T1 Convention Reports (Day One and Two )
Phew lots of photos to sort through. And muddled brain to rack - acrazywench took shorthand notes of the Q&A 's but I tried to remember things from the Meet and Greet & autograph sessions.
Awesome group shot from Starfury - love the 'whodunnit ' montage. Especially Summer and Felicia's poses. To see all the photos click on the Guests names to go to the page in the text under the cut.
We had heard a couple of days through the Starfury forum, that the main surprise guest, Thomas Dekker had a change of shooting schedule and couldn't make the con, disappointing but at such short notice there was no real time for Sean to find a suitable replacement. We just hoped that there was already a couple others up his sleeve. Amy Acker, Stephanie Jacobsen and Clare Kramer had also had to pull out earlier due to work commitments ( but good news for them).
Several Convention virgins in the guest line up as well as attendees. Lots of Chuck and Terminator fans, who must have outnumbered the whedonverse ones (I think there was some crossover) Nothing out of the ordinary as Opening ceremonies go (a little late, everyone really excited) Great delight that Dichen had joined us and also Tom Lenk. Poor Summer had almost lost her voice and struggled to make herself heard. After that the disco started and the stampede to the Meet and greet was underway.
Both acrazywench and I had Gold tickets. This is the first time Sean had different levels of tickets for an event we had attended, so we weren't totally sure how it would go. One of the benefits was the meet & greet - 130 goldticket holders sat at tables (make sure there's an empty seat at the table!) The guests go to each, sit and chat to the attendees. For the first time we actually met all the guests (I think it was over two hours in the room).
I spoke to Mark Sheppard about Leverage finale and he was super-chuffed that his character'won'. Tom Lenk was visiting an old friend in Birmingham and earlier was helping to get the children ready for bed - he loves their brummie accents. Felicia had been in London sightseeing with Tom Lenk this week and had succumbed to buying jewelry at Topshop. She liked my hair (mainly the colours) and she'd seen that a lot in the UK but couldn't risk having an unusual style herself as it may affect casting in new roles. Jonathan reenacted a scene from a recent episode of TSSC which he found *stimulating*, with a very embarrassed acrazywench "lift the flap" heee! .He also told us that he'd gone back to Columbia to study politics and was heading to Haiti to work on a humanitarian project in the summer and that he'd featured in Adam Busch and Amber Benson's new film which was a comedy. Georges chatted about the comics and what we thought about them.
Zach wanted to know what would 'Chuck' fans like to see on the next season of the show, he was very enthusiastic and told us about working with Adam. Dichen spoke about working with Joss and asked if anyone was 'acquiring' the next episode of Dollhouse this weekend so she could watch it - she said she did some great scenes with Frans. Quite of few at our table hadn't seen the show yet, so we had to refrain from spoilers. Miracle asked if I was an actress (!) as I reminded her of someone but couldn't remember who -no seriously she did and no suggestions please who it may be ;). We spoke to Summer about her first convention a few years back with Nathan and Jewel. I also asked about the agony of waiting to hear if the show had been renewed but seeing as all 3 shows were under question I can't remember with whom I discussed it.
We headed back to the party after the meet and greet and partied a little (shattered much). We had early morning photo shoots so no point paying for those and then getting wrecked photos are here of the opening ceremony.
.
Day Two - Q&A's acrazywench took shorthand notes of the Q&A's so I'm working from memory but here's the jist...
Dominic Keating & Jonathan Woodward discovered that they are kindred souls (funnily enough both enjoy a drink) and much larking about ensued. Tales of Sly Stallone leaving on his mic whilst 'relaxing' in his trailer, 'wash and go' Vidal Sassoon advert, and likeness to Martin Short.
Georges Jeanty, Felicia Day and Tom Lenk talked about S8 Comics. Felicia and Tom possibly duetting on Trumpet and Violin (Felicia spent many years studying at violin academy) and Georges described the process of creating the artwork and how he and Joss work together.
Mark Sheppard, Miracle Laurie & Dichen Lachman could not be very specific on events in the actual show as many in the audience had not seen it yet.Mark Said his casting was last minute as the actor originally chosen didn't come through and made Joss keep the character name of Tanaka. Miracle explained that she had auditioned for BtVS many times but there wasn't a fit - she'd also auditioned for Kaylee too. Her fiance Chris had appeared in 'Life Serial' trying to buy candles in the Magic Box. Chris and Miracle gave an impromptu performance on their Ukulele's - Miracle has a very sweet voice and you'll find them on Myspace - Ukeboxheroes.
