Celebration III brought the best of the Star Wars universe together at the Indiana Convention Centre on April 21st – 24th 2005. Fans from all over the world gathered to commemorate the saga as they anticipated the release of Revenge of the Sith. Celebration III promised to be one of the most memorable media events ever, a celebration of the entire Star Wars saga that would live on long after Episode III had left the theatres, and boy did it deliver…
That’s how the official press kit introduced Celebration III to the world, but did it indeed deliver on its initial promise? After Celebration II, which drew 26 000 fans three years earlier to celebrate the release of Attack of the Clones, fans waited eagerly for the next Celebration, timed to coincide with the release of the final big screen Star Wars movie Revenge of the Sith. But how was it really during those four days in Indianapolis? Was it a mad squash in queues, a frustrating wait for events, banging heads with uncooperative event staff, or was it the single best Star Wars experience of your fandom, a great chance to meet the stars of the films – and see George Lucas speak personally to the massed crowds?
Whatever it was, here you will find memories from Ian Liston, who played Wes Janson and an AT-AT Driver in The Empire Strikes Back and Jonathan L Bowen, author of Anticipation – The Real Life Story of Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace about Celebration III…
AREAS
– SW Fan Stage
– Star Wars in 30 Minutes
– Celebration Hall
– Star Wars Kids’ Room
– Collecting Track
– Celebration Store
– Autograph Hall
– Fan Fair Hall
– Star Wars Tattoo Art
– Death Star Diorama Builders
– Star Wars Cars
– Fan Club Tables
– X-Box Arena
– Stormtrooper Olympics
– Life-sized Origami: Naboo Starfighter, Jedi Starfighter, Jabba, Anakin’s Ship
– Droidyard 500 Race & Obstacle Course
– Jedi Training
– C3 photoFan Club Lounge
Meet & Greets: Don Bies, Nick Gillard, Paul Blake, Feng Zhu, Caroline Blakiston, Danny Wagner, Dan Gregoire, Lorne Peterson, Dave & Lou Elsey, Jake Lloyd, Mike Murname, Roger Guyett, Ralph Brown, Episode III Art Department, Pablo Hidalgo, Bai Ling, John Knoll.
Thursday April 21st 2005
Sagamore Ballroom
Boba Fett Saga – Bulloch & Logan, Temuera Morrison with Bodie Taylor
Dave & Lou Elsey – Live Makeup DemonstrationSaga Stage
Mystery Ewok Theatre 2005
Star Wars: Musical Edition
One-Man Star Wars Trilogy
Rebels vs. Imperials!500 Ballroom
Clone Wars Volume 2
Lorne Peterson – Building the Saga
Celebration III Interview – Ian McDiarmid
ILM Model Shop – 30 Years
Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope with free popcorn!Behind-The-Scenes
Making of Revenge – Jonathan W. Rinzler
Technologies & Environments – Ryan Church
Dan Gregoire: Vision Before the Film
Matt Stover – Revenge of the Sith Novel
Jonathan L Bowen
I arrived in Indianapolis, Indiana just before dinner on Wednesday after a fairly long trip from Portland, Oregon on the West Coast. On Thursday, I woke up at 7.00am, ate breakfast, and headed over to the line before 9 for the noon opening of the third Star Wars Celebration. The weather Thursday was disappointing. Wednesday was a beautiful day with plenty of sun and warm temperatures, but Thursday was cold and completely overcast. Everyone in line felt fortunate that no rain appeared, at least. The Indianapolis Star reported that 22,000 fans pre-registered for Celebration III, which is nearly three times the 8,000 who pre-registered for the second Celebration. Total attendance was expected to be somewhere around 30,000 fans.
Fortunately, unlike Celebration II, the convention line did not go around numerous city blocks, but up the stairs of the convention center and around a well organized maze of metal bars to control the crowds. By 9.00am, I was already destined to be far behind in line, but not in a terrible position; other fans were an extra 45 minutes away from gaining entry. While in line, I witnessed quite a scary car accident where one guy apparently glanced over at the line and swiped another car quite hard, which sent the car spinning across several lanes to rest against the curb. Nobody was injured.
The line began moving shortly after noon, but I did not enter the convention hall until 12.40pm, at which point I was already too hungry to think of doing anything besides eat a few slices of pizza and plan the day. Looking at the event activities for the day, and having already been to two celebrations before with Star Wars guests, I was a lot more interested in footage from Revenge of the Sith and presentations related to the new film rather than recollections or talks with previous actors and actresses. Thursday seemed like a great day to shop for new Star Wars collectibles, especially because of the small edition sizes, so I decided to spend the day mostly in Exhibition Hall D with all of the merchandising companies and collectible tables.
