Bad Wolf 2008 12th-13th July 2008
Jul. 15th, 2008 01:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethBirmingham, Hilton Metropole NEC
I went to the reception thingy on Friday night. I figured I could sit around being useless at talking or I could sit around in a room containing people from Torchwood and be useless at talking. So then I did in fact talk whole numbers of sentences. Kai Owen was going around the room saying hello. I said hello back and that I was at the Rift but not the evening bit. Then I spent most of the evening wondering if I'd managed to sound rude. Because I do that a lot. So I talked to some other people sitting next to me and drank some water that frankly tasted a bit like swimming pool so I didn't drink very much water at all and then the evening ran out. So I went to sit in the bar. And the group of people who'd acquired a Kai Owen came and sat on the same sofas. Cool. I don't think I contributed much to the conversation. I was not loud or quick or, er, drunk enough. Some people had three bottles worth of opinion going on and with that I cannot compete. But there was conversation and it was interesting. Kai says about the same things while drunk in the bar he says on stage, only louder and more fluently and with some more different songs. He also listens, like everyone was telling him blah about Gwen/Jack and yaay about Gwen/Rhys and Jack/Ianto, and also that Gwen/Owen was okay but all done. He was interested. And also proud of how Torchwood keeps hopping channels, which doesn't happen much because there's different people in charge of different channels and it's a whole Thing.
I did tell people sitting next to me about the UEA Doctor Who course I just did. I figure there's very few people interested but a higher proportion of them at a Doctor Who event. So that was fun. And then I started talking about episodes. I said "Turn Left was like Inferno, only the before of it, with seeing how that situation builds up." Or some equally incoherent expression of that idea. Guy sitting next to me says "I don't meet many women who know about Inferno." And I'm all *shrugs* cause I know lots of women who know *waves hello*. But then next I know he's doing the stretch and the arms on the back of the sofa bit. Which... is not the usual effect. I must try that line again on cuter people. ;-)
(And here's where I lose at anecdote, cause I have to point out the thing where it might not have been a thing cause of no mind reading. But it was funny in my head.)
ANY way...
Saturday
Kai Owen
On stage at 0900. All coherent and everything.
They start filming 8th August. He has seen the script but he can't tell spoilers.
The first scene he filmed for Torchwood was the bit in Day One where they run out in the street and 'see' the crash and explosion. On Sunday I think he mentioned the first take of that scene him and Eve get up, Eve runs, and Kai gets a couple steps and slips and falls splat. Great start to things.
He's in awe of John Barrowman. There was much agreement from Torchwood people about JB, that he's charming and has aura of cool and stuff. And that he takes the leading man thing seriously and tries to keep everyone in a good mood and all.
KO says Rhys will always be jealous of Jack so there's potential to create more stories, a love triangle.
I think that was in response to the idea that now Rhys knows about Torchwood some of his story potential is played out.
Rhys knows what Gwen does, takes it in stride, and now he's worried primarily about her safety, that's his focus.
He's Not part of the team. But he protects Gwen.
He likes the idea of a Torchwood musical. Everyone has a great voice. Except Eve. She has an awful voice but sings a lot. (My notes says. I has no opinion.)
Kai makes a lot of funny and sarcasm this weekend. Since my sarcasm detector is a bit broke and I'm working from notes, just assume if he's sounding rude he's being funny, cause is usually so.
He told a little story about going up in the mountains in Wales and having this incredible view of country like a green velvet patchwork, all different greens, and his friend said "God took his time when he made Wales."
There was quite a lot about the coolth of a job which involves kissing Eve Myles. He mentioned kissing fairly often. But also that they knew each other before Torchwood, they work well together, they're comfortable together. That gives them room to be spontaneous and take more risks in scenes. Like spontaneously grabbing and kissing Rhys.
Rhys the Rant - it's that he knows exactly what he wants, and he thinks he knows he's right.
Torchwood directors = amazing. Says my notes. I'm pretty sure he said names and details and stuff.
Notes say things a bit cryptic...
"Play arguments warmly"
I think that's about Rhys and Gwen and how it's easy to read the script and think they're really having a go at each other but Eve saying to do things a bit different. Keeping the warmth and connection of their relationship apparent even while they're arguing.
"Make audience work"
erm... something about ambiguity? Leaving stuff for the audience to pick up on?
... I swear I've remembered more when I didn't take any notes...
"Audience in picture before characters"
Like in the DW season just gone where it was all 'Behind You' where the Doctor misses things.
The Wedding episode was one of the last shot.
2 episodes a month. Shoot in blocks.
Last block, 7.5 months filming,e veryone tired.
Ep 13 filmed + Ep 9.
Emotional killing Tosh & Owen... then chasing Nerys Hughes with a chainsaw.
Will mix episodes on a day if the weather means rescheduling things.
Switch makeup and clothes and go fight off weevils, and then back to the wedding stuff.
REad through in 3 weekw for episodes 1&2 of season 3.
Buffet and meet and greet and the first read through is a big event. But later when filming has already started read throughs just get put in where there's space in filming.
Many different new series and Torchwood people said read throughs are awkward cause they never know if they should really go for it or just, you know, read. End up somewhere in between.
KO watching TV - more of a box set guy. He likes cooking shows.
Rhys wearing cream pants and rugby top was rubbish. He looked more English, posh.
Rhys naked, Kai had a little sock. Emphasis little.
Nervous making.
They didn't know for a long time if there'd even be a season 3.
(But now there is, yaay!)
(5 nights in a row)
(On BBC1, after the watershed, still being Torchwood)
Then it was questions from the audience time.
(I tried to think of a question but it ended up more of a statement so I didn't say it. I did that all weekend, no questions from me.)
Meat - the argument was filmed with handheld camera and few takes. There was a bit of technical stuff about the effect of the wobble and them not always being centered or in frame.
Favourite Hollywood actor at the moment, reckons you can't go far wrong with Robert Downey Jr, his performance.
KO never expected to be doing TV. Thought musicals.
He wants to play a criminal psychologist or a serial killer. He says he's "a bit sick and twisted".
He reckons Nerys Hughes looked hot in the Liver Birds.
She brings her husband everywhere even for days starting at 0600.
He calls her Hughesy.
Actors he admires was quite a list. Think the question was about other people he's worked with in Torchwood. He's in awe of James Marsters. And Owen Teale. And others I didn't write down quick enough.
When they were filming the christmas special he could see Kylie from afar. She's even tinier from afar. How far away was she? Very small.
Next question was Cunning. He said he's just moved to Cardiff and what were the good pubs.
KO recommends the Bay area, around the Torchwood fountain, good place now.
Also, after filming, they go to the Eli Jenkins.
Says questioner, thanks, that was the bit he was after.
*idly google maps...*
And that's the end of my notes, though not of what he said that weekend. There was a bit in the Cabaret that evening with singing Doo Wah Diddy with the audience. And that rugby song. There's a You Tube video around somewhere.
He was also on stage on Sunday with Tom Price, but honestly all I can remember about that one was laughing at it a whole lot. Lots and lots. Lots of funny.
Also, the question about who has the best arse.
