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the view from both
sides of the signing table... |
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april
21 - 24, 2005 - indiana convention centre - indianapolis, usa |
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with contributions from : - |
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jonathan l bowen |
ian liston |
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author |
| anticipation:
the
real
life
story
of
star
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wars:
episode
I --
the
phantom |
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menace |
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wes
janson |
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empire
strikes back |
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Celebration III brought the best of the Star Wars
universe together at the Indiana Convention Centre on April 21st – 24th 2005.
Fans from all over the world gathered to commemorate the saga as they
anticipated the release of Revenge of the Sith. Celebration III
promised to be one of the most memorable media events ever, a celebration of
the entire Star Wars saga that would live on long after Episode III had
left the theatres, and boy did it deliver...
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Well, that's how the official press kit
introduced Celebration III to the world, but did it indeed deliver
on its initial promise? After C2, which drew 26 000 fans
three years earlier to celebrate the release of Attack of the Clones,
fans waited eagerly for the next Celebration, timed to coincide with the
release of the final big screen Star Wars movie Revenge of the
Sith. But how was it really during those four days in
Indianapolis? Was it a mad squash in queues, a frustrating wait for
events, banging heads with uncooperative event staff, or was it the single
best Star Wars experience of your fandom, a great chance to meet the stars
of the films - and see George Lucas speak personally to the massed
crowds? Whatever it was, here you will find a wealth of stories from
a wealth of people about Celebration III. |
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thursday april 21st
2005 |
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I arrived in Indianapolis,
Indiana just before dinner on Wednesday after a fairly long trip from
Portland, Oregon on the West Coast. On Thursday, I woke up at 7:00 a.m., ate
breakfast, and headed over to the line before 9 for the noon opening of the
third Star Wars Celebration. The
weather Thursday was disappointing. Wednesday was a beautiful day with plenty
of sun and warm temperatures, but Thursday was cold and completely overcast.
Everyone in line felt fortunate that no rain appeared, at least. The Indianapolis Star reported that 22,000 fans
pre-registered for Celebration III, which is nearly three times the 8,000 who
pre-registered for the second Celebration. Total attendance was expected to be
somewhere around 30,000 fans.
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| Fortunately,
unlike Celebration II, the convention line did not go around numerous city
blocks, but up the stairs of the convention center and around a well
organized maze of metal bars to control the crowds. By 9 a.m., I was already
destined to be far behind in line, but not in a terrible position; other fans
were an extra 45 minutes away from gaining entry. While in line, I witnessed
quite a scary car accident where one guy apparently glanced over at the line
and swiped another car quite hard, which sent the car spinning across several
lanes to rest against the curb. Nobody was injured. |
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just your average
coruscant queue... |
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| The line began moving shortly
after noon, but I did not enter the convention hall until 12:40, at which
point I was already too hungry to think of doing anything besides eat a few
slices of pizza and plan the day. Looking at the event activities for the
day, and having already been to two celebrations before with Star Wars guests, I was a lot more
interested in footage from Revenge of
the Sith and presentations related to the new film rather than
recollections or talks with previous actors and actresses. Thursday seemed
like a great day to shop for new Star
Wars
collectibles, especially because of the small edition sizes, so I decided to
spend the day mostly in Exhibition Hall D with all of the merchandising
companies and collectible tables. |
| Before going to the exhibit hall,
I went to Room 105 where the Star Wars
Art exhibit took place. At the Art Exhibit, numerous Star Wars artists who have contributed to covers, Topps cards, and even the official Revenge of the Sith Hasbro seal were available to meet.