Before going to the exhibit hall, I went to Room 105 where the Star Wars Art exhibit took place. At the Art Exhibit, numerous Star Wars artists who have contributed to covers, Topps cards, and even the official Revenge of the Sith Hasbro seal were available to meet. Additionally, each artist was allowed one lithograph to sell at the Celebration, limited to 250 maximum.
I bought prints from Cat Staggs, Chris Trevas, Ken Steacy, and Brian Rood. Additionally, when I left for the exhibit hall, I had the opportunity to speak to new Star Wars artist Sarah Wilkinson, who had recently completed more than 500 sketch cards for Topps’s Revenge of the Sith trading cards. I bought an original sketch card from Sarah and had the pleasure to speak to her about a film project she did with fellow artist Matt Busch, who Star Wars fans know from his work on many products and covers for the franchise.
The exhibit hall really took most of the day to see in full. Master Replicas had their high quality collectibles on display, including a dual set of gold lightsabers that are unavailable for purchase but given away at a drawing later in the Celebration. I entered the drawing, then stood in line for the Celebration III exclusive collectible from Master Replicas, a .45 scale replica of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber. Apparently, many people wanted the $35 collectible because the line took more than half an hour.
After Master Replicas, I had to see the Code 3 collectibles booth with an exclusive The Empire Strikes Back sculpted poster collectible, but the sales of the item, limited to 1980, were too brisk; I had to pick up a wristband to return the next day because they sold all their on-site inventory. Code 3 has some fantastic Star Wars vehicle replicas, including a new AT-ST. I have spent too much money on Master Replicas over the years to collect Code 3 collectibles, too, but Celebration III changed my mind so I picked up a catalogue so I can order a few items online after the Celebration ends.
A Borders display had Matthew Stover’s Revenge of the Sith novel in a signed special edition limited to 1,000 copies for $100, so I had to buy the novel, too. At the last two Celebrations, I also paid a hefty sum for the limited editions of the first two novels, so I had to complete my collection. I do not remember the other novels being $100 each, though, and I talked in line with a fan who complained about the price as well.
Although I had little interest in the dealer setups, I found a UK dealer selling some fantastic collectibles from across the Atlantic. For $80, I bought a portfolio of ten Revenge of the Sith prints that is limited to 3,000 total. The dealer had quite a few other collectibles I had never seen in the States, but the items were a lot pricier and I had spent quite enough for one day.
Before leaving the exhibit hall, I stopped at the USA Pins booth and spent another few hundred dollars on two framed, limited edition pin collections and a set of five extremely limited ($150 each) larger pins about half of fist-sized from Revenge of the Sith. At the last Celebration, I had bought a few pin sets from USA Pins and I admire their work, so I felt I had to complete my collection. Not being a huge toy collector, I find a lot of the best collectibles and artwork at the Celebrations.
A highlight of the day for me was seeing a gorgeous girl dressed up as Princess Leia in her classic slave outfit. At the past two Celebrations, brave girls dressed up as Slave Leia, but they could hardly match Carrie Fisher’s looks in Return of the Jedi. She told me she was 21 years old, wanted to dress up as Leia since she was 16, and loved the attention because it made her feel like a celebrity. She was very friendly and let fans, including myself, take pictures with her during the Celebration. I had the good fortune of running into her four times throughout the day, including while in line and just before I left the convention center.
The line for the Celebration Store was too ridiculous and would have taken several hours, so I avoided the wait on Thursday. I am not a huge toy collector and only really want the posters and the pin set from the Celebration Store, but waiting a few hours in line for them did not seem worthwhile. I hoped that when the toys were close to selling out, I would be able to get into the store a lot easier. By 6.00pm. Thursday, I was exhausted and ready to head back to my hotel, though festivities continued through midnight with a 10.00pm. showing of A New Hope that I wished I had energy to see with other diehard fans.
Everyone talked on Thursday about George Lucas attending Celebration III, with many people saying that to see any of his three appearances, people would have to lineup no later than 3.00am. on Saturday morning. Seeing Lucas is a rare opportunity, so I contemplated waiting outside in the cold for seven hours until the first Lucas talk, but I figured I would make my decision Friday night.
Friday April 22nd 2005
Sagamore Ballroom
Hayden Live from Italy!
An Hour With Jay Laga’aia
Nick Gillard – Master Behind the Action
Ray Park
Meet the Episode III Art Department
Star Wars Fan Film Awards, with Host Warwick DavisSaga Stage
One-Man Star Wars Trilogy
Star Wars: Musical Edition
Dave & Lou Elsey Live Makeup
Star Wars Costume Pageant
Don Bies, Droidmaster500 Ballroom
Clone Wars Volume 2
Episode III Spectacular!
Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back with free popcorn!
Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi with free popcorn!Behind-The-Scenes
Star Wars Fan Film Panel
Incredible Cross-Sections
Mood and Lighting – Erik Tiemens
Knoll Vision – Inside Revenge
Matthew Wood – Star Wars Sound Design
Matt Stover – Revenge of the Sith Novel
On Friday, I made the mistake of showing up to the line right as the doors opened, which gave me a nice view of the back of the line seemingly miles from the entrance. In my entire life, I have never seen a line as impressive as the one Friday. It went around the convention hall corner, then up the stairs, then twisted at least 25 times, then back down the opposite stairs, then around a few more parts of the building, then through a few tunnels, then twisted around again another 10 to 15 times. I have no idea how many people I saw in line, but it must have been at least 10,000, which would have made the line several miles long including its twists and turns. Although the line was starting to move when I began my epic quest to find the end of it, I still spent 100 minutes in line until I saw the front doors again. The rain was horrible throughout the lineup and my hands were freezing by the time I entered the convention hall.
Because of my absolutely pathetic position in line, by the time I got into the convention center all of the Episode III Spectacular! showings were full through the next several hours. People waited many hours in line to see the eight or so minutes of Revenge of the Sith footage, which Rick McCallum showed as part of the presentation. I still vividly remember watching the Attack of the Clones footage at Celebration II and being completely blown away by Yoda’s fight scenes and a bunch of other short clips shown at the presentation, so I was very disappointed at not being able to get into the Rick McCallum shows and was wondering what I would do with my day.
I wandered around for a few hours not able to see any of the better shows because of the ridiculously long lines, which for a while made me frustrated and angry at the entire Celebration. I started to think that if Lucasfilm was going to throw a Celebration at all, it should be strictly limited to 10,000 people total so that 10,000 fans come away extremely excited, happy, and fulfilled instead of having 30,000 fans come away either mostly bummed, somewhat disappointed, or only somewhat pleased. My mood quickly changed by the end of the day, though, and I salvaged another quite fun and awesome day with Star Wars and Star Wars fans.
After buying an original General Grievous painting from Sarah Wilkinson, which I think is wonderful and will make a fantastic addition to my growing art collection, I met with Jim Fisher at Jedinet.com. We talked about Star Wars, the fan sites, the Celebration, and my non-fiction book, Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, for about an hour, which was wonderful because I always enjoy having the opportunity to speak with other hardcore fans. Jim has really done the fan community a service by saving Jedinet.com from the ashes and trying to grow its traffic again after a period of hiatus. I also had the opportunity to meet and speak with Lou “T’Bone Fender” Tambone at StarWarz.com for a few minutes.”
Rejuvenated by the conversations I had with Jim and T’Bone, I managed to find the Star Wars Spectacular! line again and it was tiny. McCallum had decided to stay for the rest of the day and personally appear each time to present the footage to every fan who could fit in the room to see it. I only waited 30 minutes to watch some of the most unbelievable footage I have seen in my life. I am not sure if I am overreacting just because it is all new Star Wars footage and it lacks the familiarity that the other films have after at least 50 viewings each, but I honestly thought the presentation for Episode III was breathtaking and awesome. I will not spoil any of the parts of the film, because I personally am trying to be as spoiler-free as possible even though I have seen some footage, but I will make a few general comments for readers.
I was most impressed with the new locations in the footage, which for me is always a highlight of any new Star Wars film. As StarWars.com has mentioned, Episode III has more planets than every other Star Wars movie combined. The pacing, the action, the lightsaber duels, the battle sequences, the visual detail, and General Grievous were all stunning. During the screening I attended, everyone was silent during the footage except for seeing Mace Windu on screen, seeing Yoda, and seeing a scene with Grievous. At the end, though, massive applause erupted for at least a minute. At that moment, I would have probably paid $100 to have just the eight minutes on a DVD to watch over and over until Opening Day. Having seen the footage, and realizing that Revenge of the Sith is going to be the most chaotic, visually stunning Star Wars movie yet really changed my mood and refreshed me.
After seeing the Episode III footage, I went to the Meet the Episode III Art Department show in the Sagamore Ballroom, which was the event’s primary and largest room. MC Jay Laga’aia hosted all of the shows and presentations in the room. I enjoyed listening to the art department talk about the film, especially because the Star Wars movies really are the most artistic films around. All of the incredible locations, droids, characters, and weapons originate with the art department, but Lucas carefully controls what finally appears in the films. One of my favorite parts of the show was just a simple explanation that I have tried to give to many people over the past few years, but the art department guys explained it succinctly. People mention how the technology in the prequels looks better than the Original Trilogy, so one of the art department members mentioned how Episode III is really a high point for the galaxy in the look of vehicles, vessels, and technology, but by the time of A New Hope, the galaxy has been ravaged by war. In essence, the functionality of technology in the Original Trilogy becomes much more important than its aesthetic qualities, which is why the technology in the prequels looks beautiful but is not as potent.
