Serenity the convention

[burntcopper]

At which there was :deep breath: Ron Glass (Book), Mark Sheppard (Badger), Chris Buchanan (ex-head of Mutant Enemy and Exec producer on Serenity), Nathan Fillion (Mal), Jewel Staite (Kaylee), Morena Baccarin (Inara), Summer Glau (River Tam), and Alan Tudyk (Wash).

Lo, there was squee, drunkenness, Ron Glass's utterly filthy laugh, dinosaurs, Dr. Who, and more squee. Also Jewel and Summer complaining about being picked on by Nathan, and Alan and Nathan being evil.

Plus? A Universal film crew hanging about most of the weekend to film the fans and a couple of the talks, and our reaction to the trailer. Yes. Really. Apparently they want this for things like the dvd and promotion for the film.

It's, er, slightly embarassing. I can't remember too many details, since the squee kind of drowns it all out.

Friday

The hotel screwed up. Really. Lost and mislaid room bookings, registration that took hours, people being bumped to the other hotel, the list goes on. Let's just say there was a lot of rage going on. Also mocking of Sean's baseball cap. He said he was having a bad hair day. Cue regulars raising eyebrows and wondering if there was a difference.

The opening ceremony was a moment of ... well... let's just call it ecstacy and the moment Mark was announced, people were turning to one another and gasping with 'oh my god Sean didn't - he got *Badger*?'

Wild West was fun, with silly cowboy outfits and whore outfits (including mine - I was doing Drew Barrymore from Bad Girls, but gunfighting mode) and Calamity Janes and Toy Story Jessies and Indians and Victorian travelling gear. Drinking and dancing and so on, with added con dances and silliness. Resisted all such that involve chairs or sitting down, and kept up this moral stance all weekend. Go me!

Saturday

Turned up for Dealer's room duty, also got photo tickets. Watched with slight bemusement as the Universal film crew interviewed Claire. Well, she was wearing a chainmail bikini. Had photo taken with Ron and Chris, then with Alan and Mark. Resisted getting another photo with Nathan.

Chris, due to photos over-running, shared his talk with Morena and Jewel. Surprisingly, there were a *lot* of questions for Chris - most of the time, crew gets the occasional question, but not v. many. Jewel and Morena once again funny and gorgeous. Jewel, it turns out, is a complete shoe-whore.

Summer and Ron : where we discovered that Ron is a zen master, and has the world's filthiest deep laugh. Summer confirmed her status as everyone's little sister who you want to mother, and can and will play up to this while everyone just goes 'awwww' while they giggle. Amy Acker has nothing on this girl. Summer also enjoyed her fight scenes and training in Serenity far too much and practiced on her boyfriend. :g:

Nathan and Alan and Mark : A place not to tread unless you like your sides split with added one-upmanship. Alan is ... amazing. And refuses to take his shirt off. Damn him. Nathan - the ego, charm, and crowd pleaser was once again in full effect. Mark is fabulous, very funny, and evil. Positively evil. We want him back. Now. Mark also regards Badger as the facilitator and enjoys his role way too much.

Trend was started for the weekend of the commenters. Those who go up for a question, ramble, and don't actually ask a question. You get sick of them very quickly, and you could hear the groaning from the rest of the crowd everytime they realised it was another one. There should be a sign for this : 'Save it for the bloody autograph queue.'

Suspicious looks late into the afternoon when we realised that this con was actually running on time. There's just some things that need to be marked down as heresy. Also, the difference in audience for Firefly as opposed to Angel/Buffy was made apparent. I counted about 5 teenagers. Five. Normally they're about 40% of the audience. The kids outnumbered them. Does make sense, since it's a more grown-up show, but still. Also a *lot* of newbies. Regulars as usual, but the newbies count was impressive. Many, many Blue Sun t-shirts. I want one.

Autograph queue. Be very afraid.

Dashed for showers, as did most people, since it was fucking boiling in the hall and the air conditioning appeared not to be working. Went Macdonalds, came back to change for costume competition and watch Dr Who. Which was also playing in the main hall, just to show the extent to which people are hooked. At one point, went to deliver the top half of the Meg costume to Tors and co for their Phantom entry.

Changed, got down in plenty of time, went to go 'ooo' over everyone else's entries. We walked in, immediately got posed for photos (when you turn up as almost the entire cast of the show in v. good costumes, this happens.) and started dreading the call of 'one more'. Others : comedy entry of 'Fireflies' - people with wings on back and torches - Hugh Jackman Van Helsing and monster, which were fucking fabulous, Many companions (appears to be the Firefly version of Dru and Darla for costume competition), baby Luke on Dagobah, Padme in brown and blue, (absolutely bloody gorgeous), another small Firefly group with a fabulous Zoe, Jayne statue, Ickle River, Phantom group, and the Washosaurus. Which was a T-Rex with Wash riding on its back. The sheer fucking detail on this? Let's just say it had eyelashes. And the inside of the mouth (I grabbed a torch off one Jayne entry and looked inside) even had the dangly bit at the back of the mouth in there.