Additionally, each artist was allowed one lithograph to sell at the
Celebration, limited to 250 maximum. I bought prints from Cat Staggs, Chris Trevas, Ken Steacy, and Brian
Rood. Additionally, when I left for the exhibit hall, I had the opportunity
to speak to young and beautiful, and new, Star
Wars artist Sarah Wilkinson, who had recently completed more than 500
sketch cards for Topps’s Revenge of the Sith trading cards. I bought an original sketch
card from Sarah and had the pleasure to speak to her about a film project she
did with fellow artist Matt Busch, who Star
Wars fans know
from his work on many products and covers for the franchise. |
| The exhibit hall really took most of the day to see
in full. Master Replicas had their high quality collectibles on display,
including a dual set of gold lightsabers that are
unavailable for purchase but given away at a drawing later in the
Celebration. I entered the drawing, then stood in
line for the Celebration III exclusive collectible from Master Replicas, a
.45 scale replica of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber. Apparently, many people
wanted the $35 collectible because the line took more than half an hour. |
| After Master Replicas, I had to
see the Code 3 collectibles booth with an exclusive Empire Strikes Back sculpted poster collectible, but the sales of
the item, limited to 1980, were too brisk; I had to pick up a wristband to
return the next day because they sold all their
on-site inventory. Code 3 has some fantastic Star Wars
vehicle replicas, including a new AT-ST. I have spent too much money on
Master Replicas over the years to collect Code 3 collectibles, too, but
Celebration III changed my mind so I picked up a catalogue so I can order a
few items online after the Celebration ends. |
| A Borders display had Matthew
Stover’s Revenge of the Sith novel in a signed special edition
limited to 1,000 copies for $100, so I had to buy the novel, too. At the last
two Celebrations, I also paid a hefty sum for the limited editions of the
first two novels, so I had to complete my collection. I do not remember the
other novels being $100 each, though, and I talked in line with a fan who
complained about the price as well. |
| Although I had little interest in
the dealer setups, I found a UK dealer selling some fantastic collectibles
from across the Atlantic. For $80, I bought a portfolio of ten Revenge of the Sith prints that is limited to 3,000 total. The dealer had quite a few other collectibles I had
never seen in the States, but the items were a lot pricier and I had spent
quite enough for one day. |
| Before leaving the exhibit hall,
I stopped at the USA Pins booth and spent another few hundred dollars on two
framed, limited edition pin collections and a set of five extremely limited
(150 each) larger pins about half of fist-sized from Revenge of the Sith.
At the last Celebration, I had bought a few pin sets from USA Pins and I
admire their work, so I felt I had to complete my collection. Not being a
huge toy collector, I find a lot of the best collectibles and artwork at the
Celebrations. |
| A highlight of the day for me was
seeing a gorgeous girl dressed up as Princess Leia in her classic slave
outfit. At the past two Celebrations, brave girls dressed up as Slave Leia,
but they could hardly match Carrie Fisher’s looks in Return of the Jedi.
The girl I met at Celebration III was beautiful and, though I may be
committing sacrilege by saying so, far prettier than Carrie Fisher. She told
me she was 21 years old, wanted to dress up as Leia since she was 16, and
loved the attention because it made her feel like a celebrity. She was very
friendly and let fans, including myself, take pictures with her during the
Celebration. I had the good fortune of running into her four times throughout
the day, including while in line and just before I left the convention
center. |
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jonathan l bowen with princess leia in the
metal bikini... |
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| The line for the Celebration
Store was too ridiculous and would have taken several hours, so I avoided the
wait on Thursday. I am not a huge toy collector and only really want the
posters and the pin set from the Celebration Store, but waiting a few hours
in line for them did not seem worthwhile. I hoped that when the toys were
close to selling out, I would be able to get into the store a lot easier. By
6:00 p.m. Thursday, I was exhausted and ready to head back to my hotel,
though festivities continued through midnight with a 10 p.m. showing of A New Hope
that I wished I had energy to see with the other diehard fans. |
| Everyone talked on Thursday about
Lucas attending Celebration III, with many people saying that to see any of
his three appearances, people would have to lineup no later than 3 a.m. on
Saturday morning. I think that seeing Lucas is a rare opportunity, so I contemplated
waiting outside in the cold for seven hours until the first Lucas talk but I
figured I would make my decision Friday night. |
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shannon mcrandle
signing away... |
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friday april 22nd
2005 |
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On Friday, I
made the mistake of showing up to the line right as the doors opened, which
gave me a nice view of the back of the line seemingly miles from the entrance.
In my entire life, I have never seen a line as impressive as the one Friday.
It went around the convention hall corner, then up the stairs, then twisted at
least 25 times, then back down the opposite stairs, then around a few more
parts of the building, then through a few tunnels, then twisted around again
another 10 to 15 times. I have no idea how many people I saw in line, but it
must have been at least 10,000, which would have made the line several miles
long including its twists and turns. Although the line was starting to move
when I began my epic quest to find the end of it, I still spent 100 minutes in
line until I saw the front doors again. The rain was horrible throughout the
lineup and my hands were freezing by the time I entered the convention hall.
