Windycon 42

Hello Ten Wing flock! Last weekend at Windycon 42 we held our most successful convention screening of Citizen in the Temple. The excellent con staff gave us a ballroom and an hour to show the movie and hold a Q&A. If you’re reading this and you were there, thanks again! It was very encouraging to hear the comments. We loved making this movie and we look forward to further building The World of Eolan. As I mentioned in the Q&A, The World of Eolan is now a setting chapter in Lester Smith’s D6xD6 roleplaying game. You can check out the core book on drivethrurpg here or the Eolan setting chapter here.

It still surprises me that we don’t see more filmmakers at cons. Our art requires visual artists, sculptors, costume designers, prop builders and writers. They're all at conventions and the enthusiasm and willingness to discuss ideas is always really high. So if you’re a filmmaker and you’re reading this, hit up a sci-fi con and enjoy. 

Overall, Windycon was super productive. Chad Burns and I worked on a script (details must remain a mystery for now) and had a great development meeting with a well-known author. Again, details must remain a mystery. I know, it’s all so vague! I’m sorry! I’ll just say we’re busy in the best way possible and now I have to get back to it. Thanks for reading. 

Jason

Fighting for Families

Fighting for Families is a charitable organization founded in 2013. They work hard raising money to provide support and ancillary services of any kind to families whose children have been diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Whether it be assistance with rehabilitation therapies, providing equipment or helping with childcare and support services, Fighting for Families will be there. Ten Wing Media's Paul Lyzun is very close to this group and assembled their fundraising and promotional video. For more info on this great organization, go to www.fighting-for-families.org. 

Citizen in the Temple Screenings

We have begun showing Citizen in the Temple to planet Earth! Last Saturday we had a screening in the DePaul theater. When is the next screening, you ask? Saturday April 25 at the Comfort Station Logan Square. They do a lot of music and movie stuff there and we're happy to show Citizen and a selection of other films as well. Wanna join us? Click right here for the facebook event link.  I'm working on the store that will sell digital downloads and DVDs. More on that soon. Thanks for reading this and we'll have more cool news to come!

The Con Men ep. 9 - Capricon 35

It's time for another episode of The Con Men! In this outing we infiltrate Capricon 35 in Wheeling, IL. Con Men historians may remember that we were there for our 3rd episode last year.

This year we did something different. We went a little more in depth so this episode is a bit longer than the others. We spoke to MARGARET WEIS, LESTER SMITH and MATT FORBECK about their careers, writing and designing games. Wanna know what Margaret Weis said about thinking like a kender? Click the image below or click right here!

You may have noticed that we now post behind the scenes clips from our episodes. Hey, we're fun people! Wanna know how fun? Clicketh the image below or clicketh right here!

As always, we hope you enjoy our work and we thank you for your support. You are why we do this.

- Jason & Chad

SCA Training Event

Last Saturday (1-10-15) we recorded an SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) training event in Sugar Grove, IL. It is a well known fact that Ten Wing Action Wrangler / Producer Chad Burns is up to his eyes in this stuff. Chad taught a combat class to a group of armored up men and women. Here's a few photos...

The Con Men ep. 7 - Windycon 41

Greetings! We come to you now with the latest installment of The Con Men, shot at Windycon 41- Chicagoland's oldest sci-fi, literary convention. This event marks the 1 year anniversary of The Con Men! In this episode we interview Lauren Faits, the author behind Geek Girl Chicago. We also catch up with a Mensa representative and some Klingons from last year. And there's a cat. We've had a blast shooting this series. We've met a lot of new friends and we look forward to seeing what happens in season 2.

As an added bonus, here's the extended interview we conducted with Lauren Faits. Check it out. She's got a lot of great things to say. As always, thanks for reading. Thanks for watching! You're the reason we do this. - Jason

V is for Villains Music Video & Behind the Scenes Photos!

Hiya internet! Over the past few weeks we've been working with a band called V is for Villains on a music video for their track, Pink Elephants on Parade. If that sounds familiar it may be because the song is from Dumbo. That's right. They updated and metal-ized it.  We first met the Villains while shooting our Con Alt Delete episode of The Con Men. Then we interviewed them later in our Acen episode. This music video gave us the opportunity to do something really trippy. We hope you enjoy! This was shot entirely at Fear City Chicago haunted house. Big thanks to that whole crew for providing such an amazing location. For added fun, I've included a few behind the scenes photos courtesy of James Jones and our own Paul Lyzun. Prepare for mind warp...

Published! The Yakobi Island Artifact (flash fiction)

Hi, Jason here. Cross posting from my own blog about a recently published short story of mine...

Hello Internetland! Recently I had a short story published in Protodimension Magazine, a "fanzine devoted to the wonderfully creative world of conspiracy horror role playing." It's called The Yakobi Island Artifact. Wanna check it out? I posted the page here with the publisher's permission. If you're into the horror gaming, I suggest you check out their magazine. It's free and has a lot of resources. Hope you enjoy...

