• Gemma Whelan (Yara Greyjoy from “Game Of Thrones”)
• Donald Sumpter (Maester Luwin from “Game Of Thrones”)
• Oliver Ford Davies (Maester Cressen from “Game Of Thrones”)
• Kae Alexander (Leaf from “Game Of Thrones”)
• Reece Noi (Mossador from “Game Of Thrones”)
• Jimmy Vee (R2-D2 in “Star Wars: Episode VIII” & Various “Doctor
Who” Characters)
• Pip Torrens (Rocastle from “Doctor Who”)
• Tiana Benjamin (Angelina Johnson from “Harry Potter”)
• Anna Shaffer (Romilda Vane from “Harry Potter”)
• Georgina Leonidas (Katie Bell from “Harry Potter”)
• Robert Llewellyn (Kryten from “Red Dwarf”)
• Chloe Annett (Kristine Kochanski from “Red Dwarf”)
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With that being said, let’s dive in...
Shangel
Note: I wrote this review weeks ago, but was too busy to upload it.
It feels as though every time I write a review recently, I say “this one
will be shorter than usual”, and then it ends up being 10+ pages...excluding
pictures. Alas, on this occasion, I don’t intend the review to be overly lengthy.
Firstly, I didn’t meet as many people as I usually do. Secondly, a lot of the
people I did meet were studio photos only, which gives me a lot less to talk
about. Plus, I have a uni assignment due in on Thursday morning and “Wales
Comic Con” next weekend to prepare for. Nonetheless, I shall give you a decent
overview of my time at “Film & Comic Con Cardiff”, while also trying to
keep some shred of sanity due to my workload this week.
“Film & Comic Con Cardiff” took place over the weekend of the 29th
and 30th of October at the Motorpoint Arena in, you guessed it,
Cardiff. While I adore Cardiff as a city and would gladly live there one day, I
have something of a love/hate relationship with the venue, having attended a
few conventions there in the past. Firstly, the lighting is always awful. Like, the co-worst lighting of
any convention I’ve been to awful (the co-winner being “Stars Of Time”). On
this occasion, it was once again dire. The lights aren’t sufficient for a venue
of this size. Not by a long way...in my opinion. Furthermore, half of the venue
had white lights and half of the venue had yellow lights, which meant that the
contrast of the pictures was really dodgy as well and hurt my eyes all weekend.
The other main reason I dislike the Motorpoint Arena as a convention venue is
that the studio photo area is on the first floor, leaving queuing to take place
in a tiny corridor that quickly becomes very warm and stuffy. That’s not to say
the studio photo crew were bad – they weren’t. In fact, they were really good!
Leading into the positives of the event, I’ll start with the crew. From
the photo area to the talk area, to the gentleman hosting the panels, to the
crew at the autograph tables, to the crew on the doors, everyone I interacted
with was fantastic. All helpful, all positive, all cheery, which isn’t always
the case. A long, tiring weekend coupled with the fact that they’re often
unpaid volunteers can sometimes – understandably so – leave the crew a little
stressed out, but this didn’t seem to be the case at this event. Another
positive is that the talk hall is very nice. It’s a long, relatively thin room
on the second floor, which means the noise of the event below is absent,
leaving a much more intimate feeling.
Unfortunately, the ‘Cardiff Curse’ struck again when it came to the
guest list. It feels as though every single edition of “Film & Comic Con
Cardiff” gets hit particularly badly with cancellations. Cancellations are a
part of every convention and you expect a few people to pull out without fail, but
it feels as though every year (or twice a year) almost every headliner
systematically pulls out at the last minute. I don’t know if it’s the time of
year or just plain bad luck, but out of the 14 people I deemed to be
‘headliners’ at various Cardiff cons, 12 of the ones I wanted to meet have
pulled out. It sucks. In the case of this event, Christopher Fairbanks, Faye
Marsay, Hannah Waddingham, and Maya Stojan were all people I was looking
forward to meeting for the first time (Christopher) or meeting again (the other
three). In the case of Maya, I was really
disappointed. Granted, I just saw Maya in September, but we got on great
and I’d arranged to conduct an interview with her over “Film & Comic Con
Cardiff” weekend...frickin’ bad luck! I will freely admit, after Maya’s
cancellation, I lost three-quarters of my excitement for the event instantly.
