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such_heights) wrote2011-07-12 02:05 am
such_heights) wrote2011-07-12 02:05 am
Entry tags:
LFCC Con Report
FRIDAY
So part of my ticket package was a three-hour preview event on the Friday night - I wandered along for about an hour and a half to suss things out and plan for the morning. What I actually ended up doing was skulking around by the signing area and cooing over Mark Sheppard. Sadly all of my con budget was taken up with Karen & Alex so I didn't get to go up to his table, but from a distance he was still extremely charming.
@such_heights: Okay, am here for the preview thing! Photo with Karen is apparently at 11.30ish tomorrow morning. Mark Sheppard is right over there!
@such_heights: @fourteenacross okay also, now I am looking at him in person SUDDENLY I UNDERSTAND YOUR MARK SHEPPARD CRUSH. Dude is extremely dapper!
Later:
@such_heights: There's a guy dressed up as Hellboy doing Evanesence karaoke. Everything about that is amazing.
SATURDAY
On Saturday I was accompanied bypurplefringe and later joined by oparu and K. We cooed over stalls selling their geeky wares and also all the cosplayers. There were an absolute ton of Doctor Who cosplayers, unsurprisingly. Many more Rivers than I've seen previously, and also some fun ones like Idris, 6x07 Amy complete with a baby, Centurion Rory, Sixties Amy, a Silent, and a couple of little girls dressed up as Amelia, oh my goodness. So adorable.
Our first panel was Sylvester McCoy & Sophie Aldred
They were super charming! They told stories about their days on Doctor Who, including sneaking in to watch Bros on Top of the Pops whilst in costume and the really abrupt way the show got cancelled.
Sylvester talked about filming for The Hobbit (he's playing Radagast the Brown, who's r's he rolled magnificently.) Peter Jackson's a huge Who fan and actually owns the Seventh Doctor's original costume, which apparently Sylvester saw when Jackson invited him and Ian McKellen over whilst they were in King Lear together in Stratford a couple of years ago. He's having great fun on The Hobbit, and was somewhat taken aback the first time he saw McKellen put Gandalf's hat on and transform from his friend to this legendary character.
Sophie talked about how much she's enjoying watching the current Doctor Who with her eleven year old son - Eleven is his first Doctor. She also agreed with a question about whether Ace was a prototype for the modern companions, and said that she was a fantastic female character at the time and that she felt she could see echoes of Ace in Rose particularly with her working class background.
They wandered off together chatting at the end and were completely delightful. <3
Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to Mark Sheppard myself as I had a clash, but this is paraphrased frompurplefringe:
He was very funny and sarcastic, and talked about fans and geeks as 'us', and how fans keep shows alive, particularly sci-fi. He loves going to conventions because it completes the circle - actors make TV but don't see their audiences unless they come to these kinds of events.
On the subject of Doctor Who, he thinks Canton is a great character. He described Canton as being 'one of us' too, because he's the only one in the room who recognises that the Doctor might be on to something. Also really appreciated getting to play a gay character who was so non-stereotypical. He only really got the chance to film the Doctor Who episodes thanks to Supernatural moving their filming schedule around to accommodate him.
As to the possibility of Canton's return, he obviously said nothing. But he did bring up the subject himself without being prompted. Fingers crossed!
In the afternoon I got to see Brent Spiner - my inner ten year old was thrilled!
He was clearly someone who's been doing cons for a long time, knows how to work the crowd and has a lot of fun doing it. He told stories about the TNG cast and how they're all still very good friends. He spent 4th of July this year round at LeVar Burton's place, aw. (Geordi&Data forever!)
He does this hilarious and worryingly spot-on impression of Patrick Stewart. One story was about Stewart telling the rest of the cast off for misbehaving behind the scenes during their first season, except that they'd all just laughed at him and he wound up being the worst and most raucous of all of them by the end. He also recommend Stewart's current stint in the Merchant of Venice and then proceeded to do a Shylock speech in Stewart's voice, which brought the house down.
And then there was Karen Gillan.
