Convention
Name:	Summer Media Fest
Dates:	August 6,7,8, 1982
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Location:	Rosslyn Westpark Hotel, Rosslyn, Virginia
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In the introduction to Yesterday's Son, Howard Weinstein describes reading from the pro book at "Summer Media Fest" in 1982.

program cover book for 1982, artist is Gennie Summers

This con may be related to Washington Media Fest.

One of the guests of honor was pro Trek writer Howard Weinstein.

Organizers

From the con book:

Who's to blame... Gail Pittaway, Sheila Willis. And Peter David -- Author of "Star Trek - The Home Movie II."

Malcom Burnside, Robyn Kevelson Burnson, T.J. Burnside, Margaret Clark, Phil Cox, Rochelle Hausman, Laura Peck, Dick Preston, Theresa Renner, Leah Rosenthal, Diane Thomkins, Kathryn Yount.

And our special guest M.C. ... Rich Kolker.

The Program Book

It is 19 pages long and has a cover by Gennie Summers.

It includes:

• panel descriptions, film programming
• introductions
• con staff
• rules, maps, food info
• a poem by Sheila Willis called "I Believe in Unicorns"
• a very meta short short by Gail Pittway called "A New Kid on the Block" that stars many media characters, and a K/S zine
• some zine ads
• "The (almost) Lost Missive", a Trek story by M. Clark, R. Hausman, and S. Hochman
• "A Blake's 7 Prime, or Mr. Roj's Neighborhood" by Patricia Cash

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Programming

Note: the fan film is spelled both "Star Wreck" and "Star Wrek."

• some science fiction films
• "Star Wreck -- Commotion Pictures" -- a fan film by Lynn Stevens

Panels:

• Video Tape Workshop: (Or, How-they-do-dat?/You-can-do-dat) Lynn Stevens of Star Wrek: Commotion Picture fame will reveal the hows and wherefores of do-it-yourself special effects.

• British Science Fiction on Television- A discussion of the vast contributions of our British cousins to the visual Science Fiction medium. Patrick 0'Neil, Mary Bloemker, Sheila Willis, Kathryn Yount, Peter David.

• The Obligatory Pro Writers' Panel - (Or, how-I-learned-to-love-peanut-butter) Somtow Sucharitkul (Real Pro), Howard Weinstein (Real Pro), Peter David, (Neo -Pro) , Gestetner (Repro). They will talk about /writing (What else?)

• Queen of Stars- Terra will unfold a story in the twentieth century form of picture book slides. We are not going to tell you anymore.

• Science Fiction./Science Fact/and Fantasv too- (Or Buck-Roger's-zap-gun-turns-to-killer-satellites) Sernsbeck and Campbell, were inventing colorful toys that are now reality. What does contemporary Science Fiction and Fantasy hold for our future? A slide presentation by Bill Gerken.

• Art Work and You - Producing art for the print media. How an artist transfers the bud of an idea to reality. Then, how the editor, author and printer (wreak havoc) impact that work. Patrick O'Neill, Jennifer Wilkins-O'Neill, Mary Bloemker, Sheila Willis.

• The Howie Weinstein Hour - Right here at our con, brought to you at great expense (damn birds kept eating the bread trail), the one, the only Howard Weinstein, author of Covenant of the Crown. (Polite Applause) What is this brilliant author up to? Damned if we know, but Howie wanted an hour. Here it is, Howie.

• Space and Science Today - (Anybody remember the slide rule?) - The space program has made a great impact on everyday life and in the sciences. Take an up close look at the marvels of technology.

• Loose Ends - It seems movie producers love to leave little loose threads that drive the average Fen crazy. Share your opinion with our panel on some possible answers. T.J. Burnside, Malcolm Burnside, Robyn Kevelson Bumside, Sheila Willis-Kevelson-Burnside.

Con Report

[Here's] one more Yank's story of conversion [to Blake's 7]:

The time and place was Summer Media Fest 82, a small multi-media convention in the Washington D.C. area. Heather Nachman, whom I didn't even know at the time, had scheduled a private screening of some "Blake's 7" episodes in her hotel room, only to discover that the TV set in her room didn't work. In desperation, she asked my roommate, who was a friend of hers, if they could borrow our room for the screening. My roommate said yes, I shrugged, and I was about to head out the door, when Heather practically nabbed me by the collar and said, "Sit down. Watch this. You'll understand when it's over."

I don't know if I can convey to the British fan the experience of being jammed into a modest hotel room with well over 20 other fans, all of us staring at a hazy-blue camera copy of 'Countdown'. Someone was sitting on my feet and I was getting a crick in my neck from having to turn sideways. The image on the TV set wasn't very large to begin with when viewed from across the room. There was no colour discernible in the picture (just shades of blue), many of the visual details were gone, and the audio was noisy enough that we lost the odd sentence here and there as well. I didn't know who these characters were, or why it was so important to them to be doing what they were doing. And still I was grabbed by the urgency and the import of it all. [see the rest of this fan's comments at "Horizon Newsletter"