Adam Baldwin & Zachary Levi were up next - Adam clearly very pleased that Zach had come along - this is Zach's first con. I got a very much the proud Big Brother vibe from Adam with Zach, which was great to see. They discussed 'Chuck' being on the bubble of renewal and Adam prompted Zach with the words 'subway' and the Zach told us that he'd like to take us all to subway this weekend and have us buy a footlong to show that fans want more 'Chuck' by supporting the advertisers. I believe this was an idea put to him by a Chuck fan but I'm not positive. Ideally he'd like to have Subway sell out, with plenty of photos, videos and coverage. More on that tomorrow.
Summer was clearly still suffering from her poor voice and it was tough for her as she had no-one else onstage with her. Questions about whether her stunt work on Serenity had helped with the role of Cameron. Apparently not as she was told there would be alot of picking things up and throwing (or being thrown) against the wall. She described in detail how complex the scene where Cameron operates on her own arm was to create - fake arms, stunt hands and allsorts. Also some shipper talk on John/Cameron and would not be drawn on which was her favourite role River or Cameron.
Autograph sessions ran after the Q&A's As gold ticket holders we had first call on signings and photos - made life alot easier so we managed to get all autographs the first day. Had some excellent comments from Adam, Summer & Felicia on the artwork (yay!) Summer thought it was a print as she said 'I haven't seen this one before' and I pointed out that I had just done it and this was a new one :D I also asked Summer about the Ballet project 'Serving Girl' with herself and Joss - the problem is purely having schedules where both are free and it has been like that for almost 6 years - but they'd still like to do it. Felicia had some suggestion on the 'white space' left on the Dr Horrible Montage and wanted me to send her a scan (which I will do).
Dichen showed me her awesome shoes and I told her to let all the cast & crew know at Dollhouse how much we love the show. Miracle was still convinced that I was an actress but hadn't remembered who, but was very complimentary and I did a beetroot (big blush). Awesome Georges Jeanty had small sketch books available for signing and would draw a quick sketch of a slayerverse character of our choice. Watching him knock out awesome sketches in minutes from reference pages of screen caps was incredible. Some characters he is more comfortable with than others - I love his rendition of Buffy and you can see the sketch he did for me when I scan it and put it in the next report.
.
ETA : All the photos are up you have to click through the links on the site
Awesome group shot from Starfury - love the 'whodunnit ' montage. Especially Summer and Felicia's poses. To see all the photos click on the Guests names to go to the page in the text under the cut.
We had heard a couple of days through the Starfury forum, that the main surprise guest, Thomas Dekker had a change of shooting schedule and couldn't make the con, disappointing but at such short notice there was no real time for Sean to find a suitable replacement. We just hoped that there was already a couple others up his sleeve. Amy Acker, Stephanie Jacobsen and Clare Kramer had also had to pull out earlier due to work commitments ( but good news for them).
Several Convention virgins in the guest line up as well as attendees. Lots of Chuck and Terminator fans, who must have outnumbered the whedonverse ones (I think there was some crossover) Nothing out of the ordinary as Opening ceremonies go (a little late, everyone really excited) Great delight that Dichen had joined us and also Tom Lenk. Poor Summer had almost lost her voice and struggled to make herself heard. After that the disco started and the stampede to the Meet and greet was underway.
Both acrazywench and I had Gold tickets. This is the first time Sean had different levels of tickets for an event we had attended, so we weren't totally sure how it would go. One of the benefits was the meet & greet - 130 goldticket holders sat at tables (make sure there's an empty seat at the table!) The guests go to each, sit and chat to the attendees. For the first time we actually met all the guests (I think it was over two hours in the room).
I spoke to Mark Sheppard about Leverage finale and he was super-chuffed that his character'won'. Tom Lenk was visiting an old friend in Birmingham and earlier was helping to get the children ready for bed - he loves their brummie accents. Felicia had been in London sightseeing with Tom Lenk this week and had succumbed to buying jewelry at Topshop. She liked my hair (mainly the colours) and she'd seen that a lot in the UK but couldn't risk having an unusual style herself as it may affect casting in new roles. Jonathan reenacted a scene from a recent episode of TSSC which he found *stimulating*, with a very embarrassed acrazywench "lift the flap" heee! .He also told us that he'd gone back to Columbia to study politics and was heading to Haiti to work on a humanitarian project in the summer and that he'd featured in Adam Busch and Amber Benson's new film which was a comedy. Georges chatted about the comics and what we thought about them.