I ended up being able to get my photo taken with her and get her autograph as well as go to her talk, which involved a reasonable amount of queuing but was completely worth it. I was very nervous in the build up to the whole thing, but all my actual interaction with her was incredibly brief, just long enough to bask a little in her presence.
She was gorgeous and lovely and radiant and her smile could light up a city. And her hair really is that amazing, and her legs really do go on forever, and her beauty is pretty much overwhelming close-up.
And she smiled at me and put her arm around me and said she would read the fan letter that I gave her (essentially an extended version of 'Amy Pond is the best, you play her brilliantly, thanks for cheering me up a bunch when I was ill') and everything was beautiful.
@such_heights: All done. She is so absurdly stunning in real life. Gosh. *wanders off dreamily* :)
Then her talk! Here's what she had to say.
She grew up on sci-fi - her mum's a huge fan and she watched a lot of Star Trek TNG and the X-Files. As a result she was really excited and fangirly about being able to go and meet Brent Spiner while she was at the con. She really likes sci-fi as a genre because of the range and scope it gives you as an actor, and she'd definitely like to do more of it in the future. She also really enjoyed filming the Jean Shrimpton project recently, and is hoping she'll get to do some theatre at some point in the future.
Relatedly, she's looking forward to seeing Alex and Arthur in their current plays, though Arthur is making them wait until later in the run to go. She spoke very fondly of the rest of the cast - Matt and Arthur are her 'bros', and they really do feel like her brothers. When asked if she and Arthur had any offscreen chemistry she laughed and said she sees Arthur so much that he's lost all his mystique. Also refused to comment on who was the better kisser, just said that they had different styles.
Matt has a tendency to hide in her trailer and jump out at her at unexpected moments. There's a running joke that Arthur spends his entire time talking to the people filming Doctor Who Confidential, so they call him 'Confidential Arthur' sometimes. The Confidential people are around all the time, which took some getting used to, but she and Matt are terrible for playing up for the cameras.
Talking about getting the role, she said she only had to do two auditions, and the second was with Matt, who'd already been cast. She was really excited about that and during the audition Matt was really full-on already which made her want the part even more. She says he takes his job incredibly seriously and is pretty much working all the time, but also does a lot to make things fun for everyone because he believes that a sense of playfulness is the key to getting the tone of Doctor Who right in your performance.
One of her favourite scenes to film was during The Eleventh Hour, when Amy and the Doctor are marching through Leadworth after he's just worked out she's Amelia and they're shouting at each other - she felt like it really set the tone for their relationship, where they bicker a lot but also really love each other. Matt really did bite her hand during Time of Angels, so her on-screen reaction is genuine. Her favourite episode to film that's aired so far is A Good Man Goes To War because of the emotional range Amy has. Her favourite line is 'Okay, kid, this is where it gets complicated'. Enjoyed the flirting with herself in the Comic Relief special, as she thought that was so typically Amy.
When someone asked whether she'd consider doing a spin-off show she instantly coined it 'Pond and Beyond' and said that theoretically she'd be up for it, but that no one could replace Sarah Jane and SJA.
She thinks Amy is a great character and loves playing her. She really enjoys Amy's sassiness and boldness, her backstory, and how she's a bit weird and a bit childlike at times. Amy's changed a lot over the series so far and that's only going to continue, which is satisfying as an actor. Amy's really run the emotional gamut and she loves doing the dramatic stuff. When asked about Rory's deaths, she said that those kinds of moments are great challenges to try and bring different takes to each time, and then she joked that maybe the next time something like that happens she'll just turn to the camera and roll her eyes for a change of pace. She also really likes doing her own stunts when she can - she had a lot of fun filming the pirates episode, where she did most of the action shots like swinging across the deck.
She didn't guess the River reveal at all, and didn't find out until quite late on. The original script had a dummy ending that was essentially a version of the last scene without anything about who River is, she just sort of showed up. After they'd done the read through Moffat took Karen, Matt and Arthur into a corridor and showed them the real ending. She thinks it's really cool and opens up some really interesting things for Amy and how she's going to relate to River and the Doctor in the future. It was difficult at times to play Amy pre-reveal after she knew, however, so she had to try and forget about it until they got around to filming that scene.