Peter Davison
Who played the 5th Doctor
My second favourite after 7, who is awesomest.
So he was on stage and I was all :-D because 5th Doctor! Looking like Time Crash! Except for without the same clothes and lights and so not exactly like, but that's not the point. 5th Doctor :-D
He said he does signings and kids parents take them to see the 5th Doctor and for a while when he walked in the kids were, er, confused and not recognising him, because of course 5 is a young man. But after Time Crash they've got a new visual reference so they can make the connection.
... I think I may have seen him in some things that weren't Doctor Who, but not on purpose. I was realising this weekend when everyone was saying their other work that I totally don't watch, well, anything, outside my little cult things. BBC jobs want you to know a lot about BBC shows. I've a middling in depth knowledge of a few of shows, and that's it. Which is fine in fandom, but a bit limiting elsewise.
ANYway
He talked about his kids, who are Doctor Who fans. One of them being on stage next of course. But his sons are little, I think he said 6 and 8? Anyway, small. And the littlest walks around dressed as the Doctor all the time.
... the 10th Doctor.
PD says is easier to copy. You can find little suits much easier than his stripy trousers.
I did see much evidence of this among small children this weekend. Is cool.
Walking in to the TARDIS set didn't feel like walking into his own TARDIS. It doesn't look the same of course, but it's also that the old TARDIS was wheeled in and constructed wherever they could fit it, and the new is a standing set.
The desktop theme idea is a great one, but one that they couldn't possibly have done back in the day, when computers were new and peculiar and nobody had any idea of them.
Asked what 5s desktop theme would be he said the long room at lords.
I think this is a cricket reference.
... my cultural referents are somewhat limited...
HE reckons DT is doing a fantastic job, made the part completely his own.
Also did a great deal for PD in retrospect because now the Doctor is younger.
5 was played as an old man trapped in a young man's body.
PD's Doctor was Troughton.
He thinks Androzani was the best story.
If he'd had that story when he had to decide if he was staying then it might have been a harder decision.
He'd go back for a special but thinks it is unlikely.
The last episode was brilliant because theres a David Tennant looking Doctor ageing naturally in another universe so he will always fit in perfectly. You don't have to come up with an excuse. He could even take over again later.
Doctor Who cliffhangers, and the last episode one, are like Saturday morning specials, where they redo the ending. Like the car goes over the cliff one week with no way the hero could have escaped but the next week they redo it and you see him jump out.
5's Davros episode had a higher body count than Terminator.
... which seemed to please.
Filming now is more technical, you do more in the edit. FX in post-production.
Graeme Harper (who got a lot of mentions and a lot of good things said this weekend) was a very different director to previous DW. At the time TV was done multi camera, standing around then moving off. GH changed all that. At first PD thought GH was terrible... until he saw how it would come together. He couldn't see to start with how people would follow the story and know what he was doing, but then it clicked. Everything was done on the move. Big difference.
PD talked about how the difference in pace is the biggest thing with watching older TV. It takes a while to get back into it.
He's rewatched all his episodes so he can do the commentary. He watches them before he goes in to do them. That's how his sons saw them, on video.
Back when they were filming his Doctor Who, the unions were very powerful. He thinks unions are great, but at the time it was a bit difficult because at 10pm the lights went out. Come what may. 10pm and lights out. So things were very often very hurried. No rehearsal, no camera rehearsal. It was as live TV but worse, not rehearsed, sometimes not even on the right set. And DW did not get alloted more time for FX, it was just supposed to make episodes as quickly as every other drama.
On Tom Bakers last day PD came in to film the regeneration. It was chaos and blind panic. Lots of rushing around. PD sort of assumed this was unusual and perhaps that he could sort things out and keep things calm when it was him in the middle. (Little did he know.)
TB did give him some advice... but they were in the bar at the time so he couldn't hear it. Just kind of nodded and hoped.
The BBC car park, the little horseshoe one outside the main building, is reserved for top executives... and Doctor Who. That was where he met Troughton, when PT was getting turned away from that little car park. And PD could drive straight in.
PT's advice was to do three years and get out.
Then there was a story about how PD once stopped a guy who'd I think smashed up his new car. He started off chasing him because annoyed, but he didn't think he'd catch up. But then he had done quite a lot of running along corridors. So he kept up until the other guy turned into a dead end. So then there's a confrontation, and the guy says he has a knife. Scary! But then he goes to pull it out... and he makes the knife noises. Like you tend to do in rehearsals if you've got invisible doors to open or something. He gets out an invisible knife and makes knife noises to go with it. So PD figures if it was a real knife he wouldn't make the noise, and grabs him. And then he pins him down. And the guy is all grr at him to start with, threats, and then he swings around to begging, and then he's back to threats again. And PD is all "make up your mind. you're either going for pathetic or tough". Like he's critiquing his acting of this guy he just caught doing crime. So he keeps him pinned down for quite a few minutes and then someone wanders out of the nearby pub and asks if he'd like him to call the police. And yes, actually, that would help quite a lot. And then as soon as the police are there the guy gives up, even though it was a very skinny small policeman, the uniform just shut him right up. He wasn't scared of the Doctor at all.
... oh dear, I think I killed that story by typing it. Sorry. It were fun to listen/watch.
PD also mentioned that in his day he wasn't allowed to put an arm around girls. Now the Doctor can kiss girls.
So there were questions again.
PD liked the costume. Cricket. He'd have preferred a more off the peg mismatch though.
There was quite a bit about the Black Orchid commentary. He really did dislike that one as much as it sounded. He thought the script was shoddy and sounded like someone had dug out a script for another show entirely and changed some names.
Now the writers are... some are helped out by RTD, but some are really very good. RTD, SM, Gatiss, scripts that are so clever on every level.
He has fondness for all Doctor Who, he criticises from that perspective, something he cares about and likes but can see with that closeness.
He wasn't best pleased with that one camera angle at the end of Androzani. It's not his view that he wasn't happy with, it was the camera's view. Because "You can't out act cleavage."
His favourite was Androzani, his second favourite is Earthshock.
Then he had a rather passionate and articulate little speech about trends in television. There are many things on television he doesn't care about, including but not limited to cooking, flowers, gardening, houses, decorating and in general reality TV. Reality TV is destroying drama on television. We want to get drama back. And Doctor Who does amazing things. It gets a great audience, and it does it by being good. Few things get audience by being good now.
And that was how he finished his talk, in praise of the new series and how it might save drama on television. Coolness.
Georgia Moffett
The Doctor's Daughter
I didn't take as many notes for this one.
The flame gun was very fun indeed. But she did kind of burn the makeup guy.
The trousers were too tight. This may not have been a problem for the viewers, but since she mentioned it several times I suspect it was quite the ongoing problem for her.
If she had a TARDIS it would be pink.
She hasn't seen her mother in Hitchhikers Guide.
Doctor Who has much more time than The Bill.
She likes television more than theatre. She's done theatre only once. She never did drama school, got jobs instead, so she never did learning how to ignore that people are staring at you. So its' scary. So for three months, every night, she spent the whole night with what sounded like a panic attack, not breathing properly. Sounded very not fun. I think I'd have quit quite a long time before that. But she did the play.
