Patrick Sun
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Jun 30, 1999
- Messages
- 39,669
Day 1 comments:
The Firefly panel was excellent. Nate Fillion, Jewel Staite and Adam Baldwin were all just really rambunctious and having a good time. April 22, 2005 is the release date for "Serenity".
I took quite a few photos of their panel, as well as Nicole de Boer's panel, which was short because she was jet-lagged from flying in from England. But Nicole is doing 2-3 more panels over the next 3 days I guess. Yes, the Dead Zone was picked up this past week for a 4th season, and Nicole de Boer (Sarah) reported this in her panel. She didn't know if the 4th season would be 13 episodes or 22 episodes, but they start back filming in January for more summer episodes for season 4. I guess she was pinch-hitting for Anthony Michael Hall (plus she's got the Star Trek connection too as Ezri Dax, she's got 2 shows to talk about at a con like Dragon Con). She said that she finds herself staring at Sean Patrick Flannery (Stillson) because he was Powder in the film, "Powder" and that was weird considering the creep he plays on the Dead Zone.
Julie Benz's panel was also fun and flew by very fast. She's really bubbly and cute in person. Her story about getting to work with Jack Nicholson (in "As Good As It Gets) was very amusing.
The "Walk of Fame" is still the "Walk of Sweat" as the circulation in that corner is horrible. Blech!
Jewel Staite has an incredibly sweet smile.
I watched wrestling for a couple of minutes, but the crowd was really enjoying the action in and out of the ring.
There were plenty of neat costumes that came out to play tonight. I'll have to see what my new camera snapped up for me (I fear mightily because I just don't have enough experience yet to get predictable results in all the so-so lighting in the hotel venues.
Later I saw my photos and they were pretty disappointing, but I got better as the convention went on. I did resort to using not only my new Canon S1 IS, but my Canon A70 which is the camera to use for the "guerilla-style" photo-taking that is needed for fast focusing and quick flash-charge-up time. The S1 was better suited for taking photos of the guests at their panels. Day 2 had better shots which I learned from my mistakes (numerous) on Day 1.
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Day 2:
This was a tough day because of overlapping panels of interest for me.
I got there in time to see the Dragon Con parade (should have photos of that event soon as well). Then I had to hustle to check in a panel with Dee Wallace Stone and Erin Gray, and they mainly spoke of the child actors they worked with and how child actors really needed to be handled in the proper way, otherwise you can mess them up later in life, but they enjoyed how child actors lived in the moment of their scenes being films and taped. I didn't stay long in that panel (wasn't too interested in the rest of the topics, mainly).
So during the same panel hour, I went to the Harlan Ellison panel by accident because the program listed it was just "Fingerprints in the Sky" and didn't list him as the speaker, but it just so happened that the same room was going to have the next Firefly panel, so I went early to nab a good seat, and was pleasantly surprised to listen to Harlan tell some very amusing stories of his times in Hollywood (and how he was banned from getting any of his scripts to the live action Batman show in the 1960's).
Then the Firefly panel was next, I upgraded to a second row seat, and once again, Nate, Jewel and Adam killed the audience with their comraderie and stories and bagging on each other. Also, Peter David got the entire audience in on a gag for Jewel to get back at Nate for flipping her the bird on the Firefly DVD (I think, blooper reel, perhaps). For the first question, Peter David had the entire audience flip Nate a collective bird, and Nate was shocked and bemused by the participation of Jewel's revenge. It was sweet. The hour flew by, and not much was a repeat of Friday's panel, so that was very good, indeed.
I skiped the next panel period and went hunting for celeb photos and costumes on display. Got some photos during a couple of hours coursing through the Marriott's bowels where the dealer room and Walk of Fame were.