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| Because of my absolutely pathetic
position in line, by the time I got into the convention center all of the Episode
III Spectacular! showings were full through
the next several hours. People waited many hours in line to see the eight
or so minutes of Revenge of the Sith
footage, which Rick McCallum showed as part of the presentation. I still
vividly remember watching the Attack
of the Clones
footage at Celebration II and being completely blown away by Yoda’s fight
scenes and a bunch of other short clips shown at the presentation, so I
was very disappointed at not being able to get into the Rick McCallum
shows and was wondering what I would do with my day. |
| I wandered around for a few hours
not able to see any of the better shows because of the ridiculously long
lines, which for a while made me frustrated and angry at the entire
Celebration. I started to think that if Lucasfilm was going to throw a
Celebration at all, it should be strictly limited to 10,000 people total
so that 10,000 fans come away extremely excited, happy, and fulfilled
instead of having 30,000 fans come away either mostly bummed, somewhat
disappointed, or only somewhat pleased. My mood quickly changed by the end
of the day, though, and I salvaged another quite fun and awesome day with Star Wars and Star Wars fans. |
| After buying an original General
Grievous painting from Sarah Wilkinson, which I think is wonderful and
will make a fantastic addition to my growing art collection, I met with
Jim Fisher at Jedinet.com. We talked about
Star Wars, the fan sites, the Celebration, and my non-fiction book, Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star
Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace,
for about an hour, which was wonderful because I always enjoy having the
opportunity to speak with other hardcore fans. Jim has really done the fan
community a service by saving Jedinet.com from the ashes and trying to
grow its traffic again after a period of hiatus. I also had the
opportunity to meet and speak with Lou “T’Bone
Fender” Tambone at StarWarz.com for a few minutes. |
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jonathan's book -
anticipation |
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| Rejuvenated by the conversations I
had with Jim and T’Bone, I managed to find the Star Wars Spectacular! line again and it was tiny. McCallum had decided to stay
for the rest of the day and personally appear each time to present the
footage to every fan who could fit in the room to
see it. I only waited 30 minutes to watch some of the most unbelievable
footage I have seen in my life. I am not sure if I am overreacting just
because it is all new Star Wars
footage and it lacks the familiarity that the other films have after at
least 50 viewings each, but I honestly thought the presentation for Episode III
was breathtaking and awesome. I will not spoil any of the parts of the
film, because I personally am trying to be as spoiler-free as possible
even though I have seen some footage, but I will make a few general
comments for readers. |
| I was most impressed with the new
locations in the footage, which for me is always a highlight of any new Star Wars film. As StarWars.com has
mentioned, Episode III has more
planets than every other Star Wars
movie combined. The pacing, the action, the lightsaber duels, the battle
sequences, the visual detail, and General Grievous were all stunning.
During the screening I attended, everyone was silent during the footage
except for seeing Mace Windu on screen, seeing Yoda, and seeing a scene
with Grievous. At the end, though, massive applause erupted for at least a
minute. At that moment, I would have probably paid $100 to have just the
eight minutes on a DVD to watch over and over until Opening Day. Having
seen the footage, and realizing that
Revenge of the Sith is going to be the most chaotic, visually stunning Star Wars
movie yet really changed my mood and refreshed me. |
| After seeing the Episode III footage, I went to the Meet the Episode III Art Department
show in the Sagamore Ballroom, which was the
event’s primary and largest room. MC Jay Laga’aia hosted all of the shows
and presentations in the room. I enjoyed listening to the art department
talk about the film, especially because the
Star Wars movies really are the most artistic films around. All of the
incredible locations, droids, characters, and weapons originate with the
art department, but Lucas carefully controls what finally appears in the
films. One of my favorite parts of the show was just a simple explanation
that I have tried to give to many people over the past few years, but the
art department guys explained it succinctly. People mention how the
technology in the prequels looks better than the Original Trilogy, so one
of the art department members mentioned how
Episode III is really a high point for the galaxy in the look of
vehicles, vessels, and technology, but by the time of A New Hope,
the galaxy has been ravaged by war. In essence, the functionality of
technology in the Original Trilogy becomes much more important than its
aesthetic qualities, which is why the technology in the prequels looks
beautiful but is not as potent. |
| Having seen a few shows for the day, I fully
salvaged Friday by going to the Star
Wars in Pop Culture show, which played on a loop throughout the
Celebration until midnight each day. The long presentation, which I
watched for about 45 minutes before realizing how exhausted I had become,
showcased Star Wars mentions from Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, and numerous other shows, news reports, and
even corny television commercials from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. The
presentation was great fun to watch, but I had been up since 7:00 in the
morning and was already really tired, so the dark room and padded chair
nearly made me fall asleep. The day was a success, though, and I left the
convention hall thinking that I had really done quite a bit after all,
despite the early frustrations. |
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the exclusive C3
talking darth vader |
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saturday april 23rd
2005 |
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The big event on Saturday, and at Celebration III as a whole, was the
attendance of George Lucas, the Jedi Master himself. Although I really wanted
to see Lucas, once I heard that people were going to camp out for the entire
night just to see him for 25-30 minutes, I began to have my doubts. I finally
decided against waiting in the long lines because of the frigid cold weather
and the pouring rain. Saturday was the only day I actually got a decent amount
of sleep, so I did not head over to the convention center until about noon.