Read throughs are scary. Especially because she didn't have to audition for the Doctor's Daughter. She tried for a part in the Agatha Christie one but they said they'd have a bigger part for her and sent her the script. And it was totally a dream job. It would have been a dream job just being on DW at all, but then she's the Doctor's Daughter. Very cool.
The other thing that is scary is fish.
Seriously.
She said the script didn't say what the aliens would look like but she figured it would be okay as long as they're not fish.
Because fish are scary.
I like her, she sounds like she'd really *get* the anxiety thing.
The stunt bit along the corridor was quite difficult to do. She did the start and end bits only, but even practicing that she fell on her head a lot.
Her stunt double now works with her on other things.
She was asked a couple times who her favourite Doctor as. At the start she said her Dad, which I thought was amusingly ambiguous. Then again asked at the end she umed and ahed a bit more about it. PD of course is her dad, so her favourite, but DT would be her Doctor, so, um, ah...
"They've got a heart each!"
You could see her thinking it up. It was a neat answer. Will now do for all occasions :-)
She said a bunch more stuff I forgot about. And some of it was in the other talk, which I mostly missed because it moved early and I was attempting sleep in my room. Sad now.
Did say that when filming with her dad they always get in arguments. Little snippy arguments where she calls him daddy in annoying ways and he tells her what to do and she reverts somewhat. And one time they were filming her driving a car and he was attempting to... she said change gears for her, and he corrected her, and it was quite amusing. Clearly a family dynamic going on there.
Anyone got remembering of what happened in the joint PD & GM talk? Missing things is annoying.
Terry Molloy
Davros
I started out not making notes, don't have much writ down... except for things about Davros that I'm not at all sure I agree with and rather don't like.
First there was a bit about the mask. The mask is key to the performance of Davros. The limitations in movement and expression it created forced a certain set of movements from the performer if they wanted to get anything through it at all. And with the big movements you get the voice, because to talk it has to be very precise diction, pedantic and staccato, just to push past the resistance. And the whole character is in the voice. Like a radio play on TV.
The mask was on stage too. Meeting Davros! Cool!
The bit I'd rather like to disagree with: He reckons Davros has Asperger's Syndrome.
Leaving aside the issues of diagnosing aliens with psychological difficulties experienced by humans - because really they're all humanlike enough that's fiddly pedantry - I rather dislike the thing where a diagnosis is applied only to explain evil, rather than for instance to explain good. I think the Doctor has several Aspie traits. He wanders around having massive enthusiasms, never quite fitting in, and varying between only one and none friends. He seems completely oblivious to social rules. You could call him an Aspie.
Davros... he's evil and mean and wants to destroy the universe. How is that Asperger's?
But I can see how an actor wants to get inside a character and figure out the why of them and all. So.
His logic is that Davros has single minded focus but difficulty relating to people.
I'd point out that this is not in fact the definition of Asperger's.
I think Davros is just a mean bastard.
He reckons Davros doesn't believe he's evil. He solves problems. The problem of survival of the Kaled mutants, the problem of universal hunger whilst surrounded by high grade protein, I can see that. He says genius and evil genius is a very fine line.
Davros and the Doctor are the biggest brains in the universe. Intellectual equals.
Yes, that bit I'd agree with.
But... okay, while someone with AS could conceivably become a Davros, if the society was set up to point in that direction and if the science allowed and if they were also a really mean bastard. But they could also just be a really mean bastard. You know? So I don't like that bit at all.
The next talk I've writ down as 'Torchwood 3'.
Amy Manson, Heather Craney, and Matt Ryan. Also known as The Lesbians from Fragments and the guy that got tasered in the head in Meat.
They were fun.
Matt Ryan tried for a series regular. He says he can't remember which one.
(I attempted to apply logic. Ianto was going to be a few episodes and then dead, so not a regular. Jack is John Barrowman. So logic leaves Owen. I read somewhere that Owen was originally imagined as more conventionally handsome, and then BG was awesome at them. So, hmmm.)
He had a lot to say about his character's motivations and how it was all about survival for him, that he'd only had this one thing in his life and felt he had to keep hold of it for his own survival. (It was very actor-y. Actors ask a particular set of questions about their characters and come up with answers that lead to a good performance. Looked at from teh outside characters look quite different, methinks.)
Telling Ianto to die just happened on the day. The energy took them there.
Invisible Whales are hard to act with. You don't know how big to react because you don't know what they're doing.
He thinks it would taste like a cross between kebab and chicken.
Invisible electric zapping has similar problems because you don't really know quite what to do, you don't know what it'll look like when they're done. But actually with the lights and sounds and all added it looked quite good.
Playing with guns is fun, but scary because of how much it empowers you. Just holding a gun makes you feel different.
The others agreed with him on that.
Alice Guppy was having a lot of fun. She was aroused by the power she has.
... said the actress. Really.
They talked about the clothes, how clothes do a lot of the getting into character for you. The set dressing impressed them too, the attention to detail. But the clothes come with a certain posture and breathing and everything.
Actress said she'd be interested to see what Alice Guppy was like out of her clothes.
(I blinked and nodded quite a lot. Then realised I was sitting three rows back on the center aisle and attempted to moderate nodding to non creepy levels.)
They were being fun.
They want to return as Alice and Emily. MR thought to ask if they should do more flashback episodes or if they could transfer to the present day. Both would be interesting.
AG was written in to episode 13 after they'd done episode 12, which is why Emily wasn't available because the actress was in a play.
Working with JB was fun. He's gorgeous, really good eyes. Initially AM didn't know he was gay and was a bit *sigh* when she found out. But he didn't mind HC jumping on him, straddling his face. She reckoned "Bet you never had a woman this close" And he laughed.
They were just there with JB, not the rest of the cast, just filming his section. He wasn't having his best day ever, because they'd throw water at him and he'd have to go get dry and they'd do it again half an hour later and it was Not Fun. Also he has a Thing about having stuff on his face and he had those sideburns on. There were no rehearsals. They did all the Hub scenes in a day.
(And becca thinks something about how that sounds all a bit familiar.)
So notes say "They got camper and camper, including JB swishing his cape."
... somehow I can see that ...
So that was the talks I actually turned up in time for done for the day.
I went and got autographs. I had plans for autographs and photographs and stuff, but there's always 4 things going on at once and I can apparently only figure out two, so autographs it was. Or autograph, actually, by the time I'd lined up for Peter Davison's autograph I was All Done. I'd been tuneless humming and fiddling with shiny things and stuff. Many people, one room, large noise, ran out of fun.
But I did say to PD about the UEA course, cause I think it's cool. He sounded interested a bit. I know he's an actor and can sound interested to a wide variety of things, but I'll call that cool.
So now I have his signature on a DVD cover (which I'll have to remember to put back on the DVD). Happy now. :-D
I've got autographs from Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy. :-)
And also some Torchwood people. Cool.
