thedothatgirl (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thedothatgirl) wrote2010-11-05 09:24 am
thedothatgirl) wrote2010-11-05 09:24 am
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Hallowhedon 2 Convention - Report and Photos.
Hey Hey - I'm back from the Convention and I bring teaser photos and a brief run down of events.
On to the shiny guests :
Seriously witty, charming and entertaining people. Tony Head giggling at Alan's antics and face pulling during the photo sessions ( I swear there's a different expression in every photo I've seen) Robin Sachs, charming and a very very naughty man. Sweet and funny Jewel and vivacious Stephanie. Some more teaser photos:
Briefish report and links to the rest of the photos here Guest List: Anthony Stewart Head, Alan Tudyk, Stephanie Romanov, Jewel Staite and Robin Sachs.
The weekend consisted of Q & A Sessions, Guest Encounters (you had to bid to win and I didn't do these as they clashed with Q&A's) An episode screening, an Auction, a Quiz with all the guests and parties. Tony had to leave mid morning Sunday so he did not take part in the Quiz or the group Q&A.
I attended with my long time Convention buddy![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
acrazywench . Unfortunately for us it was held at the Heathrow Thistle and if you have stayed there, you will know what I mean. Nothing has changed - it is still appalling and we still bring our own supplies and booze. The event is supposed to be at the Raddison next year so fingers crossed.
Opening Ceremony More Photos are here
Fortunately there were no cancellations this year although we had hoped for more guests - last minute announcement of Robin Sachs brought the number to five but I had no time to do any artwork for him. This year all the guests were in good health and despite Stephanie being struck with a lousy cold ( Sudafed was praised over the weekend) There was a brief opening ceremony and then into the Guest Meet and Greet for the Gold Ticket holders.
Last year the Meet and Greet was quite a scrum, with James Marsters and Nick Brendon as the main guests this meant ompetition to get within hearing of them was fierce. We were standing and pressed up against walls and apart from the free booze it wasn't great. This year they had stood groups of ticket holders around small tables and brought guests around in turn. As the tables
were so small we were still either on the outside of the group or blocked the view of others who physically couldn't fit around the tiny tables. The guests seemed a little confused by the arrangement and the noise level made hearing most of them incredibly difficult. Still there was always the free wine.
Q & A - Alan Tudyk - More Photos are here
I had not seen Alan at an convention before, only briefly at a signing so I was really looking forward to his Q&A. He certainly didn't disappoint either, witty and highly entertaining throughout,much of his persona appears in Wash (and not Alpha) which he admitted to us. Alan also seemed to manage different facial expression for most of the photo shoots he did which was
hilarious and made Tony Head giggle.
He'd just returned from filming Transformers 3 (at NASA) with lots of film and Dollhouse goodies to give away to the audience for questions. Alan spoke about his many film roles - showing us the 'Look at My Packet' dance from '28 Days', what it was like to work with Heath Ledger in The Knights Tale, getting all medieval in Prague and his problematic hair colour. Was he better than
Nathan Fillion at Halo? but couldn't really say he was. Enjoyed doing the voice-overs for the game but they were mainly many different sounds of pain and distress, not the 'in command' forceful dialogue that Nathan would get. He would love to appear on Castle and play role of a character who really annoys Richard Castle throughout the entire episode. Alan decided during the
'flash photography permitted ' part of the session to strike some poses much to the amusement of the audience - this set the trend for the whole weekend.
Q & A Jewel Staite and Stephanie Romanov More Photos are here
Neither Jewel nor Stephanie had met before this convention (Stephanie was a little feisty at the opening ceremony, Jewel looked a little wary) but today Jewel was very impressed that 'Lilah' had people killed. The more they answered questions they found they had much in common and promised to be 'best friends'! Both had been working on films, Stephanie had finished 'Last Night' also starring Keira Knightly which had opened the Rome Film Festival. Jewel had recently made a Christmas Film 'Call Me Mrs Miracle', had just been to Paris with her husband Matt and wanted one day to study viticulture and become a Sommelier. Stephanie loves to cook , paint,write and spend her time with her little girl. Stephanie lives on a farm in Malibu growing avocados and persimmons & when she wants to relax she likes to think 'funny thoughts' to amuse herself. Her favourite season or story arc for Lilah was Season 3 (and 4) with her relationship with Wesley.Up until that point she and Alexis hadn't met and she realized that this was a great direction for her character. She was sad not to be in Season Five but figured she was too expensive! and was also the longest running Guest star on Angel until she got the chop
Q&A Robin Sachs, Anthony Stewart Head & Episode screening with live commentary - More Photos here
.