In the next panel period, I checked out Julie Benz and Richard Herd's panel (titled "Buffy Extravaganza", but it was Darla-centric, and Julie-centric, though Richard had a wider perspective to offer on how reality TV shows are basically outsourcing good TV shows with good scripts and characters to tune into on a weekly basis, plus the unions aren't being employed by some of the reality TV shows, Julie doesn't like the way women are portrayed in the quagmire of reality TV shows either). I bopped in on the tail end of the "Lost In Space" panel to hear good stories by June Lockhart and Mark Goddard.
Finally the next panel period came up, and I parked myself over in the Trek Trak room for the Nicole de Boer panel because I wanted to sit down for a while, and because there were free crackers which made for a good snack. Nicole plugged "The Dead Zone" from the get-go, but then worked her way back to answering questions about her time working on the last year of Deep Space Nine (and would love to be invited to do a DS9 movie should one materialize). She had some fun stories. I left half-way through her panel to join the Warren Ellis panel during the same panel timeslot, and he was very amusing and honest with his views on comics, the super-hero genre, and his interests in the stories he wanted to tell in the comics genre. The questions were quite good, and he was up to the tasks in answering them. I missed out on the Star Wars Costume contest (took a peek inside the room while it was taking place, but it looked to be a mess, so I skipped it. I managed to miss the David Carradine panel while doing the other panels.
Later, I grabbed some dinner with a friend, and came back and waited for the Dawn Look-alike contest, and since we got in line early, we got 2nd row seats, so we got some photos up close, but it was still chaotic since some contestants don't make it easy to take non-flash photos of them on stage. But I managed to shoot quite a few shots of the contestants, will have to see if the photos are presentable or not...
The rest of the evening was spent trying to use up the remaining battery in my digital camera on all the craziness in the Hyatt Atrium where costume-wearers probably outnumbered "regular clothed" folks 2-to-1. There were some mighty fine costumes all around, I was pretty impressed. My right index finger wore out before my batteries did, and I wound up with plenty of photos for my effort. I did resort to using my "point-n-shoot" Canon A70 for the "Guerilla" style of photo shooting in close quarters with flash, and it was quicker to focus than my Canon S1, so I shelved the S1 for this activity because it just wouldn't have been as quick to focus, and I'd lose photo ops, which is deadly for this activity.
Anyhow, left around 12:30 a.m. and am just running on adrenaline.
--------
Day 3:
Got to the hotels late, didn't quite hear any of the Nate Fillion panel (Bad Boys of Buffy and Angel) for the 10 a.m. timeslot, but the crowd appeared to be appreciated when I popped in at the very end of it. barely made it to see the 4th Annual Iron Artist competition between Dan Brereton and William Stout. Dan painted a portrait of what appeared to be Gandalf, while Stout painted what Mona Lisa would look like had she been a dragon. Stout's painting garner the most in the auction when it was up for grabs after the competition. I did miss the early 10 a.m. Lorenzo Lamas/Barbara Moore panel but not sure if I missed all that much.
The Babylon 5 panel followed, and Jason Carter, Stephen Austin, and Peter Jurasik rounded out the panel. Of course, there was a nice remembrance for Richard Biggs from each on the panel. Richard was a class guy and his death came far too early. Jason treated the crowd with some of his performance poetry (ask him to perform "Grandma" if you see him at a con). In the middle of Peter's story of how the cast got JMS pretty good at a con with the help of the audience (by asking them not to react to anything JMS said, which would freak him out and deflate his ego), Peter Woodward shows up like a stark raving guy citing why he wasn't invited to this B5 panel and then goes on to plug his own panel, and dashes around the room throwing flyers for his panel (and documentary/history show). Jurasik was dumbfounded, describing Woodward's entrance and equally quick exit as getting "bitch-slapped". Got to love the B5 panels, always something fun and interesting happens at them.