Sunday
Colin Baker on stage at 0900. Did talking. Including about the coat - which was not at all what he'd wanted. He'd wanted a black leather coat. Oh look, who got that one... And some other stuff, like about one convention he went to that let him do the event and then confessed they hadn't the money to pay him so he said he'd stay sitting in the hotel at their expense until they came up with the money. He reckoned if they'd said up front he might have sympathised and done the event anyway, but they didn't give him the option, so he wanted paying. They sold their car and paid him.
Fair enough.
He said other stuff too but I weren't taking notes and mostly remember my bracelets were very shiny.
I must remember this when I make plans to do full days at college or try more days a week. I can't stay in the main hall all day at a convention, or concentrate two days in a row, not even on stuff I really a lot like. College all day? :eeyroll:
Oh, to be clear in case there's people reading who don't know me so much, I'm *not* saying anyone was boring. They were interesting. I just aren't able to keep my brain stuck to a project for that lone in a row.
Next on stage was Gerard Murphy, I think. The bits of paper and the displays all spelt his name different and he weren't on the website. Some on teh website weren't there. He said he were only invited on Thursday. He was in Silver Nemesis. There was interesting story about picnics and champagne and JNT being very nice to everyone after a bit of a scare with leaving behind someone's diamonds on a doorstep.
There were other stories too.
I think what I get most from all these actor stories is that Karma is very very very much in effect in the small world of showbusiness. Because it looks like a big world, but everybody connects up in lots of different ways. Six degrees is way too far, everyone turns out to have worked with everyone or been flatmates with their offspring or something. So the good things, the being nice to people and making a good impression, they come back around. Not so much mentioned is the logical corollary, because who wants to work with someone that was mean to them last time? But the people that were nice, gave them helpful hints, made sure they were welcome, they always get a good word later.
Sylvester McCoy was good to other actors on DW, and Sophie Aldred was nice.
GM once was on Father Ted. There was an episode on an airplane where they were filming inside an airplane in front of a studio audience. So all the audience could see was the airplane set, and nobody had figured this out in advance. So it was pointed out someone would have to go tell them sorry. So instead of any of the many stand up comedians in the play, they sent the one actor.
He had a very small part in Batman Begins. (Which I still haven't seen). I think he said it was this one scene between him and Christian Bale, in a crowded courtroom with a ton of extras around. And it was a looooong day filming. To get all the angles and everything, very long day. And gradually different people would be released and the set got emptier and emptier, and GM's closeups were last. CB as released right early on, like 10am. But when it got real late and it was closeup time, who was sitting right there? CB, there to give him an eyeline and someone to work off. Which is incredibly generous acting. Specially since he had to be in the bat suit the next day. GM was greatly impressed and told everyone so from on stage.
So even though I can't recall having heard of this guy before, his talk was interesting, cause he was nice about lots of other people.
John Leeson I have no notes on. I went and got autographs from Tom Price and Kai Owen. They're nice. Then I went back and voice of K9 was telling stories. Was cool. He told the one from... Stones of Blood I think? He expected everyone to know it but there's some new people at conventions now. Him and Tom Baker like crosswords, so they did crosswords together between filming. One time TB was on location with the K9 prop and JL was in the van doing the voice. So they do a scene, and then they stop to set up something else, and so TB uses the connection to start doing the crossword, which seemed perfectly natural at the time. But what it looked like of course was The Doctor and K9 doing a crossword, with the voice coming out in K9 speak. Onlookers were amazed.
There was other good telling too.
Sasha Behar & Francesca Fowler, from The Fires of Pompeii. They did all their filming in Cardiff though. And... I can't remember much from this neither. My red bracelets were even shinier than the silver ones. Sorry. *facepalm*
It was interesting! I stayed in the hall and everything!
So then there was lunch and I went back to my room and ate the bread I'd pocketed from breakfast, because I am that cheap. I considered staying for a bit longer but I'd already missed the models FX guys the day before so I went back down for their talk.
Mike Tucker & Mat Irvine. Talked about model FX, and the limitations thereof, and the limits of CGI. It's all about getting the shot, using the best tools available for that. When they're being filmed mixed in with actors then the director concentrates on that and they get whatever spare time there is for their bit. In charge of their own model shoots they can take the time and get it right. It's fun blowing up models because that's the shot they're made for. It's less fun when they make a model and then someone decides to blow it up, because it might not be made for that. It takes a while to persuade new people to only make the bits of model the camera will see. (I guess people who want to make models for a living are going to be detail people.) It's frustrating when plans get changed after it's too late to accomodate them, ie the backwards shot of the clock tower in Aliens of London. It's great when something someone is well impressed by the CGI in is actually a model shot. And often now models and CGI work together.
But the bit we were mostly there for:
K9! Actual K9! On the stage! With lights and everything!
... okay, so you might think I'm overimpressed with small fibreglass prop, but you should have seen the line for photos after. Everyone was hugging teh dog. The dog is as old as I am so there were some requests to please to be hugging just a bit less cause of possible falling off issues, but everyone wanted to spend time with the K9.
It was actual K9 in Queer as Folk. That makes me oddly happy.
K9 is a classic example of high tech not necessarily being the best solution. His insides have been upgraded rather since the original build, he's got bits from Robot Wars in there now, batteries and motors and controls and such. But even so, the other useful bit is the loop for attaching a bit of nylon for when the motors break. Which happens often. Not the world's most reliable prop, is K9. So they stick a bit of nylon on and pull and it all works out just as well in the end.
:-)
Also, when the talk was all done and they were driving him away, he knocked into one of the projectors. That made me oddly happy too. Like a little piece of TV history being reenacted right in front of me: K9 of the dodgy steering.
*giggles*
It's a very sturdy basic shape though. Still the same outsides. Just repainted.
Very cool.
Then there was an hour break in the schedule. Well, there was a coffee lounge I'd been planning to go to, but I hadn't got around to the complicated actually getting tickets by walking up to the table portion of the day, so I said sod it and stayed. I'm no use by then anyway, I'd have just sat there looking stupid some more. But in the main hall they played Tom Baker at an earlier convention, and that was pretty cool too. Hilarious story about his gravestone.
... no, I'm not being mean, it's actually funny.
Last talk was Kai Owen & Tom Price. And I really wish I could remember more of it. But basically I've just had the Dog Man song stuck in my head since Sunday (arrgh!), and can remember them discussing the relative merits of the ass...ets of Freema Agyeman, Billy Piper and Eve Myles. Conclusion: Eve Myles has the best rear view. And also smells really good.
... I'd have been *facepalm* but I was giggling too much.
Anyone with a more coherent account of that session, feel free to comment. I had by then run out of keeping my eyes open so I weren't tracking details so much. *sigh*
So then the day was over and I went back to my room and after that nothing convention related happened to me.
I did listen to a Big Finish Audio with the 8th Doctor. Haven't heard any of them before. Bought two more on the way home. I'm not convinced of the cost ratio, but they're good listens.
Okays, so this is just how I remember it. When things turn up on YouTube I tend to find out how little I remember at all. But is the best I could figure.
Hope is fun.
