OSFest 4.0 Artist GOH: Sarah Clemens

Bio from www.clemensart.com/bio.htm; check it out for examples of her art.

Sarah Clemens graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a degree in fine arts and art history, and the conviction that she would always be an artist in one capacity or another. She has freelanced in logo design and book cover illustration and photography, worked as the curator of exhibits at a science museum and for the last fifteen years been a medical illustrator.

But the need for self-expression is most important, and she began creating her own challenges, in the form of large oil paintings of friends and family members. Her realistic approach was second nature, after so many years of meticulous detailing in medical illustration. She has shown her work at galleries in Palm Beach, Florida and Boca Raton, Florida, Scottsdale Arizona and Beverly Hills, as well as exhibiting at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach and the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach and the Mesa Art Center in Mesa, Arizona. A recent move to the Southwest has been inspiring, and trips to the Grand Canyon for intensive photographic shoots are sure to show up in her paintings.

All this and she plays a Theremin too. So come and make this expressive artist welcome at OSFest 4.0:System Upgrade this July 22-24, 2011. Just beware of cats with small dragons as their friends.

OSFest 4.0 – Klingon Treasure Hunt

For generations Klingon archeologists and treasure hunters have sought the Sword of Kahless (qeylIS), the original Klingon bat'leth. But little is known about the cloth used to protect that sword; the Shroud of the Sword of Kahless. Both the shroud and the sword were stolen by the Hur'q (a Klingon word meaning "outsider," a species reported to be from the Gamma Quadrant), when they plundered Qo'noS (the Klingon homeworld) in the 14th century.
A recently discovered prophecy says that the Shroud has come to Earth but that prophecy, written in ancient Klingon, has been split into many segments and hidden throughout the hu'Man hotel known as the Old Mill Crowne Plaza. Members of the Klingon Bird of Prey IKV Raptor's Heart, who have been sent from Qo'nos to investigate, need your help in retrieving the segments and finding the Shroud if it is there.

Here's how it will work: segments of the ancient prophecy will be hidden in the Art Show, Film Room, Con Suite, Dealer's room, Workshop area, and at various panels. Suspected locations will be highlighted in the OSFest 4.0 program book, so read your book. Then go out and enjoy all that the convention has to offer while locating the missing segments. Once you have located the segments; assemble them to reveal the prophecy. Use that knowledge to locate the Shroud and return it to the members of the IKV Raptor's Heart at closing ceremonies.

Remember: collect the segments, assemble them to reveal the prophecy, find the Shroud, return it to a crew member of the IKV Raptor's Heart and receive Honor Eternal.

Qapla

OSFest's 2nd Annual Date Auction

By Kelly Schultze

 

That's right! The date auction is back for its second year. By participating in the date auction, you're helping OSFest earn some extra money to keep the convention going and improve it for the next year.

This year we will be offering advance application in addition to at-the-door application. To be "sold" in the date auction, you must provide the following information.

Name: (Your real name is required, but you can specify if you would like us to call you something else)

Age:

Short bio: (Give us some fun information on yourself so we can properly introduce you to prospective "buyers")

To be auctioned off, simply submit the information to Kelly Schultze at kschultze@unomaha.edu in advance or submit it to the registration table before the date auction.

Join us July 22-24, 2011 for OSFest 4.0. You're sure to have a great time, see you there.

OSFest 4.0’s Independent Film Festival 01

In 2006, Rachel Grubb and Brooke Lemke, longtime friends and actresses who frequently appeared in the same productions, had an idea. "What if we made films for women, by women, and about strong women?" Silent But Deadly Productions was born.

Two of their short films, A Broken Family and Young Eyes will be presented during OSFest 4.0 Independent Film Festival. In addition, their first feature-length motion picture, Why Am I In a Box?, will have its Omaha premiere Saturday night.

Why Am I In a Box? is a non-stop thriller that will leave you guessing right up until the end credits. Don't believe me? Join us Saturday night and find out for yourself! Their synopsis of the movie: "Ellen Farnsby is a modern-day Scheherazade. And if she doesn't tell the story of a lifetime, someone else will be writing her obituary. She is kidnapped by Paige, a failed novelist with an ax to grind. Jeremy is a video store clerk whose one talent is fooling himself, and others, that he's an artist. He and a pop junkie of a detective named Lydecker are hunting for Ellen. Will Jeremy and Lydecker find Ellen before a vicious maniac edits her out of existence? Will Ellen write a brilliant novel or end up a tragic movie-of-the-week?"

The trailer is also available here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CssWeqwtn6o

The OSFest 4.0 Independent Film Festival is a part of
OSFest 4.0:System Upgrade this July 22-24, 2011, admission to all of the films shown is included in your convention membership. To see our current lineup, visit the Film Fest page here: http://osfes.org/film_fest.htm
We hope to see you there.

OSFest 4.0 Programming: Meeting Of The Minds

From 1977 until 1981 PBS ran a television series created by the late Steve Allen that featured interviews and discussions with some of the greatest figures in history. Everyone from Cleopatra, Ulysses S. Grant and Attila the Hun were called to his round table to talk about the issues of the day. From the Steve Allen website: "Meeting of Minds encourages the viewer and reader, who may be historically illiterate, to become more familiar with the great thinkers and doers of the past and to whet their appetites for more research and study."

At OSFest this summer we are inviting several figures that are part of the science fiction universes we love to that round table (okay more like a pair of rectangular tables) where they can share their collective wisdom about the happenings of today. Join Jules Verne as he invites Anakin Skywalker, Kevin Flynn, Kaylee Fyre from the "Serenity", Vash the Stampede, a Ghostbuster, and Ambassador JaPa from the Klingon High Council, to a spirited conversation. While Monsieur Verne will begin the discussion, come prepared with your questions for our panelists for the discussion will rapidly opened up to the audience, to you.

This should be a really fun event happening on Friday evening shortly after opening ceremonies at OSFest 4.0: System Upgrade. I hope to see you there.

OSFest’s New Hotel

One of the main system upgrades OSFES is making to OSFest 4.0 is a much larger facility. The Old Mill Crowne Plaza will allow us to expand the lineup of activities you have come to expect from Omaha's premiere genre convention.

The first thing you will notice is that each of the event areas will be larger, able to accommodate more fans at everything we plan. Instead of having one independent film in Main Programming on Friday night, we will have three days of continuous genre films created by fans just like you. And if you have an idea for a presentation, grab a camera and start shooting. We might feature you next year.

With a larger room for dealers, we will be moving the Artist Alley out of the common area and into our expanded dealer's room. We will even have room to hold workshops in the same room. And it will be away from programming so sound won't bleed through the walls and interfere with each other.

Tired of small gaming facilities, we are. Both the video and tabletop gaming rooms are double wide hospitality rooms. Each has a board room table and a lounge available, but don't worry we'll have enough tables in them to let you play as long as you like.

The con suite and party room floor will be moved to the top floor with an insulating floor between us and the regular hotel guests. So you can party to your heart's content. Just let our hotel liaison know you want to throw a party and he will arrange for you to have a room on the 6^th floor so you can.

So join us July 22-24, 2011 as OSFest 4.0:System Upgrade inaugurates our new hotel. It's going to be a great weekend.