Still Shiny

... if a little poorer.
These fan conventions are not for the frugal nor, probably, the sensible. In any case, today was The Big Spend. I wonder on some level if the organizer isn't using this first North American convention to test the waters as to how much people are willing to spend. Compared to the Serenity Squared, and this is factoring in the exchange of GBP to USD, this convention is extravagant. Grants, the organizer wanted to bring his own staff which meant the costs of flights and two weeks' accomodation for a dozen people had to be covered by the ticket sales and photo/autograph fees. Even so... did I mention that the main venue is a nightclub and that the bar charges $4 for a Coke and $6 for a bottle of water? Apparently a glass of wine is $10. Anyhoo, enough bellyaching about the cost. It's a given for these sort of things, really. If one were to exert some self-control, it doesn't necessarily need to be such a money-pit. Yeah... but then if the one in question were me... HYPOTHETICALLY :P

Today, the photos were a priority since autographs started in the afternoon and many fans wanted their photos with the guests autographed (I didn't). I had one picture taken yesterday with Ron and three taken today with Christina, Adam and Morena. I'd had one taken with Morena at Serenity Squared but there was a stain on her shirt and I wanted a do-over. I'll scan them in when I got home but I'm pretty happy with them overall since I don't photograph well usually. Of course, the guests don't have that problem. We like our Big Damn Heroes pretty. Unfortunately, some of my friends ended up with blinks and blurs despite the photos being digital. The line-ups were handled pretty efficiently I thought and they managed to get them to us before the autograph session today. The line for Adam was the longest since this is the first Starfury convention he's ever attended and he's had to cancel all of his other appearances this year due to work commitments. He's a high-demand commodity in short supply to the fan-verse. The dude's really tall. And clean-shaven. Totally threw me off this morning. One of the female fans from Memphis was positively giddy from her exposure to him today. It was cute although a little creepy... I'd hate to think how she would've been if Sean and Nathan had been able to attend as well.

The Q&As were a lot of fun today. Not that yesterdays weren't but because the guests were onstage in pairs or trios, there was a lot of banter that you don't get with singles. First up were Yan Feldman (Mingo), Christina Hendricks, and Ron Glass. (Steven, I don't think I'll be able to remember every word Christina said but I'll paraphrase the best parts that I can recall...)
Yan was mostly asked about being a twin and costuming. One of the most interesting things he mentioned was that when he and Raphael were deciding to try for the roles, which called for Cockney twins, they decided that since they didn't look typically English but were able to carry the accent, they thought they'd go through the entire audition as if they were English. They got through the initial readings and meetings speaking totally in their Cockney accents until they were finally face-to-face with Joss who asked flat-out where they actually were from.
Christina got the biggest laugh of the three although perhaps the credit should go to the person asking the question. To begin with, the question was how she felt about her kissing scenes with Nathan in Firefly. Her response to that was that she couldn't remember specifically except for thinking,"Acting is FUN. Work is FUN." The follow-up to that was,"Did you blow 'em on purpose?" (meaning, of course, whether she had messed up the scenes in order to have a few more takes). But Ron's facial expression and Yan's comment "How could you do that by accident?" left nowhere to go but forward with that train of thought.
Because he had had a Q&A yesterday, Ron didn't feel it necessary to hold a microphone during today's session. His contributions were spoken unamplified but that suited us Browncoat Pass holders in the front tables just fine but I can't speak for the poor schmos in the chairs and standing area. I asked probably more than my share of questions simply in an effort to minimize uncomfortable silences. One of my more embarrassing mis-steps was asking the guests where they thought their characters' lives continued onto after their time on Serenity or Firefly ala Jewel Staite's most recent blog entry on Myspace (wherein she whimsically decided that River and Zoe hook up, Mal, despondent over Wash's death goes crazy, Kaylee and Simon have genius triplets, and Inara takes Jayne to the Companion House for training). Of course, the moment the words were out of my mouth, I looked at Ron (aka the late Shepherd Book) and promptly apologized. Yan tried to propose some sort of necrophilic epilogue but our good Book was having none of that. Yan decided Fanty and Mingo gave into their narcissistic natures and fell in love with each other while Christina saw Saffron taking on new and more interesting identities possibly under the name Dominique. Ron refuted this possibility, stating that Dominique is what they always named the powerful black women in shows like Knots' Landing. Christina's response was that Saffron could do whatever she liked and that included being black. So there.

