late Peg 2 report
May. 20th, 2007 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sealiebeen away and back again... I was stuck in the airport, pootling on my computer and I found this. It's kind of raw, but perhaps that conveys the experience better.
some SGA-season four and Sanctuary guest comments
quote du jour
“It’s a big con, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.”
Cons. WOW, yes that was an experience. Thoughts… the following is an unrealised stream of consciousness rather and a tightly cohesive, edited narrative. And I will vacillate between “amazed, excellent brilliant” and “this is really weirdly [badly] organised”.
The guests are warm, friendly and engaging. I took a while bunch of photos to share but they’re all shite so I won’t spam. Arlessiar took good ones.
I’d say a lot of the people, especially the newbies, going were there for David Hewlett (DH) and David Nykl (DN) but by the end of the con you’d been converted to the cult of Chuck Campbell (CC), Dan Payne (DP) and Ryan Robbins (RR) and Aaron Douglas (AD).
I think that there was a lot of newbies there. I know that I was, and most of the folk that I spoke to were newbies (equally confused and frustrated).
FRIDAY
I got there Friday evening after experiencing British rail (GNER) and the underground (ugh). Dumped my kit, grabbed my swipe card and headed out to register.
Spotted a group who wore SG t-shirts and thought – ah they’ll supply directions and so they did.
So you register, which is a swipe of your card. Nothing else, no brochure, no schedule no nothing??? I asked and was directed to Reception. And got an A4 photocopied sheet of basic information. But the newbies were confused. – it was the deep end – what’s the CIA? What’s a photoshoot? [btw Photshoots are, for £15 and other increasing prices depending on the combination of guests, a professional photo of you and guest(s)]. Oh it doesn’t matter because photos with DH, DH&DN and DH&KH are all sold out long before I arrive. So I purchased a DN photoshoot opportunity.
Your personal item for autographs … I wasn’t entirely sure what this could be. I didn’t think bringing my SGA dvd box set was a good idea, but taking downloaded internet pictures, or a photo-shoped graphic, didn’t seem very sensible, either (legally speaking). Thinking I can buy an official photo at the dealers’ room, I went with no goodies. The upshot was: you can take you own created goodies. And you cannot buy pics of the guests in the dealers room. &^%??$*?. So if you wanted a nice, signed picture you had to purchase a £10 photo from WOLF registration. I spent money like water. So if you go to a con take an autograph book, design your own photoshoped pic, buy a professional gateworld image before you go...
To be brutally honest, I think that these things must be a nightmare to organise, and I don’t think that I would organise one, but a newbie guide might be a good idea. You have to learn most of the ‘rules’ though osmosis, cos the paper work said nout about virtual queues [see below] or getting additional information et cetera et cetera et cetera…
I overheard someone mention a virtual queue. Basically, since there’s a massive auditorium and 600 fans, you get a raffle ticket, each day, early in the morning, before the event starts. Which allows you to enter the hall at 0900(ish) in an orderly manner
There’s a queue here, there’s a queue there, there’s queues everywhere. The queues and lack of info is the main faff of the whole event.
So I was just lucky, I overheard this ‘virtual queue thing’, I got up at 0645 on Sat and got no’ 86.
So basically Friday night was a lot of standing around looking confused trying to screw up the courage to talk to people. I spotted forlornhope42, and introduced myself and met Arlessiar. Chatted for a wee bit, but they had ‘meet and greet’ tickets (the opportunity to meet the guests at a private party). So waved them off and went wandering. I bumped into sunglow66 (and her hubby) who I know from TS. Yah!!
SATURDAY
I didn’t have a clue who Dan Payne (DP) was (he’s the wraith, super wraith, super soldier). He’s fond of lumbering around the stage and picking people up. DP has a lovely, warm sense of humour.
(I’m going to amalgamate guest sessions because I can’t remember which question or story happened when). This highlight of DP’s talk was when he described an incredibly comfortable body suite he had to wear from an episode. He was practicing throwing some stunt guys around, as he moved, squatting etc, his suit became more comfortable. When called on set he was ducking and diving around the crew to get to his place. One of the crew came and told him his balls were hanging out the bottom of his now split suit.