Although not acquainted before they worked on Buffy, these actors clearly compliment each other well. Tony often lapsed in to series of giggles and the session was great fun. Robin was from an acting family and although he studied languages, ended up attending RADA . He always wanted to play the role of The Saint - but a darker character portrayal more in keeping with the original books rather than the TV representation. Both he and Tony talked about prosthetic make up - Robin in Galaxy Quest when he was glad of the extra latex between his nether regions and Sigourney Weaver's boot as an improvised a sharp kick during shooting occurred. Tony described the makeup artist trying to affix his detachable Fyarl horns throw a hole in the top of his head and his arm got stuck. Also how he wore high heels to make himself taller. If he hadn't been a Fyarl Demon he
quite liked the look of Balthazar.
RObin's favourite scene on Buffy was being drunk in the pub with Giles in 'A New Man'. Tony spoke about the role of Uther and how he had discussed the direction of Merlin with the creators before agreeing, he defined Uther as a flawed man who makes
many mistakes and this would continue throughout this season. When asked about 'Ripper' Tony said he thought that chances were fading now and the last he heard was that it was caught up in 'rights' discussion, things looked better a couple of years ago but Joss then had lunch with Eliza and we all know what happened after that. There may be a possibilities of an internet format but he was ready and willing whatever Joss wanted. He would have loved to been involved in Dr Horrible but never got the call. Thought James Marsters British accent was 'bloody brilliant' except for the 'bollixs' mistake where he did explain to James correct pronunciationt but it was forgotten when shooting. Tony also enjoyed making 'Repo, the Genetic Opera' and that quite a few
good songs were cut so he'd like a Directors cut of the film with the additional footage. After the screening Tony returned to the stage and took more questions as he was not able to do a Q&A tomorrow.
After their Q&A Robin and Tony did a live commentary on 'Band Candy' which was hilarious, with their comedy voices and alternative dialogue for the Tai Chi scenes, how Angel should take off his trousers (this gag was repeated all the way through). Hilarious comments about how they were all running around the same stack of boxes and yet Ethan Rayne still could not escape.
Q&A Robin Sachs & Stephanie Romanov More Photos are here
.
These two spent most of the Q&A teasing each other about 'Hooker Boots' and Stephanie calling for a nurse to come to the stage to treat the 'old man' - to be honest I was too busy laughing to take notes.
Whedonverse Quiz - More Photos here
I'd not seen this done at a convention before so, with no clue given on schedule, we weren't too bothered until informed that the 4 remaining guests would be taking part. Two teams were formed - Stephanie and Alan with two attendees called 'Team Alpha' and Robin and Jewel called 'Team Grr Argh'. Each half of the hall was assigned to a team and allowed to go to the stage to give the answers if the team members needed help. We had quick fire questions which as Jewel realized - if the actors didn't know them then it was very embarrassing. We had 'Pictionary' and Acting Rounds where the guests re-enacted episode scenes which the audience could guess. Suffice to say that this was probably the most entertaining part of the whole weekend - Alan is competitive (he complained bitterly about his team losing points on a Firefly question) and moved his seat to the front of the audience so he could see the drawings and shout the answers quick enough. All the guests were great sports. Check out Stephanie's drawing of Angel - all it needed was the sticky up hair!
Q & A Jewel Staite and Alan Tudyk - More Photos here
Jewel and Alan spoke about their time on Firefly and Serenity - When asked about possibility of ad-libbing lines Alan did say that Joss was a lot better than he used to be, he got a line of his as Alpha ' Did you just call me a luddite?' added to a Dollhouse episode. Jewel had us and Alan in hysterics as she recounted her Warehouse 13 role with Sean Maher in purple spandex super hero suit swearing love for Jewel's character. They talked of sharing split trailers with other cast members, Jewel had a trailer next to Jason Momoa on SGA which had lots of animal skins and incense, she always knew when he was coming back as the trailer used to shake with his heavy footsteps. Alan was next to Adam Baldwin who used to smoke cigars and put on Right Wing radio
stations loudly as he knew it annoyed Alan. Alan always wanted to write and had a crazy idea for Firefly episode where they would go through a wormhole and this would genetically alter the crew and for the rest of the episode. Zoë would have a long beard, Jayne a huge butt and Book would have boobs. Earlier in the convention Alan had explained he wouldn't answer questions about whether there would be a Serenity sequel (been there done that) He is a great fan of Patton Oswalt who wrote the Wash Comic one shot 'Float Out' and loved the story -apparently when he met Patton on the Dollhouse set he found out that Patton was a great fan of Alan & Firefly.
