WE CAME, WE SAW, WE KICKED ITS ASS!
Reporting from the Floor of Ghostbusters Fan Fest
Article by Paul Preston
A once-in-a-lifetime event took over the SONY Pictures lot in Culver City, CA as Ghostbusters Fan Fest brought together slime addicts from all over the world to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the original film. Mega-fans of the Ghostbusters franchise got up close and personal with cast and crew members of the franchise and got to ogle merchandise, artwork and more related to the legendary Ghostbusters brand. Here’s how it went for myself and Karen Volpe, your Movie Guys on the scene…
I want to start with a shout to Wizard World, who organized the event with SONY’s Ghost Corps, the production team formed by Dan Aykroyd and Ivan Reitman to spearhead the expansion of the Ghostbusters world. We got to see all the panels we wanted, never felt rushed, never felt over-crowded and never had to drudge through horrific lines. This was probably a combination of things – a limited number of tickets available, so an over-sell didn’t happen, and a high price tag! It wasn’t a cheap event to attend! That may have weeded out the under-committed…! Even the food line – five minutes!
If there’s one thing that can kill the fun at a con, it’s the staff yelling at you all day. “Keep this area clear!”, “Keep moving!”, etc. Don’t do that to Karen…just don’t. It won’t end well for you. Ghostbusters Fan Fest had none of that. That, coupled with friendly and frequent access to the stars you came to see, made it a special day.
But let’s back up. I’m talking about Saturday, but the event really kicked off Friday night in downtown L.A. with a screening of the original Ghostbusters, without a doubt one of the funniest movies ever made. There’s another article to be had going on about that, but there’s no denying that the characters are indelible, the situations, unique and hilarious and there’s isn’t a moment or scene where they don’t find room for a laugh. The movie is saturated with funny moments, and a line went down the block and around the corner to see this 35-year old movie.
If you follow The Movie Guys (and please do), you know that Ghostbusters is Karen Volpe’s favorite movie. By a long shot. Karen and I are always champions of a bunch of people with a like interest, unabashedly LOVING a thing. Love what you love and don’t be shy about it. Well, the scene at The Globe Theatre in Los Angeles was what you would see if you opened up Karen’s head – hundreds of people dressed like Ghostbusters, free cotton candy, photo ops of Slimer and Ghostbusters on the big screen, introduced by Reitman, Aykroyd, co-stars Ernie Hudson and William Atherton and director of the 2020 Ghostbusters sequel, Jason Reitman.
They added an extra element, too. There’s a light set-up at The Globe that must be used for dance parties that they incorporated into the film, making it a unique way to see the movie that I’d never experienced before. Whenever there was lightning (Dana and Louis turn into dogs) or flashing lights (library ghost!), the lights would accentuate the moment.
If you must have nonsense accompany your movie, this was a pretty unique yet subtle, a better (and easier) technology than 4DX, if you ask me.
The next morning at the SONY lot, things got underway with a grand entrance, including…
…a brass band playing the Ghostbusters theme and other hits of the ‘80s. Some of the Ghostbusters cosplayers set themselves up at the front gate to welcome everyone with high fives and/or giving ‘em a once-over with the PKE Meter. Many of the groups of dressed-up Ghostbusters at the fest were part of the different factions that have popped up around that world that build proton packs, ECTOmobiles and more (i.e. – The Sacramento Ghostbusters, The Arizona Ghostbusters, etc.). The Movie Guys hosted an outdoor screening of Ghostbusters in 2015 and invited The Southland Ghostbusters to join us and they were awesome, taking pics and spreading the word about what they do, often involving charity events. Well, the front gate feeling was as if we were all part of one of these public events where the best face of the Ghostbusters was put forward. (their love was lifting me higher…as it were). And I don’t think they were putting on a show, I think that’s just how these guys roll. To sum up – you remember the internet trolls who ran Leslie Jones off Twitter with racism and threats? They weren’t in attendance.
Once on the grounds of the fest, there were photo ops for days:
There were also photo and autograph opportunities with all the Ghostbusters talent on hand. This is where all the lines were. Again, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so if you were coming from Italy, Germany and Beijing, as some people I met did, this was your shot to meet Ray Stantz, Zeddemore, Walter Peck and more, and capture the moment. An odd site was a slew of non-Ghostbusters talent also signing and doing photo ops. This must just be a Wizard World thing that they lobby for to include some of their comic con regulars, but if you wanted to meet Lou Ferrigno, The Soup Nazi or that guy who played a Gamorrean Guard in Return of the Jedi, your moment arrived.
We skipped past that and went to the Dan Aykroyd panel. The day led with its biggest name as Aykroyd gave fans an hour plus of stories about his real interest in the supernatural that inspired him to write Ghostbusters. Layered in there were remembrances of Belushi, the history of The House of Blues and one fan’s vocal love of Nothing But Trouble! Aykroyd was candid and very accessible, truly a highlight of the day.
And again, to Wizard World’s credit, we arrived at the Q&A and there was a line of twenty or so people out front. My instinct, from having attended other cons, was that the event was full and I was hoping the overflow line I was no doubt in would get to enter. Not true, the doors opened to an empty theater and we got to the second row (I sure hope the event didn’t UNDER-sell to where Wizard World wouldn’t think of one franchise-centric events again, ‘cause we’re fans!).
