Polaris 21 - Toronto - July 8
Jul. 10th, 2007 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skinscriptDay 3 dawned way too goddamned early, people. There was an issue with the engine on the sailboat Saturday night, and it led to me getting home at about 2:30am. That wouldn't have been too bad if Mini!Inf had actually slept through the night, but she woke up for a couple of hours and then it was time for Ash and Kim to pick me up.
*sigh*
Happily enough we reached the convention enough before the start of the guest discussions that I could grab a coffee and a danish. I should say that the mini-food station outside the dealers room was pretty darned good considering that it was fast food.
So Sunday had all the same types of events as Saturday did; a viewing gallery, the member panels, autographs, photos, art show, charity auction, dealers room and so on, as well as a Writers Workshop, a Fighting Workshop, and of course the guest discussions.
On Sunday, I was all about the guest discussions again. Maybe next time I'll do some panels or a workshop - perhaps at 2007 SFX (Aug 24-26).
Steve Bacic
The discussion day started with Steve Bacic. He looked a bit rough, likely the result of the Saturday night party with the stars. He admitted being more than a little hung over :) and asked for questions.
The questions Sunday were less pure entertainment than Saturday, but showed more of how much Steve likes the details of what he does. He seems to really like the creative process, to the point where I'm sure there's some directing or producing in his future. Since he's a pretty driven guy, I'd bet on his success too.
Steve talked about how Andromeda wasn't so much pranking as it was a constant state of joking around, and he got to discuss at some length Andromeda's "The Unconquerable Man" episode (my own favourite). Steve clearly had thought a lot about Gaheris' character and the whys behind his actions, which is always great for the fans to hear about.
As we were wrapping up, there was one last question... a quavering voice saying 'Hi Mr Bacic...'
Eric Avari
Which leads us to Eric Avari! It was him at the mike, and he and Steve had a great time just messing around for a few minutes before Steve left (possibly without his pants). He started off by giving us the tennis score for the Wimbledon Men's Final - which reminded me that it was on and started me doing the BBC live updates on my Blackberry. *blush*
Eric is a very lively fellow who seemed to weather the previous night's party pretty well. He read the announcements in a truly memorable fashion, and then got down to the business of chatting with the audience and giving anecdotes of various productions he's done. He also had a mini-talent show that one of the members brought to a show-stopping halt by performing fabulous wheelie-spins in her wheelchair. Awesome!
He spoke about the fun of playing on Stargate; the challenges of learning languages for the roles he is asked to do and how it becomes a lot harder once people start paying attention to whether or not you're doing it right. He also talked about the role in Encino Man where two lines typecast him for years, and his relationships with his costars. Anecdotes about his sports love, various movies, and growing up in Darjeeling rounded out his talk. It was a great hour.
Teryl Rothery
Teryl has to be one of the bounciest, most cheerful people I've seen yet on stage. I have no idea where she gets her energy, but wow - she is an awesome guest. She has no self-consciousness, and just has fun every single minute she is out there. Or in the audience. Or racing up or down the steps. Or standing on the chair. Or back on the stage.
Teryl talked about her many guest appearances, as well as her seven years on Stargate and how much fun she had on that show. There were some excellent anecdotes about stressful and humourous times on set, and it is clear that she has a lot of love and great memories from that time. She also talked about her guest appearance on Supernatural (as the doctor in "Heart"), and how the leads are "just as nice to talk to as they are to look at". She mentioned a few times that the Supernatural cast were excellent to work with, given that she'd only been on for the one day.
Teryl seemed to be all about the crowd - she gave hugs, kisses on the cheeks, and walked through with the microphone to let some of the shyer people talk too. She really seems to be someone who'd be a delight on set. I had intended to go and eat for her hour (since I'm not an SG-1 afficionado), but damn if I wasn't glued there the whole time!
Ron Harris
Ron of course played Shepherd on Firefly/Serenity. I wasn't a Firefly fan when it was on (I was still miffed about Dark Angel's cancellation), but I did catch the Serenity movie (great!) so I knew who he is. I remember when I saw Serenity I was all 'I recognize him... what from??' and it bothered me to no end. The answer is of course, Barney Miller!
I confess I missed most of Ron's talk because the 'food NOW!' impulse overwhelmed me and I absolutely had to eat. When I came back I caught the last fifteen or twenty minutes of his talk.
Ron's a pretty calm, reserved speaker and he didn't have the over the top energy of Eric or Teryl, so it was a nice change of pace. He talked about working with River, and how it was a definite learning experience because you just never knew what was going to happen next. There was an interesting question where he was asked to give one word to describe each of his costars. His choices were great - sadly I don't remember ANY of them! So unfair. I should have been taking notes.
Marina Sirtis
How many awesome things are there to say about Marina Sirtis? She's a fantastic guest for so many reasons, not least of which is her love of the fans, her total lack of humility, and her equally total lack of fear when it comes to providing anecdotes and opinions on the events of her career.
