thefreckles

I have the evacuation notice and a few badges up for potential grabs (plus Noah Bennett's driving licence) in a charity auction I am running for MSF/DWB (for David Hewlett's birthday) here: http://the-4ts.net/auction_site/item.php?id=98 There's also an Eclipse 1 t-shirt (Size M) available too: http://the-4ts.net/auction_site/item.php?id=96 There are over 100 other items up for auction from lots of other fandoms as well as non-fandom stuff. Most items are postage free and all proceeds/winning bids are paid directly to MSF through Justgiving so if you are interested in bidding and win and are a UK tax payer, please take advantage of the Gift Aid box, we raised an extra £100+ last year for MSF through this! For full info about the auction, please visit: http://www.msfauction.the-4ts.net/items-for-auction.htm

I am considerate (and resent the implication that I'm not), which is why I never go over any limit imposed and would be happy with five minutes (see my post). Even when I've been to places where they've had unlimited flash, I'll still switch to no flash photography after a while as it's not fair to blind them like you said I've been in conditions myself where I've been photographed constantly with flash cameras for over an hour so do know how annoying and painful it can get after a while. Same as you, my flash takes a wee while to recharge, hence my discontent. Plus when I booked it was with the understanding that I would get more than 60 or 120 seconds to take any photos! I sincerely hope they do rethink this and take down the very misleading 15 minutes still up if that is not going to be the case. If it isn't, I hope they allow their usual five minutes as 1-2 minutes is far too little time. Of course, if the actor is jet-lagged, has a headache or any personal objections for any other reasons, then that is another story and should just be stated. Which dSLr have you got? With mine I can jack up the ISO manually and usually get good photos even without flash. An Olympus E-510. I can take just acceptable photos with it but there is too much noise at ISO 800, which I had to use at Eclipse due to the low lighting conditions in the hall. ISO 1600 with the Oly (and most dSLRs) just gives unusable photos even if you clean them up with Noise Ninja or Neat Image etc. Nothing like the decent photos I can take with a flash though, of course. I like at least 2 photos of each actor to be pin sharp and you can't get that manually indoors without flash due to light and movement and lack of tripod (though my Oly has IS and I do use a monopod) etc. and I can usually get those within 5 minutes or so.

Actually, I know from my groups of friends it didn't work that well for quite a few of us. None of my group were especially happy as we had expected longer as stated on the website. Also the low stage and thus poor view did not help one iota and I know others have stated the same thing elsewhere on the Eclipse 1 Board. One of the reason I love going to events is to take photographs of the actors (to whit I invested in a decent dSLR). Out of all the guests on both days I got what I would consider 3 good photos. Most other weekend events I get a couple of dozen (depending on how many actors there are). Very often I already have signatures and I do love the talks very much but the photographic part for me is a big, big thing. Also I found the talks at Eclipse rather short so if you combine that with only a minute or so for photos, yup, I won't be buying a ticket Others go to meet friends or to hear the talks or to have professional photographs taken with the actors or to get things signed, I go to take photos Of course, I invariably end up spending money on other things as I get tempted but the big temptation for me to go in the first place is the opportunity to take a few decent snaps!

Any idea of what the rule for allowing flash photography is going to be yet? The website still states it will be allowed for 15 minutes but that didn't happen at Eclipse, which I was exceedingly annoyed about especially after having spoken to someone on the Friday after the opening ceremony where it was said it would only be a minute or two and was assured it would be at least five, which never happened. I'm small and as the stage is so low it was incredibly difficult to take a decent photo in that tiny amount of time as everyone else and their cameras was in the way. Are we going to get fifteen minutes as stated (and usually practiced elsewhere) or just five as at Showmasters' signing events where they have talks or just a very paltry 1 or 2 minutes? Anyone have any ideas? If it's just one or two, I probably won't bother going but can live fairly happily with five, if we're not going to get the fifteen promised!

It worked for me yesterday but I've just gone online to buy a few and it is now coming up empty Oh well...

Hmmm, image 38 and 39 - photos of me, but there is no memory of dancing. Mildly disturbing. Depends if you can call (Doing the) Locomotion dancing or not

Mine from Saturday can be found here: http://hpofql.the-4ts.net/index.php?cat=13 I'll probably get Sunday's up by next weekend.

Okay, have just read the other messages and that link does work. Is there any way of also getting an electronic copy of the ones we buy? Thanks!

If you were the chap that was taking photos during the auto signing, I was one of the 4 women with David Anders. You shamelessly barged in and then offered to take some pics in way of recompense If so, I would be forever grateful for copies sent to me at noisette at the-4ts dot net I can them pass them on to the others! Many thanks!