I went to the reception thingy on Friday night. I figured I could sit around being useless at talking or I could sit around in a room containing people from Torchwood and be useless at talking. So then I did in fact talk whole numbers of sentences. Kai Owen was going around the room saying hello. I said hello back and that I was at the Rift but not the evening bit. Then I spent most of the evening wondering if I'd managed to sound rude. Because I do that a lot. So I talked to some other people sitting next to me and drank some water that frankly tasted a bit like swimming pool so I didn't drink very much water at all and then the evening ran out. So I went to sit in the bar. And the group of people who'd acquired a Kai Owen came and sat on the same sofas. Cool. I don't think I contributed much to the conversation. I was not loud or quick or, er, drunk enough. Some people had three bottles worth of opinion going on and with that I cannot compete. But there was conversation and it was interesting. Kai says about the same things while drunk in the bar he says on stage, only louder and more fluently and with some more different songs. He also listens, like everyone was telling him blah about Gwen/Jack and yaay about Gwen/Rhys and Jack/Ianto, and also that Gwen/Owen was okay but all done. He was interested. And also proud of how Torchwood keeps hopping channels, which doesn't happen much because there's different people in charge of different channels and it's a whole Thing.
I did tell people sitting next to me about the UEA Doctor Who course I just did. I figure there's very few people interested but a higher proportion of them at a Doctor Who event. So that was fun. And then I started talking about episodes. I said "Turn Left was like Inferno, only the before of it, with seeing how that situation builds up." Or some equally incoherent expression of that idea. Guy sitting next to me says "I don't meet many women who know about Inferno." And I'm all *shrugs* cause I know lots of women who know *waves hello*. But then next I know he's doing the stretch and the arms on the back of the sofa bit. Which... is not the usual effect. I must try that line again on cuter people. ;-)
(And here's where I lose at anecdote, cause I have to point out the thing where it might not have been a thing cause of no mind reading. But it was funny in my head.)
ANY way...
Saturday
Kai Owen
On stage at 0900. All coherent and everything.
They start filming 8th August. He has seen the script but he can't tell spoilers.
The first scene he filmed for Torchwood was the bit in Day One where they run out in the street and 'see' the crash and explosion. On Sunday I think he mentioned the first take of that scene him and Eve get up, Eve runs, and Kai gets a couple steps and slips and falls splat. Great start to things.
He's in awe of John Barrowman. There was much agreement from Torchwood people about JB, that he's charming and has aura of cool and stuff. And that he takes the leading man thing seriously and tries to keep everyone in a good mood and all.
KO says Rhys will always be jealous of Jack so there's potential to create more stories, a love triangle.
I think that was in response to the idea that now Rhys knows about Torchwood some of his story potential is played out.
Rhys knows what Gwen does, takes it in stride, and now he's worried primarily about her safety, that's his focus.
He's Not part of the team. But he protects Gwen.
He likes the idea of a Torchwood musical. Everyone has a great voice. Except Eve. She has an awful voice but sings a lot. (My notes says. I has no opinion.)
Kai makes a lot of funny and sarcasm this weekend. Since my sarcasm detector is a bit broke and I'm working from notes, just assume if he's sounding rude he's being funny, cause is usually so.
He told a little story about going up in the mountains in Wales and having this incredible view of country like a green velvet patchwork, all different greens, and his friend said "God took his time when he made Wales."
There was quite a lot about the coolth of a job which involves kissing Eve Myles. He mentioned kissing fairly often. But also that they knew each other before Torchwood, they work well together, they're comfortable together. That gives them room to be spontaneous and take more risks in scenes. Like spontaneously grabbing and kissing Rhys.
Rhys the Rant - it's that he knows exactly what he wants, and he thinks he knows he's right.
Torchwood directors = amazing. Says my notes. I'm pretty sure he said names and details and stuff.
Notes say things a bit cryptic...
"Play arguments warmly"
I think that's about Rhys and Gwen and how it's easy to read the script and think they're really having a go at each other but Eve saying to do things a bit different. Keeping the warmth and connection of their relationship apparent even while they're arguing.
"Make audience work"
erm... something about ambiguity? Leaving stuff for the audience to pick up on?
... I swear I've remembered more when I didn't take any notes...
"Audience in picture before characters"
Like in the DW season just gone where it was all 'Behind You' where the Doctor misses things.
The Wedding episode was one of the last shot.
2 episodes a month. Shoot in blocks.
Last block, 7.5 months filming,e veryone tired.
Ep 13 filmed + Ep 9.
Emotional killing Tosh & Owen... then chasing Nerys Hughes with a chainsaw.
Will mix episodes on a day if the weather means rescheduling things.
Switch makeup and clothes and go fight off weevils, and then back to the wedding stuff.
REad through in 3 weekw for episodes 1&2 of season 3.
Buffet and meet and greet and the first read through is a big event. But later when filming has already started read throughs just get put in where there's space in filming.
Many different new series and Torchwood people said read throughs are awkward cause they never know if they should really go for it or just, you know, read. End up somewhere in between.
KO watching TV - more of a box set guy. He likes cooking shows.
Rhys wearing cream pants and rugby top was rubbish. He looked more English, posh.
Rhys naked, Kai had a little sock. Emphasis little.
Nervous making.
They didn't know for a long time if there'd even be a season 3.
(But now there is, yaay!)
(5 nights in a row)
(On BBC1, after the watershed, still being Torchwood)
Then it was questions from the audience time.
(I tried to think of a question but it ended up more of a statement so I didn't say it. I did that all weekend, no questions from me.)
Meat - the argument was filmed with handheld camera and few takes. There was a bit of technical stuff about the effect of the wobble and them not always being centered or in frame.
Favourite Hollywood actor at the moment, reckons you can't go far wrong with Robert Downey Jr, his performance.
KO never expected to be doing TV. Thought musicals.
He wants to play a criminal psychologist or a serial killer. He says he's "a bit sick and twisted".
He reckons Nerys Hughes looked hot in the Liver Birds.
She brings her husband everywhere even for days starting at 0600.
He calls her Hughesy.
Actors he admires was quite a list. Think the question was about other people he's worked with in Torchwood. He's in awe of James Marsters. And Owen Teale. And others I didn't write down quick enough.
When they were filming the christmas special he could see Kylie from afar. She's even tinier from afar. How far away was she? Very small.
Next question was Cunning. He said he's just moved to Cardiff and what were the good pubs.
KO recommends the Bay area, around the Torchwood fountain, good place now.
Also, after filming, they go to the Eli Jenkins.
Says questioner, thanks, that was the bit he was after.
*idly google maps...*
And that's the end of my notes, though not of what he said that weekend. There was a bit in the Cabaret that evening with singing Doo Wah Diddy with the audience. And that rugby song. There's a You Tube video around somewhere.
He was also on stage on Sunday with Tom Price, but honestly all I can remember about that one was laughing at it a whole lot. Lots and lots. Lots of funny.
Also, the question about who has the best arse.
Peter Davison
Who played the 5th Doctor
My second favourite after 7, who is awesomest.
So he was on stage and I was all :-D because 5th Doctor! Looking like Time Crash! Except for without the same clothes and lights and so not exactly like, but that's not the point. 5th Doctor :-D
He said he does signings and kids parents take them to see the 5th Doctor and for a while when he walked in the kids were, er, confused and not recognising him, because of course 5 is a young man. But after Time Crash they've got a new visual reference so they can make the connection.