Marina came on and straight out told the group that she would not be repeating herself on questions asked the previous day, as a punishment for those who did not attend both days - and with one exception she stuck to that completely.
Marina spoke mostly about Star Trek (of course) and her time on the show. She plainly still loves her costars and is in touch with many of them on an ongoing basis; she and Michael Dorn have some joint projects in the works. She also revealed her favourite movie (Steel Magnolias), her experiences on 'Nemesis', and some stories from the set of 'Insurrection', 'Generations', and of course the TNG series. She hated the Troi / Worf pairing, some of her guest directors, and that Troi never seemed to develop a life outside of counselling and working out. *laughs* She talked about some of her more diva moments, and you could see both how she was right and how she could make directors tear their hair out. She's awesome!
My personal favourite response was to the question "Who is your favourite director?" Her answer was "Jonathan Frakes" even before the question was all the way out, and then the rest of her answer was a description of how Jonathan works between the lines of cast and crew to build a total team and a great movie, and that he is not working nearly enough.
I loved her answer not because of the nice things she said, but because she didn't say it sweetly or nicely - she said it defiantly and directly and like she'd be totally ready to punch you out if you disagreed. You could tell she felt passionately about it and she wasn't giving the ego petting answer.
A total pro at these events after 20 years, she wrapped it up on time with a quick description of why there was only ever one blooper reel (because the 'creative editing' of the scenes in the blooper reel instead of just having the real bloopers pissed off some of the cast) and a cheer at being the only fulltime Star Trek star to be in an Oscar winning movie (Crash).
Katee Sackhoff
Katee was the BSG guest this year, and since BSG is my (latest) obsession I was really pleased to get to hear her talk.
Katee came out and sat down, ready to go. Unlike some of the other guests she didn't pace the stage or start chattering right away, instead admitting to having a fear of large crowds and asking for questions. The crowd was limited to about 5 minutes of flash photography. This was a good thing, because all those flashes had to be blinding. When they finally brought up the lights she was visibly relieved, and had a chance to relax a bit. She's so fair that when she blushes you can really tell.
Katee got the most personal questions of the day, to the point that she was asked if she knew about the people who write real person based smut about her. This question was timed with her taking a mouthful of her drink, which she almost spilled everywhere. It got a laugh but I've been there and it's never fun to be fighting not to snort pop. She took the question with absolute grace, suggesting that if its good enough she'll give it to her boyfriend... and then we got to move on.
There were lots of anecdotes about being on BSG, especially around Tahmoh Penikett (her 'partner in crime') and the other ladies on the show. She talked about how relaxed the atmosphere is, and how much it can be like living in a men's locker room (my words). She seems to take that with grace and humour as well, which says a lot about her personal toughness and sense of the absurd. There was a discussion on how the cast and crew took the Maelstrom storyline, and how her mom contributed to the furor. All of her stories, including the most embarrassing moments ones, got big laughs and I think genuine affection from the crowd. We all love people who can laugh at themselves.
An interesting story about being in 'Actor Boot Camp' that displayed the smart casting of the show. There was an activity they did that involved them all working together as a team while blindfolded the (first?) day. Katee said they all quite naturally fell into the hierarchy of their characters on the show, without intending to... Jamie (Bamber) sort of overall directing, then Katee, then Grace (Park), then the other pilots and knuckledraggers in roughly their rank on the show. She thought it was interesting that they'd been cast that way too.
There was some discussion about Bionic Woman, which I am suddenly looking forward to seeing, and on the final season of BSG. No spoilers, but it's nice to know that BSG is first in her heart. A couple of short questions about dealing with the fame brought some hilarious responses. For all her fear of crowds, she did a great job and was an excellent guest.
Overall
That wrapped it up! I didn't stick around for closing ceremonies because Mr. Inf was working Sunday night.
Overall, Polaris was a really beautifully run event. I thought the Asylum folks did a pretty good job in Coventry handling the issues of a pretty big crowd in a small venue, but I have to say that the Polaris crew are clearly pros at this. There were no lineups (for *anything* except autographs), all of the guests were on time, no one was attacked(!), and the entire operation was entirely professional while maintaining a sense of humour and fun. My only complain was that the lighting on Sunday for the guest talks was much too low to allow non-flash photography. This resulted in a lot of blurred or very dark shots, since we had energetic guests and low light!
Given the thousands of attendees and the relative smallness of the venue, plus the high profile of the guests and the sheer volume of stuff going on, I have to give the Polaris guys a huge round of applause for throwing such a well run event. Great job, guys!
*sigh*
Happily enough we reached the convention enough before the start of the guest discussions that I could grab a coffee and a danish. I should say that the mini-food station outside the dealers room was pretty darned good considering that it was fast food.