Nevertheless, myself and my friend Dom left Gloucestershire at the
bizarre time of 10am, ready to head to Cardiff and soak up the remaining
convention goodness. Now, leaving for a convention at 10am is a first for me
and it completely threw me off. Due to the lack of activities on my schedule, I
was able to sleep in (read: get up at 6am and watch “Breaking Bad” again) and
drive the one-hour to Cardiff at my own leisure. As I’m sure you just noticed,
I drove to the event myself. Both days. Long-time readers will know that I loathe driving to conventions and I
usually rope someone else in to do it for me, with the agreement that I’ll
cover their entry if they drive. No such luck on this occasion, so I bought a
little stand for my phone that sticks to the dashboard of my car, switched on
the sat-nav, and headed to the Motorpoint Arena, both excited by what remained
on my schedule and also still peeved about the cancellations and the inevitable
shit lighting that would await me.
The journey went smoothly, finding parking was easy, and we entered the
venue at 11:30am. So far, so good! My itinerary for the day was simple...or
certainly simple by my standards – I had one studio photo with Kae Alexander
booked, in addition to needing autographs from Jimmy Vee, Pip Torrens, Reece
Noi, and Gemma Whelan. Plus, if I found the time, I’d blag pictures with Robert
Llewellyn and Chloe Annett at their autograph tables. I also wanted to attend
the “Game Of Thrones” talk, while Dom wanted to attend the “Red Dwarf talk”. 5
hours, 2 talks, 1 studio photo, 4 autographs, and 2 picture blags...easy!
When it comes to planning a convention, here’s some general advice.
Photo times are fixed. Talk times are fixed. Autographs are not fixed.
Therefore, create a plan of your fixed events and then fill in the gaps with
the autographs and picture blags. However, if the guest is going to be popular,
they’re going to be virtually queuing their attendees. That basically means you
get a slip of paper with a number on it and they call you in groups (1-10,
1-20...). You can join the queue any time after your number is called. So, if
you want an autograph from a bigger guest, get the virtual queuing tickets
first before you do anything else. Also, don’t leave the autographs too late or you run the risk of the
guest leaving early. Be smart, be prepared, be willing to adapt if needed. On
this occasion, the “Red Dwarf” talk was scheduled for 1pm, with the “Game Of
Thrones” talk taking place right after it at 1:45pm. My photo with Kae was
scheduled for 4:20pm, leaving a nice two-hour gap between the talks and the
photo where I could get my autographs and picture blags accomplished.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, I have a
confession for you all...I have never seen “Red Dwarf”. Not a single episode. Not
even half an episode. It’s the one large franchise to have completely passed me
by. I do intend to correct this error in the near future, but as of this moment
I’m a “Red Dwarf” virgin (Shangel Note:
Since writing this review, I’ve started watching!). However, I love the
cast. I worked with Chris Barrie, Hattie Hayridge, Danny John-Jules, and Robert
Llewellyn three weeks ago at “Gloucester Comic Con”, which I helped to
co-organise. All four of them were delightful.
I managed to get pictures with three of the four, but I missed out on Robert as
he had to leave early to head straight to filming elsewhere. Hence the need for
the picture blag here. Plus, if you’ve met four of the seven opening credited
actors from the show, you may as well meet a fifth and blag a picture with
Chloe Annett too.
Due to my lack of “Red Dwarf” knowledge, some of the talk was lost on
me. However, I knew enough about the show to be able to enjoy it immensely.
Chloe was funny and interesting, although she seemed a little shy on the stage.