... I think I may have seen him in some things that weren't Doctor Who, but not on purpose. I was realising this weekend when everyone was saying their other work that I totally don't watch, well, anything, outside my little cult things. BBC jobs want you to know a lot about BBC shows. I've a middling in depth knowledge of a few of shows, and that's it. Which is fine in fandom, but a bit limiting elsewise.
ANYway
He talked about his kids, who are Doctor Who fans. One of them being on stage next of course. But his sons are little, I think he said 6 and 8? Anyway, small. And the littlest walks around dressed as the Doctor all the time.
... the 10th Doctor.
PD says is easier to copy. You can find little suits much easier than his stripy trousers.
I did see much evidence of this among small children this weekend. Is cool.
Walking in to the TARDIS set didn't feel like walking into his own TARDIS. It doesn't look the same of course, but it's also that the old TARDIS was wheeled in and constructed wherever they could fit it, and the new is a standing set.
The desktop theme idea is a great one, but one that they couldn't possibly have done back in the day, when computers were new and peculiar and nobody had any idea of them.
Asked what 5s desktop theme would be he said the long room at lords.
I think this is a cricket reference.
... my cultural referents are somewhat limited...
HE reckons DT is doing a fantastic job, made the part completely his own.
Also did a great deal for PD in retrospect because now the Doctor is younger.
5 was played as an old man trapped in a young man's body.
PD's Doctor was Troughton.
He thinks Androzani was the best story.
If he'd had that story when he had to decide if he was staying then it might have been a harder decision.
He'd go back for a special but thinks it is unlikely.
The last episode was brilliant because theres a David Tennant looking Doctor ageing naturally in another universe so he will always fit in perfectly. You don't have to come up with an excuse. He could even take over again later.
Doctor Who cliffhangers, and the last episode one, are like Saturday morning specials, where they redo the ending. Like the car goes over the cliff one week with no way the hero could have escaped but the next week they redo it and you see him jump out.
5's Davros episode had a higher body count than Terminator.
... which seemed to please.
Filming now is more technical, you do more in the edit. FX in post-production.
Graeme Harper (who got a lot of mentions and a lot of good things said this weekend) was a very different director to previous DW. At the time TV was done multi camera, standing around then moving off. GH changed all that. At first PD thought GH was terrible... until he saw how it would come together. He couldn't see to start with how people would follow the story and know what he was doing, but then it clicked. Everything was done on the move. Big difference.
PD talked about how the difference in pace is the biggest thing with watching older TV. It takes a while to get back into it.
He's rewatched all his episodes so he can do the commentary. He watches them before he goes in to do them. That's how his sons saw them, on video.
Back when they were filming his Doctor Who, the unions were very powerful. He thinks unions are great, but at the time it was a bit difficult because at 10pm the lights went out. Come what may. 10pm and lights out. So things were very often very hurried. No rehearsal, no camera rehearsal. It was as live TV but worse, not rehearsed, sometimes not even on the right set. And DW did not get alloted more time for FX, it was just supposed to make episodes as quickly as every other drama.
On Tom Bakers last day PD came in to film the regeneration. It was chaos and blind panic. Lots of rushing around. PD sort of assumed this was unusual and perhaps that he could sort things out and keep things calm when it was him in the middle. (Little did he know.)
TB did give him some advice... but they were in the bar at the time so he couldn't hear it. Just kind of nodded and hoped.
The BBC car park, the little horseshoe one outside the main building, is reserved for top executives... and Doctor Who. That was where he met Troughton, when PT was getting turned away from that little car park. And PD could drive straight in.
PT's advice was to do three years and get out.
Then there was a story about how PD once stopped a guy who'd I think smashed up his new car. He started off chasing him because annoyed, but he didn't think he'd catch up. But then he had done quite a lot of running along corridors. So he kept up until the other guy turned into a dead end. So then there's a confrontation, and the guy says he has a knife. Scary! But then he goes to pull it out... and he makes the knife noises. Like you tend to do in rehearsals if you've got invisible doors to open or something. He gets out an invisible knife and makes knife noises to go with it. So PD figures if it was a real knife he wouldn't make the noise, and grabs him. And then he pins him down. And the guy is all grr at him to start with, threats, and then he swings around to begging, and then he's back to threats again. And PD is all "make up your mind. you're either going for pathetic or tough". Like he's critiquing his acting of this guy he just caught doing crime. So he keeps him pinned down for quite a few minutes and then someone wanders out of the nearby pub and asks if he'd like him to call the police. And yes, actually, that would help quite a lot. And then as soon as the police are there the guy gives up, even though it was a very skinny small policeman, the uniform just shut him right up. He wasn't scared of the Doctor at all.
... oh dear, I think I killed that story by typing it. Sorry. It were fun to listen/watch.
PD also mentioned that in his day he wasn't allowed to put an arm around girls. Now the Doctor can kiss girls.
So there were questions again.
PD liked the costume. Cricket. He'd have preferred a more off the peg mismatch though.
There was quite a bit about the Black Orchid commentary. He really did dislike that one as much as it sounded. He thought the script was shoddy and sounded like someone had dug out a script for another show entirely and changed some names.
Now the writers are... some are helped out by RTD, but some are really very good. RTD, SM, Gatiss, scripts that are so clever on every level.
He has fondness for all Doctor Who, he criticises from that perspective, something he cares about and likes but can see with that closeness.
He wasn't best pleased with that one camera angle at the end of Androzani. It's not his view that he wasn't happy with, it was the camera's view. Because "You can't out act cleavage."
His favourite was Androzani, his second favourite is Earthshock.
Then he had a rather passionate and articulate little speech about trends in television. There are many things on television he doesn't care about, including but not limited to cooking, flowers, gardening, houses, decorating and in general reality TV. Reality TV is destroying drama on television. We want to get drama back. And Doctor Who does amazing things. It gets a great audience, and it does it by being good. Few things get audience by being good now.
And that was how he finished his talk, in praise of the new series and how it might save drama on television. Coolness.
Georgia Moffett
The Doctor's Daughter
I didn't take as many notes for this one.
The flame gun was very fun indeed. But she did kind of burn the makeup guy.
The trousers were too tight. This may not have been a problem for the viewers, but since she mentioned it several times I suspect it was quite the ongoing problem for her.
If she had a TARDIS it would be pink.
She hasn't seen her mother in Hitchhikers Guide.
Doctor Who has much more time than The Bill.
She likes television more than theatre. She's done theatre only once. She never did drama school, got jobs instead, so she never did learning how to ignore that people are staring at you. So its' scary. So for three months, every night, she spent the whole night with what sounded like a panic attack, not breathing properly. Sounded very not fun. I think I'd have quit quite a long time before that. But she did the play.
Read throughs are scary. Especially because she didn't have to audition for the Doctor's Daughter. She tried for a part in the Agatha Christie one but they said they'd have a bigger part for her and sent her the script. And it was totally a dream job. It would have been a dream job just being on DW at all, but then she's the Doctor's Daughter. Very cool.