Next up was the Harlan Ellison panel, and he literally ran to the panel because he woke up late and had some verbal jousting with elevator etiquette with someone at the hotel. Harlan is very entertaining. Stayed for about half of it, and then headed to the reminder of the Warren Ellis panel (Dragon Con was his first US convention appearance in over 7 years, so I thought I should check it out). Lots of Q&A and we all learned the intrinsic scariness of googling on terms like "anal horror". *Shudder*
Got a breather until the 3rd and final Firefly panel, this time it was only with Nate and Jewel, but they entertained the large crowd with ease and aplomb, and the jokes and laughs were flying all over the room at rapid-fire pace in spots. Sadly, in order to do the Firefly movie, Universal doesn't get to make a TV show out of the property, unless things change between Universal and Fox w/r/t the Firefly property. For a good while, each person who asked a question got nifty prizes, like continuity polaroids from the Firefly set of shooting, and the money used on Firefly, and Jewel even gave away a prop comm button. Anyhow, if you ever get to see any of the Firefly cast at a convention, I heartily recommend their panels, you won't be disappointed.
Then I took in even more Harlan Ellison with a panel called "Fluffy Harlan" where Harlan was supposed to not go off the handle so quickly, but that didn't quite last too long into the panel, most to the delight of the audience in attendance. He talked about his on-going 4 year lawsuit with AOL which was finally resolved to both parties' satisfaction w/r/t copyright infringment that was being done on AOL online services. The other main story Harlan told dealt with his speaking engagement in Greensboro, NC, and the story had origins in Louisiana. The Q&A was fun.
Finally, a quick meal, and it was time for the Masquerade, where the costumes/acts/skits were a mix-bag of good/bad/scary. The highlights were the Dr. Teeth band, and the ghoulish spin on "Chicago" the musical, and also a girl who turned herself into the ultimate fantasy for geeks which was amusing.
The rest of the night was filled with crazy snapshot-taking of abundance of costume on display on the Atrium level of the Hyatt, and the convention level just below. It was a mass of humanity, but we finally bailed around 2 a.m. Whew...
--------
Day 4:
Well, Dragon Con 2004 is almost over (and not much will be attended by me since I'm going to the Braves game at 1:05 p.m. today). So I'll be shopping and that's it.
(Yes, photos will be forthcoming, but it may take a few days to a week for me to recover and get the photos fixed up for public display.)
The Firefly panel was excellent. Nate Fillion, Jewel Staite and Adam Baldwin were all just really rambunctious and having a good time. April 22, 2005 is the release date for "Serenity".
I took quite a few photos of their panel, as well as Nicole de Boer's panel, which was short because she was jet-lagged from flying in from England. But Nicole is doing 2-3 more panels over the next 3 days I guess. Yes, the Dead Zone was picked up this past week for a 4th season, and Nicole de Boer (Sarah) reported this in her panel. She didn't know if the 4th season would be 13 episodes or 22 episodes, but they start back filming in January for more summer episodes for season 4. I guess she was pinch-hitting for Anthony Michael Hall (plus she's got the Star Trek connection too as Ezri Dax, she's got 2 shows to talk about at a con like Dragon Con). She said that she finds herself staring at Sean Patrick Flannery (Stillson) because he was Powder in the film, "Powder" and that was weird considering the creep he plays on the Dead Zone.
Julie Benz's panel was also fun and flew by very fast. She's really bubbly and cute in person. Her story about getting to work with Jack Nicholson (in "As Good As It Gets) was very amusing.
The "Walk of Fame" is still the "Walk of Sweat" as the circulation in that corner is horrible. Blech!
Jewel Staite has an incredibly sweet smile.
I watched wrestling for a couple of minutes, but the crowd was really enjoying the action in and out of the ring.
There were plenty of neat costumes that came out to play tonight. I'll have to see what my new camera snapped up for me (I fear mightily because I just don't have enough experience yet to get predictable results in all the so-so lighting in the hotel venues.
Later I saw my photos and they were pretty disappointing, but I got better as the convention went on. I did resort to using not only my new Canon S1 IS, but my Canon A70 which is the camera to use for the "guerilla-style" photo-taking that is needed for fast focusing and quick flash-charge-up time. The S1 was better suited for taking photos of the guests at their panels. Day 2 had better shots which I learned from my mistakes (numerous) on Day 1.
