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Convention Report


nosfer2
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Here is my convention report, as entered on my blog. Hope you enjoy reading it!

 

LFACC 2008 - Day 1

Today I went to Earl's Court 2 for the London Film and Comic Con. It's been a while since my last convention - last October's Collectormania didn't have anyone I wanted to meet, I ended up not going to a Manchester event due to misleading advice from an organiser, and we were on honeymoon when the most recent Collectormania was held. As a result, I was very excited to be going to the event today. I had picked out 8 guests I wanted to meet, and though it took a long time to do so I managed to get all the autographs I wanted. I set off about 8.15 and got to the venue just before 9. There was a bigger queue than I was anticipating, and they started letting people with Gold Passes in first, then pre-paid, and finally people like me who were paying on the door. It was rather annoying as last year they'd let everyone start coming in at the same time, and if I'd known it would be different I would have booked a ticket in advance. The net result was that by the time I got to the area where they were handing out queue tickets I got a relatively high number for Christopher Lloyd. Another annoying thing was that they told me Brad Dourif would have an open queue so I went off to purchase a ticket for the Patrick Stewart talk, but by the time I got back they had started issuing tickets so I ended up with a high number for him as well. Nevertheless, these are minor quibbles, and I still had a great day!

 

The first actor I met was Sonny Caldinez. He's done a lot of events in the past, but never ones that I'd been able to get to, so I was pleased to finally get to meet him. He's probably best known for the character in the first Indiana Jones film who has a drinking competition with Marion Ravenwood and ends up collapsing from all the shots he consumes, but I was meeting him for his appearances in Doctor Who. He was fascinated by the book I asked him to sign, and was impressed by all the signatures I've amassed over the years! As to the other guests, I can't remember the exact order I met them in, but I got my 'I, Claudius' DVD signed by John Hurt, photos signed by Ike Eisenmann from Star Trek 2, Jay Benedict (from a deleted scene in Star Wars), John Landis - director of many films, including The Blues Brothers, and Karen Allen - the aforementioned Marion Ravenwood in Indiana Jones. I was able to get photos of each of them, though John Landis insisted that I be in the photo and practically dragged me to the other side of the table so that I'd be in the shot. I told him that I love the film 'Coming to America', and he seemed genuinely delighted. If I can work out how to I'll upload the photo. I then had a long wait until I got to meet the other two actors, though part of that time was taken up by the Peter Davison talk. He was fascinating, as always, and we were all astonished when he turned out to have over-run his time-slot - we didn't notice the time passing as he was so interesting. It helped that the audience questions were, for the most part, well thought out and gave much food for discussion. The only disappointment was that, given that it was billed as 'Peter Davison and Doctor Who Talk' no other actors appeared with him - I would have liked to hear Georgia Moffet's thoughts on the show.

 

I finally got to meet Brad Dourif around 4pm. It turned out that his child had been taken ill so he'd had to rush off, but apparently things were fine enough for him to return. Although he's more famous for playing Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings, I got autographs on Star Trek cards as he played a recurring role in several episodes of Voyager. He was not posing for photos, but I was allowed to take a picture of him signing my cards, which I was grateful for. By this point I was quite tired and considered heading home, but I decided to stay on the off-chance that my number would be called for Christopher Lloyd. Eventually they got up to the batch of numbers including mine, and I finally got to meet him at about 5.30pm. He was not personalising autographs (which I kind of expected), but he did shake my hand, and though there was a sign prohibiting photos, I was permitted to take one as he signed my item. In addition to the autographs, I bought some Doctor Who stickers and two Voyager books which I've been wanting for ages and which were less than half price each. Just before I left the venue I got to speak to one of my wife's friends who was working on one of the stalls. She wanted me to bring Laura tomorrow, but I think that's unlikely! Tomorrow I do it all again, but with different guests. Wish me luck!

 

 

LFACC 2008 - Day 2

Today I returned to Earl's Court for the second day of the London Film and Comic Con. I set off a good deal earlier than I had done yesterday, and arrived almost an hour before I had done on Saturday. This meant that I was much nearer the front of the queue to buy tickets on the day. The event opens an hour later on Sundays, but I passed the time chatting with a guy who had travelled up from Southampton who had some interesting things to say, so the time passed quickly. I was disappointed, but not entirely surprised, to see signs saying that the actor Brian Blessed could not attend - not the first time he's cancelled an appearance on the day of an event. When I got into the venue I walked quickly to get virtual tickets for the guests I wanted to see. One of the Crew was shouting "Stop running!", but as I was walking at my normal speed (fast), I thought it was a bit weird. All the virtual tickets I got were under 100 which pleased me as I knew that I was in for a more relaxed day than yesterday. I also picked up tickets for the free talks with Pete Postlethwaite, and Alexander Siddig (though the latter did not show as he was unwell).