We stayed in that venue for a Q&A with the visual effects and technical team of the original Ghostbusters. This event was about half full as an Ivan Reitman meet and greet was next door, but even with that, I don’t think the attendees knew who was at this Q&A:
1. Richard mother pussbucket-ing EDLUND, one of the visual effects pioneers behind The original Star Wars trilogy, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Poltergeist, among a TON of other impressive credits. (above, right, with John Bruno)
2. Ghostbusters editor Sheldon Kahn (twice Oscar-nominated).
Joining them were art decorator John Bruno and Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man suit actor (and former Movie Guys podcast guest!) William Bryan. There were great stories about how to pull off the effects they did with 1984 technology, how the editing makes Bill Murray as funny as he can be and there were clips from the editing room showing how scenes worked (or didn’t) before effects were added. Fascinating stuff.
Then, it was time to stroll the grounds. There had to be 50+ ECTO-1s littering the lot as nearly every Ghostbusters faction arrived in one. There was even a Prius decorated as the ECTO-1, truly counting on the zero-to-60-in-45-minutes vehicle to perform beyond its station.
(2016 REPRESENT!)
This pic here shows Karen in her happy place. We were in a park with a rainbow overhead, eating pasta dishes with Ghostbusters music playing…
…while a giant Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man wandered the street with little kids dressed like Ghostbusters “shooting” at it with their toy proton packs. Magic.
More sights and sounds from the grounds:
This is just awesome.
Ghost Corps offices are alive and bustling on the SONY lot!
A less lazy dog hooked up with a proton pack. So busy hunting ghosts, we couldn’t even get a great pic…!
The Real Ghostbusters was also represented with a voice cast Q&A and a chance to get photos and autographs, but as Movie Guys, we were solely focused on the films. We wandered into the main outdoor venue for the rest of the day’s events, and they didn’t disappoint.
There was a panel full of the secondary cast of Ghostbusters called “Along for the Ride” that included William Bryan, Jennifer Runyon & Steve Tash (who played the students Bill Murray was testing with flash cards in one of the opening scenes), Timothy Carhart (known mostly as “the stiff” from the scene with Dana and Peter in Lincoln Center), Robin Shelby (who was in the Slimer costume in Ghostbusters II – check out our pre-fest interview with Robin HERE!) and more!
This panel had the worst moderator I’ve ever seen. She literally must’ve been someone’s daughter and god bless you for giving her the opportunity, but she wasn’t even engaged in the actors on stage, let alone in what she was saying. The panel really swung into gear when the actors would just pass the response mics around amongst themselves, keeping her from having to read “Hmmm…that’s a great story” from her phone (not kidding).
But the panel delivered great audition stories and run-ins with the cast and in the middle of it all was the sculptor who created Slimer, Steve Johnson, regaling us with tales of how the whole production was drug-fueled. Followed by the sound of many jaws hitting the ground.
Filling the gaps between panels was Kato Kaelin (also not kidding!). He emceed the mainstage and gave away swag while dance troupes, flash mobs and The Flux Capacitors, cranking out ‘80s music, kept the energy up all day long.
Following this was a first-of-its-kind director’s panel with Ivan and Reitman joined by Ghostbusters (2016) director Paul Feig (as ever, in a signature suit). The moderator was an informed, funny rep from Entertainment Weekly and he ran through some smart questions and fielded some from the audience. Happily, there was much love from the crowd for Feig’s take on the Ghostbusters, much of it coming from Jason Reitman who admitted that without Feig opening the door for a new take on what a Ghostbuster could be, the new movie wouldn’t be able to make similar strides. The moderator, however, couldn’t get any info out of Reitman about plot details concerning the new movie, except that all many of the original cast members have read the script.
The final event was a main cast panel reuniting Aykroyd, Ivan Reitman, Atherton and Hudson. When are you going to get this lineup?! Only here. Hudson had one of the more memorable moments, talking about how his character also was one that broke barriers and he still hears from young African-American men about what Zeddemore meant to pop culture.
The whole night was capped with a Ray Parker, Jr. mini-concert. It was plagued with some sound issues, but Parker was wise to lead with a 15-minute jammed-out version of “Ghostbusters”, but also pulled out his hits “The Other Woman” and “A Woman Needs Love (Just Like You Do)”. In case you don’t know, Ray’s a lights-out guitarist. Want proof? Check out our interview with him HERE.
There was a surprise panel that followed that turned out to be filled with the best moments of the whole con. Jason and Ivan Reitman came back out to introduce some old dailies from the ’84 Ghostbusters that were discovered THIS WEEK. They were quickly cobbled together by an editing staff and showed alternate takes of famous scenes (the Slimer capture, meeting with the Mayor), Rick Moranis at work and more. Then, an extraordinary thing happened. When Ivan saw these clips, he began to talk about what a team they were back in their thirties. The nostalgia of the moment got the better of him and he was overcome with emotion. As whiz-bang fun as Ghostbusters is, it was this moment of emotion that long-time fans of the franchise feel in their heart. Reitman wearing that emotion on his sleeve was a remarkably moving and honest moment. Although it seemed like Reitman wanted to get past it, the standing ovation wasn’t having it.
Jason was clearly moved as well. He hugged his father and remarked that his father was “the greatest storyteller I know” and he’d be making the next Ghostbusters sequel for the fans, but more so, for him.
The whole crowd knew at that moment the franchise is in good hands.
Jason, we’re ready to believe you.
