[Eliza Dushku?]

O.K. probably time for me to add my tuppence worth. I helped out with the signing all weekend (I was the brunette behind the desk taking your money). The "no posed photos rule" had been decided before Eliza even arrived in Birmingham. It was mentioned by Stuart on the Sector 14 website, written very clearly on the piece of paper that was tacked up behind the desk and repeatedly mentioned both by myself and everyone else who was monitoring the queue. (BTW could we please call "green top lady" by her name which is Donna, who is an extremely experienced steward who very kindly gave up her weekend to help out even though she was one of the very first in the queue on the Saturday for autographs and she didn't end up getting her autos until Sunday afternoon.)

 

Of course there will always be people who will disregard whatever they are told and will ask the star directly for a photo. And to be frank they are being incredibly cheeky. A star may have expressly said that they don't want photographs but will not want to appear rude when directly asked and so will appear to be absolutely fine with posing for a photo even if it is directly against his or her wishes. I guess what it comes down to is respect. If you are told "no photos" then you should indeed respect that decision.

 

Now I know that for many people getting a photo with the guest is the highlight of the day but the fact is that we wanted as many people as possible to see Eliza in the time available. On the Saturday people were allowed to take photos of Eliza in the front line as they were waiting to see her - and people took complete advantage of this. People took multiple shots, holding up the queue whilst they danced around trying to get an ideal shot of Eliza. At which point Eliza inevitably noticed the camera and the queue would be held up even more whilst the person posed for a photograph with her. And the end result? Quite a few people who wanted to see Eliza on the Saturday couldn't because those taking the pictures had slowed everything down so much.

 

On the Sunday it was decided that once you reached the front row no more photos could be taken. The result? Eliza had signed over 500 autographs by lunchtime and signed for 800 people during the course of the day.

 

Simply put photographs take up far, far too much time and it was quite rightfully decided that it was more important to let as many people as possible have the experience of meeting Eliza for a few seconds rather than let a substantially fewer number meet her and have a posed photograph with her.

 

And at the end of the day isn't the experience of meeting someone whose work you have admired and getting their autograph the most important thing - not whether or not you get a photo with them?

[OFFICIAL C5 BEGGING THREAD]

How about some Smallville guests showmasters? Not just the big stars like Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum but I would love to see the older actors like John Glover, John Schneider & Annette O Toole. They've been in so many great things between them (Dukes of Hazzard, Gremlins 2, Superman 3) I think they'd be fantastic guests. Hell, I'd love to meet Annette's hubby Michael McKean too (Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind - Perry White in Smallville)a seriously funny man!

[Request: Buffy/Angel guests]

Well you can rule out Nick Brendon, Emma Caulfield, Julie Benz, James Marsters, Tom Lenk, Adam Busch, Iyari Limon, Andy Hallet and Vincent Kartheiser as they are all contracted to appear at other events.

 

However, Elisha Dushku would be a fantastic guest as would Seth ("the diet coke of evil") Green!

[Comments and suggestions]

Congratulations Showmasters for a very enjoyable weekend. Things seemed to go incredibly smoothly. The virtual queuing system worked very well and whilst I know many people seemed to have issues with the no photo rule for some of the more popular guests I personally agreed with it as it certainly seemed to ensure that the queues moved quickly. (Also the no photo rule did seem to be at the request of some of the guests -when the gentleman in front of me in the Brent Spiner queue asked him for a photo he said yes but only if he took it right from the side as a day of cameras flashing at him made him feel ill)

 

Suggestions - more seats, more seats, more seats! Having got there at 8 a.m. and obtained the majority of my autographs by 11 I was absolutely desperate to sit down - but as every seat was taken my only option was the filthy floor. The obvious thing to have done would have been to open the hall where the talks were held for people to rest during the day and then closed it again shortly before the talks took place to ensure that noone without tickets snuck in.

 

Also, if you can't write a start time into the guests contracts then please keep the attendees better informed about guests arrival times. I had every autograph I wanted by 11 a.m. bar John Rhys Davies. When asking when he was likely to arrive I got replies ranging from "Don't Know" "He was on the same plane as Billy and will be here soon" "Isn't he already here?" and my personal favourite "I don't know but if he doesn't get his ass in here soon we are going to have a riot on our hands!" After wandering endlessly around the dealers room for 2 hours as there was nothing else to do and nowhere to sit I eventually decided that my exhaustion was stronger than my desire to wait for however many hours for JRD to arrive and left. I was accompanied back to the tube by about 50 or so people who had all gotten up at the crack of dawn, really wanted to see John and Tony Todd but just couldn't face another couple of hours of standing in the dealer room waiting. I wonder how many people who got autograph tickets for John didn't actually use them because of his late arrival. if I had been told - he'll be here at 2:30 p.m. I could have left and come back.

 

Finally, whilst hardly Showmasters fault the refreshments on offer were very poor and horrendously overpriced - must remember to bring my own food and drink in future!

[a bit late into this- a few questions]

Just called the showmasters info line. Early bird tickets are not being sold in advance and will only be available on the door on the Saturday. I'm a little surprised at this as I would have thought it would have made the organisers lives a little easier to have the early bird tickets only available in advance. Judging by the queues in Milton Keynes I would suggest that anyone wanting an earlybird ticket get there at least an hour before the doors open.