Having seen a few shows for the day, I fully salvaged Friday by going to the Star Wars in Pop Culture show, which played on a loop throughout the Celebration until midnight each day. The long presentation, which I watched for about 45 minutes before realizing how exhausted I had become, showcased Star Wars mentions from Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, and numerous other shows, news reports, and even corny television commercials from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. The presentation was great fun to watch, but I had been up since 7.00am and was already really tired, so the dark room and padded chair nearly made me fall asleep. The day was a success, though, and I left the convention hall thinking that I had really done quite a bit after all, despite the early frustrations.
Saturday April 23rd 2005
Sagamore Ballroom
George Lucas
Billy Dee!
Rick McCallum
An Hour with Warwick Davis
From Concept to Filming: Building the Magic
Knoll Vision – Inside Revenge.Saga Stage
Double Trouble! Prowse & Baker
Jabba’s Palace Reunion!
Star Wars: Musical Edition
One-Man Star Wars Trilogy
Jake Lloyd, Jedi Action!500 Ballroom
Clone Wars Volume 2 & Trivia
Roger Guyett – Effects in Film
Episode III Spectacular!
Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace with free popcorn!
Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones with free popcorn!Behind-The-Scenes
Concept & Sculpture
The Art of Revenge, Dan Gregoire: Vision Before the Film
Continuity – Keeping Order
Star Wars Novel Series Title Reveal!
The big event on Saturday, and at Celebration III as a whole, was the attendance of George Lucas, the Jedi Master himself. Although I really wanted to see Lucas, once I heard that people were going to camp out for the entire night just to see him for 25-30 minutes, I began to have my doubts. I finally decided against waiting in the long lines because of the frigid cold weather and the pouring rain. Saturday was the only day I actually got a decent amount of sleep, so I did not head over to the convention center until about noon. Because I had no real interest in the Celebration Store and its ridiculously long lines, and I missed seeing Lucas, I really had no definite plans for Saturday.
Before I recall what I did Saturday, I want to share a few amusing stories I heard about the Lucas lineup, which really deserves its own journal. I talked to one die-hard fan later in the day who had attended the previous two Celebrations as well and we both talked about how the weather was reminiscent of Denver, Colorado in 1999, which was a Celebration many people called Hellebration. Others simply liked the slogan, “I survived the first Star Wars Celebration.” Despite the muddy, cold, wet, and mostly miserable conditions in Denver six years earlier, the Lucas lineup and the fans who waited in it surpassed even Denver for sheer misery and discomfort.
The fan I first talked to about the lineup to see Lucas arrived at 11.30pm. the night before, which was technically 30 minutes before anyone was supposed to be allowed to lineup. The police had earlier kicked people out of line. Once the line reformed just before midnight, though, the local police did not interfere again. Quite a few other interferences arose, however. Not more than a few hours after midnight, a group of fans returned to the lineup and tried to claim they were actually in line before the existing line. They had created an honor system of numbers, as the fan I spoke to described it, where they thought they could just re-enter the lineup at a later point. Of course, when the fans already in line in freezing cold, rainy, windy weather heard about the numbering system from fans who had been in their hotel rooms, in restaurants, and in warm places waiting to return to the front of the line, nobody had much sympathy for the numbering system or its proponents.
At one point, the fan with whom I spoke indicated he thought a riot was going to break out because of the heated debate between members of the numbered lineup group and those already in line waiting since midnight. Finally, everyone in line just lost patience with the fans who were trying to cut, regardless of the validity of their reasons, and told them to go to the back of the line. The situation became ridiculous to the point of laughter, where fans in line would joke around about having a number, who has a number, what the number says, and what the number means. When new fans would come up and say, “I have a number, 45, and should be in front of you,” fans already in line would say something back like, “Yeah, I have a number, too, #1, and nobody is cutting in front of me.” The hostility was tangible and rare among Star Wars fans, but the situation resolved itself peacefully as anyone who got into line in the middle of the night easily was able to see Lucas in the end.
More problems persisted, however. On Saturday morning, temperatures plummeted into the low 30s, or even worse with wind chill, so the conditions in Indianapolis were not far from the ones the Rebel Alliance experienced on the ice planet of Hoth. Weirder still, Indy had just experienced several weeks of 70 to 80 degree weather with a nice, warm breeze. The bitter cold in the early morning hours Saturday threatened to tear apart the line and actually cause real health hazards. Just a few hours after the lineup began, by 1-2 a.m., a few fans left the line because of the hazardous, treacherous conditions. The first few people to leave created somewhat of a bandwagon exodus as a significant segment of people exited the line for the comforts of their warm hotel rooms. Once the less hearty members of the line left, however, virtually everyone else in line stayed the course and waited through the cold conditions.
