Chris164's 3rd LFCC Recap

[Chris164]

If anyone's been keeping up with the images and posts I've been making over the past few days, you'll probably know most of the story of my convention experience, but if you want a more in-depth recap or simply want to pass the time, I've got you covered! Also Wrong Name's round was fascinating, so I thought now would be a good time to jump on the recap train before I forget some of what's transpired last weekend.

It's a bit surreal typing out this blog post. I've been anticipated my 3rd LFCC for a good while now after some disappointing convention experiences elsewhere. Unlike the previous two years, I planned on going to the convention two days this year: initially, Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald from Doctor Who, Joanna from The Cry) was announced as a Saturday-only guest. Followed by Ian McDiarmid, my schedule was looking to be only Saturday which would break tradition from the usual Sunday-only experience I've had. Eventually, Jenna was scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday, and the cast of Iron Fist was announced. Specifically, Sacha Dhawan was announced as a Sunday-only guest, and given I missed out on meeting him at the convention 2 years ago, I wanted to meet him without fail this time: as such, this was my first LFCC across two days.

Alongside Carrie-Anne Moss who I knew from the Marvel-Netflix TV series, my lineup was looking to be a little more diverse than my previous two visits to LFCC. Initially, I had my agenda of meeting Jenna on the Saturday, but seeing as I could move to Sunday since no batches of photos or Diamond Passes were filled up, I thought it'd be a wise move in the hopes of maybe getting a couple of seconds of extra interaction time.

At one point, Alex Kingston was announced, someone else alongside Jenna who I really wanted to meet as a big Doctor Who fan. Sadly, she cancelled at the very last minute, which left my Saturday schedule cut in half as Ian was now the only guest I concretely would meet that day. It was disappointing to hear this at the last minute (literally, she had to cancel at 7pm the day before I was due to attend), but it opened up my agenda a bit more for Saturday and to run around with other autographs. As such, here was my agenda for the weekend:

Saturday:

• Ian McDiarmid, DP Batch 1, Photoshoot Area E, 6:30pm

Sunday:

• Jenna Coleman, DP Batch 1, Photoshoot Area E, 11am
• Carrie-Anne Moss, DP Batch 1, Photoshoot Area D, 10:30am
• Iron Fist Group Shot, Batch 1, Photoshoot Area A, 10:40am

With the Iron Fist group (Finn Jones, Jessica Henwick, Sacha Dhawan) since only Finn had a Diamond Pass (which I wasn't planning on buying), I would try and fit their autographs in at some point when I was free, and with two days to go off of, Saturday would be the preference for when I could meet Finn and Jessica in particular.

So, let's talk day 1.

With Alex's cancellation late on, I decided to leave for the convention on Saturday significantly later than I usually do at 11:30am. Having collected my Passes for Jenna, Ian and Carrie-Anne the day before, the average journey time was 1.5 - 2 hours, so that'd leave me plenty of time before Ian's photoshoot at 6pm to try and get Finn's, Jessica's and Ian's autographs beforehand.

Seeing as her queue was fairly quiet, I walked up to Jessica as my first autograph of LFCC 2019 at around 1:15pm. Amusingly, it took 2 or 3 minutes before I could actually get my chance however to speak to her, as the guy in front of me took forever talking to her - he had this massive book filled with tonnes of signatures (which was both impressive and terrifying), as he showed her a couple of big names that were at the convention. I'm not sure how long it took, but I stood there patiently as the man continued to proudly show off his book to Jessica.

Eventually when he’d finished his long presentation, it was my turn. Immediately, Jessica lit up again and was thrilled when I presented her a copy of the drawing with red acrylic spray to make it feel a bit more than a photocopy. She was very gracious with it (with “wow” being said many times over), before asking if she should add a little message alongside my name. I’m always happy with extra messages; it makes my autographed drawing stand out amongst all the other signatures actors and actresses write (though I wasn't expecting the phrase straight out of Iron Fist for some reason, but I dig it). A handshake later and a parting to look forward to the group shot the day after, I left Jessica feeling positive that the first signature of the convention went very well.