Because I had no real interest in the Celebration Store and its ridiculously
long lines, and I missed seeing Lucas, I really had no definite plans for
Saturday.
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the flanneled one
george lucas... |
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| Before I
recall what I did Saturday, I want to share a few amusing stories I heard
about the Lucas lineup, which really deserves its own journal. I talked to
one die-hard fan later in the day who had attended the previous two
Celebrations as well and we both talked about how the weather was reminiscent
of Denver, Colorado in 1999, which was a Celebration many people called Hellebration. Others simply liked the slogan, “I survived
the first Star Wars Celebration.” Despite the muddy,
cold, wet, and mostly miserable conditions in Denver six years earlier, the
Lucas lineup and the fans who waited in it surpassed
even Denver for sheer misery and discomfort. |
| The
fan I first talked to about the lineup to see Lucas arrived at 11:30 p.m. the
night before, which was technically 30 minutes before anyone was supposed to
be allowed to lineup. The police had earlier kicked people out of line. Once
the line reformed just before midnight, though, the local police did not
interfere again. Quite a few other interferences arose, however. Not more
than a few hours after midnight, a group of fans returned to the lineup and
tried to claim they were actually in line before the existing line. They had
created an honor system of numbers, as the fan I spoke to described it, where
they thought they could just re-enter the lineup at a later point. Of course,
when the fans already in line in freezing cold, rainy, windy weather heard
about the numbering system from fans who had been in their hotel rooms, in
restaurants, and in warm places waiting to return to the front of the line,
nobody had much sympathy for the numbering system or its proponents. |
| At one
point, the fan with whom I spoke indicated he thought a riot was going to
break out because of the heated debate between members of the numbered lineup
group and those already in line waiting since midnight. Finally, everyone in
line just lost patience with the fans who were trying to cut, regardless of
the validity of their reasons, and told them to go to the back of the line.
The situation became ridiculous to the point of laughter, where fans in line
would joke around about having a number, who has a number, what the number
says, and what the number means. When new fans would come up and say, “I have
a number, 45, and should be in front of you,” fans already in line would say
something back like, “Yeah, I have a number, too, #1, and nobody is cutting
in front of me.” The hostility was tangible and rare among Star Wars
fans, but the situation resolved itself peacefully as anyone who got into
line in the middle of the night easily was able to see Lucas in the end. |
| More
problems persisted, however. On Saturday morning, temperatures plummeted into
the low 30s, or even worse with wind chill, so the conditions in Indianapolis
were not far from the ones the Rebel Alliance experienced on the ice planet
of Hoth. Weirder still, Indy had just experienced several weeks of 70 to 80
degree weather with a nice, warm breeze. The bitter cold in the early morning
hours Saturday threatened to tear apart the line and actually cause real
health hazards. Just a few hours after the lineup began, by 1-2 a.m., a few
fans left the line because of the hazardous, treacherous conditions. The
first few people to leave created somewhat of a bandwagon exodus as a
significant segment of people exited the line for the comforts of their warm
hotel rooms. Once the less hearty members of the line left, however,
virtually everyone else in line stayed the course and waited through the cold
conditions. |
| The
fan with whom I first spoke had nothing but a few t-shirts on for layering
and a flannel shirt along with a pair of jeans. Nobody packed for such cold
conditions because the weather forecast had been for overnight lows in the
mid to high 40s and fairly moderate daytime temperatures. Some fans, such as
the one with whom I talked, had to borrow supplies from other people in line.
Many fans just sat in the cold, bundled up as much as possible, and looked
down at the ground trying to pass the minutes in the freezing weather. One
fan even remarked that he thought he was near death from the hours of cold,
wet weather, which as funny as it might sound to anyone not present was
hardly a joke to fans who waited many hours outside
and felt their extremities lose feeling. Finally, the diehard fans had some
respite from the treacherous conditions, but many only temporarily. |
| By
about 4:30 a.m., police believed that the conditions were too hazardous for
everyone to be waiting outside, so the convention staff started moving people
into the building to stay out of the cold, which lasted for several hours as
I understand. Nonetheless, not everyone could stay inside for the entire
time, so many were moved back outside just hours later. Worse yet, the lineup
was poorly managed and some people still managed to
cut in the chaos created by the line movement. Ultimately, everyone who
waited the night was rewarded with a rare chance to see the man who brought
the world its greatest saga: George Lucas. With three shows, and 3,300 people
per show, almost 10,000 people could see Lucas total, which meant that many
people arriving even as late as 6 a.m. still managed to see the Flanneled One. |
| I
have not yet interviewed enough people to give a scientific consensus of what
people thought of the Lucas talk, but I talked to about ten fans who saw Lucas and all of them said the wait, despite its
difficulties, was worthwhile. One of the ten seemed a little apprehensive and
reluctant, saying only, “I guess” when I asked him if the wait was worth the
30 minute talk. |
| I
suspect that many people like myself did not even
try to wait in the Lucas line because of the fear that nobody would see him
without waiting all night. The day before he appeared, I asked numerous fans
about waiting to see Lucas and all of them said they thought even 3:00 a.m.