 

After a brief look round the stalls I started getting autographs. I would have gone to David Warner first as my number was called very quickly, but he had gone to the photoshoot area so I went to see Pete Postlethwaite and the Star Wars guests instead. Pete was really friendly, and happily posed for a photo. I had chosen a Dragonheart picture, and he was concerned to make sure that I let it dry before I put it away so that I didn't smudge the autograph - top bloke! I joined the queue for Nick Gillard, stuntman extraordinaire, and chatted with a cute Northern lass in a wheelchair who was excited to meet him as he had been David Bowie's body-double in Labyrinth (something I didn't know prior to her telling me). Nick signed my Star Wars book, as did Jenny Cresswell - Han's girlfriend in a deleted scene - and Khan Bonfils who was in Episodes 1 and 2. (I had already met some of the other Star Wars guests at a previous event.) I also met Annette Jones and Lynne Hazeldean who each signed trading cards of their characters. Eventually David Warner returned and he signed my trading cards of his characters in Star Trek V and Star Trek VI. He was happy to be photographed as long as I turned off the flash, and in retrospect it might have been better if I had turned off the flash for all of the photos I took over the weekend as they seemed quite dark due to the lighting in the venue.

 

I joined the queue for the Pete Postlethwaite talk fairly early so I got a decent seat, and really enjoyed hearing him talk about his career. He was sporting a fine beard and explained that this was because he is soon to play King Lear. One attendee asked him about a deleted scene from Jurassic Park, and though I haven't seen the film I found it gave a fascinating insight into the film-making process - there is apparently a scene in which his character succesfully fights off some attackers with one hand tied behind his back, but it was not included in the finished film. Pete explained that after the scene had been filmed, Steven Spielberg had watched it and decided that it suggested that Pete's character was the hero and as Jeff Goldblum's character was meant to be the hero it had to be deleted. Pete did say that he was glad that the scene had seen the light of day on the DVD. Another attendee asked him "Who is Keyser Soze?", which made him laugh! He said that one of the other actors had a theory that they were all Keyser Soze, but that as far as he was concerned it was Kevin Spacey. Another question was "What has been your most challenging role?" He said that he didn't know how to answer the question as each of his roles has its own challenges, though he mentioned his role in Brassed Off as being one that was particularly important to him as the character reminded him of his father so he wanted to do justice to the part. He went on to say that all actors are dependent on good writing - "If the writing's bad there's not much you can do, but if the writing's good you've got a chance" - and that when he received the script for that particular film he was asked to read the script in a couple of hours and then give his reaction. When they called he said simply: "When do we start?" He also talked about Baz Lurman's version of Romeo and Juliet and how the director had a real problem with the thought that the priest caused the tragedy (a thought which had occured to me when I saw the film). Pete's interpretation was that it was like when there were the Troubles in Northern Ireland and that if a priest had had two young people from the Protestant and Catholic communities who wanted to get married he might have felt that this was an opportunity to try to unite the divided factions. It was an excellent talk, and I was amazed to discover that it was Pete's first appearance at an event as he seemed so at ease with the whole experience.

 

While I was waiting in the queue for Pete's talk they annnounced that they were ready for people with ticket numbers under 200 to meet Patrick Stewart, and during the talk they gave a call for numbers under 300 so I was a little concerned that I might not meet him. As soon as Pete's talk finished I hurried to the signing area. The queue wasn't too bad so I joined it straight away. Patrick signed my 'I, Claudius' DVD, and I had just enough time to tell him how much I'd enjoyed seeing him in Antony and Cleopatra, to which he replied "It was a good little show, wasn't it!". I then went and ate my packed lunch, browsed the stalls, where I was tempted by a t-shirt with the ghosts from Pacman (I ultimately decided not to buy it as they wanted nearly £20 for it which I thought was a bit steep), and a Star Trek sweatshirt - if it had been a t-shirt I would have bought it to replace one I used to have which wore out - and waited for the start of the Patrick Stewart talk. Eventually I tired of the stalls as the only things I would have considered buying were on sale for ridiculously high prices, given what the same things sell for on Ebay, so I went over to the talk area and started queueing. I had met some people from North(?) Carolina on Saturday and one of them was already there so I talked with her, discovering that, like my wife, her name is Laura, and having an enjoyable chat. When it was time for the talk I was disappointed to discover that, unlike the other talks I had attended, they were seating us by ticket number, and as my number was 280 I had to wait a long time to get to go to my seat. As the numbering system was confusing it took me quite some time to find it. We received an exclusive print of Patrick in Star Trek and X-Men, and a piece of the backdrop from the set of the Enterprise-D bridge, though it was stuck onto a flimsy pice of paper so I'll need to find some way of protecting it.

