Comic-Con 2007
Now that I've recovered, I can post about my adventures at Comic-Con this year. ^.^
ETA: 8/16/07 Now with video links!
Mitch and I went Wednesday night to pick up our badges. We only had about a half an hour before they closed the exhibit hall, but we did manage to locate the Wizards booth. We ran into Justine, who was with her husband and baby, while we were there too.
Thursday I mostly wandered the exhibit hall, checking out the booths and taking pictures of the displays. Sometimes it felt like the hall never ended, because it's so huge. Most of the stuff that's purely comic-centered I don't pay attention to, because that's not really why I'm there. I did check out the TokyoPop booth to see what they had available for yaoi mangas, so I could look them up later on Amazon. Found some good ones, too. There was all kinds of pretty art to see by notable fantasy and scifi art illustrators. I also ran into the Chessex booth where they had probably their entire inventory of dice sorted by type and color. They were SOOOOOO pretty, and I found a set that was swirled with purple and green to tie together my dice collection! I had a hard time concentrating on all this because I was dead tired and starving. However, I was hovering around the tables at the Wizards booth again (it's fun to watch new people play D&D) and the rep asked me if I'd like to do a market research thing for D&D. I said yes, of course, because I love to talk about the game, even before he got to the part where he said they'd pay me $25! SWEET! So I went to Starbucks for a Frappucino and a muffin then went upstairs for a short nap before my appointment with the rep. It was fun. I got to ramble for thirty minutes and got lunch money. So at the end of the day I hit a panel that went over the history and different types of manga. It was very interesting and informative, and I really got a giggle out of how many cheers the speaker got when he mentioned yaoi. LoL. We are taking over the world!
Friday I went straight upstairs to attend the panel on micro-budget filmmaking, with a focus that day on production. Didn't learn a whole lot that I didn't know already, but some was interesting. After I ran into Brandon and his mother who run the Fallbrook Film Factory (who I never got around to calling). They were talking about setting up a film fest and were looking for films to put in it. So asked about putting in Somnambulist and had a nice long chat about movie-making in general. We then stayed to watch a short film called Rocketboy. It was very cute, and I got a free copy. After that I called Daniel, not really expecting to get in contact with him, and told him about the fest. He said he'd be fine with it. Yay. I also told him I'm available for any other projects he may want to work on.
I forgot to mention, I wore my Slytherin gear that day because there was going to be a Harry Potter meeting that afternoon. Not much, just a t-shirt, green plaid mini skirt, knee-high boots, and my black cloak. Since the room it was going to be in wasn't far from the films, I just hung out in the hallway for awhile, watched another film, and waited. Unfortunately I spent too much time gawking at the people in costume and didn't notice the line forming. While at the end of very long line I jumped into a conversation with a guy and younger girl, who hadn't finished the book yet. We delightedly talked about the book in vague enough terms to frustrate the fell out of her. It was great, but we didn't get into the meeting. The organizers obviously underestimated the number of HP fans that would be there by booking it in such a small room. I was a little disappointed, but I did end up talking to a woman about the last book and Snape, specifically, for several hours. It was a nice release.
I stopped for a quick lunch at Subway, which is conviniently about a block away from the convention center, then headed back, intending to queue up for Hall H, and was therefore quite surprised when I was able to walk straight in. They were right in the middle of a panel for Bladerunner. I'm not sure who most of the panelists were, but they were hilarious! Especially the part where one guy (I'm guessing an actor) confessed that one day on set he decided to kiss some other guy, "with passion", as he put it, OMG, LOL! While waiting for the next panel I found a seat next to two guys who were discussing the X-men movies, and I hopped in on their conversation too. We ended up talking about Harry Potter as well. Then I sat through a panel for the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars. The best parts were where they brought out Seth McFarlane who showed a few clips of the season premiere of Family Guy which is entirely a tribute to the trilogy and the video they put together showing many of the shows that had parodied Star Wars (The Robot Chicken clips got most of the cheers). When that panel ended I ran up front and got the closest seat I could find.
[Video from Blade Runner panel here and here.]