would be too late to get in line, so I started to think that everyone was
going to wait overnight. I became discouraged and thought that eight hours in
line to see Lucas simply was not worthwhile because I could be stuck at the
back of the room and barely even be able to see him. In retrospect, I should
have arrived at 5 or 6 a.m. and just waited a few hours, but I overestimated
the number of people who would be in line. Even so, I never fail to be
impressed by what lengths Star Wars
fans will go to for the Saga. Surely no fans of any other story in history
have ever been as devoted as Star Wars
fans. Despite the massive popularity of Lord
of the Rings and Harry Potter,
James Bond and Star Trek, I have
never seen fans of any other franchise wait months in line to get tickets,
many hours in line overnight in freezing conditions to see the creator, or
hours in line for a Celebration Store just to get plastic action figures. Star Wars
fans are diehards. Further still, the fans who
waited to see Lucas are the most hardcore of the diehards and certainly have
my respect. |
| At the
first Star Wars Celebration in
Denver, autographs were prohibited of the cast and crew members by convention
organizers, so fans had to satisfy their collecting needs elsewhere. At
Celebration II, despite Philip Wise’s wonderful
handling of the celebrity autograph hall, I never had the chance to meet any
of the stars or seek any signatures personally, but I purchased a few signed
photos at Celebration II. With the third Star
Wars Celebration, I wanted to see what the autograph hall had to offer,
so I took Matt Busch’s wonderful Star
Wars Celebration
III lithograph to the autograph hall and decided to start collecting
signatures. After many hours, I managed to obtain signatures from Matthew
Wood (General Grievous), Leanna Walsman
(Zam Wessell), Femi Taylor (Oola), Ray Park (Darth
Maul), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Amy Allen (Aayla Secura), Jerome Blake (Nute
Gunray), Michonne Bourriague (Aurra Sing), Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett), and
later Jay Laga’aia (MC of Celebration III and Captain Typho). |
| Amy
Allen has perhaps the most interesting story behind her autograph appearance
at Star Wars Celebration III.
Although she charged only one coupon ($10) for a signature, compared to two
coupons for many of the popular stars and even three for Billy Dee Williams,
Allen was an instant favorite with fans. The organizers had to move her booth
from the first section, where autograph access is supposed to be easier, to the queued section with line control because
she was drawing such a massive line on Thursday that it overshadowed and
disrupted the other stars. The secret to Allen’s success is not too well concealed:
she is absolutely gorgeous. Although she played only a small role in Attack of the Clones, and also appears
apparently in Revenge of the Sith,
her beauty overwhelmed anxious Star
Wars fans. I’m
guilty of being a drooling fanboy, too -- I waited
an hour in line to get my picture with her and an autograph. It was worth
every minute. |
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amy allen, signing at
c3... |
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| After
hours spent meeting stars and creating a killer collectible with my signed
poster, I went to Knoll Vision: Inside
Revenge, which was
long and absolutely worth watching. The line wait was short, but the
presentation with effects guru John Knoll lasted more than an hour, which was
fantastic. I came away most impressed by the incredible ability of Industrial
Light & Magic to create sets where only blue screens existed during
production. Anyone with half-way decent eyesight realizes that Coruscant and
other fantastic vistas must be computer generated, but what was stunning
about the footage Knoll showed were the number of sets that one would imagine
were built using typical construction techniques that are in fact entirely
computer generated. I am personally waiting for the few remaining CGI bashers
to complain about the creature effects while not even noticing that many of
the sets were entirely computer generated. In reality, ILM does such an
amazing job that nobody can tell computer graphics from physical reality
except by process of elimination (Coruscant cannot be real because it does
not exist, for instance). |
| At the
end of Knoll’s presentation, he showed a bunch of blooper footage that was hilarious
and fun. For instance, the cape movement and modeling software is
particularly difficult to perfect, so sometimes two characters would be
fighting and their capes would actually land on their own heads as the duel
continued in the computer rendered world. The software for many effects runs
independently of other modeling software, so when the cape effects are
generated with flaws, the rest of the simulation continues to run. The
results are often hilarious. I am hoping the bloopers all land on the Revenge of the Sith DVD, or at least on some ultimate
edition DVD set many years from now. I thought Knoll’s presentation was a highlight
of the weekend. |
| After
the John Knoll presentation ended, I went back to the autograph area because
Jay Laga’aia was signing autographs for just one hour, 6-7 p.m., for the
entire Celebration. I thought I should have his autograph on my poster, so I