 

It was the second time I'd been to a Patrick Stewart talk, though the previous time had been at a Star Trek convention so a lot of the questions had been specifically about that show. This time there were a variety of questions. Patrick semed to be having fun, and was teasing the people asking the questions. When someone asked him whether he would like the power his character in X-Men possessed he replied that he'd rather have the power from Extras (the power to make women's clothes fall off, for anyone who hasn't seen that episode!). One person from Newcastle asked him if he understood his accent and Patrick replied that his father had been from that area, which I found interesting as I hadn't heard Patrick talk about his family before. The same guy also asked him if he knew any Shakespeare in Klingon and was telling him to read his Trek lore, which I thought was a bit of an odd thing to tell an actor to do. Patrick was amused when they had to wrest the mic from the guy because he was hogging it! The Laura from North Carolina asked him if he was involved in the Magneto film, but rather than answer the question he joked, asking why wasn't there a Charles Xavier movie? I felt a bit sorry for her as she'd told me how much the X-Men films mean to her, but perhaps contracts haven't been signed yet which might suggest why Patrick evaded the question. Another attendee asked a question about typecasting, but Patrick chose to pretend that X-Men isn't sci-fi! He then went on to say that he really didn't want to do X-Men and it was only after two meals with the director that he agreed to do so, but that he was glad he had as he had so much fun making them. He added that he enjoyed having to greet each of the female cast members every morning!

 

Patrick made a point of mentioning armourer Terry English and had him stand up as he stated "This man is responsible for some of the most painful experiences of my life!" He went on to explain that the armour looks fantastic but that it is very uncomfortable to wear, and having seen 'Excalibur' I can imagine what he means. Another question was whether he did a lot of research for the character Sejanus in 'I, Claudius'. Patrick answered in a roundabout fashion, talking about the research he has been doing into poisoning for his appearance in Hamlet, and when he mentioned David Tennant a number of the women in the audience cheered. Patrick said wistfully, "I remember when those were for me!" He did then say that he does a lot of research for each role he plays. He was asked whether there's any chance of him working on Doctor Who now that he's appearing on stage with David, and replied "I certainly hope so!" Another question was about whether there were any roles he would like to play that he hasn't had the chance to. He replied that he'd enjoy playing Falstaff, and that eventually he'd like to play Lear but that he doesn't consider himself old enough for the role yet.

 

At the end of the talk they tried to wrap things up, but he said that there was enough time for two more questions. The final question was about the actors, directors and writers he admires. I was fascinated to discover that he found Marlon Brando a great inspiration and that he loves the film 'On the Waterfront' I really ought to get round to seeing it myself! Then it was time for the talk to end. Patrick said that he would have loved to be able to stay longer but that he had a technical rehearsal for Hamlet at 10am the following day so he needed to travel up to the Midlands to get some rest. He left to rapturous applause.

 

Before leaving Earl's Court I went to the props display where I had met my wife's friend on Saturday and we chatted for a while about acting in general and about Terry English's costumes. Alexys was pleased to hear that Terry had got a namecheck in Patrick's talk as apparently very few people had turned up to Terry's talk so she hoped that it made up for it. I left the venue around 4.20pm, not quite as tired as yesterday, but still pretty exhausted.

 

In the evening Laura and I went for a meal at Pizza Express on the South Bank, and then went for drinks with a friend who we haven't seen in months. I got home in time to watch the highlights of the German Grand Prix (having successfully avoided finding out the result beforehand) and was delighted to see that Lewis Hamilton followed up his win at Silverstone with another victory. All in all, an excellent weekend!

Edited by nosfer2
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