Unsurprisingly, she refused to be drawn on anything about the second half of the series - this job has made her much better at keeping secrets. But she really loves episode eight and is looking forward to it airing, and she thinks one of their scariest ever monsters is coming up in the second half of the season. Her one word hint of something to look forward to in the next episode was 'motorbike'.
SUNDAY
Yesterday the main attraction was Alex Kingston, who was completely lovely and fabulous. She was also pretty much unbearably cute with small children - when I was queuing up to get an autograph a little girl ahead of me asked Alex if she'd come here in the TARDIS, so Alex leaned over the desk and responded very seriously that yes, she did. <3333
Her talk was the last event of the day, and it was packed. She looked really shocked when she first walked in and saw how many people there were! But she got into the spirit of things.
She talked a little about ER - although I was a fan and watched it while she was on, I admit most of it went a little over my head because I don't remember her storylines that well. But one thing she said was that she thought so many ER actors had gone on to be successful because the casting often picked relatively 'normal' looking people who maybe avoided being typecast as soap stars and similar.
She said she feels very lucky to have been able to play so many diverse and rounded female characters over her career, particularly mentioning Elizabeth Corday, Moll Flanders, Boudica, and of course River Song.
She grew up on Doctor Who - Pertwee was her Doctor, and the Cybermen were always her favourite monsters. She talked about doing the Library episodes. Because she was in the US, she didn't really have any idea how successful the new series had become, but she loved the scripts when she got sent them, and they made her cry, so she thought if the story had that much of an affect on her just on the page, it seemed like a good project to do.
She had no idea Moffat had any plans to bring the character back until a good few months after filming those initial episodes. She was surprised as she'd assumed River was done for, but was interested in doing this kind of complicated, non-linear storytelling.
She didn't have any idea about River's identity until series six, and was relieved to finally find out. Moffat hadn't wanted to tell her previously so that it wouldn't influence her performance, leaving her interactions with Amy and Rory open to interpretation. But he knew right from the Library episodes that River would be the daughter of a future companion of the Doctor. Matt, Karen and Arthur all tried really hard to get it out of her but she managed not to give it away. She tried to put it out of her mind whilst filming the opening two-parter. The only time it did influence her was during one take of the Doctor's death scene, when she put her arm around Karen to give her a hug, but Karen reacted oddly so she didn't try it again. Later, when Karen had found out, she suddenly realised why Alex had done that.
She was very complimentary about Matt, says he's great to work with and also a good friend, someone she really enjoys spending time with.
She really enjoyed the US filming, and those two episodes are her favourites to date, partly because she got to work in the heat and the sunshine for once. However, she also really loves episode eight and, like Karen, looks forward to it airing. Somebody asked her about the Singing Towers, and of course she said nothing really, but that she was sure that Moffat would come up with something amazing for that if they ever go there.
She was asked if she'd like to be on Torchwood, and said she really would if RTD and Moffat decided they wanted to do that - she thinks River would have a lot of fun on that show. She also said that really she wants River to show up in Sherlock.
She was completely charming throughout, and really good-natured and chatty. Also, her hair is magic.oparu, who was part of the crew for the con, also tells me that when they were clearing up she took the time to come see the crew and say thank you, complete with blowing kisses. Awww. :D
BEST OF WEEKENDS.
So part of my ticket package was a three-hour preview event on the Friday night - I wandered along for about an hour and a half to suss things out and plan for the morning. What I actually ended up doing was skulking around by the signing area and cooing over Mark Sheppard. Sadly all of my con budget was taken up with Karen & Alex so I didn't get to go up to his table, but from a distance he was still extremely charming.
@such_heights: Okay, am here for the preview thing! Photo with Karen is apparently at 11.30ish tomorrow morning. Mark Sheppard is right over there!