Speaking of writing and publishing, Popcorn Press recently launched the kickstarter for Halloween Haiku 2 and Other Hauntings. This is their 6th annual volume of scary poetry and short fiction. I love the past issues. Check out the details here. Until next time, my friends. Thanks for reading this. 

Chris Connelly Just Recorded a Song for Citizen in the Temple!

Chris Connelly of RevCo, Ministry and a ton of other bands generously lent his talent to the film in the form of a song. The City In Your Eyes will play over the Citizen in the Temple end credits and we intend to release the full standalone track asap. 

We met Chris yesterday and got some behind the scenes footage of the man on the mic. We also got a brief interview where he discusses his new band, Cocksure, and his other ongoing projects. 

The music for The City In Your Eyes was written by insanely talented composer, Petter Wahlback (who also wrote the score for Beyond the Basement Door). I'd also like to give thanks to Justin Mayer, the sound engineer, for being a total pro and making the entire experience smooth like butter. 

I'm really excited about this track and and I can't thank Chris enough for doing this. I'll post the video, full song and interview as soon as it's all complete. Until then, pictures!

Thanks for reading!
Jason

The Con Men ep. 6 - Anime Midwest

We're back with another episode! This makes half a dozen. We love making this show and we're glad we have the chance to highlight great work from a lot of people. If you enjoy what you see and you want the play-by-play you should consider liking The Con Men on facebook. We've evolved the show a lot since we began last November and we will continue to do so. The best way to evolve is with your help. We try to make this all about the fans so if you have any feedback for us, feel free to comment. Interaction makes us mightier. Until next time, rock over London, rock on Anime Midwest! 

The Con Men ep. 5 - Acen [video]

It happened again. We woke up at a convention with a bag of camera gear and the uncontrollable urge to shoot a web show. This time we found ourselves at Anime Central. We got great interviews. We shot a whole lot of awesome, creative cosplay stuffffff. Like Fallout? Venture Brothers? The Warriors? You will LOVE what's inside. 

To watch the show click the image below or click right here!

We're starting a new segment on the show called "Ask The Con Men." You, yes YOU, can send us any question you want and we'll select a few to answer in the next show. Maybe it's convention related, maybe not. Keep in mind we are not medical professionals. Send your questions to tenwingmedia@gmail.com, find us on twitter or hit us up on our Facebook page. Have you joined us on Facebook yet? Just click here and we'll love you forever. 

As always, we hope you enjoy the show and we thank you for your support. You are why we do this.

-Jason & Chad

Guest Post: Urban Exploration in South Korea

I'm a fan of urban exploration. Citizen in the Temple gave me the chance to crawl around some righteously weird places and I decided to take the scouting footage and make little urbex videos from it. Specifically, I made videos on The Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago and the old Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, IL...you know, that mall from the Blues Brothers? Ziggy Chicano, a very talented friend from film school, is currently living in South Korea. She had the opportunity to test out her Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera at an old psychiatric hospital. I edited her footage, gave it a first grade-level color polish and asked her to write something about the experience. And so we have the following story...

Ziggy Chicano

Most people call me Ziggy. I am a life-long filmmaker and student of the craft. Always lots to know, never enough to keep me happy so I am on an adventure in South Korea as an English teacher. While I am here I express my love for film by shooting shorts and videos with my students using English. Adventures aren't fun if you can't test yourself and this adventure at a hospital gave me many memories.

The place is called Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital in the small city of Gwangju, South Korea. It has been abandoned for almost 20 years. When I was invited to go on a photo outing I was told it was an abandoned hospital. The night before my friends clarified that it used to be a mental hospital. The doors shut in 1996 after patients mysteriously died and the head doctor fled to the states. Gonjiam was dubbed one of the most haunted places in South Korea and CNN claims it was one of the freakiest places in the world... If you believe in that folklore.

Who invited me on this adventure? Two good friends of mine: Jason So and Kevin Young. You can find Jason's photographs at his blog, sojason.com. He is the strong, unafraid type so I felt comfortable that I would be safe. Bloggers and adventurers who visited Gonjiam in the past provided easy to follow directions. 37.362433, 127.33474 . Just type these coordinates into Google maps and it'll lead you right there. We found our way using public transit. The entire trek took us about two hours including the walk to the hospital from the bus stop. 

Upon arriving at the gates, you have to walk through someone's backyard, up a hill, across a tiny river and follow what used to be an uphill driveway. Then you are at the steps of the hospital. That is where the adventure begins. The place is really "tore up." There is a lot of broken furniture, random items on the floor, debris, dirt ..let's just say it's in really bad shape. Although I was scared, I really enjoyed the aesthetics of the place. If you were to see this in a movie, I'd say great job to the set designer. Since this is not a set, nerves and the fight-or-flight response kick in. However looking back, after leaving the building unscathed, it was a great adventure...although no amount of money could make me stay in that place overnight.