The other thing that is scary is fish.
Seriously.
She said the script didn't say what the aliens would look like but she figured it would be okay as long as they're not fish.
Because fish are scary.
I like her, she sounds like she'd really *get* the anxiety thing.
The stunt bit along the corridor was quite difficult to do. She did the start and end bits only, but even practicing that she fell on her head a lot.
Her stunt double now works with her on other things.
She was asked a couple times who her favourite Doctor as. At the start she said her Dad, which I thought was amusingly ambiguous. Then again asked at the end she umed and ahed a bit more about it. PD of course is her dad, so her favourite, but DT would be her Doctor, so, um, ah...
"They've got a heart each!"
You could see her thinking it up. It was a neat answer. Will now do for all occasions :-)
She said a bunch more stuff I forgot about. And some of it was in the other talk, which I mostly missed because it moved early and I was attempting sleep in my room. Sad now.
Did say that when filming with her dad they always get in arguments. Little snippy arguments where she calls him daddy in annoying ways and he tells her what to do and she reverts somewhat. And one time they were filming her driving a car and he was attempting to... she said change gears for her, and he corrected her, and it was quite amusing. Clearly a family dynamic going on there.
Anyone got remembering of what happened in the joint PD & GM talk? Missing things is annoying.
Terry Molloy
Davros
I started out not making notes, don't have much writ down... except for things about Davros that I'm not at all sure I agree with and rather don't like.
First there was a bit about the mask. The mask is key to the performance of Davros. The limitations in movement and expression it created forced a certain set of movements from the performer if they wanted to get anything through it at all. And with the big movements you get the voice, because to talk it has to be very precise diction, pedantic and staccato, just to push past the resistance. And the whole character is in the voice. Like a radio play on TV.
The mask was on stage too. Meeting Davros! Cool!
The bit I'd rather like to disagree with: He reckons Davros has Asperger's Syndrome.
Leaving aside the issues of diagnosing aliens with psychological difficulties experienced by humans - because really they're all humanlike enough that's fiddly pedantry - I rather dislike the thing where a diagnosis is applied only to explain evil, rather than for instance to explain good. I think the Doctor has several Aspie traits. He wanders around having massive enthusiasms, never quite fitting in, and varying between only one and none friends. He seems completely oblivious to social rules. You could call him an Aspie.
Davros... he's evil and mean and wants to destroy the universe. How is that Asperger's?
But I can see how an actor wants to get inside a character and figure out the why of them and all. So.
His logic is that Davros has single minded focus but difficulty relating to people.
I'd point out that this is not in fact the definition of Asperger's.
I think Davros is just a mean bastard.
He reckons Davros doesn't believe he's evil. He solves problems. The problem of survival of the Kaled mutants, the problem of universal hunger whilst surrounded by high grade protein, I can see that. He says genius and evil genius is a very fine line.
Davros and the Doctor are the biggest brains in the universe. Intellectual equals.
Yes, that bit I'd agree with.
But... okay, while someone with AS could conceivably become a Davros, if the society was set up to point in that direction and if the science allowed and if they were also a really mean bastard. But they could also just be a really mean bastard. You know? So I don't like that bit at all.
The next talk I've writ down as 'Torchwood 3'.
Amy Manson, Heather Craney, and Matt Ryan. Also known as The Lesbians from Fragments and the guy that got tasered in the head in Meat.
They were fun.
Matt Ryan tried for a series regular. He says he can't remember which one.
(I attempted to apply logic. Ianto was going to be a few episodes and then dead, so not a regular. Jack is John Barrowman. So logic leaves Owen. I read somewhere that Owen was originally imagined as more conventionally handsome, and then BG was awesome at them. So, hmmm.)
He had a lot to say about his character's motivations and how it was all about survival for him, that he'd only had this one thing in his life and felt he had to keep hold of it for his own survival. (It was very actor-y. Actors ask a particular set of questions about their characters and come up with answers that lead to a good performance. Looked at from teh outside characters look quite different, methinks.)
Telling Ianto to die just happened on the day. The energy took them there.
Invisible Whales are hard to act with. You don't know how big to react because you don't know what they're doing.
He thinks it would taste like a cross between kebab and chicken.
Invisible electric zapping has similar problems because you don't really know quite what to do, you don't know what it'll look like when they're done. But actually with the lights and sounds and all added it looked quite good.
Playing with guns is fun, but scary because of how much it empowers you. Just holding a gun makes you feel different.
The others agreed with him on that.
Alice Guppy was having a lot of fun. She was aroused by the power she has.
... said the actress. Really.
They talked about the clothes, how clothes do a lot of the getting into character for you. The set dressing impressed them too, the attention to detail. But the clothes come with a certain posture and breathing and everything.
Actress said she'd be interested to see what Alice Guppy was like out of her clothes.
(I blinked and nodded quite a lot. Then realised I was sitting three rows back on the center aisle and attempted to moderate nodding to non creepy levels.)
They were being fun.
They want to return as Alice and Emily. MR thought to ask if they should do more flashback episodes or if they could transfer to the present day. Both would be interesting.
AG was written in to episode 13 after they'd done episode 12, which is why Emily wasn't available because the actress was in a play.
Working with JB was fun. He's gorgeous, really good eyes. Initially AM didn't know he was gay and was a bit *sigh* when she found out. But he didn't mind HC jumping on him, straddling his face. She reckoned "Bet you never had a woman this close" And he laughed.
They were just there with JB, not the rest of the cast, just filming his section. He wasn't having his best day ever, because they'd throw water at him and he'd have to go get dry and they'd do it again half an hour later and it was Not Fun. Also he has a Thing about having stuff on his face and he had those sideburns on. There were no rehearsals. They did all the Hub scenes in a day.
(And becca thinks something about how that sounds all a bit familiar.)
So notes say "They got camper and camper, including JB swishing his cape."
... somehow I can see that ...
So that was the talks I actually turned up in time for done for the day.
I went and got autographs. I had plans for autographs and photographs and stuff, but there's always 4 things going on at once and I can apparently only figure out two, so autographs it was. Or autograph, actually, by the time I'd lined up for Peter Davison's autograph I was All Done. I'd been tuneless humming and fiddling with shiny things and stuff. Many people, one room, large noise, ran out of fun.
But I did say to PD about the UEA course, cause I think it's cool. He sounded interested a bit. I know he's an actor and can sound interested to a wide variety of things, but I'll call that cool.
So now I have his signature on a DVD cover (which I'll have to remember to put back on the DVD). Happy now. :-D
I've got autographs from Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy. :-)
And also some Torchwood people. Cool.
Sunday
Colin Baker on stage at 0900. Did talking. Including about the coat - which was not at all what he'd wanted. He'd wanted a black leather coat. Oh look, who got that one... And some other stuff, like about one convention he went to that let him do the event and then confessed they hadn't the money to pay him so he said he'd stay sitting in the hotel at their expense until they came up with the money. He reckoned if they'd said up front he might have sympathised and done the event anyway, but they didn't give him the option, so he wanted paying. They sold their car and paid him.
Fair enough.