In the case of Robert, you can instantly tell that he’s a tried-and-tested
comedian and stage performer, as he didn’t have a moment of awkwardness
whatsoever. He was telling stories, talking about his favourite groinal
attachment (in the show!), running
through the procedure of filming an episode of the show...and he even had the
time to plug both his books! Even as a Dwarf virgin, it was a great panel. It
was funny, interesting, informative, and you felt as though you got to know the
personality of both of the guests, particularly Robert, which is always
nice...and works as a great ice-breaker if you intend to get their autograph
later in the day as you feel as though you know them a bit and the talk usually
leaves you with some comments or questions to ask.
Next up was the “Game Of Thrones” panel with Gemma Whelan, Kae
Alexander, and Reece Noi, which lacked the presence and consistency of the “Red
Dwarf” panel, but was still enjoyable. The standout was easily Gemma Whelan. As
a stand-up comedian who has historically performed a one-woman show of sorts,
Gemma appears totally at ease on the stage. She’s very quick-witted, always has
a story to tell, and almost acts as a co-host of the panel, prompting answers
or comments out of the other guests too. Whether it was talking about her
audition scene – where she had to masturbate an invisible penis behind her
while sat on a chair – or talking about the challenges that accompany jumping
into a boat while running – Gemma lit up the stage. In contrast, Kae and Reece
were more reserved, while still being funny and interesting. Reece talked about
filming in Croatia, much to the dismay of Gemma, who has never filmed outside
of Belfast, while Kae explained that Leaf’s makeup and prosthetics started off
taking TWELVE HOURS to complete (her
wake-up call was 11:30pm, ready to start filming THE NEXT MORNING), before being refined down to a still awful eight
hours. Gemma also talked about filming the scene with Alfie (Theon), where she
has to...erm, masturbate him, while they’re riding a horse. Evidently, the
horse wouldn’t move, so next time you watch the scene, imagine the visual that
just out of shot someone is pulling the horse along with a rope. Hilarious!
Two great talks in a nice room with a terrific host. Definitely a good
start to the day...even though it was 2:15pm by this point. How bizarre. With
two hours until the studio photo, it was time to head back down to the ground
floor and start meeting some guests! Saturday was busy. Busy to the point where
walking down the merchandise aisles was a pain in the ass. Thankfully, by the
time we headed back downstairs after the talks, the crowd had started to thin,
particularly around the guest area (excluding Gemma Whelan and Robert
Llewellyn), which meant that the autograph queues were virtually nonexistent.
Before starting to get the autographs, I saw Joe Altin (Pyp from “Game Of
Thrones”) checking out the merchandise stands with his adorable daughter,
complete with Harry Potter cosplay. I knew that Joe was going to be there and
we’d arranged to say “hi” as Joe is a friend of mine. I chatted to Joe for a
little bit before it was time to start the autographs!
Gemma Whelan: Even though
Gemma was still pretty busy as this point, I decided to get Gemma out of the
way first, as it would basically leave the rest of my day queue-free. Good ol’
Gemma. I’ve actually met Gemma a couple of times before this. Once in July of
2015 (autograph) and once in July of 2016 (studio photo only). Gemma remembered
me and our previous meetings, which is always a nice little self-esteem boost,
particularly when you haven’t really seen them in almost a year and a half (I
don’t count photoshoots as they’re so fast and conveyer belt-like)! Of course,
we talked about “Game Of Thrones” and how freezing
it was to film Balon’s funeral scenes in the morning...in Belfast...in
November...they actually had to cut the scene and try it again later in the day
due to Gemma’s teeth chattering so badly that she couldn’t say her lines. We
also talked about her recent back injury while filming the new season of “Game
Of Thrones”, although she went into zero specifics
as she’s not allowed to give away anything
about the upcoming season. They even made a point of saying that before the
“Game Of Thrones” talk both days – if you have a question about the new season,
don’t ask it, as they can’t answer it. HBO are notoriously strict when it comes
to leaks of information of any kind with an upcoming Thrones season. As I’d
gotten Gemma’s autograph before, Gemma decided to make this one different and
add a quote, her favourite quote of Yara’s from the show (she decided all this
by herself without me saying a word, which was nice) – “Anything with a cock is
easy to fool”. I laughed. She laughed. Then she determinedly made the ‘c’ at
the beginning of ‘cock’ look more ‘c’-like so that there could be no confusion.