Parties, Q&A Group and Closing Ceremony - More Photos are here
There were three themed parties, one for each evening 'The Initiative', 'Halloween' and 'Pyjama Party'. As well as the disco we also had a bungee run on Friday and a bucking bronco in the shape of a giant spider for the Saturday - Alan and Tony had a go at doing this (I didn't get to see them unfortunately ) as well as Robin (who I did see) who managed to hang on for a long time,
despite Alan heckling in a great English accent from the sidelines. Everyone made a great effort with costumes for Halloween too. The crew had sculpted some fantastic pumpkins for the Halloween tables , one each of the guests - much to their delight. I hope to have some photos of these shortly to add to the others thanks toacrazywench for taking those.
The group Q&A was mainly generic questions that could be answered by all the guests. As is the case with group Q&A's it all became really strange at one point but great fun.
There wasn't really a closing ceremony as such just a brief goodbye to the guests and details about next year event (i.e. buy the tickets) The lack of an speeches seemed to confuse the guests especially Alan who actually said "That's the closing ceremony just say 'GoodBye'"? this was a real anitclimax and a little strange as the organizers had really gone to a lot trouble with other aspects of the Convention. I tried not to let it spoil an altogether great weekend. I hope the organizers make more of an effort next time for this important part of the proceedings.
Let's see who they book soon before I commit to tickets but I am seriously considering taking the family next year to make a Halloween party weekend of it.
On to the shiny guests :
Seriously witty, charming and entertaining people. Tony Head giggling at Alan's antics and face pulling during the photo sessions ( I swear there's a different expression in every photo I've seen) Robin Sachs, charming and a very very naughty man. Sweet and funny Jewel and vivacious Stephanie. Some more teaser photos:
Briefish report and links to the rest of the photos here Guest List: Anthony Stewart Head, Alan Tudyk, Stephanie Romanov, Jewel Staite and Robin Sachs.
The weekend consisted of Q & A Sessions, Guest Encounters (you had to bid to win and I didn't do these as they clashed with Q&A's) An episode screening, an Auction, a Quiz with all the guests and parties. Tony had to leave mid morning Sunday so he did not take part in the Quiz or the group Q&A.
I attended with my long time Convention buddy
acrazywench . Unfortunately for us it was held at the Heathrow Thistle and if you have stayed there, you will know what I mean. Nothing has changed - it is still appalling and we still bring our own supplies and booze. The event is supposed to be at the Raddison next year so fingers crossed. Opening Ceremony More Photos are here
Fortunately there were no cancellations this year although we had hoped for more guests - last minute announcement of Robin Sachs brought the number to five but I had no time to do any artwork for him. This year all the guests were in good health and despite Stephanie being struck with a lousy cold ( Sudafed was praised over the weekend) There was a brief opening ceremony and then into the Guest Meet and Greet for the Gold Ticket holders.
Last year the Meet and Greet was quite a scrum, with James Marsters and Nick Brendon as the main guests this meant ompetition to get within hearing of them was fierce. We were standing and pressed up against walls and apart from the free booze it wasn't great. This year they had stood groups of ticket holders around small tables and brought guests around in turn. As the tables
were so small we were still either on the outside of the group or blocked the view of others who physically couldn't fit around the tiny tables. The guests seemed a little confused by the arrangement and the noise level made hearing most of them incredibly difficult. Still there was always the free wine.
Q & A - Alan Tudyk - More Photos are here
I had not seen Alan at an convention before, only briefly at a signing so I was really looking forward to his Q&A. He certainly didn't disappoint either, witty and highly entertaining throughout,much of his persona appears in Wash (and not Alpha) which he admitted to us. Alan also seemed to manage different facial expression for most of the photo shoots he did which was
hilarious and made Tony Head giggle.