Most entries a hit. We got a lot of cheers - including for Inara slapping Mal and me kissing him and pushing him over. (Jo as Inara, Cathy as Kaylee, Dario as Mal, Kith as Zoe, Andy as Wash, Ming as Jayne, Chewie as Simon, Sonia as River, me as Saffron)

For once, the guests' verdict tallied with the costume queue's. Various special mentions. Us for group entry, Ickle River for kids, Jayne statue second, Washosaurus first. Alan's reaction to the Washosaurus was a sight. Gawping in shock pretty much covers it. Also costumer's verdict that for sheer work and craftsman ship, Liz's Carlotta in Phantom group was best, but alas, not enough people had seen film.

Hied it back to the room to change, me getting into Padme outfit and having major help with wig. Went back out, photographed various persons in Star Wars gear (lots of Leias), got mistaken three times for Leia. 'No. Her mum.' Got photos with Jedi Chefs, including their Ep 2 Anakin - there's a pose where we were desperately trying to stop giggling, called 'Shall we shag now or shall we shag later?' Acquired 2 hubbies in the form of Anakin and Dario as Mal. Guests were all in bar, having a grand time chatting with attendees, which you simply couldn't do at Buffy events, since they'd get mobbed. Early hours, Nathan had to be dragged off so he could get some actual sleep. Changed again due to heat plus wig and most of body being covered, and solidified rep as person who wears shortest skirts of con. Sonia achieved 'best Leia bikini ever'.

Also found scary thing : not only am I now in the league of people who teach other people the con dances, which I've been for the past few, but I am now also the person who commands when you actually start dancing on 'Saturday Night'. Eeep.

Sunday

Dealer's room duties, (bought absolutely nothing, mostly due to the majority of dealers being off at Collectormania, which was apparently hemorraging guests like no tomorrow). Met snowballjane and hubbie, who is a complete sweetie.

Chris and Ron talk. Fell about laughing. Nathan thing started, where Nathan appeared in the questions queue and asked how much do they owe to the inspiration of Nathan Fillion. (and yes, he did this in every Sunday talk).

Nathan & Morena : Hysterical, (there are no words for how fabulous these two are together - barbs, bitching, funny...). Jewel turned up in the questions queue to ask a similar Nathan question. This one was being filmed by Universal. A tad scary, especially since they kept swinging the camera back for crowd reactions.

Summer and Mark : once again fabulous. They believe the second Firefly movie should detail the love story of Badger and River, and Mark taught Summer her accent. Mark, it turns out, (after my evil overlord question) believes there's no such things as evil overlords, just people trying to make the world a better place. Summer believes that Nathan is a big ol' bully.

Alan and Jewel. Giggle. Giggle some more. Go 'coooooool'. Giggle more. See Alan imitate his facial expression of gawp and confusion at finding out fan reaction (his first time at a convention), and the Washosaurus. Nathan turns up again in question queue.

Group panel. (also filmed by Universal) Which is a love-fest, and also had the great question to everyone else of 'what you think of Nathan Fillion'. Also the first impressions of everyone else question. Apparently Alan thought Sean Maher was the captain when he first met him and was wondering what the hell casting was thinking.

After that, Serenity trailer showing, twice - once with the lights on so Universal could film our reaction, once with 'em off so we could watch properly. Interestingly, the cheers come in slightly different places each time, with a bit more quiet second time so we could listen properly.

Autographs. Fear the autograph queue. Fear it, I say.

Went pub, ate, came back, me and Kith scrambled for shower and costumes - ten minutes shower and changing, complete world record. Her into corset and skirt, me into the Meg outfit.

Closing Ceremony. We love these people. They love us, and told us so, many times. Nathan managed to break Ron. The man couldn't stop laughing for a good two minutes. When Sean was giving thanks to Nathan, Alan leaped up and accepted the thanks in his place. And broke Summer. The girl actually fell off her chair. Plus there was crying. Awwww.

Party : lo and behold, I was out of that outfit post-closing ceremony. Drank, danced, giggled, danced, etc... Jimmy managed to scare many people in his guise of Shepherd *and* Companion. There were screams. Many screams and wishing away all mental images. Claire managed a new one - sheep outfit of fleecy hotpants, fleecy bra, ears and tail. Taz was fabulous as Shepherd of Dibley with holy trinity of Sean Bean, Mel Gibson and Jesus. There was the Spanish Inquisition. Was photoed by katemonkey and her hubbie with the lemur in my cleavage.