I thanked her for coming, we took a picture together at the autograph table
(she remained sitting down as her back is injured), and we were on our merry
way. A little while later, a sign went up behind Gemma saying “no flash photography”.
I’m not sure if that was due to our picture or a combination of many people
using flashes, but once again this problem can be easily fixed by making the
venue the brightness of every other damn venue in the country! I don’t need to
use a flash at any other convention. Guest
Type = Responder.
(Regular readers, you can skip this section)
“Shangel, what’s a ‘responder’?”
I’m glad you asked. Many years ago, after attending numerous
conventions, I devised a system whereby to categorise my experiences with
guests and their level of interaction in order to compare the quality of my
experiences across conventions and time. I have O.C.D., shut up. The following
three types were found :-
· The Responder: This type
of guest is often polite and friendly. If you ask them a question, they’ll
happily answer. If you comment on something, they’ll respond or smile
gratefully. However, they won’t carry the conversation forward, you have to.
These are the most common type of guest, and this is what you expect when
meeting someone at a convention. This is a great category to be a part of.
· The Groucho/Big Guest:
There are two aspects to this category. Firstly, you have the groucho. The
groucho is there for monetary purposes or is generally just having a bad day,
or is a bit of an ass. If you meet enough people, one of them is bound to be an
ass! The grouchos aren’t interested in conversations above a few words. They’ll
say ‘hi’ (sometimes they don’t bother with that), sign, say ‘bye’ (sometimes),
and you’re on your merry way. Of course, in certain situations this is relevant
and expected, which brings me to the second part of this category, the big
guest. Some guests are going to be insanely popular. Such as Stan Lee at LFCC
‘14, who had an entire building to himself basically. When you get a huge queue
like that, the guest can’t take a lot of time with everyone. If they did, many
people would go home disappointed at not getting to meet them at all.
Therefore, the convention company and the guest want to get through as many
people as possible. You cannot have a huge guest and expect to get above a
minute with them, which is perfectly fair.
· The Conversationalist:
This is easily my favourite type of guest. They’ll answer your questions with a
smile, ask you questions in return, and are happy to chat for an extended
period of time (extended = above 2-3 minutes), regardless of where the conversation
leads or how long you’ve been talking. Obviously, there has to be some cut-off
point if there is a queue behind you, but you leave the experience feeling
euphoric and like you gained a lot more than just the autograph you queued for.
Feel free to let me know your experiences with guests in the comments
below or on social media!
Reece Noi: From one
side of the guest section alcove to the other, it was time to head from the
Iron Islands to Meereen to meet Mossador himself, Mr. Reece Noi, who was sporting
some seriously chunky silverware on his fingers. Unlike most people he’d met
that day, I primarily knew Reece from “Waterloo Road”, as he portrayed a
villainous little shit, Earl Kelly, during the time period where I used to
watch the show. We talked about “Waterloo Road” and how Reece has to find something good or redeemable in every
role he accepts, as he finds it too challenging to play a character that he
thinks is purely evil. Historically, he’s turned down a part or two for this
very reason. We then transitioned to talking about “Game Of Thrones”, and how
it was a shame to see him go so soon. When Reece was asked to return for season
five, he was disappointed to see how few lines he had in the first few
episodes...but at least he’d get to film a fun decapitation scene!...Then he
realised that the person being decapitated was him! Oops. As I said to Reece,
if you’re going to go out, go out like that. Croatia, beautiful set, hundreds
of extras, and a memorable moment. Reece encouraged me to go to Croatia,
whether it was as part of a “Game Of Thrones” guided tour or just by myself to
explore, as it’s one of the most stunning places he’s ever visited. I thanked
Reece, we took a picture together, and it was time to move on to the next
guest! Guest type = Responder.