waited about 40 minutes to get it. I also met briefly with Philip Wise, the
head of the autograph company, C2 Ventures, and co-owner of TheForce.net as
well as owner of Rebelscum.com. I talked to Mr. Wise briefly about my book,
but he told me to hurry up and get in line for Laga’aia’s
autograph and sent me away with a few Star
Wars pins, one for Rebelscum.com and another one that reads “Star Wars
is Forever.” The latter saying is one of my favorites, not only because it is
true, but also because it was a Hasbro phrase from quite a few years ago. |
| Saturday ended for me after meeting Laga’aia, but
I thought I would rest up and arise early Sunday for the final day of Star Wars Celebration III. Before I
slept, though, I actually had to go shopping at the mall attached to the
convention center to prepare for the cold weather. While at the mall, snow
started to fall on Indianapolis, so I had to buy a few extra pieces of clothing,
namely Nike thermal gear, running gloves, and a neck/ear warmer. I even had
to buy new shoes because for some reason mine had began
to fall apart from walking and standing in line all day. |
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I guess my
proudest moment was being presented with a Plaque as an Honorary Member of
the Rebel Legion. I was quite touched that they'd obviously gone to so
much time and trouble to create a special moment. I even got to sign a
life size replica of an X-Wing fighter that is a stunning piece of work. I met a guy who's
got one of the few AT-AT Driver replica costumes and then, lo and behold, I
get offered my own AT AT driver outfit which I'm looking forward to receiving. |
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sunday april 24th
2005 |
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I woke
up early Sunday so I could be present for the entire final day of Star Wars Celebration III. I am always
sad to see another Star Wars
Celebration come to an end because they present rare opportunities to meet
thousands of other Star Wars fans and be completely immersed in
all aspects of the saga for days. When I walked out into the freezing cold
Indy weather, however, I nearly turned around and went back to the hotel
room. Even with three layers of clothing on, gloves, and my neck warmer, I
was still freezing. The wind was miserable, snow was falling in tiny flakes,
though fortunately none was sticking to the ground, and my pants were not
even close to warm enough for winter-like weather in mid-spring.
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| The only
advantage to the miserable weather was a vastly shortened line. Although I
only got to the line by 7:30, which is not very early when the doors were to
open at 9, I was probably five times closer to the door than I had been
Friday and even slightly closer than I was Thursday. I suspect that many
people had to catch flights on Sunday and just skipped the last day, which
would explain the smaller crowds also. Fortunately, the convention center
opened its doors 30 minutes early, presumably because of the conditions, so
by 8:45 I was actually inside and in line for the 10:00 a.m. Nick Gillard Master / Action
presentation. Although I had great seats for the Nick Gillard talk, I did not
find the whole event hugely satisfying. I enjoyed hearing Gillard talk, especially
when he mentioned that he toned down the battle scenes for The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones at Lucas’s
request, but not for Revenge of the
Sith, which drew
huge applause. Even so, I really wanted more behind-the-scenes footage, or
maybe just more of Gillard talking about the movie and a shorter
question-and-answer session from the audience. |
| Immediately
after the Nick Gillard show, I got back in line for the same room’s next
event, Voicing Grievous -- Matthew Wood, which was much more entertaining,
although fairly short. By Sunday, I was completely entranced and obsessed
with Grievous in much the same way I was with Maul when I first began to hear
about his character. Why are the evil characters always the most fun? Seeing
more images of Grievous and listening to Wood talk about the character had me
really excited to see him in action. I also loved hearing the story Wood had
about landing the voice role. |
| Apparently,
Lucas had a rather large casting call for Grievous, but was
not liking any of the voices he had heard, so Wood was making note of
Lucas’s complaints and scheming. Before long, Wood decided to submit a voice
recording under a pseudonym, A. Smithee, after
wondering if he could incur Lucas’s wrath for such an attempt. Alan Smithee is actually the Hollywood name that directors and
other creative people attach to a project if they do not want their own names
involved, for varying reasons including displeasure with the final product.
The name inspired a movie, Burn
Hollywood Burn
(1997), that makes a joke of the name by telling the story
of a director actually named Alan Smithee who wants
to release his film anonymously because he has disowned it, but the
Director’s Guild requires directors to use the pseudonym Alan Smithee. |
| After a
few weeks of waiting, McCallum called Wood and told him that Lucas had decided
on an “A. Smithee” and wanted Wood to contact the
person. Of course, Wood thought McCallum was joking, so he tried to test him
by saying, “A. Smithee huh? Ok, I’ll let him know.”