@such_heights: @fourteenacross okay also, now I am looking at him in person SUDDENLY I UNDERSTAND YOUR MARK SHEPPARD CRUSH. Dude is extremely dapper!
Later:
@such_heights: There's a guy dressed up as Hellboy doing Evanesence karaoke. Everything about that is amazing.
SATURDAY
On Saturday I was accompanied by
purplefringe and later joined by oparu and K. We cooed over stalls selling their geeky wares and also all the cosplayers. There were an absolute ton of Doctor Who cosplayers, unsurprisingly. Many more Rivers than I've seen previously, and also some fun ones like Idris, 6x07 Amy complete with a baby, Centurion Rory, Sixties Amy, a Silent, and a couple of little girls dressed up as Amelia, oh my goodness. So adorable.Our first panel was Sylvester McCoy & Sophie Aldred
They were super charming! They told stories about their days on Doctor Who, including sneaking in to watch Bros on Top of the Pops whilst in costume and the really abrupt way the show got cancelled.
Sylvester talked about filming for The Hobbit (he's playing Radagast the Brown, who's r's he rolled magnificently.) Peter Jackson's a huge Who fan and actually owns the Seventh Doctor's original costume, which apparently Sylvester saw when Jackson invited him and Ian McKellen over whilst they were in King Lear together in Stratford a couple of years ago. He's having great fun on The Hobbit, and was somewhat taken aback the first time he saw McKellen put Gandalf's hat on and transform from his friend to this legendary character.
Sophie talked about how much she's enjoying watching the current Doctor Who with her eleven year old son - Eleven is his first Doctor. She also agreed with a question about whether Ace was a prototype for the modern companions, and said that she was a fantastic female character at the time and that she felt she could see echoes of Ace in Rose particularly with her working class background.
They wandered off together chatting at the end and were completely delightful. <3
Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to Mark Sheppard myself as I had a clash, but this is paraphrased from
purplefringe:He was very funny and sarcastic, and talked about fans and geeks as 'us', and how fans keep shows alive, particularly sci-fi. He loves going to conventions because it completes the circle - actors make TV but don't see their audiences unless they come to these kinds of events.
On the subject of Doctor Who, he thinks Canton is a great character. He described Canton as being 'one of us' too, because he's the only one in the room who recognises that the Doctor might be on to something. Also really appreciated getting to play a gay character who was so non-stereotypical. He only really got the chance to film the Doctor Who episodes thanks to Supernatural moving their filming schedule around to accommodate him.
As to the possibility of Canton's return, he obviously said nothing. But he did bring up the subject himself without being prompted. Fingers crossed!
In the afternoon I got to see Brent Spiner - my inner ten year old was thrilled!
He was clearly someone who's been doing cons for a long time, knows how to work the crowd and has a lot of fun doing it. He told stories about the TNG cast and how they're all still very good friends. He spent 4th of July this year round at LeVar Burton's place, aw. (Geordi&Data forever!)
He does this hilarious and worryingly spot-on impression of Patrick Stewart. One story was about Stewart telling the rest of the cast off for misbehaving behind the scenes during their first season, except that they'd all just laughed at him and he wound up being the worst and most raucous of all of them by the end. He also recommend Stewart's current stint in the Merchant of Venice and then proceeded to do a Shylock speech in Stewart's voice, which brought the house down.
And then there was Karen Gillan.
I ended up being able to get my photo taken with her and get her autograph as well as go to her talk, which involved a reasonable amount of queuing but was completely worth it. I was very nervous in the build up to the whole thing, but all my actual interaction with her was incredibly brief, just long enough to bask a little in her presence.
She was gorgeous and lovely and radiant and her smile could light up a city. And her hair really is that amazing, and her legs really do go on forever, and her beauty is pretty much overwhelming close-up.
And she smiled at me and put her arm around me and said she would read the fan letter that I gave her (essentially an extended version of 'Amy Pond is the best, you play her brilliantly, thanks for cheering me up a bunch when I was ill') and everything was beautiful.
@such_heights: All done. She is so absurdly stunning in real life. Gosh. *wanders off dreamily* :)
Then her talk! Here's what she had to say.