Monday morning, got up, packed, paid off room, hung around in lobby gossipping with regulars, caught bus home with Clare Mac, fellow SGA fangirl. Came home and pretty much collapsed. Made Kith promise to do End-of-film Zoe for Serenity Squared in October, and Neil to do the Mudder's Minstrel. Photos to follow later.

Comments

[valancy.livejournal.com]

wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I wish I could have been there!

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah to you for extreme details!!!!!!!

They just sound like so much fun. And practically everyone there! Good grief!!!!

Devil woman

[dario006.livejournal.com]

Ah but you made such a good wife... ;)

[the-swordman.livejournal.com]

So you were silver bikini top (sorry but I started giving nicknames to the most "standing out people").
All these times I saw your name on the mailing list, had a look at your pics or read your con recaps... And I did not imagine you like this.
Nevermind. Thanks for the recap and the leading during the con dances. I'm still trying to get over the Star Trek song :)

Would you mind at all if I show this to the friends that were with me at the con and to the people asking us for recap ? It seems pretty accurate and written in a better english I could came up with.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

No problem, that's what the recap is there for, though there's more comprehensive ones on the community.

:cough: there's people who imagine me a lot worse than having very little modesty. And con dancing is a disease. You start out with just the Macarena and Saturday Night, and before you know it, you're doing the Hustle. Plus? The Star Trek song is sacred. And requires bugger all co-ordination. It's the more silly version of the hokey-pokey

[the-swordman.livejournal.com]

:cough: there's people who imagine me a lot worse than having very little modesty
Naaaah, you were just... kinda hard to not notice :)
Plus, I tend not to think the worse about people if I don't know them.

And con dancing is a disease
I second that. The thing is by the time I go to another con, I will have forget everything. Which is a shame because I was starting to get a hang on the Dr Who song.
One of the friend I was with love dancing as much as I do and she was asking me if there was any place, outside of cons, that play that kind of music ?

And something else. I have no idea what the Hustle is, nor the hokey-pokey. and, for the love of me, I could never ever begin to imagine there was a Star Trek song. Hell, most of my fellow citizens have no idea what Star Trek is :)
One of the downsides of being a foreigner. That plus the language.

[heikki-cheren.livejournal.com]

Hell, most of my fellow citizens have no idea what Star Trek is :)

Huh... No. That was true when we were teenagers. Less true when we entered adulthood (er... well... :-P). And probably even a lot less true now.
It's just a kind of cliché, something we learnt (sometimes the hard way) as we were growing up. Something that stick, no matter how much we know better.

[the-swordman.livejournal.com]

My point is MOST (meaning above 50%) of our fellow citizens don't know what Star Trek is (they could maybe recognize pictures of the Original Serie and I'm not even sure of that) and I stick by it. There's more to France than people that live in city and got cable TV.
But it is your constitutionnal right to disagree with me :)

[heikki-cheren.livejournal.com]

I would think that more than 50% of the population (not counting people over 80 and kids below 10) would be able to recognize the "Star Treck" and "Doctor (or Captain, if the journalist is slightly more evolved) Spoke" names.
I agree that less than 50% would know that the spellings are totally wrong and that... er... Doctor???
And a large amount of the population would be able to make the pajamas comment when hearing the "Star Trek" words... *headdesk*

There's more to France than people that live in city and got cable TV.
I personnally don't consider that "having an idea of what Star Trek is" require having seen an episode. I have an idea of what Dr Who is, or East Enders, Red Dwarf, etc... and I never saw any of those shows. I also have an idea of what Navarro is, and I so definitely never ever watched it. :-P

[sakara75.livejournal.com]

WAHHHHHH NOT FAIR....it sounded like so much fun......:(

[heikki-cheren.livejournal.com]

counted about 5 teenagers. Five. Normally they're about 40% of the audience. The kids outnumbered them. Does make sense, since it's a more grown-up show, but still

Really? I never saw many teenagers at a con, except when I went to a SF/manga/comics(?) con in Toronto.
But then my other cons were a Highlander con in Birmingham, a Star Trek one in Paris (and the general active audience for ST in France is mostly made of grown up. No teenagers in the SF clubs) and a ST/SF-series one near Paris. Plus the day prior to a big Highlander con in LA (we were there just to meet friends while touring Arizona and California). I suppose the nature of the show(s) involved can have a huge influence on the teenagers ratio?

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Most of the Stargate ones I've been to have been BtVS and Angel ones, which is where they have a lot of teenagers. Robin of Sherwood, not so much, but then we're talking a show that's over 20 years old. Discworld, it's a mix.

[heikki-cheren.livejournal.com]

Ah, Discworld cons... I should try one of those one day.
I know an American girl who went to a few of them in UK. I can't remember how much she freaked people out, so I dunno if you would remember her. O:-P

[iced-pink.livejournal.com]

another excellent report! can't wait to see photos =D