McCallum had no idea, though, and was not joking. Wood finally had to tell
him, which elicited quite a shocked response from McCallum, but after talking
to Lucas, they agreed to have Wood do the voice work for Grievous, making him
one of the most high profile of Episode
III’s
stars almost overnight and for only about five hours of voice recording
total. The highlight of the entire Matthew Wood talk was having him use a
voice modifier to let audiences hear the voice of Grievous. Jay Laga’aia
asked him to say, “Would you like fries with that?” Hundreds of people had
the opportunity to hear one of the film’s main villains say, “Lord Sidious,
would you like fries with that?” in a sinister, deep voice. I was laughing
for a long time and kept thinking about the marketing opportunities had
McDonalds signed with Lucasfilm. I can just picture Grievous saying, “I’m lovin’ it!” |
| After
cramming two presentations into the final hours of the Celebration, I decided
to return to the autograph hall for a few more signatures on my prized
poster. I added Bai Ling (Senator Bana Breemu from Episode III),
Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar, Salacious Crumb), and Orli
Shoshan (Shaak Ti). I admit that I did not wait in
line for Billy Dee Williams because I heard at least ten fans say that he was
in a really bad mood, or just plain rude. One fan said that he actually
started to sign one poster, put his pen down, picked up a sandwich and took a
bite, took a swig of Coke, then finished signing. Personally, I would have
laughed if I watched him do that to me, but everyone said he was a jerk so I
figured I would not bother waiting an hour in line and paying $30 for a signature
from him. I later heard that perhaps he was in pain and had trouble sitting
for the huge number of autographs, but nothing can really explain why he was
late to arrive, making fans wait for hours, and apparently acted blatantly
rude to fans. |
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jeremy bulloch |
|
| With
just an hour left in the day, because of the early closing at 4 p.m., I
headed over to the exhibit hall one last time to visit Sarah Wilkinson. I
really wanted her original Celebration III painting, so I thought I would see
if anyone had given her an offer. Much to my delight, she still had the
painting, so we talked about prices for quite a while before agreeing to
communicate more via e-mail. I later bought her original for $1,500, which I
think is a fantastic deal for a Lucasfilm authorized original painting from
such a talented young artist and will make a fine addition to my already significant
collection. |
| Before
leaving the convention hall, I took one last look around the exhibit hall and
snapped a few photographs for the journal and so that I would have visuals to
remember the Celebration later. I did not realize at the time that the best
part of my entire weekend was yet to come, even though the Celebration had
just ended. |
| On
Sunday night, I sat down to write my journal entries for the past few days
because I had been too tired and too busy to write them all up each day, but
first I wanted an energy drink to keep me awake and
focused. My mom, who came along with me for the Celebration for the third
time (it has become a tradition), left the hotel room to grab me an energy
drink while I started to write, but when she came back she told me some
interesting news. We were staying at the Marriot in room 417, but the noise
across the hall in rooms 416 and 418 came from the Lucasfilm party with cast
and crew members as well as Celebration organizers, artists, and a few other
important people. Instead of writing my journal, I headed out to the hall to
see what was happening. |
| I
watched in amazement as numerous people I recognized walked the halls,
including Jay Laga’aia, who I thanked for the great work at the Celebration,
Kenny Baker, Leanna Walsman,
Femi Taylor, and many others. I even shook hands with Ray Park as he walked
into the room; he must have assumed I was one of the partygoers because
several people were actually talking in the hall. I also spoke for about
fifteen minutes with ILM’s head model builder,
Lorne Peterson, which was kind of surreal. We just talked about the weather,
the Star Wars Celebration, and various other
topics. If not for the fact that I knew he was an important creator at ILM,
it would have just been a normal conversation. |
| Earlier
in the day, I had called Joshua Griffin of TheForce.net several times hoping
to meet up with him because I interviewed him for my book, but he had not
been available. Much to my surprise, I met him accidentally at the Lucasfilm
party. A man standing next to me introduced himself to someone else in the
hall as Josh from TheForce.net, so I turned and said, “Josh?! I’m Jonathan!”
We both were surprised to see each other, especially because he was standing
just feet away from my hotel room. I talked with Josh for a few minutes, but
he was headed to grab something to eat. As fans who attend Star Wars
Celebrations know, finding time to eat is difficult during the day, so he had
not eaten for most of the day. Josh was very friendly and I loved having the
chance to meet him at long last after years of just e-mailing back and forth
online. |
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|
The Q and A
session with Garrick Hagon, Michael Sheard, Richard Le Parmentier and myself
was hosted by Warwick Davis and he made a brilliant job of it ... and it was
very well received by about 800 guests. Our hearts were in our mouths when he
said he was going to show clips from the films ... then freeze frame ....and
we had to come in with our next lines! Then he had a 'Whose Line is it Anyway'
improvisation where one had to 'speak alien' and the other interpret. Rude ..
but funny. and a re-dub of a scene where we had to make up the dialogue as we
went along. It was so much more fun that the usual Q and A sessions and all
credit to Warwick for making the effort to be different.