So Sunday had all the same types of events as Saturday did; a viewing gallery, the member panels, autographs, photos, art show, charity auction, dealers room and so on, as well as a Writers Workshop, a Fighting Workshop, and of course the guest discussions.
On Sunday, I was all about the guest discussions again. Maybe next time I'll do some panels or a workshop - perhaps at 2007 SFX (Aug 24-26).
Steve Bacic
The discussion day started with Steve Bacic. He looked a bit rough, likely the result of the Saturday night party with the stars. He admitted being more than a little hung over :) and asked for questions.
The questions Sunday were less pure entertainment than Saturday, but showed more of how much Steve likes the details of what he does. He seems to really like the creative process, to the point where I'm sure there's some directing or producing in his future. Since he's a pretty driven guy, I'd bet on his success too.
Steve talked about how Andromeda wasn't so much pranking as it was a constant state of joking around, and he got to discuss at some length Andromeda's "The Unconquerable Man" episode (my own favourite). Steve clearly had thought a lot about Gaheris' character and the whys behind his actions, which is always great for the fans to hear about.
As we were wrapping up, there was one last question... a quavering voice saying 'Hi Mr Bacic...'
Eric Avari
Which leads us to Eric Avari! It was him at the mike, and he and Steve had a great time just messing around for a few minutes before Steve left (possibly without his pants). He started off by giving us the tennis score for the Wimbledon Men's Final - which reminded me that it was on and started me doing the BBC live updates on my Blackberry. *blush*
Eric is a very lively fellow who seemed to weather the previous night's party pretty well. He read the announcements in a truly memorable fashion, and then got down to the business of chatting with the audience and giving anecdotes of various productions he's done. He also had a mini-talent show that one of the members brought to a show-stopping halt by performing fabulous wheelie-spins in her wheelchair. Awesome!
He spoke about the fun of playing on Stargate; the challenges of learning languages for the roles he is asked to do and how it becomes a lot harder once people start paying attention to whether or not you're doing it right. He also talked about the role in Encino Man where two lines typecast him for years, and his relationships with his costars. Anecdotes about his sports love, various movies, and growing up in Darjeeling rounded out his talk. It was a great hour.
Teryl Rothery
Teryl has to be one of the bounciest, most cheerful people I've seen yet on stage. I have no idea where she gets her energy, but wow - she is an awesome guest. She has no self-consciousness, and just has fun every single minute she is out there. Or in the audience. Or racing up or down the steps. Or standing on the chair. Or back on the stage.
Teryl talked about her many guest appearances, as well as her seven years on Stargate and how much fun she had on that show. There were some excellent anecdotes about stressful and humourous times on set, and it is clear that she has a lot of love and great memories from that time. She also talked about her guest appearance on Supernatural (as the doctor in "Heart"), and how the leads are "just as nice to talk to as they are to look at". She mentioned a few times that the Supernatural cast were excellent to work with, given that she'd only been on for the one day.
Teryl seemed to be all about the crowd - she gave hugs, kisses on the cheeks, and walked through with the microphone to let some of the shyer people talk too. She really seems to be someone who'd be a delight on set. I had intended to go and eat for her hour (since I'm not an SG-1 afficionado), but damn if I wasn't glued there the whole time!
Ron Harris
Ron of course played Shepherd on Firefly/Serenity. I wasn't a Firefly fan when it was on (I was still miffed about Dark Angel's cancellation), but I did catch the Serenity movie (great!) so I knew who he is. I remember when I saw Serenity I was all 'I recognize him... what from??' and it bothered me to no end. The answer is of course, Barney Miller!
I confess I missed most of Ron's talk because the 'food NOW!' impulse overwhelmed me and I absolutely had to eat. When I came back I caught the last fifteen or twenty minutes of his talk.
Ron's a pretty calm, reserved speaker and he didn't have the over the top energy of Eric or Teryl, so it was a nice change of pace. He talked about working with River, and how it was a definite learning experience because you just never knew what was going to happen next. There was an interesting question where he was asked to give one word to describe each of his costars. His choices were great - sadly I don't remember ANY of them! So unfair. I should have been taking notes.
Marina Sirtis
How many awesome things are there to say about Marina Sirtis? She's a fantastic guest for so many reasons, not least of which is her love of the fans, her total lack of humility, and her equally total lack of fear when it comes to providing anecdotes and opinions on the events of her career.
Marina came on and straight out told the group that she would not be repeating herself on questions asked the previous day, as a punishment for those who did not attend both days - and with one exception she stuck to that completely.