The fan with whom I first spoke had nothing but a few t-shirts on for layering and a flannel shirt along with a pair of jeans. Nobody packed for such cold conditions because the weather forecast had been for overnight lows in the mid to high 40s and fairly moderate daytime temperatures. Some fans, such as the one with whom I talked, had to borrow supplies from other people in line. Many fans just sat in the cold, bundled up as much as possible, and looked down at the ground trying to pass the minutes in the freezing weather. One fan even remarked that he thought he was near death from the hours of cold, wet weather, which as funny as it might sound to anyone not present was hardly a joke to fans who waited many hours outside and felt their extremities lose feeling. Finally, the diehard fans had some respite from the treacherous conditions, but many only temporarily.
By about 4.30am, police believed that the conditions were too hazardous for everyone to be waiting outside, so the convention staff started moving people into the building to stay out of the cold, which lasted for several hours as I understand. Nonetheless, not everyone could stay inside for the entire time, so many were moved back outside just hours later. Worse yet, the lineup was poorly managed and some people still managed to cut in the chaos created by the line movement. Ultimately, everyone who waited the night was rewarded with a rare chance to see the man who brought the world its greatest saga: George Lucas. With three shows, and 3,300 people per show, almost 10,000 people could see Lucas total, which meant that many people arriving even as late as 6.00am still managed to see the Flannelled One.
I have not yet interviewed enough people to give a scientific consensus of what people thought of the Lucas talk, but I talked to about ten fans who saw Lucas and all of them said the wait, despite its difficulties, was worthwhile. One of the ten seemed a little apprehensive and reluctant, saying only, “I guess” when I asked him if the wait was worth the 30 minute talk.
I suspect that many people like myself did not even try to wait in the Lucas line because of the fear that nobody would see him without waiting all night. The day before he appeared, I asked numerous fans about waiting to see Lucas and all of them said they thought even 3.00am would be too late to get in line, so I started to think that everyone was going to wait overnight. I became discouraged and thought that eight hours in line to see Lucas simply was not worthwhile because I could be stuck at the back of the room and barely even be able to see him. In retrospect, I should have arrived at 5 or 6.00am. and just waited a few hours, but I overestimated the number of people who would be in line. Even so, I never fail to be impressed by what lengths Star Wars fans will go to for the saga. Surely no fans of any other story in history have ever been as devoted as Star Wars fans. Despite the massive popularity of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, James Bond and Star Trek, I have never seen fans of any other franchise wait months in line to get tickets, many hours in line overnight in freezing conditions to see the creator, or hours in line for a Celebration Store just to get plastic action figures. Star Wars fans are diehards. Further still, the fans who waited to see Lucas are the most hardcore of the diehards and certainly have my respect.
At the first Star Wars Celebration in Denver, autographs were prohibited of the cast and crew members by convention organizers, so fans had to satisfy their collecting needs elsewhere. At Celebration II, despite Philip Wise’s wonderful handling of the celebrity autograph hall, I never had the chance to meet any of the stars or seek any signatures personally, but I purchased a few signed photos at Celebration II. With the third Star Wars Celebration, I wanted to see what the autograph hall had to offer, so I took Matt Busch’s wonderful Star Wars Celebration III lithograph to the autograph hall and decided to start collecting signatures. After many hours, I managed to obtain signatures from Matthew Wood (General Grievous), Leanna Walsman (Zam Wessell), Femi Taylor (Oola), Ray Park (Darth Maul), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Amy Allen (Aayla Secura), Jerome Blake (Nute Gunray), Michonne Bourriague (Aurra Sing), Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett), and later Jay Laga’aia (MC of Celebration III and Captain Typho).
Amy Allen has perhaps the most interesting story behind her autograph appearance at Star Wars Celebration III. Although she charged only one coupon ($10) for a signature, compared to two coupons for many of the popular stars and even three for Billy Dee Williams, Allen was an instant favorite with fans. The organizers had to move her booth from the first section, where autograph access is supposed to be easier, to the queued section with line control because she was drawing such a massive line on Thursday that it overshadowed and disrupted the other stars. I waited an hour in line to get my picture with her and an autograph. It was worth every minute.