The thing that
struck me most about C3 was the friendliness of everyone. I much prefer 'Cons'
when they are Star Wars specific: you get a much better class of person. The
one I recently attended at Honiton organised by Exe-Wing Fundraisers was
another terrific event and that was Star Wars only.
I was also taken
aback by the enormous amount of interest in Wes Janson. He's now quite a cult
figure and there are a lot of people out there agitating for an action figure
of Wes. Long overdue.
It was, as ever,
a thrill to meet up again with Aaron Alston and he has a lot of exciting
things on the go.
|
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| The
hotel security finally had to tell the Lucasfilm party folks to move to the
lobby at 11:00 p.m. because of noise complaints, which annoyed everyone
except me. I had an opening, at last, so I followed
the group to the lobby with another fan I met in the hall who runs a Star Wars toy museum from his home in
Baltimore, Maryland. While I was in the lobby, I listened intently to many of the conversations about the Celebration, which
was quite interesting. Everyone seemed excited by the fan reaction and the
enthusiasm that was mounting for the final Star Wars
film. Lucasfilm’s Head of Fan Relations and Content
Manager Steve Sansweet was at the party and described the event as a complete
success from a strategic point of view for Lucasfilm because of the media
attention and fan excitement. How could the Celebration not have been a
success with such great film footage to send fans into a
frenzy? Sansweet also admitted that the execution of the Celebration
Store was poor and that Celebration III could have been better run by GenCon, the organizer, despite great planning. He
suggested several ideas, including regional conventions or a limited
convention with only 10,000 fans. Anyone who attended Celebration III quickly
realized the problems that arise with more than 30,000 anxious fans crowding
a facility. |
| At the
Lucasfilm party, I also saw Richard Chasemore, one
of the illustrators of the Incredible
Cross Sections books for Star Wars,
who I bought a few original sketches from at Celebration II. Another nice
benefit of crashing the Lucasfilm party was having the chance to stare at Amy
Allen for another few hours. By Sunday night, I had decided Amy Allen was my
new celebrity crush, even though she is not a household name by any means and
probably not even fairly called a celebrity. Although the entire situation
was surreal and I could hardly believe I was actually hanging out with
Lucasfilm employees, Star Wars stars, artists, and other famous
people, I still had to remain calm and pretend that I belonged. |
| The
highlight of the party for me was having the chance to talk with Steve
Sansweet about my book for about ten minutes. I waited until a few people
left, then found myself one-on-one with one of the
world’s biggest Star Wars fans. For
people not aware of his celebrity, Sansweet has the largest independently
held Star Wars collection in the
world and has written several books on Star
Wars collecting;
his collection, stored in a giant barn at his property, is legendary. In
fact, I talked to two different people at the party who had seen Sansweet’s collection, so I got a few secondhand tales of
the legendary cache. By the end of the night, I had Sansweet’s
home address and he had requested to see a copy of my book, which I sent out
the next week. I was pleased by the incredible coincidence that led me to
have the opportunity to give my book to one of Lucasfilm’s
highest ranking employees. |
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|
stephen sansweet
addresses the media... |
|
| Aside
from speaking with Sansweet, I even sat down and talked to Hollywood actress Bai Ling for about fifteen minutes. She was sitting alone
munching on peanuts, so I figured I had nothing to lose. In retrospect, I am
surprised that I was not more starstruck because Bai Ling is a fairly major actress and very attractive,
too. Nonetheless, she was a bit shy, although very friendly, so I asked her
what she thought of the Star Wars
Celebration and signing autographs all day. She really did not understand how
people could be obsessed with Star Wars
because “it’s just a movie,” but she was very gracious to sign for fans
during the entire weekend and pose for pictures with anyone who asked. I
think I speak for most diehard Star
Wars fans when I say that Star Wars is not just a movie series, but a
way of life and a great passion that can provide inspiration to people
worldwide as well as entertainment. |
| With such a fantastic ending to Celebration III, I
could not have hoped for a more spectacular experience. At the Lucasfilm
party, many people were talking about the next Star Wars Celebration, which has no set year but could arrive as
soon as 2007 for the 30th anniversary of the saga. Convention organizers were
joking that the slogan should be, “Have a blast at C4!” Whatever the slogan,
whatever the year, and wherever the location, I will see you all at Celebration
IV! |