Finally, the reason I was there - Kevin Smith! Once again I cannot put into words how much fun the panel was. They screened the entirety of the pilot episode for the show, called Reaper, that he directed, and it was GREAT! I was so transfixed that I once again missed the line forming for the Q&A and never did get to ask a question despite lining up yet again. However, the Q&A was HILARIOUS! I was doubled over in laughter about half the time. I hope someone uploads a video of it soon, cause I'm not cool enough to have a video camera.
[Video of Kevin's panel here, here, and here!]
Saturday Mitch and I arrived at the convention center around 8am, hoping to get in line for the Heroes panel that was going to be a 12:45. When we walked in, the line was already down to the end of the building and out the frickin' door. After a minor breakdown that I'm going to go into, Mitch and I gave up and waited in the line to get downstairs for the exhibit hall. We went straight to the room where Wizards was running some dungeon delve's (short, fast paced, straight combat adventures). While there we ran into Jamie who joined us for a few games. The first game was rough. I got killed before ever making it into the first room. Not good for someone having a bad morning. But it got better after that. Charles, from our Friday game, and his wife, also joined us later. The more we played the faster we got and finally, on the last game before Mitch and I left for lunch, we finished a dungeon! Hell yeah! We won a whole bunch of minis, too. So we went to Subway after that, then went to the line for Hall H. We actually had to wait this time. But the place was pretty empty when we finally got in and we got decent seats. We stayed to watch the preview of Resident Evil: Extinction and then the moment I was waiting for, Milla Jovovich came out for the Q&A! Nervously, and not really having a good question, I went to the line. It turned out most of the people there didn't have any questions, so I was escorted up there before I knew it. My God, my face was HUGE up on that screen, and why didn't I think to take of my glasses?! Oh well. I basically told her I was a big fan, The Fifth Element was my favorite movie ever, and wondered if she might be working with Luc again. OMG...I talked to Milla! She was so nice. *giggle* (And if you don't know who Milla is, just look at my icon).
We didn't stay to watch the rest of the panel, but went and wandered the hall for awhile. In a small stroke of luck we stumbled into the line in front of the Scholastic booth where they were giving out cool bags featuring the cover design from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Score. After the hall closed we went upstairs and chilled out in one of the rooms where they would broadcast in the Masquerade. The first few costumes/performances were kind of painful, but it got better near the end. One of the best costumes was Beetlejuice (he won like 4 awards later, too). Two people came out as Pinky and the Brain and had Pinky dance to hypnotize the audience. After than, whenever there was a few moments delay, the audience would start to chant, "All hail Brain! All hail Brain! All hail Brain1" Rofl. Naturally, the won audience choice. There was also a funny performance featuring people doing a skit called "Greasy Potter" which was a short version of Grease with Draco and Hermoine as the leads. A highlight of the evening was the intermission entertainment that featured groups of martial artist doing an extended version skit of Pirates vs. Ninjas. The ninjas were mostly Naruto characters, but it was cool because they kept making fun of the Naruto character (
You're the worst character ever, Naruto!"). The pirates mostly did break-dancing (some not so well), but featured a very good Captain Jack impersonator. The skit also referenced bits of 300, the Matrix, and Gangs of New York, among other things. After that, the audience chanted back and forth "Pirates! Ninjas! Pirates! Ninjas!" (it was also interspersed with rounds of "All Hail Brain!") Mitch and I were on the Pirates side, personally. Then a girl near us said, "Ninja-Pirates!" and we responed with, "Half ninja. Half pirate. Stronger than both!" LOL.
[Video of Masquerade entrants I mentioned - Greasy Potter, Pinky and Brain, Beetlejuice,and also Die, Naruto, Die! AND Josie and the Pussycat Doll Review (both not mentioned, but really cool). Also video of the halftime entertainment here and here.]
So, very tired, we went home and passed out. I woke up at 8am the next morning and cursed myself. In the end, Mitch and I decided to beg off going Sunday and stayed home. We went out, got some energy drinks, snacks, and stuff for dinner, and sat down to watch the copies of Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, that I had ordered from Netflix. I slept through most of the first and found my attention wavering around the end of the second. I think I'm too much of a Star Trek fan, or something.