A lot of the guests’ stories are risqué and, to be frank, it’s lapped up.
I missed the majority of Ryan Robbins since there as an announcement on a big tele screen that photoshoot ticket holder had to go to reception. Turned out it was a booboo, I took the opportunity to check out the dealers room.
Unfortunately no zines on sale, I did so want to treat myself to ‘Military Intelligence’.
Snuck back in as Ryan Robin’s paced off stage.
Erin Chambers (EC) came on stage. She’s tiny. Absolutely tiny. She’s visiting with her husband Carson (Not Beckett). When asked if how fighting with Carson and Teyla differed (in Siege pt II) she for one second looked confused at hubby in audience. Also had some amusing ideas for a wild child Sora stuck in a cell in the bowels of Atlantis all alone and gibbers silently. EC likes playing bad guys. (They all actually like playing bad guys, btw)
Ivy Isenberg was after lunch. Hadn’t a clue who this lady was. She likes teasing PMcG. He’s currently (in Feb 2007) staying with her in LA while he looks for/and gets work.
She sang a song based on the twelve days of Christmas, but was using the characters/actors which – sorry – I couldn’t begin to recount, but the punchline was that SG:1 Was cancelled (Boo Hiss). On the topic of Stargate becoming Fargate – apparently one of the reasons why we see sci-fi actors as familiar faces is because actually it’s harder than the average acting gig. And if you’ve been in one and performed successfully, you’ve got your brownie points.
DN next, Funny listening him with a North American accent. He flips into Czech without a blink. He had nice long chat with a Czech fan. He wasn’t named Radek until the near the end of Season 1. Apparently, he was supposed to be Russian, but they renamed the character Zelenka when he was cast. A con attendee called out a number and asked if it was prime or not prime, he got it right (DH didn’t when asked later).
Kate Hewlett (KH) was next. Very bonny. Brothers and sisters tease and tell stories and DH and KH are no different.
She told a story where Martin Gero came to see her in a play. She was ‘off’ that day and nervous, twitching, stuttering – Gero was tickled pink at the Hewlettisms and wanted her to definitely appear as Mrs. Miller and then started writing the episodes.
When DH was a kiddy he went through a Duran Duran-esque girlie stage – long hair, lots of make up and on a family picture was taken. A friend of KH on seeing the pic – commented that she didn’t know that KH had three sisters. Unfortunately, all photographic evidence has been burnt.
When they were filming McKay and Mrs Miller the little girl was much more professional than they were. When they filmed the first take of the girl runing into McKay’s legs, big brother’s reaction was “Aww, how cute!” and they had to retake with the more snarky/uncomfortable “Hello, Little one.”
David Hewlett (DH) !! !TO standing ovation and squeaking ducks. I find it amazing that he was on stage for an hour it went to fast.
He’s feeling poorly – food poisoning after eating a bad oyster. He interrogated the lady who’s doing the British Sign language for a portion of the audience as to how to sign ‘bad oyster’. But the sign is food poisoning, he’s sure that he can come up with a better sign. He’s mainlining coca cola – (which is great for food poisoning as it changes the acidity of the stomach and gut -- creating an inappropriate environment for bugs).
One of the things that annoys him about filming is when he’s on set he can goof with the best of them, but when it’s time to work *click* he’s working. Others, e.g. Joe Flannigan and Tori, aren’t as quick.
When he mentions that Sam Carter’s coming to Atlantis there’s a sort of groan from the audience. He’s completely taken by surprise by this. ‘How can you not like Amanda?’ The response from the audience is that Amanda/Sam is fine but perhaps not on Atlantis.
One person asked if Rodney is ambidextrous. It turns out that when DH was wee, he wanted to be ambidextrous, so he practiced brushing his hair et cetera. And while he says that he isn’t equally good with both hands, he kind of forgets sometimes which hand that he’s using.
DH is:
Allergic to Pineapples and Lactose intolerant
And teases his sister with dead fish guts
Saturday evening
Met and chatted with miso_no_tsuki at the Sat party after me and Sam had snuck out of the noisy hall.