To be honest, I think calling people rude for mingling into a conversation at a cocktail party designed for mingling is rude in itself. You can't expect to stand there and have someone come specifically to you. That's not good manners, that's being shy or being silly. I was in a group of five. I found myself next to a group of people talking to Cristine, so I just stood there, smiled and nodded a few times, Cristine noticed that I was there, and with a beaming, clearly not unhappy smile, she turned slightly and opened up the conversation to my entire group without batting an eyelid. Umm, I never once said that I though people were rude for mingling into a conversation! That was in response to what I would consider one largish group barging into or joining another group and not just general intermingling. A little bit different, IMHO, and could lead to resentment as others may feel you were trying to take over as, presumably, each of you would want to speak to a guest (and that would have been 5 of us). Also, we only ever caught a brief glimpse of Cristine and Noah and no one else. Not close enough to catch their eyes and, for most of the time, there wasn't really enough room to move around that freely anyway *shrugs* I went to my first con totally alone not knowing anyone many moons ago now and it would have been disastrous if I hadn't intermingled! That is so much easier to do if you are one or two but more than that is far more more difficult on so many levels, including that of politeness (see above). Totally different situations and the same rules can't be applied to them, in my mind. Also we didn't stand around and expect someone to come and speak to us (although 9 times out of 10 they are usually guided that way at other events I have been to over the years) but there we go... Lesson learned by Showmasters it seems anyway!

A quick and very short medley: I know it has been brought up elsewhere (by myself and many others) but is there any way of upping the height of the stage with big blocks or something? I know it can be done safely. It was waaaaaaaaaaaaay too low and really caused quite a few of us significant problems. Perhaps large signs asking for people to be VERY quiet could be posted in various places where queues would be for the photoshoots during those times? They might be of use and reduce the need (and there was a need unfortunately) for shouting at the noisier attendees, although you are never going to stop such a large group of people from nattering! Some kind of queue control early on for outside the main hall would also be a good idea. Despite the system of gold passes and then named groups, this did NOT stop people from queuing very early from much higher ticket numbers nor blatant queue jumpers and I know that myself and other gold pass holders, who joined/formed an orderly queue early on, were pushed and shoved aside due to the bad manners of others and the lack of guidance/direction/control. Also, the one thing I could not fault in any way all weekend was the crew myself. They did an excellent job in sometimes very trying circumstances and a big, enormous and heartfelt thank you goes out to them from me!

Oh, good news at last! So very glad it turned up

Only a slight variation!?!?!? We also pestered him for that on Friday and he said he didn't have it but would THINK about playing it if we got it for him the next night (along with Voodoo Child and some other con and non con songs). I put a mix on my external drive for him and approached him after the looooooooooooooong Michael Jackson impersonator but he said i) I'd only say I'd think about playing Doctoring the Tardis (in a very 'I'm too important' and 'Don't bother me' tone and ii) after stating that he only had a Mac and didn't know if they'd work (ummm, I'm pretty sure Macs play MP3s, I know all my friends' do), said someone else had given him a CD with a load of con dances on it anyway... DJ does not equal God! We also requested other songs and, yes, he did play a few but I got the distinct impression he felt he was doing you an immense favour and was just so bloomin' condescending about the whole thing. His attitude over both nights really annoyed me. He just needed to look at what got the dance floor packed and what cleared it and pay attention to what people liked and he didn't

Yes, but we're not 'rude'. We didn't feel we could go and just barge in and no one passed by close enough to us to grab them. Comes of having too much in the way of good manners When we did see the two we caught a glimpse of, they were already very engaged with a larger group and did not feel we could just go in and join in (if there had been room!). Am most jealous you got to talk to Christine! Yeah, I agree. That has always worked at other cocktail party / meet 'n' greet events I have been too and was sorely missed here. Hee, I've been to a fair few parties like this myself over the years but this was definitely the smallest room for me!

