thewizard

I'd do it myself but I've ran into too much bother with printers complaining to me about what they can and can't do for me with regards to posters or professional photos because I don't have the copyright or permission to get them printed. I think a slightly bigger print of a poster is better than a full size one, they are smaller and easier to frame and if you have a cast at the show or stars from the same movie I think a lot of people would pay for a smaller poster print to get signed rather than 2 separate 8x10s or trying to hunt down something from a dealer or maybe I'm wrong, maybe people do prefer full size posters but I personally think a smaller print, not a whole lot bigger than 8x10 would be very popular. Big and small enough that you don't need to roll it up, you can get protective covers for them and IMO look the business framed.

Kenny Baker! Showmasters are bringing out the big guns this year! lol. I'm just joking, I'm sure he's a lovely man.

Can we sit in the batmobile and pretend we are batman?

Well what about someone like me who is at the other end of the scale. I'm going mainly to just meet a few people and it's for fun.I'm not big on autographs or collecting so with the announcement of the TNA wrestlers that's just an extra bonus for me. I've looked and looked over the list of guests for some time now and oddly enough......2 of the surefire guests ill be meeting will be the TNA wrestlers. Them and Danielle Harris, im not saying i wont backtrack and focus on other guests on the day, I might get giddy and change my mind completely but the way I'm thinking now? 2 of the people I'm focused on meeting are last minute additions. So now my top list of people to meet has changed quite a bit. So now I need to make a decision on whether to get early bird tickets and if these guests are going to busy all day or could i get away with just paying the normal rate and going in at the standard opening time. I don't know? It's certainly something to think about and who knows, there could be more last minute guests that I end up really liking and my way of thinking could change again.

Is there any plans to maybe have a slightly larger size of print, kinda like a mini poster? It maybe an extra £5 or so but for poster nuts that like their posters on the wall framed and signed it might be something to think about, especially if you have several people from the same movie or show. Not huge, maybe 10x12 or something, just something slightly.

I will be meeting Mickie and Magnus.

That's giving you a lot of time to weigh your options up. A lot of people book hotels and there is no way of cancelling or getting a refund, they're stuck with whatever they've booked. I haven't booked my entry tickets either. You would need to see what guests you wanted to see and if they will be there on the Friday/Saturday.

Well it's just aswell I never booked any tickets. I'll need to go on the Saturday.

I thought it was some kind of disco you were attending with the fans here. What is a Friday night preview? I was planning on arriving Friday morning, is the show not starting till late on Friday? Cause if that's the case I'll need to rethink things. I thought it was starting early like 9.00am or 10.00am and then I could be on the way home by 5.00pm so giving me maybe 6 hours at the show. I'm travelling from Glasgow. It's been years since i used a subway and the subways up here are pretty straight forward, one goes forward and the other goes back so I don't know nothing about different lines and circles and districts. I need to sit and read all that what you said and then go to the planner and try and understand it all. I can't afford to make any mistakes on the day. I think I'll be alright. But yeah I'll need to look at the opening times on each day. I don't know what to expect and I don't go to a whole lot of shows. That's why I was thinking of taking someone along but if I get there and it's easy enough to do and i'm confident at doing it on my own then if there is someone I want to meet next year I can just go alone. I don't mind going on buses, it's still 8 hours or so on a train anyway. There is probably other people just like us that are thinking the same thing and trying to work things out. Thanks for that link. I see they mention the different lines. Victoria Railway Station which has access to the District, Circle and Victoria Underground lines. You said I would need to go on the district line on the underground. But they said the Victoria Underground line. Are they all underground or just certain ones or is there District,Circle and Victoria lines above and below?

I think they would be happy enough signing for free as long as they were selling comics too which a lot of fans would most likely do.

Burning the candle at both ends there. What some of us do to make a show eh! lol. Did you hitch hike home? This is why money management is key. Even if it's a fiver or just a pound or two a week, it all goes a long way when it comes to the day of a show. As Tesco say, every little helps lol. But speaking of photo shoots. Is there any way to find out the exact times of them? I've looked around and can't see the list anywhere. I can see the days photo ops are taking place but not times on each day. Has that been arranged yet?