Chuck at the Sat party much later. Wow… I asked if I could take a photo of him and Arlessiar and it turned out that after midnight, he wasn’t allowed. He merged seamlessly into our group of circle of chatting fans. He wants a surname on SGA even if it is Campbell, thinks that it would mean that he’s be less likely to be a red-shirt. I pointed out that he was wearing a red t-shirt and he laughed. Turns out that he’s involved in the internet based show heavily organised by Amanda Tapping called Sanctuary. Chuck plays a character like Janus (from mythology with an additional face on the back of his head). Paul McGillion is heavily involved. It’s about a scientist (AT) who, seems to be a Prof Xavier-esque immortal who rescues creatures and they live in a big gothic mansion. The show is only going to be downloaded from the internet (available now). The first 25 min ep available for free the others for a nominal fee. It’s grass roots, independent tele, no big companies.
I crashed at 0230 (the party continued on until back of 05:00)
I wonder if there is an unwritten rule that (Q&A) questions, for the most part, have to be facile? I’m not going to list all of the questions (even if I could). But I kind of wanted more questions about characterisation et cetera. I had a question (which might have been equally stupid), but didn’t get to the front of the queue. There *are* rules – unwritten, of course – someone asked about fanfiction and another person pointed out that this was not appropriate (didn’t use those words). It’s rather obvious that some of the actors do check out fanfic – David Nykl for one.
Meeting DH
When queuing for a photo-shoot with DH, there was a pause while the photographer swapped batteries. DH’s family – JL, JL’s dad, DH’s sister and brother-and-law and baby were watching. Given a second’s break DH immediately starting playing with the baby, running up pulling faces and the baby loved every second of his uncle’s antics.
Picture taking resumed and *click* back into greet the fans mode. The man is a consummate gentleman. A lot of fans (not all) were asking for hugs – I can’t tell a lie I did want one, but remembered when I was in a wedding party and the hugging stuff gets a bit old. So I went, hand extended, saying ‘pleasure to meet you’ and he smiles, says, ‘Don’t you want a hug?’ Me: ‘a little one would be really nice’ and I got a lovely little hug.
Autographs queues
Another queue! There was 600+ fans so the autograph queue sessions were spread over two days. The fan stewards (the Netherlands’s contingent) on this part of the procedure were bright and polite and unfailingly cheerful and they worked long hours.
Bumped into Anna Luna in the queue and made a complete arse of myself muddling up her art with Millenia *face palm*
Ryan Robbins, I think enjoyed himself. I had a piccie of him as (appropriately) Ladon Radim and he goes, “Oh, that’s me as Ladon Radim." And double signs his name as RR and LR. He seems quite surprised that we all know his work both in SGA, BSG, Blade et cetera.
Chuck – there are no words. The Chuck…
The final queue to get DH’s autograph. As I commented to Anna, there’s light at the end of the tunnel and many fans (because we’re a bright lot) chimed in “and it’s David Hewlett’.
One nasty bit in that queue was when a Thistle security person sauntered past us and said, very sneeringly, ‘You’re all sad and mad’. I didn’t get his name, he realised that he’d been a twat and picked up the pace before I could get his name off his ID tag.
My ticket was in the mid-300s so DH had seen a lot of peeps by the time that I made it too him, but he was charming and warm. I told him that we had decided that he was the light at the end of the queue and he laughed. He admired the piccie that I had acquired, signed ‘with love’ and made a specific point of shaking my hand and saying thank you.
Party that evening… DP, CC, RR, KH, ES and her hubby were wandering around. I wanted Arlessiar to get a photo with CC (he had promised the night before) and it would be the icing on the cake of her con. But it was like trying to pin down a humming bird, he kept getting grabbed by Jedi Chefs (don’t ask, I haven’t a clue what this cult is), stewards and dragged off and Brian C. (the bloke in charge). Finally, I managed manage to grab Chuck and get a piccie of him and Arlessiar and lots of other people *g*. Chuck is a complete sweetie. I hope that Arlessiar’s photo is a good one. After I asked if he had enjoyed his first con and would he be doing more. Emphatically, he said yes. Brian C. had just approached him and asked him to a November or Jan con.
some SGA-season four and Sanctuary guest comments
quote du jour
“It’s a big con, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.”