ETA: 8/16/07 Now with video links!
Mitch and I went Wednesday night to pick up our badges. We only had about a half an hour before they closed the exhibit hall, but we did manage to locate the Wizards booth. We ran into Justine, who was with her husband and baby, while we were there too.
Thursday I mostly wandered the exhibit hall, checking out the booths and taking pictures of the displays. Sometimes it felt like the hall never ended, because it's so huge. Most of the stuff that's purely comic-centered I don't pay attention to, because that's not really why I'm there. I did check out the TokyoPop booth to see what they had available for yaoi mangas, so I could look them up later on Amazon. Found some good ones, too. There was all kinds of pretty art to see by notable fantasy and scifi art illustrators. I also ran into the Chessex booth where they had probably their entire inventory of dice sorted by type and color. They were SOOOOOO pretty, and I found a set that was swirled with purple and green to tie together my dice collection! I had a hard time concentrating on all this because I was dead tired and starving. However, I was hovering around the tables at the Wizards booth again (it's fun to watch new people play D&D) and the rep asked me if I'd like to do a market research thing for D&D. I said yes, of course, because I love to talk about the game, even before he got to the part where he said they'd pay me $25! SWEET! So I went to Starbucks for a Frappucino and a muffin then went upstairs for a short nap before my appointment with the rep. It was fun. I got to ramble for thirty minutes and got lunch money. So at the end of the day I hit a panel that went over the history and different types of manga. It was very interesting and informative, and I really got a giggle out of how many cheers the speaker got when he mentioned yaoi. LoL. We are taking over the world!
Friday I went straight upstairs to attend the panel on micro-budget filmmaking, with a focus that day on production. Didn't learn a whole lot that I didn't know already, but some was interesting. After I ran into Brandon and his mother who run the Fallbrook Film Factory (who I never got around to calling). They were talking about setting up a film fest and were looking for films to put in it. So asked about putting in Somnambulist and had a nice long chat about movie-making in general. We then stayed to watch a short film called Rocketboy. It was very cute, and I got a free copy. After that I called Daniel, not really expecting to get in contact with him, and told him about the fest. He said he'd be fine with it. Yay. I also told him I'm available for any other projects he may want to work on.
I forgot to mention, I wore my Slytherin gear that day because there was going to be a Harry Potter meeting that afternoon. Not much, just a t-shirt, green plaid mini skirt, knee-high boots, and my black cloak. Since the room it was going to be in wasn't far from the films, I just hung out in the hallway for awhile, watched another film, and waited. Unfortunately I spent too much time gawking at the people in costume and didn't notice the line forming. While at the end of very long line I jumped into a conversation with a guy and younger girl, who hadn't finished the book yet. We delightedly talked about the book in vague enough terms to frustrate the fell out of her. It was great, but we didn't get into the meeting. The organizers obviously underestimated the number of HP fans that would be there by booking it in such a small room. I was a little disappointed, but I did end up talking to a woman about the last book and Snape, specifically, for several hours. It was a nice release.
I stopped for a quick lunch at Subway, which is conviniently about a block away from the convention center, then headed back, intending to queue up for Hall H, and was therefore quite surprised when I was able to walk straight in. They were right in the middle of a panel for Bladerunner. I'm not sure who most of the panelists were, but they were hilarious! Especially the part where one guy (I'm guessing an actor) confessed that one day on set he decided to kiss some other guy, "with passion", as he put it, OMG, LOL! While waiting for the next panel I found a seat next to two guys who were discussing the X-men movies, and I hopped in on their conversation too. We ended up talking about Harry Potter as well. Then I sat through a panel for the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars. The best parts were where they brought out Seth McFarlane who showed a few clips of the season premiere of Family Guy which is entirely a tribute to the trilogy and the video they put together showing many of the shows that had parodied Star Wars (The Robot Chicken clips got most of the cheers). When that panel ended I ran up front and got the closest seat I could find.
[Video from Blade Runner panel here and here.]
