Short Talks...

[Tanith]

Did anyone else notice that some of the talks had a delayed start (Around 5-10 minutes) but they still ended at the scheduled time.

 

The Saturday Games of Thrones talk ended up lasting 20 minutes (Which to me isn't worth £15) and the Hayden talk was only around 20 or so minutes as well.

[Myself205]

only been to one talk and as mentioned in another post, really disappointed.

[Indestructible]

Wasn't going to moan but .... Adam Baldwin and Jewell Strait talk was not worth £15, nothing against them but it was too short and sound wasn't great from where I was sitting.

[jael001]

Wasn't going to moan but .... Adam Baldwin and Jewell Strait talk was not worth £15, nothing against them but it was too short and sound wasn't great from where I was sitting.

 

which one? I was at today's talk and I thought it was a fantastic talk, very entertaining.

[Indestructible]

Wasn't going to moan but .... Adam Baldwin and Jewell Strait talk was not worth £15, nothing against them but it was too short and sound wasn't great from where I was sitting.

 

which one? I was at today's talk and I thought it was a fantastic talk, very entertaining.

 

Mine was yesterdays talk. No big deal, but would think twice about paying for talks if that short.

Edited July 8, 2012 by Indestructible

[chuckie101]

Although Hayden's talk started late, it also finished late, so I believe it was the advertised 30 mins (once Hayden had organized the mic and the queue for people to ask questions! Why she had to do this herself though, god only knows!) I was keeping close eye on the time because the Gillian Anderson talk was five mins after Hayden was due to finish. I actually got the Gillian talk about ten mins late after legging it from Hayden talk as soon as it wrapped up. Luckily though the Gillian talk was also behind schedule and hadn't started! I do agree that the talks need better organization though, as I thought it was appalling that Hayden had to sort out the mic for fans to ask questions, and organize where they'd wait for to ask their question (as the mic lead wouldn't stretch more than about 3 metres).....

 

Also the sound was awful in the main stage area. Gillian couldn't hear half the questions being asked, and it appears the audience couldn't hear half the answers as a couple of times the same questions were asked several times!! Future theatre work and X-Files films anyone?!? :-P

Edited July 8, 2012 by chuckie

[etmuse]

All of the talks in area A Saturday (except Gillian's) were scheduled to run for 25 minutes. (Which it said in the programme btw). I didn't let any of them run for less than 20 minutes - the only one which ran less than 25 in fact was the Game of Thrones talk which ran for about 21-22 minutes in the end.

[jael001]

Well most of time time in that GoT talk was spent with the guests having to repeat the questions to eachother as most of them couldn't hear the questions (nor could we) and we could barely hear the answers either. I have to admit I came out of that talk extremely disappointed, both with the length of the talk and the way it was run/the sound etc. The talk on Sunday was much better, although there were still sound problems. Personally I think these should be proper talks rather than Q&As, with maybe a couple of questions near the end, but I'd much rather hear the guests give a talk than just answer questions that they can barely hear. I think for next year a moderator would be a good idea.

[Zagreus]

It's a shame the talks got cut back from the old ones of 45 mins. 30 mins is short enough if you're paying for it, but seeing even less than that makes it like buying a DVD with 15% edited out of it.

[pez]

Hydens talk was appalling . I felt so sorry for the girl . For there to be no .mc and for there not to be a ccrew member to travel with a microphone was stupid . It ended up with a cue of people asking questions if I wanted that I would have stood in her autograph cue. I couldn't hear a thing she said or the questions asked and the crew were letting people in who had not paid for the talk after the talk started who then proceeded to talk bout the next guest in the area after hayden .the sound was appalling and to be told that there was nothing that could be done is a joke.

I know others had a problem with it as a hand full of us complained at the same time. And more have done so on here.

Now I know most of the crew were new but even so paid talks should not be out in public and there should have been at least one member of experienced crew on there. I didn't see one person I recognised on that talk area all day .

 

[dee]

All of the talks in area A Saturday (except Gillian's) were scheduled to run for 25 minutes. (Which it said in the programme btw). I didn't let any of them run for less than 20 minutes - the only one which ran less than 25 in fact was the Game of Thrones talk which ran for about 21-22 minutes in the end.

 

Are you certain of this?

My daughter was sitting next to a lady who had a Tom Skerrit photoshoot at 12.05, and had mentioned how if the talk had run its full length (which she believed to be 30mins) after starting late, the lady would have to make a dash as it as it would start at the same time.

 

We know a member of the press who was present at the start of the talk, whose photographs show Charles Dance standing at 11:34:26, and Gwen Christie picking up the microphone at 11:34:57. While a question could have been asked after Charles Dance sat down and prior to Gwen picking up the microphone, this would still place the talk starting at 11:34, 15 minutes late (This would match my daughter's belief that a 30min talk would end at the same time Tom Skerrit's photos were due to start)

 

My daughter's own less exactly timed photos have Charles Dance standing at 11:34:30, the cast having sat down to start at 11:34:40, and a last photo of the cast in the talk at 11:51:14 (giving the talk a time of approx 17 minutes)

My daughter was outside the hall, after the talk, taking a photograph of the Zekrom cosplayer by 11:53:12, 19 minutes after the talk actually began. I can assure you she wouldn't have left early

 

The talk cannot have run 21-22 minutes. It isn't possible.

(On top of that, even if it had, running for 21-22 minutes, it would have ended at 11:55 or 11:56. The crew started letting people in to the next talk on the schedule, Jeri Ryan, at 12. I have to assume it would have taken more than 4 minutes to clear the hall ready for the next use)

 

It feels silly nitpicking over 6-7 minutes, but you have to understand that 6-7 minutes was actually a significant portion of that talk (In fact, if the talk was meant to be 25 minutes then then 6-7 minutes is 24-28% of the talk!)

And as Jael mentions, due to sound problems much of the talk was spent with the guests trying to piece together what questions were asked anyway.

Edited July 9, 2012 by dee

[etmuse]

I timed from 'introducing the cast and them coming onto stage' to 'announcing that was all there was time for and guests getting up to leave'. It was around 21 minutes. They did take a few moments to get up on stage after having stood around waiting (like the audience) for the venue to sort the tech problems. I accept if you purely time from 'after all the guests got settled on stage' to 'before they leave the stage' it was a bit short. We did finish late, and really did hurry people out of the hall from that one as we were supposed to start loading the hall for Jeri at 11.50! (Schedule allowed us 5 minutes for clearing the hall, 10 minutes to load the next audience before the talk is scheduled to start.)

 

We did have fairly persistent issues with the sound, but we as the crew couldn't do much to help that, and our sound technician was trying his best.

Edited July 10, 2012 by etmuse