He'd just returned from filming Transformers 3 (at NASA) with lots of film and Dollhouse goodies to give away to the audience for questions. Alan spoke about his many film roles - showing us the 'Look at My Packet' dance from '28 Days', what it was like to work with Heath Ledger in The Knights Tale, getting all medieval in Prague and his problematic hair colour. Was he better than
Nathan Fillion at Halo? but couldn't really say he was. Enjoyed doing the voice-overs for the game but they were mainly many different sounds of pain and distress, not the 'in command' forceful dialogue that Nathan would get. He would love to appear on Castle and play role of a character who really annoys Richard Castle throughout the entire episode. Alan decided during the
'flash photography permitted ' part of the session to strike some poses much to the amusement of the audience - this set the trend for the whole weekend.
Q & A Jewel Staite and Stephanie Romanov More Photos are here
Neither Jewel nor Stephanie had met before this convention (Stephanie was a little feisty at the opening ceremony, Jewel looked a little wary) but today Jewel was very impressed that 'Lilah' had people killed. The more they answered questions they found they had much in common and promised to be 'best friends'! Both had been working on films, Stephanie had finished 'Last Night' also starring Keira Knightly which had opened the Rome Film Festival. Jewel had recently made a Christmas Film 'Call Me Mrs Miracle', had just been to Paris with her husband Matt and wanted one day to study viticulture and become a Sommelier. Stephanie loves to cook , paint,write and spend her time with her little girl. Stephanie lives on a farm in Malibu growing avocados and persimmons & when she wants to relax she likes to think 'funny thoughts' to amuse herself. Her favourite season or story arc for Lilah was Season 3 (and 4) with her relationship with Wesley.Up until that point she and Alexis hadn't met and she realized that this was a great direction for her character. She was sad not to be in Season Five but figured she was too expensive! and was also the longest running Guest star on Angel until she got the chop
Q&A Robin Sachs, Anthony Stewart Head & Episode screening with live commentary - More Photos here
. Although not acquainted before they worked on Buffy, these actors clearly compliment each other well. Tony often lapsed in to series of giggles and the session was great fun. Robin was from an acting family and although he studied languages, ended up attending RADA . He always wanted to play the role of The Saint - but a darker character portrayal more in keeping with the original books rather than the TV representation. Both he and Tony talked about prosthetic make up - Robin in Galaxy Quest when he was glad of the extra latex between his nether regions and Sigourney Weaver's boot as an improvised a sharp kick during shooting occurred. Tony described the makeup artist trying to affix his detachable Fyarl horns throw a hole in the top of his head and his arm got stuck. Also how he wore high heels to make himself taller. If he hadn't been a Fyarl Demon he
quite liked the look of Balthazar.
RObin's favourite scene on Buffy was being drunk in the pub with Giles in 'A New Man'. Tony spoke about the role of Uther and how he had discussed the direction of Merlin with the creators before agreeing, he defined Uther as a flawed man who makes
many mistakes and this would continue throughout this season. When asked about 'Ripper' Tony said he thought that chances were fading now and the last he heard was that it was caught up in 'rights' discussion, things looked better a couple of years ago but Joss then had lunch with Eliza and we all know what happened after that. There may be a possibilities of an internet format but he was ready and willing whatever Joss wanted. He would have loved to been involved in Dr Horrible but never got the call. Thought James Marsters British accent was 'bloody brilliant' except for the 'bollixs' mistake where he did explain to James correct pronunciationt but it was forgotten when shooting. Tony also enjoyed making 'Repo, the Genetic Opera' and that quite a few
good songs were cut so he'd like a Directors cut of the film with the additional footage. After the screening Tony returned to the stage and took more questions as he was not able to do a Q&A tomorrow.
After their Q&A Robin and Tony did a live commentary on 'Band Candy' which was hilarious, with their comedy voices and alternative dialogue for the Tai Chi scenes, how Angel should take off his trousers (this gag was repeated all the way through). Hilarious comments about how they were all running around the same stack of boxes and yet Ethan Rayne still could not escape.
Q&A Robin Sachs & Stephanie Romanov More Photos are here
. These two spent most of the Q&A teasing each other about 'Hooker Boots' and Stephanie calling for a nurse to come to the stage to treat the 'old man' - to be honest I was too busy laughing to take notes.