After hours spent meeting stars and creating a killer collectible with my signed poster, I went to Knoll Vision: Inside Revenge, which was long and absolutely worth watching. The line wait was short, but the presentation with effects guru John Knoll lasted more than an hour, which was fantastic. I came away most impressed by the incredible ability of Industrial Light & Magic to create sets where only blue screens existed during production. Anyone with half-way decent eyesight realizes that Coruscant and other fantastic vistas must be computer generated, but what was stunning about the footage Knoll showed were the number of sets that one would imagine were built using typical construction techniques that are in fact entirely computer generated. I am personally waiting for the few remaining CGI bashers to complain about the creature effects while not even noticing that many of the sets were entirely computer generated. In reality, ILM does such an amazing job that nobody can tell computer graphics from physical reality except by process of elimination (Coruscant cannot be real because it does not exist, for instance).
At the end of Knoll’s presentation, he showed a bunch of blooper footage that was hilarious and fun. For instance, the cape movement and modeling software is particularly difficult to perfect, so sometimes two characters would be fighting and their capes would actually land on their own heads as the duel continued in the computer rendered world. The software for many effects runs independently of other modeling software, so when the cape effects are generated with flaws, the rest of the simulation continues to run. The results are often hilarious. I am hoping the bloopers all land on the Revenge of the Sith DVD, or at least on some ultimate edition DVD set many years from now. I thought Knoll’s presentation was a highlight of the weekend.
After the John Knoll presentation ended, I went back to the autograph area because Jay Laga’aia was signing autographs for just one hour, 6-7pm, for the entire Celebration. I thought I should have his autograph on my poster, so I waited about 40 minutes to get it. I also met briefly with Philip Wise, the head of the autograph company, C2 Ventures, and co-owner of TheForce.net as well as owner of Rebelscum.com. I talked to Mr. Wise briefly about my book, but he told me to hurry up and get in line for Laga’aia’s autograph and sent me away with a few Star Wars pins, one for Rebelscum.com and another one that reads “Star Wars is Forever.” The latter saying is one of my favorites, not only because it is true, but also because it was a Hasbro phrase from quite a few years ago.
Saturday ended for me after meeting Laga’aia, but I thought I would rest up and arise early Sunday for the final day of Star Wars Celebration III. Before I slept, though, I actually had to go shopping at the mall attached to the convention center to prepare for the cold weather. While at the mall, snow started to fall on Indianapolis, so I had to buy a few extra pieces of clothing, namely Nike thermal gear, running gloves, and a neck/ear warmer. I even had to buy new shoes because for some reason mine had began to fall apart from walking and standing in line all day.
Ian Liston – Wes Janson in The Empire Strikes Back
I guess my proudest moment was being presented with a plaque as an Honorary Member of the Rebel Legion. I was quite touched that they’d obviously gone to so much time and trouble to create a special moment. I even got to sign a life size replica of an X-Wing fighter that is a stunning piece of work. I met a guy who’s got one of the few AT-AT Driver replica costumes and then, lo and behold, I get offered my own AT AT driver outfit which I’m looking forward to receiving.
Image via LaurencePayne.co.uk
Sunday April 24th 2005
Sagamore Ballroom
Nick Gillard – Master Behind the Action
Voicing Grievous – Matthew Wood
Wookiees! Mayhew & Kingma
The Bad Girls of Star WarsSaga Stage
Star Wars: Musical Edition
One-Man Star Wars Trilogy
Star Wars Costume Cabaret500 Ballroom
Clone Wars Volume 2 & Trivia
Star Wars Tattoo Show & Contest
Episode III Spectacular!Behind-The-Scenes
The Effects Authorities
Timothy Zahn: Outbound Flight
Concept & Sculpture
Making of Revenge – Jonathan W. Rinzler
Jonathan L Bowen
I woke up early Sunday so I could be present for the entire final day of Star Wars Celebration III. I am always sad to see another Star Wars Celebration come to an end because they present rare opportunities to meet thousands of other Star Wars fans and be completely immersed in all aspects of the saga for days. When I walked out into the freezing cold Indy weather, however, I nearly turned around and went back to the hotel room. Even with three layers of clothing on, gloves, and my neck warmer, I was still freezing. The wind was miserable, snow was falling in tiny flakes, though fortunately none was sticking to the ground, and my pants were not even close to warm enough for winter-like weather in mid-spring.
The only advantage to the miserable weather was a vastly shortened line. Although I only got to the line by 7.30am, which is not very early when the doors were to open at 9.00am, I was probably five times closer to the door than I had been Friday and even slightly closer than I was Thursday. I suspect that many people had to catch flights on Sunday and just skipped the last day, which would explain the smaller crowds also. Fortunately, the convention center opened its doors 30 minutes early, presumably because of the conditions, so by 8.45am I was actually inside and in line for the 10.00am. Nick Gillard Master / Action presentation. Although I had great seats for the Nick Gillard talk, I did not find the whole event hugely satisfying. I enjoyed hearing Gillard talk, especially when he mentioned that he toned down the battle scenes for The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones at Lucas’s request, but not for Revenge of the Sith, which drew huge applause. Even so, I really wanted more behind-the-scenes footage, or maybe just more of Gillard talking about the movie and a shorter question-and-answer session from the audience.
