…Why did he choose ‘demoscene’ as a theme? …why
did he pick that demo? …and most importantly, where is his “must-see”
address in Hungary…? J
Enjoy!
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What is your relationship with demoscene? How did you come across
this scene?
I was never really deep into the demoscene.
I mean, I never was a member of any groups, or never made any demo. First time I
saw a demo was when I was around 12-13 yrs old. There were computer related
magazines with CDs, and we found some demos in these. We didn't know what those
are, but we just thought, “Hey, these are really amazing stuffs!" :D
In my high school ages, I was interested in
3D graphics as a hobby. I used to live in the countryside, so there were not so
many guys who shared the same hobby. I got to know other guys interested in 3D
graphics through the internet. There were some guys on a mailing list related
to 3D graphics, and they were sceners. That's how I came across the scene.
Around this time, I attended a demoparty in
Germany (Mekka Symposium), which was the biggest party in the world back then,
I think. I also attended Flag, a Hungarian demoparty in Budapest. I made some
3D graphics for these 2 parties, but these were my only stuffs released in the
scene.
Then I moved to Budapest, and studied at
the Technical University of Budapest. So it's somehow strange, that I got
closer to the scene in physical distance, but my activity got reduced. (I was
interested in other things.) I rarely followed the demoscene.
What was
the first motivation to make this film? Why did you choose “demoscene” as your
documentary’s theme?
We started making Moleman 1 with my friend
Gábor Csépai (He is the reporter in Moleman 2) around 2008. It's about the
modern subcultures of Budapest, like street-art, underground music,
extreme-sports on the streets, etc. The idea of making some kind of TV series
about these topics comes from Gábor who has a lot of friends in this
underground world. After he couldn't find enough sponsors to
make a TV series, I said “why don't we make a documentary with these guys just
for fun?” So we started making Moleman 1.
And when we were at the end of the
post production, I thought “if we are going to make a new documentary about
modern subcultures, the demoscene can be a really good topic”. Gábor knew
nothing about the demoscene, so I showed him some demos, and we started making
Moleman 2:D Gábor discovered the demoscene during the shootings.
I thought it will be a good topic because
it's a really sub-subculture. People even don't know that the demoscene exist,
and there was no such thing as a feature length of film about the demoscene
before. So it was a topic with lot of exciting things.
![]() |
photo: molemanfilm.com |
It took almost 2 years. But not the whole
time was an active period. We made it in our free time, so there were months when
we couldn't make anything due to our busy work schedule.
The active time we spent on could be around
1.5 to 2 months. We shot at 3 parties; Function in Budapest, Arok Party in the
countryside, and Main in France. And we shot with the guys who are in the film.
There are some other footages from another
parties in the film, but those are archive videos made by other sceners.
What was your impression of demosceners? Were they supportive
towards your interview?
I can say that it was a great pleasure to
make interviews with these guys. They are super cool and love to talk about the
demoscene. There is a great community around the scene, and it was my most
important task with this film, to show up at this community and meet the
people, not just (seeing) demos.
Opening sequence covers the history of demo works and there are
many more sequences of demo works in your film. Was it fun to pick and edit for
the film? Or were you overwhelmed by the countless choices? How was the process
like?
Murphy (you can see him in the film) made a
huge list for me with the names of the most important demos from the beginning
of the demoscene to nowadays’. So I started to find demos for the film using
that list. And it was a big help for me. I also checked the different top list
on pouet.net.
It was a great fun to select demos and
intros. Although there are around 150 demos showed up in the film, it was not
always an easy question which to select and which to not.
It may be a tough question… what is your favorite demo?
I don't have 'THE ONE' favorite. I like
many (of them). I really like the demos from ASD. They make really spectacular
and entertaining demos. And I also like demos from Conspiracy, Farbraush, and
so on:) But I can say, I can find many-many groups who have amazing demos. So
it's hard to choose one.
OK, then what about the most memorable demo?
The first demos I can remember were 'lamer
demos'. This was a category in Hungary for simple but funny wild demos. They
made some simple cartoon animation with funny dialogues, and I remember one
which was a funny tale with “Mulder and Scully” from the X-files series.
But
the most amazing demos from that time were the 64k intros. I really like them.
These were made before the 3D graphics cards and don't contain too many 3D
objects, but have really cool coded effects.
Do you have any particular message that you want to send through this
film?
I just want to show the demoscene to the
people. There are so many talented people in the scene, and so many amazing
works, and there is this really lovely community. People have to know about it.
And on the other hand, I want to inspire people through this film to start
making their own artworks.
Addition to demoscene, you have introduced some Hungarian culture
in this film. For people who get interested in visiting Hungary by this film,
will you recommend your “must-see” address in Hungary?
There are a lot of things you can visit in
Hungary. It depends on the people, and what kind of things they want to see. But
to say something which is related to the film, they should visit Szimpla Kert,
which is a really famous, so called ruin-pub in Budapest. We shot a scene there,
where Zioa, Murphy and Gargaj are talking, and you can see computer monitors on
the wall. A lot of foreign people visit that place,
and that's really cool :D But of course you can't miss the sights of the city
and the Hungarian cuisine if you visit Budapest.
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Hmm…Murphy’s huge list… wonder how long was
it:D
Szilárd has been responding my message very
kindly since my first contact. Thank you so much for this interview and your
work!