The difference is you know where you're going and you've got a hotel. I'm only going to see a few people therefore dont need a hotel. I just have no idea of how to get around London and was wanting the easiest possible way to get from A to B and then B back to A again. I maybe take someone along with me for the day just for company and also they might enjoy it. I'm not keen on this switching trains/buses thing either but as long as I know exactly where to go, what train to get, when to get off, if everything is laid out nice and clear for me before I go then i should be fine. I'll keep reading this travel planner to get an idea of how it all works. And it is definately called the Olympia Grand Hall right? Even googling that you get a lot of Earls Court results and then the addresses and postcodes are different. At first I thought maybe it was an extension or maybe in the same complex but looking at the addresses you would think they are completely different places so i need to look into that too. Using postcodes is also not a good idea on Journey Planner as they dont actually recognise the Coach Station or the Olympia Grand Hall, they do however recognise shops so i'm guessing those are shops in the same street. Another part of me was thinking just to order stuff on the showmasters shop but then I thought i might not get a decent photo or there might not be anything unique on it like some guests do, it might just say to.... and then the autograph so it's probably worth going in person for that alone and actually meeting the people. Of course i grudge paying the money for the travel down to London. I know a lot of sites book 45 days in advance, i miscalculated and im about 8 days off it so it's my own fault. But then I see people like the person above talking about hotels and travelling here and there and I think well there's others paying more than me to go so I shouldnt complain too much.

I don't understand all the Zone stuff and district stuff with trains. I can look into that nearer the time i suppose but is it fairly straight forward getting from the coach to the venue? If i get a train from the train station or subway or whatever it is do i need to change trains or is it a case of getting off the train and then its walking distance? One of the people I definately want to see is Danielle Harris but i'm sure she wont be that busy so if i'm there for 6 hours or so that should be plenty of time to just go and meet the main people I want to meet. I'm not going to meet any of the bigger names so that's why I thought just one day would be fine.

Hmm. Maybe it is easy to get to. Its looking more likely now that I would need to leave about 5 to get the cheap tickets home. Thats still a good 6 hours or so isnt it? Plenty of time to get what I need, I'll be shattered though but it should be ok. As long as I dont get lost or get the wrong train or bus to the venue.

How did you get it to say Victoria Coach Station? I can only get it to say Victora Rail Station. If i use postcodes for both places it doesnt say either place but businesses and street names which dont match either address. Also im getting over half an hour as a journey time. Is there a train or bus station nearby that i could use and it would mean making a short trip to Olympia Grand Hall? I'm not going to see many people, just a few that i really want to and the rest i'm not too bothered about. No really big names that will require me standing in a long que so one day should be fine. Thats the only reason I'm going, once i've met those people that should be me, unless i see there is time to fit in any photo ops, I don't know the area so i cant say i'll be shopping or sight seeing, I'll just be going in and out in one day.

I've left it a little late in getting travel arrangements set so need to do it now. One thing I am finding hard though is how to get to the venue. I would be arriving at London Victoria Coach Station which I think is pretty far away. Is this true? What is the best way to get back and forth? I've never been to London before so I don't know anything about buses or trains or subways. I just want the easiest way to get back and forth so that a) ive got a decent amount of time at the show and so i get back in time to get my coach home. Im hoping to arrive in london shortly after 7.00am and then leave maybe 8.00pm? Is this alright do you think?