He said other stuff too but I weren't taking notes and mostly remember my bracelets were very shiny.
I must remember this when I make plans to do full days at college or try more days a week. I can't stay in the main hall all day at a convention, or concentrate two days in a row, not even on stuff I really a lot like. College all day? :eeyroll:
Oh, to be clear in case there's people reading who don't know me so much, I'm *not* saying anyone was boring. They were interesting. I just aren't able to keep my brain stuck to a project for that lone in a row.
Next on stage was Gerard Murphy, I think. The bits of paper and the displays all spelt his name different and he weren't on the website. Some on teh website weren't there. He said he were only invited on Thursday. He was in Silver Nemesis. There was interesting story about picnics and champagne and JNT being very nice to everyone after a bit of a scare with leaving behind someone's diamonds on a doorstep.
There were other stories too.
I think what I get most from all these actor stories is that Karma is very very very much in effect in the small world of showbusiness. Because it looks like a big world, but everybody connects up in lots of different ways. Six degrees is way too far, everyone turns out to have worked with everyone or been flatmates with their offspring or something. So the good things, the being nice to people and making a good impression, they come back around. Not so much mentioned is the logical corollary, because who wants to work with someone that was mean to them last time? But the people that were nice, gave them helpful hints, made sure they were welcome, they always get a good word later.
Sylvester McCoy was good to other actors on DW, and Sophie Aldred was nice.
GM once was on Father Ted. There was an episode on an airplane where they were filming inside an airplane in front of a studio audience. So all the audience could see was the airplane set, and nobody had figured this out in advance. So it was pointed out someone would have to go tell them sorry. So instead of any of the many stand up comedians in the play, they sent the one actor.
He had a very small part in Batman Begins. (Which I still haven't seen). I think he said it was this one scene between him and Christian Bale, in a crowded courtroom with a ton of extras around. And it was a looooong day filming. To get all the angles and everything, very long day. And gradually different people would be released and the set got emptier and emptier, and GM's closeups were last. CB as released right early on, like 10am. But when it got real late and it was closeup time, who was sitting right there? CB, there to give him an eyeline and someone to work off. Which is incredibly generous acting. Specially since he had to be in the bat suit the next day. GM was greatly impressed and told everyone so from on stage.
So even though I can't recall having heard of this guy before, his talk was interesting, cause he was nice about lots of other people.
John Leeson I have no notes on. I went and got autographs from Tom Price and Kai Owen. They're nice. Then I went back and voice of K9 was telling stories. Was cool. He told the one from... Stones of Blood I think? He expected everyone to know it but there's some new people at conventions now. Him and Tom Baker like crosswords, so they did crosswords together between filming. One time TB was on location with the K9 prop and JL was in the van doing the voice. So they do a scene, and then they stop to set up something else, and so TB uses the connection to start doing the crossword, which seemed perfectly natural at the time. But what it looked like of course was The Doctor and K9 doing a crossword, with the voice coming out in K9 speak. Onlookers were amazed.
There was other good telling too.
Sasha Behar & Francesca Fowler, from The Fires of Pompeii. They did all their filming in Cardiff though. And... I can't remember much from this neither. My red bracelets were even shinier than the silver ones. Sorry. *facepalm*
It was interesting! I stayed in the hall and everything!
So then there was lunch and I went back to my room and ate the bread I'd pocketed from breakfast, because I am that cheap. I considered staying for a bit longer but I'd already missed the models FX guys the day before so I went back down for their talk.
Mike Tucker & Mat Irvine. Talked about model FX, and the limitations thereof, and the limits of CGI. It's all about getting the shot, using the best tools available for that. When they're being filmed mixed in with actors then the director concentrates on that and they get whatever spare time there is for their bit. In charge of their own model shoots they can take the time and get it right. It's fun blowing up models because that's the shot they're made for. It's less fun when they make a model and then someone decides to blow it up, because it might not be made for that. It takes a while to persuade new people to only make the bits of model the camera will see. (I guess people who want to make models for a living are going to be detail people.) It's frustrating when plans get changed after it's too late to accomodate them, ie the backwards shot of the clock tower in Aliens of London. It's great when something someone is well impressed by the CGI in is actually a model shot. And often now models and CGI work together.
But the bit we were mostly there for:
K9! Actual K9! On the stage! With lights and everything!
... okay, so you might think I'm overimpressed with small fibreglass prop, but you should have seen the line for photos after. Everyone was hugging teh dog. The dog is as old as I am so there were some requests to please to be hugging just a bit less cause of possible falling off issues, but everyone wanted to spend time with the K9.
It was actual K9 in Queer as Folk. That makes me oddly happy.
K9 is a classic example of high tech not necessarily being the best solution. His insides have been upgraded rather since the original build, he's got bits from Robot Wars in there now, batteries and motors and controls and such. But even so, the other useful bit is the loop for attaching a bit of nylon for when the motors break. Which happens often. Not the world's most reliable prop, is K9. So they stick a bit of nylon on and pull and it all works out just as well in the end.
:-)
Also, when the talk was all done and they were driving him away, he knocked into one of the projectors. That made me oddly happy too. Like a little piece of TV history being reenacted right in front of me: K9 of the dodgy steering.
*giggles*
It's a very sturdy basic shape though. Still the same outsides. Just repainted.
Very cool.
Then there was an hour break in the schedule. Well, there was a coffee lounge I'd been planning to go to, but I hadn't got around to the complicated actually getting tickets by walking up to the table portion of the day, so I said sod it and stayed. I'm no use by then anyway, I'd have just sat there looking stupid some more. But in the main hall they played Tom Baker at an earlier convention, and that was pretty cool too. Hilarious story about his gravestone.
... no, I'm not being mean, it's actually funny.
Last talk was Kai Owen & Tom Price. And I really wish I could remember more of it. But basically I've just had the Dog Man song stuck in my head since Sunday (arrgh!), and can remember them discussing the relative merits of the ass...ets of Freema Agyeman, Billy Piper and Eve Myles. Conclusion: Eve Myles has the best rear view. And also smells really good.
... I'd have been *facepalm* but I was giggling too much.
Anyone with a more coherent account of that session, feel free to comment. I had by then run out of keeping my eyes open so I weren't tracking details so much. *sigh*
So then the day was over and I went back to my room and after that nothing convention related happened to me.
I did listen to a Big Finish Audio with the 8th Doctor. Haven't heard any of them before. Bought two more on the way home. I'm not convinced of the cost ratio, but they're good listens.
Okays, so this is just how I remember it. When things turn up on YouTube I tend to find out how little I remember at all. But is the best I could figure.
Hope is fun.
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Date: 2008-07-15 03:51 pm (UTC)And what was interesting was it was a collective noise, the sound of an entire audience deciding 'oy' was roughly the right response to that idea. To a yes or no sort of question.
But I'm not sure I remembered names except Rose.
Actually since I very much need to sleep again I'm no longer sure of much, up to and including the ongoing reality of the universe. I should go deal with that.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-15 04:06 pm (UTC)linky the videos fo Kai Owen and Tom Price
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Date: 2008-07-17 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-18 05:07 pm (UTC)