Cons. WOW, yes that was an experience. Thoughts… the following is an unrealised stream of consciousness rather and a tightly cohesive, edited narrative. And I will vacillate between “amazed, excellent brilliant” and “this is really weirdly [badly] organised”.
The guests are warm, friendly and engaging. I took a while bunch of photos to share but they’re all shite so I won’t spam. Arlessiar took good ones.
I’d say a lot of the people, especially the newbies, going were there for David Hewlett (DH) and David Nykl (DN) but by the end of the con you’d been converted to the cult of Chuck Campbell (CC), Dan Payne (DP) and Ryan Robbins (RR) and Aaron Douglas (AD).
I think that there was a lot of newbies there. I know that I was, and most of the folk that I spoke to were newbies (equally confused and frustrated).
FRIDAY
I got there Friday evening after experiencing British rail (GNER) and the underground (ugh). Dumped my kit, grabbed my swipe card and headed out to register.
Spotted a group who wore SG t-shirts and thought – ah they’ll supply directions and so they did.
So you register, which is a swipe of your card. Nothing else, no brochure, no schedule no nothing??? I asked and was directed to Reception. And got an A4 photocopied sheet of basic information. But the newbies were confused. – it was the deep end – what’s the CIA? What’s a photoshoot? [btw Photshoots are, for £15 and other increasing prices depending on the combination of guests, a professional photo of you and guest(s)]. Oh it doesn’t matter because photos with DH, DH&DN and DH&KH are all sold out long before I arrive. So I purchased a DN photoshoot opportunity.
Your personal item for autographs … I wasn’t entirely sure what this could be. I didn’t think bringing my SGA dvd box set was a good idea, but taking downloaded internet pictures, or a photo-shoped graphic, didn’t seem very sensible, either (legally speaking). Thinking I can buy an official photo at the dealers’ room, I went with no goodies. The upshot was: you can take you own created goodies. And you cannot buy pics of the guests in the dealers room. &^%??$*?. So if you wanted a nice, signed picture you had to purchase a £10 photo from WOLF registration. I spent money like water. So if you go to a con take an autograph book, design your own photoshoped pic, buy a professional gateworld image before you go...
To be brutally honest, I think that these things must be a nightmare to organise, and I don’t think that I would organise one, but a newbie guide might be a good idea. You have to learn most of the ‘rules’ though osmosis, cos the paper work said nout about virtual queues [see below] or getting additional information et cetera et cetera et cetera…
I overheard someone mention a virtual queue. Basically, since there’s a massive auditorium and 600 fans, you get a raffle ticket, each day, early in the morning, before the event starts. Which allows you to enter the hall at 0900(ish) in an orderly manner
There’s a queue here, there’s a queue there, there’s queues everywhere. The queues and lack of info is the main faff of the whole event.
So I was just lucky, I overheard this ‘virtual queue thing’, I got up at 0645 on Sat and got no’ 86.
So basically Friday night was a lot of standing around looking confused trying to screw up the courage to talk to people. I spotted forlornhope42, and introduced myself and met Arlessiar. Chatted for a wee bit, but they had ‘meet and greet’ tickets (the opportunity to meet the guests at a private party). So waved them off and went wandering. I bumped into sunglow66 (and her hubby) who I know from TS. Yah!!
SATURDAY
I didn’t have a clue who Dan Payne (DP) was (he’s the wraith, super wraith, super soldier). He’s fond of lumbering around the stage and picking people up. DP has a lovely, warm sense of humour.
(I’m going to amalgamate guest sessions because I can’t remember which question or story happened when). This highlight of DP’s talk was when he described an incredibly comfortable body suite he had to wear from an episode. He was practicing throwing some stunt guys around, as he moved, squatting etc, his suit became more comfortable. When called on set he was ducking and diving around the crew to get to his place. One of the crew came and told him his balls were hanging out the bottom of his now split suit.
A lot of the guests’ stories are risqué and, to be frank, it’s lapped up.