--------
Day 2:
This was a tough day because of overlapping panels of interest for me.
I got there in time to see the Dragon Con parade (should have photos of that event soon as well). Then I had to hustle to check in a panel with Dee Wallace Stone and Erin Gray, and they mainly spoke of the child actors they worked with and how child actors really needed to be handled in the proper way, otherwise you can mess them up later in life, but they enjoyed how child actors lived in the moment of their scenes being films and taped. I didn't stay long in that panel (wasn't too interested in the rest of the topics, mainly).
So during the same panel hour, I went to the Harlan Ellison panel by accident because the program listed it was just "Fingerprints in the Sky" and didn't list him as the speaker, but it just so happened that the same room was going to have the next Firefly panel, so I went early to nab a good seat, and was pleasantly surprised to listen to Harlan tell some very amusing stories of his times in Hollywood (and how he was banned from getting any of his scripts to the live action Batman show in the 1960's).
Then the Firefly panel was next, I upgraded to a second row seat, and once again, Nate, Jewel and Adam killed the audience with their comraderie and stories and bagging on each other. Also, Peter David got the entire audience in on a gag for Jewel to get back at Nate for flipping her the bird on the Firefly DVD (I think, blooper reel, perhaps). For the first question, Peter David had the entire audience flip Nate a collective bird, and Nate was shocked and bemused by the participation of Jewel's revenge. It was sweet. The hour flew by, and not much was a repeat of Friday's panel, so that was very good, indeed.
I skiped the next panel period and went hunting for celeb photos and costumes on display. Got some photos during a couple of hours coursing through the Marriott's bowels where the dealer room and Walk of Fame were.
In the next panel period, I checked out Julie Benz and Richard Herd's panel (titled "Buffy Extravaganza", but it was Darla-centric, and Julie-centric, though Richard had a wider perspective to offer on how reality TV shows are basically outsourcing good TV shows with good scripts and characters to tune into on a weekly basis, plus the unions aren't being employed by some of the reality TV shows, Julie doesn't like the way women are portrayed in the quagmire of reality TV shows either). I bopped in on the tail end of the "Lost In Space" panel to hear good stories by June Lockhart and Mark Goddard.
Finally the next panel period came up, and I parked myself over in the Trek Trak room for the Nicole de Boer panel because I wanted to sit down for a while, and because there were free crackers which made for a good snack. Nicole plugged "The Dead Zone" from the get-go, but then worked her way back to answering questions about her time working on the last year of Deep Space Nine (and would love to be invited to do a DS9 movie should one materialize). She had some fun stories. I left half-way through her panel to join the Warren Ellis panel during the same panel timeslot, and he was very amusing and honest with his views on comics, the super-hero genre, and his interests in the stories he wanted to tell in the comics genre. The questions were quite good, and he was up to the tasks in answering them. I missed out on the Star Wars Costume contest (took a peek inside the room while it was taking place, but it looked to be a mess, so I skipped it. I managed to miss the David Carradine panel while doing the other panels.
Later, I grabbed some dinner with a friend, and came back and waited for the Dawn Look-alike contest, and since we got in line early, we got 2nd row seats, so we got some photos up close, but it was still chaotic since some contestants don't make it easy to take non-flash photos of them on stage. But I managed to shoot quite a few shots of the contestants, will have to see if the photos are presentable or not...
The rest of the evening was spent trying to use up the remaining battery in my digital camera on all the craziness in the Hyatt Atrium where costume-wearers probably outnumbered "regular clothed" folks 2-to-1. There were some mighty fine costumes all around, I was pretty impressed. My right index finger wore out before my batteries did, and I wound up with plenty of photos for my effort. I did resort to using my "point-n-shoot" Canon A70 for the "Guerilla" style of photo shooting in close quarters with flash, and it was quicker to focus than my Canon S1, so I shelved the S1 for this activity because it just wouldn't have been as quick to focus, and I'd lose photo ops, which is deadly for this activity.