I couldn't jump straight into Finn's line who was stationed to Jessica's left: a. he wasn't back, and b. he was still calling Diamond Passes. I wasn’t expecting to get Finn’s autograph without a Diamond Pass - these days, Diamonds are the only sure-fire way of guaranteeing an autograph. But on Saturday, a.k.a. the busiest day, Finn got through all his Diamond Passes, and it went from virtual queuing to an open queue.

Seeing this chance, I went to get his autograph whilst it was quiet approximately an hour after Jessica's, and I’m glad I did. When I gave him the drawing, he was real pleased with it, double checking that it was cool to personalise. Randomly, I noticed the fan he had on his desk and couldn’t help but comment on it, to which I got a flamboyant “thank you”, a minor amusing anecdote there. I did find it funny when he wrote my name on the drawing: you can see he started quite casually until he realised he was going to run out of room and sign straight past the face. The slow-down in his signature and the realisation on his face as he noticed was indeed a sight to behold.

Before I left, I also gave Finn a copy of the drawing for him to keep, sprayed with acrylic red paint to liven up the copy. Hilariously, he suggested it was a “seductive choice” and I couldn’t help but laugh. It was quite a random encounter, but Finn came across as a genuine character who wholly was absorbing the entire convention atmosphere. In a fun way, he reminds me the guys from Class who aren't afraid to just speak their mind and have fun, what a chill guy.

With these two autographs now guaranteed, I decided to return and try again to queue for Ian around 2:40pm. I'd tried earlier but he needed to go for a lunch break, hence why I jumped off to the Iron Fist cast to get their autographs. I’d heard that Ian’s quite a chatty man and that’s why his queues are always so long. I can confirm that report is true and Ian is a genuine guest who takes such an interest in his fans, always talking, always giving eye contact and always being positive.

When I approached his table, he extended a firm handshake even though I had passes and bags and coats all over the place and patiently waited till I cleared my hands of all the passes before shaking his hand. I handed the drawing over and Ian looked at it for a while, showing it and talking about it to the stewards nearby who were impressed. He then joked that this is the first time he saw the Emperor smile, to which I jokingly gestured I was aiming for evil but that clearly didn’t work out.

Ian then proceeded to sign, making sure to be as careful as he could and suggesting the name go above and the signature below. There’s been a precedent for that so I’m not one to say no by any means. Before I left his autograph table, he shook my hand again and once again complimented my drawing skill, happily praising my work to which I'm grateful for - often guests simply sign and pass back with some minor praise, so to have a name as big as Ian taking his time to look at the work was a sensation indeed.

With this over, I had 3 and a half hours to pass before I could go to his photoshoot. With nothing on the agenda, I simply roamed the stalls for three hours in the hope I could pass time. I had no one else to meet as they were all scheduled for the day after, so time went slowly before 6:30pm arrived. As such, there's nothing really to report in these 3 hours.

When his photoshoot began, I greeted him warmly as he remembered me from before, offering a handshake again and thanking me for coming by as I thanked him also. Ian is one of the friendliest guests I’ve met ever,  and with his return in Star Wars, I do hope more people meet this kind man.

Roll on day 2.

Day 2 started off at 5:30am, as I left early to try and get an early spot in the queue. I'd sadly lost my copy of a drawing for Sacha Dhawan to keep, but despite this, I was prepped with everything else. That day, I was wearing a 12th Doctor cosplay for my photo with Jenna (ironically not Peter last year because Matt Smith, a.k.a. the 11th Doctor was in attendance so I had to choose). With my tieless smart look, Sunday was looking to be the more exciting day.

I arrived approximately at 7:30am and managed to get into the second line right in front of the hall. Time passed and eventually at 9am, I was in the hall. I quickly took a scouting stroll around to see where some of the guests I missed on Saturday were, quickly identifying where Sacha, Jenna and Carrie-Anne were before I started to try and queue for autographs. Jenna wasn't scheduled to arrive till about 10, so the steward suggested I try and grab some other autographs in the meantime.

At around 9:30am, Carrie-Anne arrived and her queue got underway real quick. As there weren't too many people there, I jumped in line to get an early signature under my belt. Out of all guests I was meeting that weekend, Carrie-Anne was the one who I had the least idea about in terms of what she'd be like and how she'd interact. Her convention appearances have been limited so I couldn’t gauge a reaction of what she’d be like or how she’d engage with her fans. It definitely was a surprise, and I could only find out on the day.

