Ashlee & Rachel Scott write: GenCon has come to a close once again, but what a wonderful weekend it was! I don’t think anyone attending had time to sleep! The biggest problem with GenCon is there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do all they have in store for you there! Gaming, RPG, LARP, TCG, tournaments, art shows, celebrity guests, comics, Star Wars, LOTR, musical guests, 24 hours of films from “Aliens” to “Princess Bride” plus an amazing Film Festival where fans showcase their own work in several categories from short films to full length features! Not to mention vendors galore and tons of free goodies!!
Four days, twenty-four hours a day of fun, gaming and films and we still didn’t have time for everything! Talk about exhaustion!! Everyone present had an amazing weekend. The new games that were previewed were incredible and we can’t wait for their release. Darth Vader and his gang were there to take pictures with fans, as well as other well known action heroes. Richard Hatch and Kevin Sorbo were among the guests attending this weekend.
Our “Dork of the Rings” friends had wonderful world premiere on Friday evening to a packed theater. The cast and crew were on hand throughout the weekend to answer questions for Dorker fans. And, at the DOTR booth, fans were lining up to buy their DOTR dvd, just released this weekend at GenCon, but available online at www.dorkoftherings.com for anyone that wasn’t able to attend. We had two of our own fan film showing throughout the weekend also, “LOTR: Return of the King Sneak Preview parody” and our DOTR fan film (www.marsproductions.net). It’s always fun watching films with other fans! We met so many incredible people and were sorry to see the weekend end!
GenCon is just an awesome gathering of a variety of art forms and entertainment that there is something there for everyone! Those of you on the west coast can attend GenCon in Anaheim, California on November 16-19, 2006. If you can’t make it this year to GenCon, mark your calendar for next year – August 16-19, 2007 in Indiana! www.gencon.com Don’t miss out on all the excitement! I’ve sent along some pictures of GenCon for all to enjoy! Thanks!
Liana writes: It was another wonderful weekend with LOTR fans at ELF II. We arrived the night before from London and enjoyed a night on the town in New York City. What a marvelous city! This was my first convention and my two friends and I were anxious for the next day to begin.
Friday began with a music video, which was very entertaining. Followed by one of my favorite people, Daniel Reeve, who gave an informational and interesting presentation sharing his work with us all. I tried my luck at the LOTR Trivia Contest and soon learned I was out of my element, but having a great time! Everyone was very friendly. Some skits based on the “Princess bride” movie were done and that was very clever. Time to meet my first LOTR celebrity at the photo op – John Noble. What a charming person he was! He was next on the schedule with his wonderful stories. And, later that evening we were treated to an evening of chat and laughter with John Noble, Daniel Reeve and the other LOTR fans present. By the time the first day was finished, I had forgotten all about my fear of flying, because I was having so much fun! Loved the autograph sessions.
Saturday began with what has to be my favorite memory of the weekend, simply because of the crowd reaction and the brilliance of the clip itself – Middle Earth Idols. I feared we might be crabby after the previous late night, but once the first chords of this music video began we were all cheering and on our feet! The American girls, teen film makers Ashley and Rachael, that did this were one of the winners of the music video contest over the weekend, well deserved too. What a delight! Soon, I was whisked off to my photo op with Sean Astin. He was also as nice as could be! Daniel Reeve gave another wonderful presentation and unfortunately, the Elijah Wood telecast wasn’t working properly, but Sean Astin delighted us all with his humor and wit. More skits followed, hilarious like the day before. There was an auction, which I tried very hard to win something, but was outbid each time. Drat! Lynnette Porter gave a talk on Tolkien and his Hobbits, which was very interesting.
Saturday evening was full of fun once again with Emerald Rose playing throughout the night, as well as a costume and talent contest. What fun!
Sunday morning was the charity brunch with Billy Boyd. What a wonderful opportunity to be up close and personal with one of my favorite Hobbits, and for a good cause. He joined us at each table and chatted for a while. The Sunday programming began with another music video and Micheel Drout for a lecture on Tolkien’s world. The young filmmakers from the day before introduced a film clip called Dork of the Ring and then came out on stage for a Question and Answer session, which was very interesting. They did fantastic for being so young and facing an audience like that drilling them with questions! We were then shown three of their own fan films, a Dork of the Rings fan film, Return of the King spoof and treated to an encore performance of Middle Earth Idols as the crowd cheered! So much fun!! Coleen Doran followed this with her amazing work! I later bought one of her prints to take back to England with me. More trivia contest and skits followed! Time for our photo ops with Billy Boyd. What a treat! Following that, we were shown another music video and then Billy came on stage to entertain us and even auctioned off some more items for us. Billy was wonderful!! We had another chance at an auction, and another chance for me not to win! But, it was worth a try!
I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived for ELF, but I am so glad I came. It gave me a lifetime of memories and I can’t wait to travel on to California for ORC in 2007. Thanks to all the wonderful fans and guests from all over that shared their time and talent with us! Here are some pictures I took over the weekend.
TORN Staffer Garfeimao writes: Sunday at ELF began with the Charity brunch with Billy Boyd. Over $5000 was raised for the Scottish Youth Theater, and part of that came from an impromptu live auction of one of Billy’s shirts. This would not be the only impromptu auction Billy hosted this day, but I’ll get to the other one later. Billy wandered around chatting with everyone at each table and was a gracious host, as usual.