Well if they don't think it's worth their time doing then that's their choice. I'm kinda hoping that is the case then there really wont be any problem at all with me spending time with Danielle since Danielle is really only known for horror films therefore the only people that are gonna go meet her are people like me and if horror guests aren't really requested a lot over here then it might actually work out ok in July. Now i'm thinking about it that way i can see how this might work out ok. I've been looking at this negatively and i'm only just realising the fact that Danielle is only known for nothing but horror films is actually a stroke of luck. I forgot to mention this earlier, it's why i mentioned Robert Englund, i saw a video not long ago on Youtube that Robert did at one of the last Showmasters events he did and he spent nearly 10 minute talking with 1 guy while his girlfriend filmed it and there was no one rushing him or telling him to move along. This was a recent video too. That is how it should be and COULD be and that was a Showmasters event, i forget which one but that's why i remember it. I don't know if it was the staff that day or maybe Robert was quiet but he took the time out for that man to talk to him. As for saying it doesn't work, it quite clearly does. There are many big horror conventions in America. I wont know what will happen in July 1of2. If you don't ask you don't get in this world. Hopefully when i arrive it's quiet enough that i will get a conversation. I'll definately be leaving it to later in the afternoon anyway. I'm not trying to take anything away from anyone, like i said, if i get lucky and get a decent conversation i'd like to think the fan behind me wouldn't be upset or mad about that, i'd hope that they would hope for the same thing and try get the same experience but i suppose no one knows what will happen until the day.

Again a few things here. I didn't know these were 'signing events', it certainly isnt promoted specifically as that. Secondly since i know how the Americans work their system, it works over there, if it didn't work they wouldn't operate that way. No jumping on me saying it would never work........it quite clearly does work and i can give you mention links to many conventions in America and you can take a look at their history of running events and guests and guests prices but again i know the guests only get their flights and hotel fees paid for. Only a few really big names are on some guaranteed money and like the interview revealed, sometimes the organisers make that money back and sometimes they don't. But of course that is a convention, where you are encouraged to meet your favourite actors and directors and engage with them, not a signing event where you are paying for the signature. Again i can see why some of you are angry, i can see this is how it's been for some time now. It's engrained in your minds that this is how it is and should be and that's fine, it's not your fault. It's just because we are in the UK, not the almighty US where not signing events......but events that look sound and operate and could quite easily be called signing events run regularly and things work very very very differently. It's a different crowd i guess. And in America they do have things in place for busy guests. I'm sure Karen Gillan was busy and people can obviously anticipate ahead of time who is gonna be busy, i'm sure Gillian Anderson this year will be busy all day, even I wouldn't expect to get much of a conversation or any with her but my point was by all means manage her, get the ticketing system all sorted for her and whatever else but not every single guest is gonna be like that. You don't need to have that system in place for every single guest on the show. Manage the bigger guests but leave everyone else alone and trust people or have someone keep an eye on things, you think badly about people a lot, people don't like to be herded around. Just go with the flow for a few hours and see how things are, see if people are taking liberties or if things are running smoothly. The irony is most people wouldn't take liberties, they are too shy or when they get within a few feet of the guests table they do get nervous and don't say much. In some ways it's more classy than it is in America. Some of these actors literally sit at a desk and talk money with you and will sit there and look right at you and take your money just to talk with you and sign something but at the end of the day that's how they make their money. I'll admit that paying the money before you meet the guest is a bit easier fr the guest and maybe not as stressful on the individual especially if they get there and realise they can't quite afford the autograph, i'm sure that would be bad and some guests would feel bad about that too. I suppose i'm not gonna win this. I can see what David's done right off the bat, these are 'signing events'. It's a different thing. I kinda like what Robert England does in America, his wife or the one sitting taking the money...........right away says Robert, here are the signatures. Robert signs the pile of stuff because the people that paid for the stuff only want his damn signature, he signs them, big pile of 8x10s, clears his desk and meets the first fan and shakes their hand. IMO that's how it should be done. Those that just want signatures, get them done first then get rid of them completely, don't even let them near the guest, they pick or take their item, pay the money then a staff member gets it signed separately by the guest. Once all that is done then the real fans wait for their desired guests. IMO Rockstar you should be one of the ones that doesn't get near any guests. You said yourself you are there for the autograph. You should pay before the guests even arrive at the tables. Pay for your item to be signed or 8x10 photo then they will be signed at some point during the day, a Showmasters staff member will ensure it gets signed. Or maybe this could start something completely different. Showmasters seems have different events for different things so why not try, in 2012 a pure horror/sci-fi convention and see how it works? Not a signing event, not an event full of stalls and businesses trying to flog their own stuff. Nothing but pure horror and sci-fi. Dealers that deal in nothing but horror/sci-fi items and memorabilia and see how it goes. It would work and because it would be dealing with a niche product, a niche collection of actors/actresses and directors, only really dedicated fans would show up, it might not get as many people but you could charge more and part of the selling point of the event is to interact with the guests. A cast reunion for example, i know it's been done many times but i don't recall it ever being done for horror. The reason i mentioned sci-fi is because a lot of actors crossover, they are known for various things, they can appeal to certain crowds. Maybe it's time Showmasters tried something like this or use Danielle Harris this July as an example. See how busy she is. Here is someone who always takes time to talk with people. She openly says on Youtube, if a fan wants to interview her she always says yes cause she knows its a big thing for fans. So if shes taking 10 minutes or 15 minutes out to talk to any fan that wants to, she can't be that bothered about making money all day. There's the thing Rockstarr, i know the guy that runs her fansite well infact it is her official site because she don't have the time to set her own one up, they know each other well in real life. I know Danielle takes time for her fans. What if i show up in July and it's me and you in the que and i'm front and i ask Danielle, oh i wanna interview you for Youtube Danielle, do you mind if i talk to you for 10 minutes. If she says yes to me......does that make me a bad person? Am i such a bad person for asking her that when she herself tells the world ooooh sure i always talk to my fans, when fans wanna interview me i always say yes but there you are paying the same as me and you only get a signature. And believe me that could easily happen, it could very easily happen this July if i take it into my head to take my video camera and make sure i am well in the front of the que lol. I know for a fact Danielle isn't just coming to the UK for this event, Danielle has plans on travelling all round the UK and Europe all through July and August. I'm just a fan at the end of the day. I'm not trying to take your time or anything from you. I'm not trying to complete an autograph collection, i just wanna meet a select few people whos work i admire. But don't think bad of me for wanting to be a bit personable.