Immediately after the Nick Gillard show, I got back in line for the same room’s next event, Voicing Grievous — Matthew Wood, which was much more entertaining, although fairly short. By Sunday, I was completely entranced and obsessed with Grievous in much the same way I was with Maul when I first began to hear about his character. Why are the evil characters always the most fun? Seeing more images of Grievous and listening to Wood talk about the character had me really excited to see him in action. I also loved hearing the story Wood had about landing the voice role.
Apparently, Lucas had a rather large casting call for Grievous, but was not liking any of the voices he had heard, so Wood was making note of Lucas’s complaints and scheming. Before long, Wood decided to submit a voice recording under a pseudonym, A. Smithee, after wondering if he could incur Lucas’s wrath for such an attempt.
After a few weeks of waiting, McCallum called Wood and told him that Lucas had decided on an “A. Smithee” and wanted Wood to contact the person. Of course, Wood thought McCallum was joking, so he tried to test him by saying, “A. Smithee huh? Ok, I’ll let him know.” McCallum had no idea, though, and was not joking. Wood finally had to tell him, which elicited quite a shocked response from McCallum, but after talking to Lucas, they agreed to have Wood do the voice work for Grievous, making him one of the most high profile of Episode III’s stars almost overnight and for only about five hours of voice recording total. The highlight of the entire Matthew Wood talk was having him use a voice modifier to let audiences hear the voice of Grievous. Jay Laga’aia asked him to say, “Would you like fries with that?” Hundreds of people had the opportunity to hear one of the film’s main villains say, “Lord Sidious, would you like fries with that?” in a sinister, deep voice. I was laughing for a long time and kept thinking about the marketing opportunities had McDonalds signed with Lucasfilm. I can just picture Grievous saying, “I’m lovin’ it!”
After cramming two presentations into the final hours of the Celebration, I decided to return to the autograph hall for a few more signatures on my prized poster. I added Bai Ling (Senator Bana Breemu from Episode III), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar, Salacious Crumb), and Orli Shoshan (Shaak Ti). I admit that I did not wait in line for Billy Dee Williams because I heard at least ten fans say that he was in a really bad mood.
With just an hour left in the day, because of the early closing at 4.00pm, I headed over to the exhibit hall one last time to visit Sarah Wilkinson. I really wanted her original Celebration III painting, so I thought I would see if anyone had given her an offer. Much to my delight, she still had the painting, so we talked about prices for quite a while before agreeing to communicate more via email. I later bought her original for $1,500, which I think is a fantastic deal for a Lucasfilm authorized original painting from such a talented young artist and will make a fine addition to my already significant collection.
Before leaving the convention hall, I took one last look around the exhibit hall and snapped a few photographs for the journal and so that I would have visuals to remember the Celebration later. I did not realize at the time that the best part of my entire weekend was yet to come, even though the Celebration had just ended.
On Sunday night, I sat down to write my journal entries for the past few days because I had been too tired and too busy to write them all up each day, but first I wanted an energy drink to keep me awake and focused. My mom, who came along with me for the Celebration for the third time (it has become a tradition), left the hotel room to grab me an energy drink while I started to write, but when she came back she told me some interesting news. We were staying at the Marriot in Room 417, but the noise across the hall in rooms 416 and 418 came from the Lucasfilm party with cast and crew members as well as Celebration organizers, artists, and a few other important people. Instead of writing my journal, I headed out to the hall to see what was happening.
I watched in amazement as numerous people I recognized walked the halls, including Jay Laga’aia, who I thanked for the great work at the Celebration, Kenny Baker, Leanna Walsman, Femi Taylor, and many others. I even shook hands with Ray Park as he walked into the room; he must have assumed I was one of the partygoers because several people were actually talking in the hall. I also spoke for about fifteen minutes with ILM’s head model builder, Lorne Peterson, which was kind of surreal. We just talked about the weather, Star Wars Celebration, and various other topics. If not for the fact that I knew he was an important creator at ILM, it would have just been a normal conversation.
