Troll in the Corner

If you’ve seen The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, you know who Luster is.  If you don’t know who Luster is, go watch the film.  Jen Page (Luster in G:DR)  is the multi-talented woman who plays the female Luster in the the flick.  She’s also something of  a geek, gamer and SF/F aficionado as well as wrangling web pages for Wizards of the Coast and being cool enough to willingly submit to an interview with me.

Not only did Jen vaporize a zero level NPC with a 4th level spell, change the web at WotC and wear a corset to GenCon,  she’s also got a few upcoming projects that look like a lot of fun as well.  She’ll be appearing in a vampire themed short film.  She’s also been cast in a Capes! A web series that looks at some college-aged gamers who wake up one day with super powers.

That’s a lot like me actually.  I woke up one day with the power to blog and now here I am interviewing folks like Jen.

Another project that Jen’s working on which looks absolutely fantastic is Project London – a feature length SciFi film with 500 or so effects scenes created in (open source software) Blender and done almost entirely by volunteers.  The films is in post production now and we’ll be talking a lot more about it here on TC in the near future.  Look, I love vampires and I was a college age gamer (now with the power to Blog!) but a SciFi film done through the internet with open source software that’s got Jen with blue hair in it?  Sold! Where’s the popcorn?

Alright, enough babbling.  Here’s Jen!

TC:  Making a movie to me always seemed like an amazingly fun adventure. Am I completely misguided on this thought? What was it like to make this film in terms of enjoyment, stress and general cool factor? Does it differ from film to film?

Jen: Making a movie is an amazingly fun adventure as an actor. When the camera is rolling, you truly believe that world exists. When I explode a peasant or torture a demon, everyone reacts as if I did. It can be fantastic fun. Of course, when you are waiting for your scene to be shot, you are very much aware that you are in the real world.

TC:  I will hazard a guess that you are or have one time been an active gamer. What system(s) do you play and what got you into gaming in the first place?

Jen: I read a lot of sci-fi/fantasy in high school so I was really psyched to try those ideas out in gaming. I play D&D, Alternity, Paranoia and Cthulhu but I’m always up for trying a new setting.

3. Many film franchises have gone the route of the musical. Legally blonde, Titanic, Spamalot, Schindler’s List. Have any of you given thought to a Broadway adaptation of Dorkness Rising? If that happens, can you sing?

Jen: Uh, that would be awesome fun. But the jury is out on whether or not I sing well.

TC:  I still think Christian Doyle looked pretty damned good in the red Luster outfit? Your thoughts on this?

Jen: I’m still disturbed that some people couldn’t easily tell us apart from behind.

TC: Star Trek or Star Wars?

Jen: I feel like I am betraying my childhood, but I have to go with Star Trek.

TC: There’s a scene in Dorkness Rising where Joanna walks into the gaming store for her first gaming session in the back room. All of the men in the store suddenly appear and stare, stupefied. I order most of my gaming stuff online and have since about 1998. Does this still happen? Does it happen to you?

Jen: I’ve been in stores where it has gotten really quiet around me, but nothing to the extreme as what we staged for Joanna. I’ve attended Gen Con about 6 years straight and have felt nothing but welcomed. But maybe that is due to the corset. (Editor’s Note:  I attempted to wear a corset into a gaming store and indeed, got a lot of stares.  That must be it.)

TC:  (My investigative journalist question which took several seconds of intense investigation) You had platinum blond hair in Dorkness Rising, you appear to have Blue hair in Project London. In the photo you have provided you have darkish brownish hair. What kind of project would it take for you to have green and purple hair?

Jen: It wouldn’t take much! In fact, I would love to read a script that caused me to have green or purple hair. I love sci-fi/fantasy/steampunk/action/horror so I’d probably dig it.

TC:  How did you end up involved with the Dead Gentlemen and Dorkness Rising?

Jen: Matt Vancil (writer/director) was in a writer’s group with me back in 1999 and he invited me to a screening of Demon Hunters: Dead Camper Lake. I was hooked by his humor and immediately wanted to contribute to anything Dead Gentlemen did. I was with the company for a few years before auditioning for Dorkness Rising. (Yes, even company members need to audition. No handouts.)

TC:  Can I have your autograph?

Jen: Depends on where you want me to write it.

TC:  What can you tell us about your most current projects? Can you go into details on Project London?

Jen: I’m currently working on a vampire short film, a werewolf short film and a web series about a bunch of college gamers who wake up with super powers. Life is good!

Project London is a very ambitious sci-fi/action feature that has been in post-production for CGI since August of 2007. I believe it will be completed at the end of 2009. I am very much looking forward to seeing it all come together. It is going to be an amazingly rad sci-fi film.

TC:  Are you the same Jen Page that works for Wizards of the Coast?  If so, what exactly do you do there and how cool is that?

Jen: Have you been Googling me again?  Yes, I am the same Jen Page of Wizards of the Coast. I have been a web designer for Wizards for 7+ years now and Magic fans know my article image work for MagictheGathering.com. (There are legends of a giant blue penguin in a wizard hat as well as a ninja unzipping from a boar.) Speaking of “blue”, I use to co-host a webcast show for Wizards called Gamer Radio Zero (or GRZ) and my host name was Blue. Currently, I am redesigning the D&D website. I’m really jazzed to be giving it some design love. I really enjoy working for Wizards. Marinating in the geek gaming culture on a day-to-day basis is so rad! I should give you a pic of my cubicle. (Editor’s Note:  She did give us pictures of our cube.  Check the bottom of this post!)

TC:  What are you reading now?  What are some of your staple SF/F books and authors?

Jen: The first novel I read as Stephen King’s Pet Cemetery in fourth grade. That pretty much set the reading tone for me.  I moved on from horror to SF/ F. I will always be grateful to my best friend’s mom who gave me my first Peirs Anthony Xanth novel to read in 8th grade.
…Just finished Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series (one of my favorite series EVER) and I’m looking forward to reading the next Anita Blake novel -Skin Trade.

Remember Jen’s gig at WotC?  Well here’s proving that she has a better cube than I do.  Probably better than you do to.

If you have not seen Jen in The Gamers: Dorkness Rising be absolutely sure to check that movie out.  You can snag it at Netflix and most likely at your video store.  When you see it and realize you need to own it grab it from the link above.

Technorati Tags: jen page, gamers, geeks, role playing games, movies, interview, best cube walls ever, interview

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3. Gamers: Dorkness Rising – the interviews
4. Dead Rising 2 – Capcom brings out their dead again.
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