They wont get run into the ground, it just means those that want a bit of time with the guests will get it and will go away with a happy memory and will most likely return to a future event.

See what i mean? Sales sales sales. Money money money. I get it! It's a business! I'm not questioning that at all. Yeah i know the guests are paid and that has to be covered but it would be nice to give people a chance to have a small conversation. Maybe it's just a UK thing. There was an interview last year which maybe 1 or 2 horror fans here will have heard, a complete expose on the American horror/sci-fi circuit and one of the biggest agents answered everything, infact i might aswell just go ahead and say Danielle Harris cause this guy is the one that guys most of these horror/sci-fi actors work in America and he revealed it all. They get paid in America for flights and hotels, the agent pays a fee for the 'table'. The guest makes money at the table. Now of course things will work differently over here but over there, the guests work for their money. Its up to them to say to the fans to move along or get a staff member to organise things. I can understand why you are against me, you're used to doing things a certain way here in the UK but there must be people like me that feel like, we're not really paying for a signature, we're paying to meet the person. The only reason we are paying for the signature is because that is the only way to get near them. It's like me paying for a **** in the central station, i don't mind going into a cubicle or standing at a troft with other guys but i need to pay 20p to get in for the privelidge or if not **** my pants. Now you'll probably sit and say ooooh the toilet needs to be paid for, the cleaners wages, the bricks and mortar that hold it together yaddah yaddah yaddah and it's fine, you can sing from that hymn sheet if you want but at the end of the day i need to pay the 20p to do a ****. The 20p is just a way to direct the **** down the correct path, the autograph is just a way to meet the person. But i never looked at it as a signing event only. That is something else i will now take on board, these are now signing events, not conventions. If that's a case then fair enough but if it's gonna be advertised as a convention then you need to give people some freedom and a chance to talk and you say you would be annoyed at someone talking to a guest that you paid to see. No you wouldn't. That person in front of you is talking because they are a big fan. They are exactly the same as you, just like if i'm talking to a guest, i'm not bothered about the fans behind me waiting because they're there for the same reason as me. If there is gonna be this separation between signing events and conventons then you might aswell half the day. Those who want the autographs, just get them out the way asap, it's like the autograph sellers on Ebay, let them get the signatures they want and then get them away from the signing area and let the rest of us that are there because we want to meet the person, let us spend time with them.