I missed the majority of Ryan Robbins since there as an announcement on a big tele screen that photoshoot ticket holder had to go to reception. Turned out it was a booboo, I took the opportunity to check out the dealers room.
Unfortunately no zines on sale, I did so want to treat myself to ‘Military Intelligence’.
Snuck back in as Ryan Robin’s paced off stage.
Erin Chambers (EC) came on stage. She’s tiny. Absolutely tiny. She’s visiting with her husband Carson (Not Beckett). When asked if how fighting with Carson and Teyla differed (in Siege pt II) she for one second looked confused at hubby in audience. Also had some amusing ideas for a wild child Sora stuck in a cell in the bowels of Atlantis all alone and gibbers silently. EC likes playing bad guys. (They all actually like playing bad guys, btw)
Ivy Isenberg was after lunch. Hadn’t a clue who this lady was. She likes teasing PMcG. He’s currently (in Feb 2007) staying with her in LA while he looks for/and gets work.
She sang a song based on the twelve days of Christmas, but was using the characters/actors which – sorry – I couldn’t begin to recount, but the punchline was that SG:1 Was cancelled (Boo Hiss). On the topic of Stargate becoming Fargate – apparently one of the reasons why we see sci-fi actors as familiar faces is because actually it’s harder than the average acting gig. And if you’ve been in one and performed successfully, you’ve got your brownie points.
DN next, Funny listening him with a North American accent. He flips into Czech without a blink. He had nice long chat with a Czech fan. He wasn’t named Radek until the near the end of Season 1. Apparently, he was supposed to be Russian, but they renamed the character Zelenka when he was cast. A con attendee called out a number and asked if it was prime or not prime, he got it right (DH didn’t when asked later).
Kate Hewlett (KH) was next. Very bonny. Brothers and sisters tease and tell stories and DH and KH are no different.
She told a story where Martin Gero came to see her in a play. She was ‘off’ that day and nervous, twitching, stuttering – Gero was tickled pink at the Hewlettisms and wanted her to definitely appear as Mrs. Miller and then started writing the episodes.
When DH was a kiddy he went through a Duran Duran-esque girlie stage – long hair, lots of make up and on a family picture was taken. A friend of KH on seeing the pic – commented that she didn’t know that KH had three sisters. Unfortunately, all photographic evidence has been burnt.
When they were filming McKay and Mrs Miller the little girl was much more professional than they were. When they filmed the first take of the girl runing into McKay’s legs, big brother’s reaction was “Aww, how cute!” and they had to retake with the more snarky/uncomfortable “Hello, Little one.”
David Hewlett (DH) !! !TO standing ovation and squeaking ducks. I find it amazing that he was on stage for an hour it went to fast.
He’s feeling poorly – food poisoning after eating a bad oyster. He interrogated the lady who’s doing the British Sign language for a portion of the audience as to how to sign ‘bad oyster’. But the sign is food poisoning, he’s sure that he can come up with a better sign. He’s mainlining coca cola – (which is great for food poisoning as it changes the acidity of the stomach and gut -- creating an inappropriate environment for bugs).
One of the things that annoys him about filming is when he’s on set he can goof with the best of them, but when it’s time to work *click* he’s working. Others, e.g. Joe Flannigan and Tori, aren’t as quick.
When he mentions that Sam Carter’s coming to Atlantis there’s a sort of groan from the audience. He’s completely taken by surprise by this. ‘How can you not like Amanda?’ The response from the audience is that Amanda/Sam is fine but perhaps not on Atlantis.
One person asked if Rodney is ambidextrous. It turns out that when DH was wee, he wanted to be ambidextrous, so he practiced brushing his hair et cetera. And while he says that he isn’t equally good with both hands, he kind of forgets sometimes which hand that he’s using.
DH is:
Allergic to Pineapples and Lactose intolerant
And teases his sister with dead fish guts
Saturday evening
Met and chatted with miso_no_tsuki at the Sat party after me and Sam had snuck out of the noisy hall.