Marina spoke mostly about Star Trek (of course) and her time on the show. She plainly still loves her costars and is in touch with many of them on an ongoing basis; she and Michael Dorn have some joint projects in the works. She also revealed her favourite movie (Steel Magnolias), her experiences on 'Nemesis', and some stories from the set of 'Insurrection', 'Generations', and of course the TNG series. She hated the Troi / Worf pairing, some of her guest directors, and that Troi never seemed to develop a life outside of counselling and working out. *laughs* She talked about some of her more diva moments, and you could see both how she was right and how she could make directors tear their hair out. She's awesome!
My personal favourite response was to the question "Who is your favourite director?" Her answer was "Jonathan Frakes" even before the question was all the way out, and then the rest of her answer was a description of how Jonathan works between the lines of cast and crew to build a total team and a great movie, and that he is not working nearly enough.
I loved her answer not because of the nice things she said, but because she didn't say it sweetly or nicely - she said it defiantly and directly and like she'd be totally ready to punch you out if you disagreed. You could tell she felt passionately about it and she wasn't giving the ego petting answer.
A total pro at these events after 20 years, she wrapped it up on time with a quick description of why there was only ever one blooper reel (because the 'creative editing' of the scenes in the blooper reel instead of just having the real bloopers pissed off some of the cast) and a cheer at being the only fulltime Star Trek star to be in an Oscar winning movie (Crash).
Katee Sackhoff
Katee was the BSG guest this year, and since BSG is my (latest) obsession I was really pleased to get to hear her talk.
Katee came out and sat down, ready to go. Unlike some of the other guests she didn't pace the stage or start chattering right away, instead admitting to having a fear of large crowds and asking for questions. The crowd was limited to about 5 minutes of flash photography. This was a good thing, because all those flashes had to be blinding. When they finally brought up the lights she was visibly relieved, and had a chance to relax a bit. She's so fair that when she blushes you can really tell.
Katee got the most personal questions of the day, to the point that she was asked if she knew about the people who write real person based smut about her. This question was timed with her taking a mouthful of her drink, which she almost spilled everywhere. It got a laugh but I've been there and it's never fun to be fighting not to snort pop. She took the question with absolute grace, suggesting that if its good enough she'll give it to her boyfriend... and then we got to move on.
There were lots of anecdotes about being on BSG, especially around Tahmoh Penikett (her 'partner in crime') and the other ladies on the show. She talked about how relaxed the atmosphere is, and how much it can be like living in a men's locker room (my words). She seems to take that with grace and humour as well, which says a lot about her personal toughness and sense of the absurd. There was a discussion on how the cast and crew took the Maelstrom storyline, and how her mom contributed to the furor. All of her stories, including the most embarrassing moments ones, got big laughs and I think genuine affection from the crowd. We all love people who can laugh at themselves.
An interesting story about being in 'Actor Boot Camp' that displayed the smart casting of the show. There was an activity they did that involved them all working together as a team while blindfolded the (first?) day. Katee said they all quite naturally fell into the hierarchy of their characters on the show, without intending to... Jamie (Bamber) sort of overall directing, then Katee, then Grace (Park), then the other pilots and knuckledraggers in roughly their rank on the show. She thought it was interesting that they'd been cast that way too.
There was some discussion about Bionic Woman, which I am suddenly looking forward to seeing, and on the final season of BSG. No spoilers, but it's nice to know that BSG is first in her heart. A couple of short questions about dealing with the fame brought some hilarious responses. For all her fear of crowds, she did a great job and was an excellent guest.
Overall
That wrapped it up! I didn't stick around for closing ceremonies because Mr. Inf was working Sunday night.
Overall, Polaris was a really beautifully run event. I thought the Asylum folks did a pretty good job in Coventry handling the issues of a pretty big crowd in a small venue, but I have to say that the Polaris crew are clearly pros at this. There were no lineups (for *anything* except autographs), all of the guests were on time, no one was attacked(!), and the entire operation was entirely professional while maintaining a sense of humour and fun. My only complain was that the lighting on Sunday for the guest talks was much too low to allow non-flash photography. This resulted in a lot of blurred or very dark shots, since we had energetic guests and low light!
Given the thousands of attendees and the relative smallness of the venue, plus the high profile of the guests and the sheer volume of stuff going on, I have to give the Polaris guys a huge round of applause for throwing such a well run event. Great job, guys!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-07-12 10:40 pm (UTC)They all sound awesome, though I have to admit, I'd love to hear Marina Sirtis talk 'cause of what you said, even though I haven't seen any of her shows! Wait! Crash! I saw Crash.
Naturally, am jealous about you getting to hear Katee Sackhoff talk. Don't think it ends there. I'll be pumping you for specifics when we next speak. (See? Obsessed.)
Sounds like the con in general was awesome... and that you had a lot of fun. AND no line ups... surely that is something impossible at something as big as that! *Gasp*
I'm thinking you're gonna have to take me to the next one to prove it really can be done. :P
Thanks for sharing, Inf. (Just don't think that's the end of the bugging. ;))
no subject
Date: 2007-07-13 01:57 am (UTC)