Anyhow, left around 12:30 a.m. and am just running on adrenaline.
--------
Day 3:
Got to the hotels late, didn't quite hear any of the Nate Fillion panel (Bad Boys of Buffy and Angel) for the 10 a.m. timeslot, but the crowd appeared to be appreciated when I popped in at the very end of it. barely made it to see the 4th Annual Iron Artist competition between Dan Brereton and William Stout. Dan painted a portrait of what appeared to be Gandalf, while Stout painted what Mona Lisa would look like had she been a dragon. Stout's painting garner the most in the auction when it was up for grabs after the competition. I did miss the early 10 a.m. Lorenzo Lamas/Barbara Moore panel but not sure if I missed all that much.
The Babylon 5 panel followed, and Jason Carter, Stephen Austin, and Peter Jurasik rounded out the panel. Of course, there was a nice remembrance for Richard Biggs from each on the panel. Richard was a class guy and his death came far too early. Jason treated the crowd with some of his performance poetry (ask him to perform "Grandma" if you see him at a con). In the middle of Peter's story of how the cast got JMS pretty good at a con with the help of the audience (by asking them not to react to anything JMS said, which would freak him out and deflate his ego), Peter Woodward shows up like a stark raving guy citing why he wasn't invited to this B5 panel and then goes on to plug his own panel, and dashes around the room throwing flyers for his panel (and documentary/history show). Jurasik was dumbfounded, describing Woodward's entrance and equally quick exit as getting "bitch-slapped". Got to love the B5 panels, always something fun and interesting happens at them.
Next up was the Harlan Ellison panel, and he literally ran to the panel because he woke up late and had some verbal jousting with elevator etiquette with someone at the hotel. Harlan is very entertaining. Stayed for about half of it, and then headed to the reminder of the Warren Ellis panel (Dragon Con was his first US convention appearance in over 7 years, so I thought I should check it out). Lots of Q&A and we all learned the intrinsic scariness of googling on terms like "anal horror". *Shudder*
Got a breather until the 3rd and final Firefly panel, this time it was only with Nate and Jewel, but they entertained the large crowd with ease and aplomb, and the jokes and laughs were flying all over the room at rapid-fire pace in spots. Sadly, in order to do the Firefly movie, Universal doesn't get to make a TV show out of the property, unless things change between Universal and Fox w/r/t the Firefly property. For a good while, each person who asked a question got nifty prizes, like continuity polaroids from the Firefly set of shooting, and the money used on Firefly, and Jewel even gave away a prop comm button. Anyhow, if you ever get to see any of the Firefly cast at a convention, I heartily recommend their panels, you won't be disappointed.
Then I took in even more Harlan Ellison with a panel called "Fluffy Harlan" where Harlan was supposed to not go off the handle so quickly, but that didn't quite last too long into the panel, most to the delight of the audience in attendance. He talked about his on-going 4 year lawsuit with AOL which was finally resolved to both parties' satisfaction w/r/t copyright infringment that was being done on AOL online services. The other main story Harlan told dealt with his speaking engagement in Greensboro, NC, and the story had origins in Louisiana. The Q&A was fun.
Finally, a quick meal, and it was time for the Masquerade, where the costumes/acts/skits were a mix-bag of good/bad/scary. The highlights were the Dr. Teeth band, and the ghoulish spin on "Chicago" the musical, and also a girl who turned herself into the ultimate fantasy for geeks which was amusing.
The rest of the night was filled with crazy snapshot-taking of abundance of costume on display on the Atrium level of the Hyatt, and the convention level just below. It was a mass of humanity, but we finally bailed around 2 a.m. Whew...
--------
Day 4:
Well, Dragon Con 2004 is almost over (and not much will be attended by me since I'm going to the Braves game at 1:05 p.m. today). So I'll be shopping and that's it.
(Yes, photos will be forthcoming, but it may take a few days to a week for me to recover and get the photos fixed up for public display.)
Look forward to seein' some pics!