Once the brunch was over, everyone went to the main hall and filled up the seats. Michael Drout was first up on stage and his presentation on Tolkien and Beowulf transfixed the audience, as his previous panel had on Friday. And as with the Friday presentation, it began with the recitation of the opening of Beowulf in the original Anglo-saxon.
While Michael was on stage in the main room, Colleen Doran was giving a panel on how to get into the Illustration business in the second room. I know several people were in there to take advantage of such a valuable resource.
After the Dork of the Rings presentation, Ashley and Rachel Scott got up to talk about it and their fan film for it. The DOTR guys were not present at ELF, so the Scott sisters were their proxies. I think they handled their first onstage panel quite well. They have two other conventions this summer that their fan films have been accepted to, GenCon and DragonCon. Real Life issues may keep the girls home during GenCon, and I’m unsure of their status for DragonCon but their fan films will be shown.
After their panel was done, Colleen was on the main stage and maintained her informal style by sitting on the edge of the stage. She shared her knowledge of reference materials needed to be a good illustrator. She also shared some very funny stories of some of the LOTR actors who have modeled for these reference pics. Once Colleen was done, we moved into the audience participation segment of the day.
First there was the yes/no trivia competition where the winner is the last person standing. After that came the final installment of the “Is this a Kissing Book” skits. It’s always fun to see fans turn into big hams when put up on stage.
Billy Boyd finally made his appearance on stage and started off with a bang. Or rather, the kicking over of various mic stands around the stage. While on stage, he decided to do another impromptu auction and sold his cool leather braclet he was wearing that day. How cool is that? It was won by a young lady in a nice Eowyn White Gown.
Once off stage, Billy spent the afternoon doing his autograph session and chatting with the fans. It was a pleasant way to end the official portion of the show. Afterwards, long after the dinner hour, con attendees decended upon the bar in the hotel. Again, the best way to end a LOTR event is hanging with friends laughing and having fun.
Erwin writes: GenCon 2006, an amazing 4-day gaming convention, opened in Indianapolis yesterday to an enthusiastic crowd of thousands ready to immerse themselves in every form of gaming imaginable. Whether your passion is dominating your opponents in the Battle for Middle Earth II and Halo, getting lost in a TCG or strategy board game, sitting back for hours watching films or kicking up your heels at the GenCon dance – there’s something here for everyone. GenCon runs 24 hours a day!
The most awaited film of this epoch, The Dork of the Rings, graced the screens last night at GenCon 2006 to a packed house for a sneak preview. Co-Directed by the world-renowned filmmaking genius and hot dog enthusiast Jack Peterson, it is an epic story of friendship and honor you won’t want to miss! Joining their DOTR friends for the sneak preview were teenage filmmakers Ashlee and Rachel Scott, with screenings throughout the weekend of their LOTR: ROTK parody and winning DOTR fan film at the GenCon Film Festival. Dork of the Rings director Tim Richardson, along with cast and crew, will be available throughout the weekend to sign autographs and answer questions. Dorkers rushed to be among the first to own a copy of this very special film, now available on dvd at www.dorkoftherings.com.
The gaming and merriment continued well into the wee hours of the morning! Tonight, GenCon rolls out the red carpet for The Dork of the Rings world premiere. We’ll have another huge crowd on hand for this very special event. Check out www.gencon.com for more information on how you can get in on all the fun and excitement too! See you there!!
Everyone loves the wickedly funny “Very Secret Diaries” as created by fan fic phenom Cassie Claire. This spoof of Fellowship characters has appeared in the award-winning indie documentary RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS, in an outrageous sequence where Toy Biz Action Figures and character voices were filmed on a mini set!
The original, authentic toys and props used in RINGERS are now offered on eBay! Now is your chance to own a piece of indie film history.
Check out this sequence from the film (Quicktime required) and join the auctions!
TORN Staffer Garfeimao writes: Saturday had Sean Astin as the main guest, replacing Elijah Wood as the headliner. It was announced that Elijah might be able to do a webcam conference call sometime on Saturday, but the technical bugs never quite worked out. So Sean did his appearance, handled the autograph line like the champ he is, and then we were hit by another missing guest.
Our musical scholar, Doug Adams, had been unable to fly out of Chicago on Friday due to bad weather. He had suggested doing a webcam appearance as well, and with the set up for Elijah, this was a more than acceptable solution. And then there was silence from Doug all day on Saturday. Turns out that the power went out in his area and he was without cellphone and computer to communicate this.
Luckily, Lynnette Porter was able to step in and dig up one of her past presentations and fill in Doug’s panel time. Who says Professors can’t be heroic? Daniel Reeve also gave a nice talk, and I believe he freaked a few people out by showing a picture of a bunch of Weta bugs. I’ve seen one in person, and ICK is all I have to say on that matter.
Saturday evening’s entertainment then kicked off with a costume contest and talent contest. There were some fabulous costumes, especially the three Elegant Elves that won, and some really fun talent performances. I have to say the rousing singalong of “I would be a Wood Elf” was the clear winner, but everyone else who competed in the talent portion did an excellent job.
After the awards were given, Emerald Rose jumped on stage and the party was GO. We had a conga line that must have been at least 50 people long, and the jumping and dancing didn’t stop until well after Midnight. With everyone’s energy levels up, several groups clustered in the lobby, and I saw the Pizza delivery people show up several times, including our group. This hotel has lots of lobby space, so hanging out was easy and fun and the hotel was casual about it all. A really great ending to the middle day of the con. Sunday’s report coming soon.