I had a good time but just a couple of minor things that I felt didn't quite go so well. First of all, on the website it it clearly states that flash photography would be allowed for the first 15 minutes and then no flash. That's fair enough and is common practice. But I was incredibly disappointed when they said it would be allowed for a minute or two only on Friday once there. I spoke to Mark or David (I think) on Friday and they said they thought that at least 5 minutes would be allowed but we consistently had 2 minutes or much less than that on one occasion. My flash takes at least 15 seconds to recycle and, as I very short, it was often quite difficult for me to get a shot due to all the taller people in front of me putting their cameras up etc. On one occasion, I got just one shot during the flash allowed part. One of the reasons I go to these talks (and why I bought a gold ticket) was so I can have the opportunity to take nice photos of the guests and the opportunities for doing that were very far between. If flash is only going to be allowed for less than a couple of minutes (literally), then it should be stated on Massive Events website. The stage was too low. This meant that not only did I sometime have to dodge around a little to see the guests speak (and probably then irritated the hell out of the poor bod behind me) but other people in front of me did too (hence me need to bob around in the first place). The no-holding seats rule was VERY badly kept. People blatantly broke it (I had a front row seat for one talk and gave it up for a photoshoot, only to find 3 people holding seats for their friends in the same situation) and I only saw 1 crew member ask someone not to do so. I cam across seat holding 4 times over the weekend and that is just plain selfish. Queuing outside the main hall was horrendous. On two occasions people had started to form orderly(ish) queues on either side of the entrance but, closer to the time, many people suddenly surged forward to cover all areas totally queue-jumping, and also leaving no space for crew members to come and go. Queuing outside the hall was managed really well on one occasion with TooTall (I think) making sure a clear space was left in the middle and this worked really well indeed. I'd recommend they think about doing the same again in the future. Bit obvious (am safety rep at work) but I do think the fire exits should have been pointed out at the start of each talk in the main hall. Awful colour cast on my shots with Sendhil, Santiago and the group. I thought it might have been the lighting at first in that room but my shot with David was lovely. I don't think the map worked that well, unfortunately. The DJ was also rude and condescending. Did not like him at all! Also could have done with one or two more con dances. Newbies seemed to be pretty enthusiastic about learning them! Have already posted my thoughts on the disappointing cocktail party elsewhere (our group didn't get to meet a single guest!) so I won't go into that again. Guest talks were too short on Sunday! I know CMT (con mean time) struck but I do think a bit of re-jiggling could have been done seeing how swimmingly Saturday went in the end. And I kind of missed having some talks with guests on their own. I like that. I would have given anything for Christine to have had an hour with us on stage on her own... Others have also said what I felt about the Q&A sessions and the question box. Good idea but too many of them. I think when they did open it up it proved that many people did have questions out there that they wanted to ask. Final thing (and this is just me), whilst I imagine it gives the guests a great sense of security having minders there, and probably might get us a few that wouldn't ordinarily come where they aren't there, I felt incredibly uncomfortable having them so present. I don't know what it was and of any way around it but I felt just really unsettled and intimidated and I'm not quite sure how to describe it really. I think it was because they were so almost in your face. I'm sure they are present at other events but I have never seen them and much prefer it that way. It was kind of scary and I found myself tensing up at one point. Not sure if it was because I was subconsciously expecting trouble (miders are needed, must be something wrong - lord knows how my brain works *g*) or if it was their intimidating presence or what... And I have no solution but it did make me very uncomfy during the talks but that's just me and I'll have to live with it! :) Yikes, that's a lot of (little) niggles so, whilst I do have others, I will shut up now! I actually honestly did have a lovely time and enjoyed myself and thought they did quite a few things right and sometimes better than elsewhere. Yes, I've enjoyed other events more but am prepared to give them another go! So, overall, a positive from me! And on a final note, thanks to all who helped out over the weekend! Your work was much appreciated and I honestly cannot fault the crew, in particular one woman who was so helpful on Friday. Sorry I've forgotten your name but you were great

I actually thought it was horrendous The room was tiny. I was in a group with 4 other people and we didn't realise that people were also going outside into the corridor as well. We were there for the whole party and didn't get to meet one single guest. Very, very disappointing indeed. Yes, 2 guests left early but it seems as if some other people were monopolising the 3 remaining guests a little. I caught a brief glimpse of Christine and of Micah but that was all. When you, yourself, are part of a bigger group in such a small space you can't just go and barge into another group. I wasn't brought up that way and, even if there had the space, it just seems darn rude! I would have been happy to have had a chance to say hello to 1 guest even for a minute to to have not seen any of the 5 that attended was just plain disappointing and not a great start by any means. Massive Events should think about having a few ushers of some kind just to move things along. That works perfectly elsewhere and was very much needed here.

I got my photo in the post yesterday. Am seriously impressed!!! And a great photo it is too. Thank you everyone involved

Thank you! Friday night stay for early Saturday start to make sure I get tickets for a few talks it is then! My bank manager will hate you Shame the KEATING/TRINNEER talk is followed directly by the MOMOA/NYKL one as it means I'll probably miss that due to queing for the latter but with so many great guests, it will be impossible to please everyone!

Any idea when the talks will be announced? I need to plan my weekend and times of trains, how many nights at a hotel I'll need etc. are getting rather important as Manchester is quite a journey for me and time is apressing! Thanks

I'll second a request for Chuck! He would be a fabby guest

Hi! I don't know if you are in the UK or not but more and more places are selling pre-paid credit cards. You can either just put money into a one-off card or purchase one that allows you to top up. They can be bought instantly and you don't need anything other than the money to put into them, no credit history or bank account etc. I'm afraid I don't have any more details other than that as I don't need one myself but I know my brother was looking into one so he could buy things online. I'm sure if you Google it, you'll be able to find out more information. I know Mastercard seem to be the biggest seller of these. Good luck!

It seems as if a couple of you wanted a twin room. When I booked I was told they only had twins left. Had no idea about the executive option! If anyone wants to swap their (non-smoking) executive double for my ordinary non-smoking twin, please let me know and we can see if we can get it sorted out with the hotel. I'm travelling on my own and won't be sharing a room so if it helps anyone out, just wave in my direction I should mention I booked my room for Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings so it would only work if anyone had booked for all 3 nights.

Thank you! All booked now (and the hotel too). Yay! I think I forgot to add my surname on the billing address (only entered the first initial of it) but it's the same as the one on the card I used to pay for it. Am really excited about this already! Thanks!

Thanks! Would it be worth trying to phone them on a Sunday do you think? I've already e-mailed but just want to book my ticket right now!

Hi! Do you take Mastercard as it is not on the options when you click through to 'credit cards' whilst trying to buy a ticket? There are just a few Visa options and Switch. I really, really want to buy a ticket for this! Thanks.