She grew up on sci-fi - her mum's a huge fan and she watched a lot of Star Trek TNG and the X-Files. As a result she was really excited and fangirly about being able to go and meet Brent Spiner while she was at the con. She really likes sci-fi as a genre because of the range and scope it gives you as an actor, and she'd definitely like to do more of it in the future. She also really enjoyed filming the Jean Shrimpton project recently, and is hoping she'll get to do some theatre at some point in the future.
Relatedly, she's looking forward to seeing Alex and Arthur in their current plays, though Arthur is making them wait until later in the run to go. She spoke very fondly of the rest of the cast - Matt and Arthur are her 'bros', and they really do feel like her brothers. When asked if she and Arthur had any offscreen chemistry she laughed and said she sees Arthur so much that he's lost all his mystique. Also refused to comment on who was the better kisser, just said that they had different styles.
Matt has a tendency to hide in her trailer and jump out at her at unexpected moments. There's a running joke that Arthur spends his entire time talking to the people filming Doctor Who Confidential, so they call him 'Confidential Arthur' sometimes. The Confidential people are around all the time, which took some getting used to, but she and Matt are terrible for playing up for the cameras.
Talking about getting the role, she said she only had to do two auditions, and the second was with Matt, who'd already been cast. She was really excited about that and during the audition Matt was really full-on already which made her want the part even more. She says he takes his job incredibly seriously and is pretty much working all the time, but also does a lot to make things fun for everyone because he believes that a sense of playfulness is the key to getting the tone of Doctor Who right in your performance.
One of her favourite scenes to film was during The Eleventh Hour, when Amy and the Doctor are marching through Leadworth after he's just worked out she's Amelia and they're shouting at each other - she felt like it really set the tone for their relationship, where they bicker a lot but also really love each other. Matt really did bite her hand during Time of Angels, so her on-screen reaction is genuine. Her favourite episode to film that's aired so far is A Good Man Goes To War because of the emotional range Amy has. Her favourite line is 'Okay, kid, this is where it gets complicated'. Enjoyed the flirting with herself in the Comic Relief special, as she thought that was so typically Amy.
When someone asked whether she'd consider doing a spin-off show she instantly coined it 'Pond and Beyond' and said that theoretically she'd be up for it, but that no one could replace Sarah Jane and SJA.
She thinks Amy is a great character and loves playing her. She really enjoys Amy's sassiness and boldness, her backstory, and how she's a bit weird and a bit childlike at times. Amy's changed a lot over the series so far and that's only going to continue, which is satisfying as an actor. Amy's really run the emotional gamut and she loves doing the dramatic stuff. When asked about Rory's deaths, she said that those kinds of moments are great challenges to try and bring different takes to each time, and then she joked that maybe the next time something like that happens she'll just turn to the camera and roll her eyes for a change of pace. She also really likes doing her own stunts when she can - she had a lot of fun filming the pirates episode, where she did most of the action shots like swinging across the deck.
She didn't guess the River reveal at all, and didn't find out until quite late on. The original script had a dummy ending that was essentially a version of the last scene without anything about who River is, she just sort of showed up. After they'd done the read through Moffat took Karen, Matt and Arthur into a corridor and showed them the real ending. She thinks it's really cool and opens up some really interesting things for Amy and how she's going to relate to River and the Doctor in the future. It was difficult at times to play Amy pre-reveal after she knew, however, so she had to try and forget about it until they got around to filming that scene.
Unsurprisingly, she refused to be drawn on anything about the second half of the series - this job has made her much better at keeping secrets. But she really loves episode eight and is looking forward to it airing, and she thinks one of their scariest ever monsters is coming up in the second half of the season. Her one word hint of something to look forward to in the next episode was 'motorbike'.
SUNDAY
Yesterday the main attraction was Alex Kingston, who was completely lovely and fabulous. She was also pretty much unbearably cute with small children - when I was queuing up to get an autograph a little girl ahead of me asked Alex if she'd come here in the TARDIS, so Alex leaned over the desk and responded very seriously that yes, she did. <3333
Her talk was the last event of the day, and it was packed. She looked really shocked when she first walked in and saw how many people there were! But she got into the spirit of things.