Finally, the reason I was there - Kevin Smith! Once again I cannot put into words how much fun the panel was. They screened the entirety of the pilot episode for the show, called Reaper, that he directed, and it was GREAT! I was so transfixed that I once again missed the line forming for the Q&A and never did get to ask a question despite lining up yet again. However, the Q&A was HILARIOUS! I was doubled over in laughter about half the time. I hope someone uploads a video of it soon, cause I'm not cool enough to have a video camera.
[Video of Kevin's panel here, here, and here!]
Saturday Mitch and I arrived at the convention center around 8am, hoping to get in line for the Heroes panel that was going to be a 12:45. When we walked in, the line was already down to the end of the building and out the frickin' door. After a minor breakdown that I'm going to go into, Mitch and I gave up and waited in the line to get downstairs for the exhibit hall. We went straight to the room where Wizards was running some dungeon delve's (short, fast paced, straight combat adventures). While there we ran into Jamie who joined us for a few games. The first game was rough. I got killed before ever making it into the first room. Not good for someone having a bad morning. But it got better after that. Charles, from our Friday game, and his wife, also joined us later. The more we played the faster we got and finally, on the last game before Mitch and I left for lunch, we finished a dungeon! Hell yeah! We won a whole bunch of minis, too. So we went to Subway after that, then went to the line for Hall H. We actually had to wait this time. But the place was pretty empty when we finally got in and we got decent seats. We stayed to watch the preview of Resident Evil: Extinction and then the moment I was waiting for, Milla Jovovich came out for the Q&A! Nervously, and not really having a good question, I went to the line. It turned out most of the people there didn't have any questions, so I was escorted up there before I knew it. My God, my face was HUGE up on that screen, and why didn't I think to take of my glasses?! Oh well. I basically told her I was a big fan, The Fifth Element was my favorite movie ever, and wondered if she might be working with Luc again. OMG...I talked to Milla! She was so nice. *giggle* (And if you don't know who Milla is, just look at my icon).
We didn't stay to watch the rest of the panel, but went and wandered the hall for awhile. In a small stroke of luck we stumbled into the line in front of the Scholastic booth where they were giving out cool bags featuring the cover design from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Score. After the hall closed we went upstairs and chilled out in one of the rooms where they would broadcast in the Masquerade. The first few costumes/performances were kind of painful, but it got better near the end. One of the best costumes was Beetlejuice (he won like 4 awards later, too). Two people came out as Pinky and the Brain and had Pinky dance to hypnotize the audience. After than, whenever there was a few moments delay, the audience would start to chant, "All hail Brain! All hail Brain! All hail Brain1" Rofl. Naturally, the won audience choice. There was also a funny performance featuring people doing a skit called "Greasy Potter" which was a short version of Grease with Draco and Hermoine as the leads. A highlight of the evening was the intermission entertainment that featured groups of martial artist doing an extended version skit of Pirates vs. Ninjas. The ninjas were mostly Naruto characters, but it was cool because they kept making fun of the Naruto character (
You're the worst character ever, Naruto!"). The pirates mostly did break-dancing (some not so well), but featured a very good Captain Jack impersonator. The skit also referenced bits of 300, the Matrix, and Gangs of New York, among other things. After that, the audience chanted back and forth "Pirates! Ninjas! Pirates! Ninjas!" (it was also interspersed with rounds of "All Hail Brain!") Mitch and I were on the Pirates side, personally. Then a girl near us said, "Ninja-Pirates!" and we responed with, "Half ninja. Half pirate. Stronger than both!" LOL.
[Video of Masquerade entrants I mentioned - Greasy Potter, Pinky and Brain, Beetlejuice,and also Die, Naruto, Die! AND Josie and the Pussycat Doll Review (both not mentioned, but really cool). Also video of the halftime entertainment here and here.]
So, very tired, we went home and passed out. I woke up at 8am the next morning and cursed myself. In the end, Mitch and I decided to beg off going Sunday and stayed home. We went out, got some energy drinks, snacks, and stuff for dinner, and sat down to watch the copies of Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, that I had ordered from Netflix. I slept through most of the first and found my attention wavering around the end of the second. I think I'm too much of a Star Trek fan, or something.