The Best of Fanfest 2013: A Documentarian’s View

Following the announcement of the delay in documentary completion, project lead Petter Mårtensson discussed how the A Tale of Internet Spaceships project was progressing, the material that they had and the work that needed to be done in preparation for the film.

I asked Petter what highlights he’d already identified.

“I think my favourite interview is with CCP Soundwave [Lead Designer Kristoffer Touborg, pictured below right] – he’s a great guy and had (unsurprisingly) a lot of good insights. My absolute favorite shot? John Lander, CCP Unifex, stage diving during the Party at the Top of the World.”

Lander’s bold and confident decision to test his popularity in such a manner certainly symbolises his faith the current state of the developer-player relationship. Petter witnessed it first hand.

“It was an awesome moment. If you weren’t in the room at the time, we have a great shot of it. I’m glad we were there, it’d be terrible to miss that and just hear about it afterwards. The movie will be 99% more awesome because of it. Lander is, obviously, a rock star.”

A Tale of Internet Spaceships just took a step toward being the spiritual successor to This is Spinal Tap.

The Real World Grind

Fitting this feature-length production in around their actual lives in order to produce what is clearly a labour of love has become amusingly similar to the culture behind the game they are documenting; A Tale of Internet Spaceships has become an unpaid second job with no small amount of grind required to deliver the results. Did Petter feel that the team still have the passion now they’re into the hard yards?

“Absolutely. Every time I sit down with it, or do any work with it, I can’t wait to get it done. We are convinced that we’ll have it done before Fanfest. Exactly how close to Fanfest I don’t dare say though.”

One of the other charming aspects of the A Tale of Internet Spaceships project was that both Philip and Elin (pictured right) started out with no real knowledge of EVE Online, so they studied intensely for a few weeks before being dropped in at the deep end during the shoot in Iceland. I asked how they feel about EVE after what they’d seen and if their personal journeys were going to feature in the documentary.

“The current plan isn’t to do that, no. We’ll see how things develop, but right now it looks like it won’t,” Petter said. “They are still fascinated by it. I keep updating them on what’s going on in the game. They absolutely loved the community and Elin still goes on about when someone accused her of being a spy. I’m not sure I’d ever get them to play, though. Which is sad, because Elin *would* make a great spy. She’d easily outmanoeuvre The Mittani.”

Now THAT would make an interesting documentary.

Elin & Philip plan their invasion of Goon space.