She talked a little about ER - although I was a fan and watched it while she was on, I admit most of it went a little over my head because I don't remember her storylines that well. But one thing she said was that she thought so many ER actors had gone on to be successful because the casting often picked relatively 'normal' looking people who maybe avoided being typecast as soap stars and similar.
She said she feels very lucky to have been able to play so many diverse and rounded female characters over her career, particularly mentioning Elizabeth Corday, Moll Flanders, Boudica, and of course River Song.
She grew up on Doctor Who - Pertwee was her Doctor, and the Cybermen were always her favourite monsters. She talked about doing the Library episodes. Because she was in the US, she didn't really have any idea how successful the new series had become, but she loved the scripts when she got sent them, and they made her cry, so she thought if the story had that much of an affect on her just on the page, it seemed like a good project to do.
She had no idea Moffat had any plans to bring the character back until a good few months after filming those initial episodes. She was surprised as she'd assumed River was done for, but was interested in doing this kind of complicated, non-linear storytelling.
She didn't have any idea about River's identity until series six, and was relieved to finally find out. Moffat hadn't wanted to tell her previously so that it wouldn't influence her performance, leaving her interactions with Amy and Rory open to interpretation. But he knew right from the Library episodes that River would be the daughter of a future companion of the Doctor. Matt, Karen and Arthur all tried really hard to get it out of her but she managed not to give it away. She tried to put it out of her mind whilst filming the opening two-parter. The only time it did influence her was during one take of the Doctor's death scene, when she put her arm around Karen to give her a hug, but Karen reacted oddly so she didn't try it again. Later, when Karen had found out, she suddenly realised why Alex had done that.
She was very complimentary about Matt, says he's great to work with and also a good friend, someone she really enjoys spending time with.
She really enjoyed the US filming, and those two episodes are her favourites to date, partly because she got to work in the heat and the sunshine for once. However, she also really loves episode eight and, like Karen, looks forward to it airing. Somebody asked her about the Singing Towers, and of course she said nothing really, but that she was sure that Moffat would come up with something amazing for that if they ever go there.
She was asked if she'd like to be on Torchwood, and said she really would if RTD and Moffat decided they wanted to do that - she thinks River would have a lot of fun on that show. She also said that really she wants River to show up in Sherlock.
She was completely charming throughout, and really good-natured and chatty. Also, her hair is magic.
oparu, who was part of the crew for the con, also tells me that when they were clearing up she took the time to come see the crew and say thank you, complete with blowing kisses. Awww. :DBEST OF WEEKENDS.
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This is amazing, thank you for that long write-up ♥ I'm so glad you got to meet Karen and Alex! THIS CAST, how so wonderful.
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This is all fantastic and amazing, and I'm so happy for you that you could be there, and I only wish I could have attended too.
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KAREN STOP BEING SO UTTERLY PERFECT I AM SUPPOSED TO BE STRAIGHT
I met Brent at Dragon*Con last year and he was flawless; the first thing he did was look at Stephanie and say, completely straight-faced, that there was TOTALLY another girl at the con who looked JUST LIKE HER. And then he asked where we were from and started singing a Randy Edelman song about Birmingham (Alabama) after we told him. And then he told ME that there was a girl at the con who looked just like me. My heart, it overfloweth.
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She was asked if she'd like to be on Torchwood, and said she really would if RTD and Moffat decided they wanted to do that - she thinks River would have a lot of fun on that show. She also said that really she wants River to show up in Sherlock.
DO WANT ALL OF THIS, PLS.
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heeee.
glad you had so much fun.
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I WANT THIS. ALL OF THIS. NOW.
Eeeeee! This is so exciting to read about, and I am glad you had such an amazing time!
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I could totally see Arthur as the confidential guy, stalking around poping up 'and in this scene we did this, ta da!'
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