You say why should they get what others are paying for but if we go by what you say, which is these are 'signing events' then the people paying are paying for a signature. Someone just wanting to say hello, thanks for coming it's nice seeing you, isn't wanting a signature. I think all this separation from guests really does take away from it all. They are all normal people at the end of the day. What's wrong with all us? Are we not good enough to approach them on our own? It's like we need to be vetted for approval before we even get near them. Even if nothing is changed as far as who can and can't speak to the guests, at least for those that do pay.......and aren't meeting someone like David Tennant who's gonna have hundreds waiting for him, at least give people a little freedom to talk.

I've only been to a few Showmasters events before as they were local to me but this year i will venture to London for the one in July. Now I will need advice on that at some point but i will keep that for that forum. One thing that always made me curious to ask about was the way these conventions are set up. In America you approach the guest at their table, you pay at the table, you judge how long you have at the table unless there is a very big que and the checks are in place to ensure you get your item signed and move along so that more people get to meet that person. Now that example is for a handful of people at most and that's not because they are huge names, it's because their fanbases are so obsessive that they put them on pedestals actually i wont go on about that. My point is, in this country you don't get anywhere near the guests until you have paid the money and then when you get to the table, unless you are approaching someone who literally only has a few people queing for them, you constantly have the feeling that you need to hurry up and move on. No one wants to be treated like cattle and herded along and im certainly not above telling people who do decide to give me ugly looks where to go but i'd really rather not have to. Has it ever been considered to try things this way? To just let people come and go, have a chat, maybe someone who doesn't have a lot of money on them get a chance to at least say hello to a guest and walk away? I know it's a business at the end of the day and i suppose i am no better than the TV geeks that generally hoard conventions as i too am going to meet someone so i guess in the back of my mind i have them on some kind of pedestal but it really would be nice to meet someone and not feel as though the whole world is watching you and have some kind of conversation. The thing i would also bet on is if i did engage in some kind of conversation with the people standing behind me in a que, i bet they would all have no problem with me having a conversation with a guest aslong as they felt they could do the same if they wanted. I know some people are shy or they get nervous and i'm not the biggest talker in the world myself but this is something i feel i should get off my chest before i go in July. I know the admins here will tow the line, the people i wanna hear from is fellow fans like myself that maybe don't go to conventions a lot but when we do it's more a case of taking our money and trying to get rid of us as quickly as possible rather than an experience, which is what it should be, you're paying money, real money to meet someone, it should be an experience of some kind whether that's a shy person who only gets an autograph and maybe a handshake or someone like myself who has things to say. Maybe try and do things a bit differently. If it's a big guest, by all means set things up differently, have some kind of system in place but for everyone else just let us do as we please. Lets make our own ques and if we're gonna meet someone let US look at see how the que is because we pay to get in, we don't mind waiting. If it can be done in America then it can be done here. It's not a nice way to treat people, the photo sessions are the same, point and click then move along to the next person. That's different of course as you are paying for a photo service but my point is a lot of times people get treated the same way at the autograph tables and that's the guests job to say. It's up to the guests to request that people come and go quickly. I know i'm going against the grain here, you get the loyal people that wont have none of it, it's like an NHS nurse refusing to be accept that healthcare in this country is s***, they just wont accept anything other than whats in their minds. I know the admins are gonna bash me but like i said earlier, this isn't for those people, this is for everyone else that maybe only goes to shows like this once a year, they only go when they really really wanna meet someone. How do they feel things could be improved because i think some things could be changed. If i wasn't going in July i probably wouldnt have started this thread and no doubt on the day i'll do my own thing anyway and say what i wanna say to the guest but i thought this would be a good discussion and maybe Showmasters could look at things differently and maybe try things a bit differently, even if its just with a few smaller guests, just to see how it goes.

You could always buy the tickets nearer the time.