Pip Torrens: With Jimmy
upstairs in his “Doctor Who” talk with Ian McNeice, I moseyed on over to Pip,
who I primarily knew from Doctor Who’s epic two-parter, “Human Nature” and “The
Family Of Blood”...I’m curious as to why Pip wasn’t in the “Doctor Who” talk,
actually. I digress. Myself and Pip talked about “Doctor Who” and Pip made
reference to the fact that he wished he had hindsight when recording the
episodes, as he didn’t fully appreciate
how special they are and how different they are to the regular episodes of
“Doctor Who”. He also mentioned that David Tennant was a delight to work with and he never saw David without a smile on his
face or being enthusiastically energetic. I mentioned that this must have been
tough on David, considering he was in the middle of his mammoth “Doctor Who”
run and his hours must have been insane. Pip agreed and said that with large
franchise shows like Who, you tend to find the leading man is always positive
and tries to make the atmosphere as exciting as possible as he/she knows that
their example will have a trickle-down effect through the rest of the cast and
crew. We then talked about the secrecy of filming “Star Wars”, and I mentioned
that some of the Marvel television recurring cast are only able to get their
scripts from one computer and can only print it via one printer. Pip talked
about the annoyance of hover-drones and how when he was filming “War Horse”,
Steven Spielberg used to keep a jeep circling the set at all times, kicking up
just the right amount of smoke to keep the hover-drones from being able to get
what they needed. It’s smart, but it’s also sad that we live in a world where
people try to take pictures of upcoming television shows or films and spoil it
for themselves or other people, just like with the recent “Game Of Thrones”
season seven pictures that have been emerging. Not cool, guys. Not cool. Pip
was a fantastic guest! He was really
talkative, really interesting, and it turned out to be my favourite (and best)
conversation of the weekend. Got a picture with him too! All for the small
price of £10. Awesome experience! Guest Type
= Conversationalist.
With Robert’s queue still going strong and Jimmy still upstairs, I asked
Chloe’s crew member (Chloe was busy talking to attendees) if it was okay to get
a picture with Chloe, as her queue was empty by this point and I could potentially
use the picture for the review. He said it was fine, Chloe was also fine with
it, so I nabbed a picture with her for free. Awesome! I must admit, you’ve
gotta give the devils their due here, Showmasters don’t allow guests to charge
for pictures at the autograph table whatsoever, which is sadly becoming fairly
uncommon in the U.K. over the past year or so. Many U.K. conventions have
started to adopt the American-style charging for ‘selfies’, which can be quite
the financial strain if you’re meeting multiple people in a day.
Jimmy Vee: After a
little merchandise perusing, Jimmy was back at his table. I was really excited
to meet Jimmy as he’s someone that has eluded me historically and I’ve wanted
to meet for years. Either he was announced for conventions I wasn’t going to or
he had to pull out of the ones I was. Finally, our paths crossed! Jimmy has
done it all. From playing a goblin in “Harry Potter” to taking over from Kenny
Baker inside the R2-D2 droid in “Star Wars: Episode VIII”, to various “Doctor
Who” creatures (including Slitheen, Moxx of Balhoon, and Bannakaffalatta),
Jimmy has been systematically appearing in basically every huge franchise that
records in the U.K. One thing I love about Jimmy is that he’s always happy and
messing around, and having a good time. He doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder
because he’s largely a ‘monster’ actor, just like Spencer Wilding. They both
know their role and they excel at those roles. After talking for a while about
“Doctor Who”, Jimmy told me that the most challenging of all the creatures he’s
portrayed was the Slitheen because he had to stay inside the suit for 12 hours
at a time and the suit weighed 3 stone. The prospect of carrying around 3 stone
for 12 hours is daunting enough for me and I’m twice Jimmy’s size, so I can
only imagine what a nightmare that must have been for him! I must say, after
waiting to meet Jimmy for a few years now, he didn’t disappoint. He was
friendly, hilarious, talkative, and seemed to appreciate everyone who crossed
his table. He was also offering table pictures too and coming around to the peasant
side of the table to have them taken, which is always an appreciated addition
to the experience. What a guy! Guest
Type = Conversationalist.
