Q: What is Treasure Trapped?
Alex: Treasure Trapped is a
feature length documentary all
about LARP (Live Action RolePlay.) It's what you get when
three people – who have no idea
what LARP is – head out into the
big bad world to try and discover
what all the fuss is about. So
it's kind of part road trip, part
documentary.
Q: How did you come up with
the idea for the film?
TREASURE TRAPPED Q+A
By Brett Claxton
Back in 2013 I had the pleasure of getting involved in the
post-production of a feature documentary. After a year of re-edits the
film was finished and had its first screening.
Now it has been shown in multiple countries around the world to a strong
response from critics and fans of the subject matter. The film in question
is called Treasure Trapped, but it’s not my place to tell you all about it. I
asked director, Alex Taylor, some questions and let him do all the talking.
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mygeekbox.co.uk @mygeekbox
Alex: Like most good ideas,
Treasure Trapped was born in a
pub! A mutual friend of myself,
Nick and Mike – the other two
idiots in the film with me –
started LARPing and telling us all
about it. We thought it was just
the most insane hobby we'd ever
heard of and we couldn't believe
we hadn't heard about it before.
We started thinking “what if other
people haven't heard about this?
I bet they'd be interested,” and
everything was born from there.
Q: How did Kristian Nairn
(Hodor) get involved?
Alex: Short story: we asked
him, and to our amazement, he
said yes! We'd started following
Kristian on Twitter when we
began the Treasure Trapped
planning and had seen that he
was an avid role-play gamer in
the form of World of Warcraft.
When the screenwriter for the
opening of our film sat down
with us he said he'd based one
character on Kristian Nairn/
Hodor, we thought “why not get
in touch?” Appeal to his roleplaying roots and see if he fancies
being in our film – which he did!
Lesson learned here is: don't ask,
don't get!
Q: What moments stand out
from the documentary?
Alex: There are tonnes of
standout moments from filming
the documentary. I think a big
one was filming Wasteland – a
Fallout/Mad Max inspired LARP
– and all the fun we had there
along with the sort of dawning
realisation as to why people
would engage in this hobby. The
Wasteland moment was when
things really started to pull into
focus for us.
Other standouts would be the
first time stepping onto The
Monitor Celestra in character.
That was a surreal, terrifying and
amazing moment – not helped
by having the norovirus on a ship.
It was really like stepping into the
world of Battlestar Galactica.
The wrap party for the
Panopticorp shoot was also pretty
special. It was our last shoot, so
we joined in the wrap of the LARP
and got drunk with all our new
LARP friends in Copenhagen – it
was a great moment. I know it's
clichéd but I think we loved pretty
much every minute, to be honest.
Q: How can people view the
film?
Alex: At the moment Treasure
Trapped is available cinematically
in select cities around the
world. These cities are chosen
based on popular demand,
you can register your interest
in seeing the film over on our
website (www.cosmicjoke.
co.uk/treasure-trapped). We've
had lots of fun touring the film
recently and meeting everyone
is so great. We've got a big tour
announcement on the horizon
actually so keep your eyes peeled
for that.
Q: What are your plans next?
Alex: At the moment we're just
going marketing mad. We're
trying to get the film out to as
many people as want to see it,
to meet with them and spread
the Treasure Trapped love. We
got involved with filming a big
LARP in November last year –
The College of Wizardry – from
the connections we made whilst
filming Treasure Trapped so who
knows, maybe we'll capture
something like that again! But for
now it's the rock star life for us –
out on tour.
You can keep up to date with
Treasure Trapped by following
them on social media and via
their website. Make sure to
request a screening in your city if
you’re interested in seeing it.
Facebook: facebook.com/
TreasureTrapped.LARP
Twitter: @TreasureTrapped
Website: www.cosmicjoke.co.uk/
treasure-trapped
mygeekbox.co.uk @mygeekbox
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