Earlier in the day, I had called Joshua Griffin of TheForce.net several times hoping to meet up with him because I interviewed him for my book, but he had not been available. Much to my surprise, I met him accidentally at the Lucasfilm party. A man standing next to me introduced himself to someone else in the hall as Josh from TheForce.net, so I turned and said, “Josh?! I’m Jonathan!” We both were surprised to see each other, especially because he was standing just feet away from my hotel room. I talked with Josh for a few minutes, but he was headed to grab something to eat. As fans who attend Star Wars Celebrations know, finding time to eat is difficult during the day, so he had not eaten for most of the day. Josh was very friendly and I loved having the chance to meet him at long last after years of just e-mailing back and forth online.
Ian Liston
The Q and A session with Garrick Hagon, Michael Sheard, Richard Le Parmentier and myself was hosted by Warwick Davis and he made a brilliant job of it … and it was very well received by about 800 guests. Our hearts were in our mouths when he said he was going to show clips from the films … then freeze frame ….and we had to come in with our next lines! Then he had a ‘Whose Line is it Anyway’ improvisation where one had to ‘speak alien’ and the other interpret. Rude .. but funny. and a re-dub of a scene where we had to make up the dialogue as we went along. It was so much more fun that the usual Q&A sessions and all credit to Warwick for making the effort to be different.
The thing that struck me most about Celebration 3 was the friendliness of everyone. I much prefer ‘Cons’ when they are Star Wars specific: you get a much better class of person. The one I recently attended at Honiton organised by Exe-Wing Fundraisers was another terrific event and that was Star Wars only.
I was also taken aback by the enormous amount of interest in Wes Janson. He’s now quite a cult figure and there are a lot of people out there agitating for an action figure of Wes. Long overdue.
It was, as ever, a thrill to meet up again with Aaron Alston and he has a lot of exciting things on the go.
Jonathan L. Bowen
The hotel security finally had to tell the Lucasfilm party folks to move to the lobby at 11.00pm because of noise complaints, which annoyed everyone except me. I had an opening, at last, so I followed the group to the lobby with another fan I met in the hall who runs a Star Wars toy museum from his home in Baltimore, Maryland. While I was in the lobby, I listened intently to many of the conversations about the Celebration, which was quite interesting. Everyone seemed excited by the fan reaction and the enthusiasm that was mounting for the final Star Wars film. Lucasfilm’s Head of Fan Relations and Content Manager Steve Sansweet was at the party and described the event as a complete success from a strategic point of view for Lucasfilm because of the media attention and fan excitement. How could the Celebration not have been a success with such great film footage to send fans into a frenzy? Sansweet also suggested several ideas, including regional conventions or a limited convention with only 10,000 fans. Anyone who attended Celebration III quickly realized the problems that arise with more than 30,000 anxious fans crowding a facility.
At the Lucasfilm party, I also saw Richard Chasemore, one of the illustrators of the Incredible Cross Sections books for Star Wars, who I bought a few original sketches from at Celebration II. Although the entire situation was surreal and I could hardly believe I was actually hanging out with Lucasfilm employees, Star Wars stars, artists, and other famous people, I still had to remain calm and pretend that I belonged.
The highlight of the party for me was having the chance to talk with Steve Sansweet about my book for about ten minutes. I waited until a few people left, then found myself one-on-one with one of the world’s biggest Star Wars fans. For people not aware of his celebrity, Sansweet has the largest independently held Star Wars collection in the world and has written several books on Star Wars collecting; his collection, stored in a giant barn at his property, is legendary. In fact, I talked to two different people at the party who had seen Sansweet’s collection, so I got a few secondhand tales of the legendary cache. By the end of the night, I had Sansweet’s home address and he had requested to see a copy of my book, which I sent out the next week. I was pleased by the incredible coincidence that led me to have the opportunity to give my book to one of Lucasfilm’s highest ranking employees.
Aside from speaking with Sansweet, I even sat down and talked to actress Bai Ling for about fifteen minutes. She was sitting alone munching on peanuts, so I figured I had nothing to lose. She was a bit shy, although very friendly, so I asked her what she thought of the Star Wars Celebration and signing autographs all day. She really did not understand how people could be obsessed with Star Wars because “it’s just a movie,” but she was very gracious to sign for fans during the entire weekend and pose for pictures with anyone who asked. I think I speak for most diehard Star Wars fans when I say that Star Wars is not just a movie series, but a way of life and a great passion that can provide inspiration to people worldwide as well as entertainment.
With such a fantastic ending to Celebration III, I could not have hoped for a more spectacular experience. At the Lucasfilm party, many people were talking about the next Star Wars Celebration, which has no set year but could arrive as soon as 2007 for the 30th anniversary of the saga. Convention organizers were joking that the slogan should be, “Have a blast at C4!” Whatever the slogan, whatever the year, and wherever the location, I will see you all at Celebration IV!
Article originally posted to Lightsabre.co.uk on 1st November 2007.