By this point, it was 4pm. With 15 minutes left until I needed to head
upstairs to the studio photo, I joined the back of Robert’s finally-dwindling
queue to get the picture. Robert remembered me from “Gloucester Comic Con” and
was happy to take a picture with me. We talked a little about “Gloucester Comic Con” and why he had to dash off so quickly after the “Red Dwarf” group photo. I
thanked him immensely for being so gracious, and it was once again time to head
back to the first floor. The picture with Kae went very well. It came out
great, it started on time, and Kae remembered me from our meeting in July, so I
had time for one last little self-esteem boost before myself and Dom headed
back home to Gloucestershire.
Day one, check!
Day two, commence!
If Saturday was particularly quiet by my standards, Sunday was a doddle.
Just needed to get an autograph from Oliver Ford Davies, attend two talks
(“Game Of Thrones” and “Harry Potter”), and have four studio pictures taken
(Oliver, Georgina Leonidas, Anna Shaffer, and Tiana Benjamin). The only
downside is that there was lots of time to kill between those activities. There
would be a 90-minute gap between the talks, and a further 60-minute gap between
the final talk and my last three studio photos. Ugh. Lots of waiting around!
Due to this waiting around, I ended up buying a Longclaw replica (Jon Snow’s
sword in “Game Of Thrones”) and got a very good deal on it! It’s beautiful and now sits proudly in my
house. I blame the fact that nobody was there to keep me in check. For the
first time in my convention attending history, I went solo. That’s right,
ladies and gentlemen. I was a lonely, bored little duckling.
Oliver Ford Davies: As I largely attended the Sunday of the event for Oliver, I’m pleased
to report that he was worth the drive! What a gentleman! Oliver was
enthusiastic, polite, and a wonderful storyteller. He talked about filming the
idol-burning scene on the beach in Belfast as the sun was rising (freezing, yet
beautiful), he talked about the director wanting him to be just at the water’s
edge and having the water lap over his sandals (it took multiple attempts),
which left his feet dripping wet and ice-cold by the end of the morning, he
talked about heading to set with a gentleman named ‘Stephen’, who was just
starting his first day of a five-year contract...that man turned out to be
Stephen Dillane (Stannis), and he talked about what it was like filming with
Carice Van Houten (Melisandre) and
seeing his friend Liam Cunningham (Davos) again. Originally, Maester Cressen
was to have a large beard, but this was changed to those hideous mutton-chops
at the last minute as it would have been a nightmare trying to get the dried
blood out of the beard for subsequent takes after Maester Cressen had first
started to bleed from the mouth. All very fascinating to a “Game Of Thrones”
obsessive like myself, I can assure you. As I had nobody with me and I had a
studio photo with Oliver later in the day, I didn’t bother asking for a picture
with him at the autograph table. All in all, a wonderful experience...and only
£10! Guest Type = Responder.
Right after I finished up with Oliver, it was time to head to the first
floor to get my studio photo with Oliver. It was Oliver-fest 2016! The photo
session went smoothly and started on time, once again. Oliver was so fascinated
by the instant printing process that after the photos were taken, he came to
have a look at how it all worked, and examined my picture with him. I don’t
know why, but I love that he was that interested.
Next, it was time to head up one more floor for the “Game Of Thrones”
talk with Gemma Whelan (again), Kae Alexander (again), Donald Sumpter (I love
him), and, you guessed it, Oliver! This panel was terrific and was an improvement over the panel the previous day. I
don’t know if it was because of the extra person or because the two elder
statesmen are such good storytellers, but the panel had a lovely flow to it. I
don’t know if Donald Sumpter has a stand-up comedy background or if he’s just
naturally hilarious, but he had me in stitches basically throughout the entire
panel. Furthermore, he’s half-deaf, so he couldn’t understand half of what was
being said when someone spoke into the microphones. Donald mentioned that the
exterior of Winterfell during the first season was a nightmare because whenever
it rained a little (“and how likely is that in Belfast?”), the entire yard
would become a river of icy water and mud. When the King and his escort first
come to Winterfell, Donald and Ron (Rodrik Cassel) had to get on their
knees...into the freezing mud and water....repeatedly. By the 10th
take, they had to use each other to help each other get up again! In the end,
you can barely see them in the scene. Donald said that now he rejects parts
based on stuff like this. Horse-riding? Nope. Running across a field? Certainly
not. Oliver agreed to this too. Donald and Oliver had a chuckle when Kae
reiterated that the Leaf prosthetics and makeup took 12 hours because they wouldn’t
dream of doing something like that
anymore – “The part calls for prosthetics? Nope!” It was clear that Donald and
Oliver were old friends (they worked together on stage 30 years ago and on
radio 15 years ago), as they had great chemistry. To be honest, all four of
them did! Gemma, Donald, Oliver, and Kae bounced off of each other perfectly.