Whedonverse Quiz - More Photos here
I'd not seen this done at a convention before so, with no clue given on schedule, we weren't too bothered until informed that the 4 remaining guests would be taking part. Two teams were formed - Stephanie and Alan with two attendees called 'Team Alpha' and Robin and Jewel called 'Team Grr Argh'. Each half of the hall was assigned to a team and allowed to go to the stage to give the answers if the team members needed help. We had quick fire questions which as Jewel realized - if the actors didn't know them then it was very embarrassing. We had 'Pictionary' and Acting Rounds where the guests re-enacted episode scenes which the audience could guess. Suffice to say that this was probably the most entertaining part of the whole weekend - Alan is competitive (he complained bitterly about his team losing points on a Firefly question) and moved his seat to the front of the audience so he could see the drawings and shout the answers quick enough. All the guests were great sports. Check out Stephanie's drawing of Angel - all it needed was the sticky up hair!
Q & A Jewel Staite and Alan Tudyk - More Photos here
Jewel and Alan spoke about their time on Firefly and Serenity - When asked about possibility of ad-libbing lines Alan did say that Joss was a lot better than he used to be, he got a line of his as Alpha ' Did you just call me a luddite?' added to a Dollhouse episode. Jewel had us and Alan in hysterics as she recounted her Warehouse 13 role with Sean Maher in purple spandex super hero suit swearing love for Jewel's character. They talked of sharing split trailers with other cast members, Jewel had a trailer next to Jason Momoa on SGA which had lots of animal skins and incense, she always knew when he was coming back as the trailer used to shake with his heavy footsteps. Alan was next to Adam Baldwin who used to smoke cigars and put on Right Wing radio
stations loudly as he knew it annoyed Alan. Alan always wanted to write and had a crazy idea for Firefly episode where they would go through a wormhole and this would genetically alter the crew and for the rest of the episode. Zoë would have a long beard, Jayne a huge butt and Book would have boobs. Earlier in the convention Alan had explained he wouldn't answer questions about whether there would be a Serenity sequel (been there done that) He is a great fan of Patton Oswalt who wrote the Wash Comic one shot 'Float Out' and loved the story -apparently when he met Patton on the Dollhouse set he found out that Patton was a great fan of Alan & Firefly.
Parties, Q&A Group and Closing Ceremony - More Photos are here
There were three themed parties, one for each evening 'The Initiative', 'Halloween' and 'Pyjama Party'. As well as the disco we also had a bungee run on Friday and a bucking bronco in the shape of a giant spider for the Saturday - Alan and Tony had a go at doing this (I didn't get to see them unfortunately ) as well as Robin (who I did see) who managed to hang on for a long time,
despite Alan heckling in a great English accent from the sidelines. Everyone made a great effort with costumes for Halloween too. The crew had sculpted some fantastic pumpkins for the Halloween tables , one each of the guests - much to their delight. I hope to have some photos of these shortly to add to the others thanks to
acrazywench for taking those. The group Q&A was mainly generic questions that could be answered by all the guests. As is the case with group Q&A's it all became really strange at one point but great fun.
There wasn't really a closing ceremony as such just a brief goodbye to the guests and details about next year event (i.e. buy the tickets) The lack of an speeches seemed to confuse the guests especially Alan who actually said "That's the closing ceremony just say 'GoodBye'"? this was a real anitclimax and a little strange as the organizers had really gone to a lot trouble with other aspects of the Convention. I tried not to let it spoil an altogether great weekend. I hope the organizers make more of an effort next time for this important part of the proceedings.
Let's see who they book soon before I commit to tickets but I am seriously considering taking the family next year to make a Halloween party weekend of it.
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Funny, the closing ceremony was kind of embarassing - almost like they didn't know what to say - but Alan clearly would have liked to have said some words and I am sure the others guests would have followed suit. Early in the day they were almost forcing Alan & Jewel off stage so they could 'set the stage' for the group talk. Alan points out 'you only have to add two chairs! How hard is that!!' I don't think it would have hurt to over run the schedule a few minutes - we're so used to at least an hour late. Quite a few people left feedback so here's hoping they take note. It's kind of weird because they put in so much effort elsewhere.
I must try and catch Warehouse 13 purely for the Jewel and Sean ep :)
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;)