Zach wanted to know what would 'Chuck' fans like to see on the next season of the show, he was very enthusiastic and told us about working with Adam. Dichen spoke about working with Joss and asked if anyone was 'acquiring' the next episode of Dollhouse this weekend so she could watch it - she said she did some great scenes with Frans. Quite of few at our table hadn't seen the show yet, so we had to refrain from spoilers. Miracle asked if I was an actress (!) as I reminded her of someone but couldn't remember who -no seriously she did and no suggestions please who it may be ;). We spoke to Summer about her first convention a few years back with Nathan and Jewel. I also asked about the agony of waiting to hear if the show had been renewed but seeing as all 3 shows were under question I can't remember with whom I discussed it.
We headed back to the party after the meet and greet and partied a little (shattered much). We had early morning photo shoots so no point paying for those and then getting wrecked photos are here of the opening ceremony.
.
Day Two - Q&A's acrazywench took shorthand notes of the Q&A's so I'm working from memory but here's the jist...
Dominic Keating & Jonathan Woodward discovered that they are kindred souls (funnily enough both enjoy a drink) and much larking about ensued. Tales of Sly Stallone leaving on his mic whilst 'relaxing' in his trailer, 'wash and go' Vidal Sassoon advert, and likeness to Martin Short.
Georges Jeanty, Felicia Day and Tom Lenk talked about S8 Comics. Felicia and Tom possibly duetting on Trumpet and Violin (Felicia spent many years studying at violin academy) and Georges described the process of creating the artwork and how he and Joss work together.
Mark Sheppard, Miracle Laurie & Dichen Lachman could not be very specific on events in the actual show as many in the audience had not seen it yet.Mark Said his casting was last minute as the actor originally chosen didn't come through and made Joss keep the character name of Tanaka. Miracle explained that she had auditioned for BtVS many times but there wasn't a fit - she'd also auditioned for Kaylee too. Her fiance Chris had appeared in 'Life Serial' trying to buy candles in the Magic Box. Chris and Miracle gave an impromptu performance on their Ukulele's - Miracle has a very sweet voice and you'll find them on Myspace - Ukeboxheroes.
Adam Baldwin & Zachary Levi were up next - Adam clearly very pleased that Zach had come along - this is Zach's first con. I got a very much the proud Big Brother vibe from Adam with Zach, which was great to see. They discussed 'Chuck' being on the bubble of renewal and Adam prompted Zach with the words 'subway' and the Zach told us that he'd like to take us all to subway this weekend and have us buy a footlong to show that fans want more 'Chuck' by supporting the advertisers. I believe this was an idea put to him by a Chuck fan but I'm not positive. Ideally he'd like to have Subway sell out, with plenty of photos, videos and coverage. More on that tomorrow.
Summer was clearly still suffering from her poor voice and it was tough for her as she had no-one else onstage with her. Questions about whether her stunt work on Serenity had helped with the role of Cameron. Apparently not as she was told there would be alot of picking things up and throwing (or being thrown) against the wall. She described in detail how complex the scene where Cameron operates on her own arm was to create - fake arms, stunt hands and allsorts. Also some shipper talk on John/Cameron and would not be drawn on which was her favourite role River or Cameron.
Autograph sessions ran after the Q&A's As gold ticket holders we had first call on signings and photos - made life alot easier so we managed to get all autographs the first day. Had some excellent comments from Adam, Summer & Felicia on the artwork (yay!) Summer thought it was a print as she said 'I haven't seen this one before' and I pointed out that I had just done it and this was a new one :D I also asked Summer about the Ballet project 'Serving Girl' with herself and Joss - the problem is purely having schedules where both are free and it has been like that for almost 6 years - but they'd still like to do it. Felicia had some suggestion on the 'white space' left on the Dr Horrible Montage and wanted me to send her a scan (which I will do).
Dichen showed me her awesome shoes and I told her to let all the cast & crew know at Dollhouse how much we love the show. Miracle was still convinced that I was an actress but hadn't remembered who, but was very complimentary and I did a beetroot (big blush). Awesome Georges Jeanty had small sketch books available for signing and would draw a quick sketch of a slayerverse character of our choice. Watching him knock out awesome sketches in minutes from reference pages of screen caps was incredible. Some characters he is more comfortable with than others - I love his rendition of Buffy and you can see the sketch he did for me when I scan it and put it in the next report.
.
ETA : All the photos are up you have to click through the links on the site