Donald also mentioned that he doesn’t like working with props now and likes to
keep his body ridged and his arms by his sides at all times...hilarious man!
Great panel, very funny, everyone did a good job.
*I killed an hour and a half by sitting on the balcony playing on my
phone*
2:30pm was the Harry Potter panel with Tiana Benjamin (Angelina
Johnson), Anna Shaffer (Romilda Vane), and Georgina Leonidas (Katie Bell). Like
its predecessor, this panel was also hilarious
and informative. Tiana talked about being intimidated when she first met Alan
Rickman, Anna and Georgina both talked about their first day on set, and all
three of them seemed appreciative at being a part of such a huge franchise
show. Anna and Georgina in particular came across as huge fans of the Harry
Potter franchise in general, with Georgina talking about crying at Snape’s
death. I love that they are huge fans too like us! It makes you instantly
connect to them and makes you even happier that they got the parts. One of the
more awkward (and ridiculously funny) parts of the panel was when someone asked
what it was like working with more experienced and well-established actors, “as
nobody knows who you are”. Let me reiterate, I don’t think the gentleman meant
it how it came across whatsoever. I
think the wording just came out a little funny because he was talking
publically to actors from a franchise he loves. Either way, the whole room
burst into shocked laughter, with Tiana saying, “don’t drop it like that!”...I
was in stitches. It was an awesome panel. Tiana was unintentionally hilarious,
Anna was adorable, and Georgina was a sweetheart. I must admit, I didn’t know
much about any of them outside of their Potter work, but I left the day
becoming huge fans of all three of them. Very impressive. Oh! Also! Anna
Shaffer got starstruck when she met Giancarlo Esposito from “Breaking Bad”,
while Georgina mentioned that Helena Bonham Carter was particularly wonderful
and made a point of finding out everyone’s names and calling Georgina by her
name all the time...even when they saw each other again years later.
Tremendous.
*I killed another hour on the balcony*
Finally, after what felt like a very long weekend, I was on the home
stretch. Just three studio photos remaining before I could collect my Longclaw
replica, go to Yo! Sushi, and go home. Mercifully, all three started on time
and the process was enjoyable and painless. All three were right after each
other and there were perhaps eight or nine of us that did all three on a loop.
Easy, easy, easy! All three of the actresses were wonderfully polite and
energetic too, which helped me smile for the pictures, particularly as I was
bone-tired. Instant-printing, you are a God-send.
I drove home, attached my Longclaw replica to the wall, and died quietly
for the rest of the night.
Would I return to “Film & Comic Con Cardiff”? It’s hard to say. I
probably would, but I’d leave it until the last minute in case the guests
cancel, and I’d go for studio photos with everyone
I wanted to meet as the main hall lighting quality is atrocious. Other than
the lighting issue, the cancellations, and the small studio photo queuing
corridor, a good time was had. Was it the best convention I’ve been to? No. Was
it the best convention I’ve been to this year? Nope. Was it the best convention
I’ve been to this autumn? Afraid not. However, the crew and the guests I met
made up for that.
I’ll catch you all next week for my review of “Wales Comic Con 2016 Part II”, which promises to be a big and spectacular show (Shangel Note: It was)!
FINAL SCORE: 6.5/10
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