Once adventures and role-playing games evolved from with pen-and-paper play to taking place outdoors with participants wearing real costumes, it was only a matter of time and technical advancement, until fantasy movies followed, made by and starring LARPers.

Today, thanks to modern technology, even laymen with no budget can bring their fictitious adventures to the screen. The scene is no longer dependent on camera teams of local or national TV stations, who once had the reputation for belittling LARP and role-playing as a silly hobby and for mocking participants in their coverage. Suddenly, we can become our own directors, screenwriters, actors, camera operators, and extras, and we’re free to discover for ourselves the complex medium that is film. The result? Over the past few years, the number of published fan films and LARP movies has been continuously increasing.

LARP movies depict every nuance of the hobby

It is quite easy to distinguish the different genres of movies. On one hand, there are story-driven fan films that want to take you to a faraway land; conversely, there are documentaries about LARP events that aim to educate those who are strangers to this hobby and to explain to them what’s going on behind the scenes. Thanks to video platforms, you can now find numerous video tutorials—such as those already known from topics such as Cosplay, make-up, or arts and crafts—explaining LARP-specific equipment and methods for crafting it.

The opportunity to present the scene to a wider audience using its own footage has brought the community out of its niche, allowing it to become an ever-growing movement that continues to professionalize.

LARPers as extras in movie and show productions

LARPers are popular as extras with the larger productions companies and broadcast stations—especially when it comes to fantasy. Not only do they usually place their previous knowledge at filmmaker’s disposal, but by bringing their own LARP costumes to the set they are saving the production company the money otherwise needed to acquire such costumes themselves in the process. What’s more, costumes featuring the immense level of detail that LARPers tend to craft would otherwise be unaffordable for most production companies—especially when the extras are needed for only one episode of a show. LARPers, on the other hand, are happy to make their mark in movie history and be part of a film production—perhaps so they can even launch their own movie projects afterwards?

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Cape Francois Black

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