Perhaps the queue being short contributed to this perhaps it was the fact that I was in her queue almost immediately as it opened, but I had at least a good 2 minutes of dialogue with Carrie-Anne - not even about her work, but about my drawing! Like Ian, she opened with a firm handshake and pleasant formalities, before taking a second to look at my drawing and show it to her son before guessing it was her character of Hogarth from the MCU Netflix series. I very rarely have conversations about what it’s like to draw or how I developed - the last time I can remember was at least well over a year ago, but to have a relatively big guest like Carrie-Anne show genuine interest was surreal to say the least. She listened as I talked about how it started to click, before saying that the “click” was similar to her son and how he too started to click with drawing one day. I wasn’t really expecting her to encourage me to keep drawing, but there we have it. I’d argue that this was among the highlights of the convention, and maybe of my run of conventions so far. Class act through and through, would absolutely love to meet her again one day.

Immediately after this, I was allowed in Jenna's queue which was already starting to build up. She in fact arrived later around 10:20am, so I was stuck queuing a bit longer than I'd hoped, but given Jenna was my initial draw to the convention, she was the one I'd be most looking forward to interacting with. Despite the mixed reports I'd been hearing the day before about Jenna, I managed to finally meet her around 10:30am. Normally guests aren't the ones to carry a conversation, but in my small amount of time at the start of the day, Jenna was the one carrying the conversation! Whilst I was getting my pass clipped, Jenna decided to start with the general pleasantries such as asking how I was doing, to which I responded and answered in kind. As she became aware of what I was getting her to sign, she praised and complimented my print which was an illustration I made from the series The Cry. According to her, it's rare in terms of fan art as not many people have gotten her to sign art from that series. She quickly signed away before moving onto my sketchbook drawing, which again she gave praise for. Before signing, she specifically asked if she could sign in silver. I've had my fair share of problems with the colour silver on signed drawings, but I was willing to give it a shot. Jenna was particularly careful signing: she wrote down the letter "C", and gestured to me if it looked alright. It came out darker and hence better than I expected, so I was happy for her to keep going, before she signed away the rest of my name and her character name. Having heard the rumours that Jenna was stressed the day before, I gave an additional copy of my print for her to keep, to which she graciously accepted. For an apparent "frosty" guest, she surpassed my personal expectations. Normally a "hello" and "how are you?" are fine by me, but I do truly appreciate the extra effort of looking after my drawing and carrying the conversation when she signed away. 

 .  

Having met Jenna at 10:30am meant I missed the morning shoot for Carrie-Anne, and in turn, that meant I was going to have a very long day at the convention. Alas, time would hopefully be less torturous than the day before as a collage friend Ellie would be attending, so I could hopefully kill some time by hanging out and seeing how she would be doing given this is her first convention. But before that, I had two more photos and one autograph to hunt before reuniting.

The Iron Fist Group shot was in Area A. Having had Ian's photo in Area E, I was unfamiliar with where A was. For those unfamiliar, Photo Areas A-D were in a different room from E-G, so I had a mad dash to try and find out where I was going as their photoshoot was only a 5 minute window. Thankfully, I found it and I was in and out quickly. Finn and Jessica didn't seem to recognise me, but given the sheer number of people guests meet in a day, it was hardly surprising. It also was something that didn't bother me given how fun their photoshoot was, pulling amusing poses for some attendees and Finn and Sacha were yelling out random words which led to some genuine reactions from their fellow castmates and attendees. I haven't seen a fun photoshoot like that in years.

With that fun photoshoot out the way, Jenna's photoshoot came. Honestly, I didn't mind that Jenna wasn't talkative during the shoot - I've come to expect that time for conversations aren't in the photoshoots: it's one of the reasons why I get autographs as there's more time there than in a photo-op area which essentially is a production line as people way to move into shot. As I walked up to Jenna, I couldn't tell if she recognised me from earlier or not, but given my cosplay, she went into an immediate Doctor Who-esque pose that she'd been using over the weekend: precisely the pose I was after. I immediately went and pulled a pose I'd seen Capaldi use in early series 8 promo images of having my hands central and crosses with a smile/smirk approach. Honestly, I'm pretty happy with the photo: part of me wonders if I should have mimicked Jenna's pose, but it works all the same as a Doctor-Clara photo so no complaints here.