The second Q&A paired Morena with Jewel and the two of them have this incredibly close (Morena was Jewel's maid of honour) and amazingly crass (who, during the maid of honour's speech announced to everyone present that Jewel wasn't wearing underwear) relationship. Jewel took most of the flack in this outing as Morena pulls no punches in trying to entertain us ... at Jewel's expense of course. Thus it was how we learned that Jewel had a particular hate on for a specific Kaylee jumpsuit which was a bit short in the body resulting in discomfort and "camel toe" (Morena's words). The ladies hadn't seen each other in almost a year but Morena sent a gift with a fan to Milton Keynes where Jewel was attending Collectormania last week. It was a photograph of Morena with a speech bubble which read something along the lines of,"Jewel is so wonderful... if you don't mind eating horse s**t!" Still, being the awesome friend, Jewel had ordered a bottle of champagne to arrive midway through the session to keep Morena's spirits buoyed. One very interesting question posed came from an Aussie Browncoat who asked Morena (because he had already asked Jewel at a previous con) who she would choose to make out with in a film if she had to pick a woman. Before she could answer, he informed us all that Jewel had picked Jessica Alba. This elicited a very dramatic reaction from Jewel's husband, Matt, who was sitting by the side of the stage. Apparently, he had put Jessica Alba on his "Top Five" list last night and she had taken him to task for that. Meanwhile, Morena was "hurt" and wouldn't pick Jewel since Jewel hadn't picked her. Jewel relented and decided to change her choice... and picked Gina. Morena eventually picked Eva Green. Yeah, guy readers, you can all just stop reading now. It doesn't get better than that this post.

Adam and Mark came out for the last of our guest Q&As. A lot of the questions posed to them centred on acting technique, character development, and props. Mark said something along the lines of the simulation of authenticity in an environment of the imagination which struck a neat chord with me and both of them stand by the motto that no one plays a villain. Mark, when asked about the roles he chooses, made the statement that there are two kinds of great roles in acting - that of the last sane man in the universe and that of the guy who sold him out before leaving. He feels that all his best roles fall into those categories. Adam explained that the hardest scene he ever played was one as a teenager where he had to emote about killing a man with absolutely no acting training. It was a pivotal scene in his career as it sent him running to New York to learn how to act. Of course, he also said that he got no work while in NYC. Mark shared some intriguing bits of backstage drama. When he did a guest spot on Star Trek: Voyager, he fell victim to the Janeway vs. Seven of Nine battle wherein the battlelines were drawn between the two camps and because he had spent some time discussing their scene with Jeri Ryan, Kate Mugrew played her entire scene with him with looking at him. He discussed Katie Sackoff from Battlestar Galactica as an actor savant in that she doesn't seem to realize how good she is and stated that her instincts are so accurate that one would be a fool not to go with them. He also let it be known that at least one actor on BSG has been told that they are the fifth Cylon when they AREN'T. The scripts for the final season are under such tight wraps that the producers have admitted that it is possible that they will shoot red herring scenes. I hope that was interesting to some of my readers.

After the guest Q&As, there was a presentation by the fellas at QMX who have the creative license for Serenity merchandise. (http://www.quantummechanix.com/HOME.html) Their portfolio is truly incredible with beautifully actualized Serenity ship papers, blueprint reference guides (I love the fact they figured out by watching the episodes and movie over and over again that, like many sci-fi vehicles, the insides don't actually fit inside the outside), travel posters & postcards for 'Verse planets, dog tags, Alliance money and replica weapons. For shouting out a correct trivia answer, I manage to nab myself an uncut sheet of Alliance money which would've cost a heap of real money if they were actually available to be purchased. The Serenity model is in the works. We were made privy to their half-scale model, still in development after a year and many expert denials that it couldn't be done, and, although, I doubt I'll ever be able to justify the purchase of one, it was very exciting to see something like that in its early stages.

Finally, there were the autographs. Once again, Adam's line was the longest and this time, because autograph times are chances for more personal interaction than Q&As and photographs, it was also pretty slow-moving. Two of my four freebies were gifts for friends since I had as many autographs as I needed from those particular BDHs. Ron signed a black and white headshot which I'll add to my 8x10 wall display at home. I ended up with SIX items for Adam to sign including my freebie and one which was requested by a friend. (By the way, anyone who really wants my money just needs to arrange a Gina signing session...) My impulse buy today was a Fanty and Mingo 8x10 which had been pre-signed by Raphael who couldn't attend due to his honeymoon (sheesh) and which was such a great companion shot to my Buffy Xander x 2 picture from Collectormania. (If they'd had a Joanie shot from Mad Men, Steven, it would've been in your stocking this year but there were no pics better than the one you already have.)

Dinner was at California Pizza in the Hollywood Blvd Center tonight and at least four booths were Browncoat dens. This was followed by the second Meet 'n' Greet with a slightly different crew. Adam and Nectar joined Jewel (and husband Matt), Morena, Ron and Mark. There were surprise drop-ins by J. August Richards (Gunn from Angel) and Adrienne Wilkinson (Livia from Xena:Warrior Princess. Jonathan was hosting the Alliance Pass holders' party at a different venue and Christina and Yan might've attended that one or called it an early night.

I stayed a little later tonight but actually spent more time chatting with other Browncoats. Morena made a thorough circuit of the room so she stopped by our table for a talk and I discussed the idea of a Vancouver con with Sean Harry a bit more. Nectar came by our booth right when she arrived and she let us know that she'd tried to make it to the party last night (still painted gold from the shoot) but that she was falling asleep at the wheel as she drove back into LA and Sean had told her to just go home. I had a quick chat with Jewel (who still thinks hosting a cocktail party at a tequila bar is strange yet effective) and Matt and came home to report on this very full day since I'm sure that if I don't do it promptly, things will get badly muddled.