Chuck at the Sat party much later. Wow… I asked if I could take a photo of him and Arlessiar and it turned out that after midnight, he wasn’t allowed. He merged seamlessly into our group of circle of chatting fans. He wants a surname on SGA even if it is Campbell, thinks that it would mean that he’s be less likely to be a red-shirt. I pointed out that he was wearing a red t-shirt and he laughed. Turns out that he’s involved in the internet based show heavily organised by Amanda Tapping called Sanctuary. Chuck plays a character like Janus (from mythology with an additional face on the back of his head). Paul McGillion is heavily involved. It’s about a scientist (AT) who, seems to be a Prof Xavier-esque immortal who rescues creatures and they live in a big gothic mansion. The show is only going to be downloaded from the internet (available now). The first 25 min ep available for free the others for a nominal fee. It’s grass roots, independent tele, no big companies.
I crashed at 0230 (the party continued on until back of 05:00)
I wonder if there is an unwritten rule that (Q&A) questions, for the most part, have to be facile? I’m not going to list all of the questions (even if I could). But I kind of wanted more questions about characterisation et cetera. I had a question (which might have been equally stupid), but didn’t get to the front of the queue. There *are* rules – unwritten, of course – someone asked about fanfiction and another person pointed out that this was not appropriate (didn’t use those words). It’s rather obvious that some of the actors do check out fanfic – David Nykl for one.
Meeting DH
When queuing for a photo-shoot with DH, there was a pause while the photographer swapped batteries. DH’s family – JL, JL’s dad, DH’s sister and brother-and-law and baby were watching. Given a second’s break DH immediately starting playing with the baby, running up pulling faces and the baby loved every second of his uncle’s antics.
Picture taking resumed and *click* back into greet the fans mode. The man is a consummate gentleman. A lot of fans (not all) were asking for hugs – I can’t tell a lie I did want one, but remembered when I was in a wedding party and the hugging stuff gets a bit old. So I went, hand extended, saying ‘pleasure to meet you’ and he smiles, says, ‘Don’t you want a hug?’ Me: ‘a little one would be really nice’ and I got a lovely little hug.
Autographs queues
Another queue! There was 600+ fans so the autograph queue sessions were spread over two days. The fan stewards (the Netherlands’s contingent) on this part of the procedure were bright and polite and unfailingly cheerful and they worked long hours.
Bumped into Anna Luna in the queue and made a complete arse of myself muddling up her art with Millenia *face palm*
Ryan Robbins, I think enjoyed himself. I had a piccie of him as (appropriately) Ladon Radim and he goes, “Oh, that’s me as Ladon Radim." And double signs his name as RR and LR. He seems quite surprised that we all know his work both in SGA, BSG, Blade et cetera.
Chuck – there are no words. The Chuck…
The final queue to get DH’s autograph. As I commented to Anna, there’s light at the end of the tunnel and many fans (because we’re a bright lot) chimed in “and it’s David Hewlett’.
One nasty bit in that queue was when a Thistle security person sauntered past us and said, very sneeringly, ‘You’re all sad and mad’. I didn’t get his name, he realised that he’d been a twat and picked up the pace before I could get his name off his ID tag.
My ticket was in the mid-300s so DH had seen a lot of peeps by the time that I made it too him, but he was charming and warm. I told him that we had decided that he was the light at the end of the queue and he laughed. He admired the piccie that I had acquired, signed ‘with love’ and made a specific point of shaking my hand and saying thank you.
Party that evening… DP, CC, RR, KH, ES and her hubby were wandering around. I wanted Arlessiar to get a photo with CC (he had promised the night before) and it would be the icing on the cake of her con. But it was like trying to pin down a humming bird, he kept getting grabbed by Jedi Chefs (don’t ask, I haven’t a clue what this cult is), stewards and dragged off and Brian C. (the bloke in charge). Finally, I managed manage to grab Chuck and get a piccie of him and Arlessiar and lots of other people *g*. Chuck is a complete sweetie. I hope that Arlessiar’s photo is a good one. After I asked if he had enjoyed his first con and would he be doing more. Emphatically, he said yes. Brian C. had just approached him and asked him to a November or Jan con.
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Date: 2007-05-20 07:55 pm (UTC)*hugs you*