With Jenna's photo finalised, I only had two items on my agenda left: get Sacha's autograph and Carrie-Anne's photo. I went around to Sacha's autograph table close to 12pm, seeing as the queue was down to two people. This would give me ample time to have a conversation which wouldn't feel as rushed and I could take the moment in better.

The nice thing about all this was Sacha was with his dad, taking him along to see what the show was like. And as I presented the drawing, both proceeded to admire it for a good minute. Sacha asked in surprise if I had drawn it, to which I happily responded that I did. He showed his steward next to him as well as Jessica who was next to him, before proceeding to sign slowly and asking me if he could take a picture of it: I’ve never said no before, last time someone asked was over a year ago! As his dad was taking the photo, I snuck into the back and photobombed the photo to which Sacha laughed and approved. His dad suggested I give my phone to get a table photo with Sacha, but my brain was still in meltdown mode and I thought he meant give my phone number (I didn't by the way, I asked if airdropping was an option! Silly me.). Sacha was happy to take extra photos on my phone so he stood up and held the sketchbook as I pointed quite amusingly in the background. To have a table photo like that for free just for coming by with a drawing is so rare in comic cons today, and I departed with a firm handshake and such a cool memory. This is the thing I like about smaller guests: it doesn't detract from their fame, but smaller guests are often more friendly and more excited when you present them drawings or fan creations like this. Like Carrie-Anne, this conversation came as a real surprise, given I'd heard he'd been somewhat reserved. Given that I'd have a few hours left before Carrie-Anne's photo, this left me buzzing with joy.

   

After all this, Ellie found me hours into the convention as we walked around the stalls to pass the time, see the sites and catch up on how our convention experiences had been. We eventually bumped into another friend of Ellie's, Mason, who joined us briefly before the hours passed and we eventually found a place to sit as we waited for Ellie to meet Ian Somerhalder who had a ton of photo batches to go through (arguably one might say he was oversold on Diamond Passes). Admittedly, Ian overran a significant amount more than we'd anticipated, with Ellie not being able to see him till about 4pm if I remember correctly compared to when he should have finished by 3pm. Still, she was buzzing as she left, so I'm glad for her first time at a convention, she could meet one of her heroes - it's always a unique feeling meeting one's heroes, and it's different for everyone as each individual has their own hero.

With Ellie heading home after that, I had an hour to wait around an extra hour for Carrie's PM shoot. At this point, I was significantly weak: my legs could barely stand, my arms ached, I was barely awake and dehydrated and was relatively hungry by this point. Time however moved faster here than it did previously. I continued to walk the stalls for any last-minute impulse purchases (which I didn't get), made conversation with fellow 12th Doctor cosplayers as we discussed jackets and ensembles of the costume before Carrie arrived. She came a little earlier than expected, and I remember she was casually leaning against the Photo Area with not many people noticing her presence. Eventually, 5 minutes later, we were in and out, greeting each other warmly, before the day's end finally came.

I really wasn't sure what to expect going into the convention: at LFCC, I normally get 8-10 people to meet, and the activities are spread across one day. So to have only 6 on my agenda across 2 days was worrying, as I imagined I'd get blank periods where I'd be bored out of my mind. I was not wrong there. However, each and every one of the guests I met were beyond what I was expecting. Each conversation felt truly special, each interaction felt like there was genuine interest from both sides - from the guest, an interest in my drawings and my skill; from me, an interest in the guest and their work and talent. I normally suffer what I call "post-con blues", basically missing the unique experiences I had over the weekend. But whilst last year was incredible with a huge Doctor Who lineup, I've not experienced post-con blues quite like this. LFCC, for the 3rd year I've gone to this convention, you've left one hell of an impression. I'm already wanting my next convention, specifically LFCC given the calibre of the interactions this year.

- Christopher Nguyen, 01/08/19

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Chris164
Updated with digital photos

[Broo]

This was great to read and I'm so glad to hear the guests all loved the drawings you did :) three cheers for an awesome con weekend! :)

[Gemma Spellman]

Great read! Thanks for sharing :)