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Day Five - Sunday, May 27, 2007
Steve decided to run a couple errands before the convention started. He wanted to run over to UPS to see how much it would cost him to ship a large Vader figure he bought at the Convention, and he also wanted to take photos of a location where a scene from the Season 1 finale of the TV show Heroes was shot (that sort of courtyard place with the wierd orange spiral statue in the middle of it). He would make it to the Convention on another bus later.
So, while he was off exploring, my dad and I made our way to the Convention, but about an hour and a half later than usual because we were going to do what Steve did the day before and just walk into the Celebration Store and roam around a bit and just walk right into the rest of the Convention once it was open. No long line to wait in, and we could get right to where we wanted to go as if we were at the front of the long line outside!
On our way to the Store, we bumped into the male imperial officer that we saw when we were waiting in line for the first Carrie Fisher panel, except he was dressed as Han Solo from Return of the Jedi! Oh, and I forgot to mention that we ran into him and his wife the day before when we saw Seth MacFarlane outside! We just kept bumping into them over and over again! Such nice people, and we probably won't ever see them again. Why don't I ever get contact information from people I meet at these conventions?
Anyhow, after waiting in the Store for 15-20 minutes, we rushed on over to the "Star Wars Animated TV Behind-The-Scenes" panel with Catherine Winder and Dave Filoni. They were talking about the Clone Wars CG animated series coming out in 2008. At first, this panel was shaping up to be pretty lame. It seemed like they went on and on about their experiences in making this series. They showed us some slides of 3-D scuptures and models of characters in the TV series, and also showed us a video of the place where all the animation takes place, with Dave Filoni giving us a tour. George Lucas even showed up in the video. But I know every fan in that room of 800+ people were looking forward to seeing actual footage from the animated series, and it seemed like they were not going to show us anything. This convention was not like Celebration III, where we got to see digital footage of Revenge of the Sith. Nothing is coming out this year for Star Wars fans, and so this was the one panel where fans hoped they would see something new being brought to the Star Wars universe.
But at the very end of the panel, a fan stood up and said something like, "I came all this way for this particular show. Show us something!" Now, whether or not he was a plant, I don't know. I've heard people say he was, and others say he wasn't. I even heard that there was a plant in the audience, but that the guy that stood up actually stood up before the real plant could say anything. Regardless of whether or not this guy was a plant, Dave Filoni said something like, "Well, actually we did stay up all night cutting together the trailer. Would you guys like to see it?" Of course the crowd roared with enthusiasm, and on the big screen with digital projection blasted The Clone Wars trailer. It was fantastic! I was blown away by it. And they showed it twice! We were among the first people to see this trailer, and while you can download it here, there's nothing like actually seeing it on a big screen with digital projection and booming sound. Bravo to the creative team behind this series. It looks like it will be amazing.
Once that awesome presentation was over with, we made our way to the Autograph Hall. It worked out pretty well to get most of my autographs at the beginning of the day and then see go see other panels and the like afterwards. Anyhow, I went and got autographs from Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett / Clone Commander Cody), and Jake Lloyd (Anakin Skywalker). Temuera Morrison seemed really nice, while Jake Lloyd seemed a bit worn out from being little Annie. He was still very polite though. So I got my autographs and pictures with the celebs.
While I was busy doing that, my dad went and saw the Ray Park panel. I really, really wanted to go to this, since I got the chance to meet Ray at Celebration III. He was just so cool, and I know every Star Wars fan who has met him would agree with me. I loved it when he asked if he could do some cool moves with my Master Replicas lightsaber when I got his autograph at CIII. We got the whole thing on film! Because of this awesome moment I had, as well as the fact that I did not get to see his panel at CIII, I was bummed that I didn't get to see his panel at CIV. But, because I wanted to see Anthony Daniels' panel more, I decided to skip Ray Park's so that I could get those two autographs I wanted.
So after I got my autographs, me and my dad got in line for the Anthony Daniels panel. Needless to say, Anythony Daniels was hilarious. When he came on stage, he had everyone bow to him and chant the Ewok chant that they did in Return of the Jedi when they first saw C-3P0. A bit egotistical, but perfectly fitting, as well as very funny. Anthony just basically reminisced about his experiences on the sets of the Star Wars films. The two things I remembered are when he showed the clip of Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman laughing at him when he fell over on the set (and then pretended that they were legitimately concerned for him later), and also Jake Lagaia surprising Anthony by playing a clip of C-3P0 singing on the "Christmas in the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album." Needless to say, Anthony was quite embarrassed, but it was all in good fun and he had a great laugh about it. I'm so glad that they got Anthony Daniels to come to Celebration IV, because he was not even invited to CIII, which is really odd.
After his panel was over, my dad and I grabbed something to eat and then went back to the autograph hall. I really, really wanted to get Julian Glover's autograph. He played General Veers in The Empire Strikes Back, but he also played Donovan, the evil Nazi in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I was more of a fan of his role in Indiana Jones, and was very excited to meet him. My dad asked him, "So, did you chose wisely?" referring to the question asked of him by the 800 year old knight in Last Crusade. With a smirk on his face, Julian said, "Well, I'm still here." What a great moment that was! I was surprised that there weren't many people waiting in line for him, since he had such a big role in the Indiana Jones film. He was so polite, and put his arm around me while my dad took our picture (the picture didn't turn out so well, though).
Next, it was off to the Steve Sansweet presentation of The Star Wars Vault. Here is a description from StarWars.com of what looks to be an awesom book:
Written by Lucasfilm's Steve Sansweet and Pete Vilmur,The Star Wars Vault recounts the history of the pervasive saga which spans three decades and has generated scores of paraphernalia -- items readers can now unfold, flip over, touch, and even hear -- reproduced script pages, tickets, blueprints, catalogs, stickers, sheet music, audio interviews, radio spots, radio drama excerpts and more.
This is a book that I would not mind owning. They had assistants walk around showing off some of the blue prints and other stuff that will be included in the book. You can buy it from Amazon.com for a reduced price! I loved this panel.
Next, it was coffee break time. My dad, Steve and I all went to the open cafeteria and sat down for a while. It was great, because we got to meet new people, including George Starkey, who played George Lucas in the fan film Pitching Lucas, which was about various film executives pitching ideas to George Lucas and Lucas dealing with them all in humorous ways. The film was actually hand picked by the real George Lucas for the George Lucas Selects Awards, and was also voted the winner of the 2006 Star Wars Fan Film Audience Choice Award. So it was cool to meet him, and he looks so much like George Lucas. He even sounds a lot like him! We also got to meet one of the Slave Leias that were walking around. She was really nice.
Basically, the rest of the day was spent taking photos of costumed people walking around. There wasn't really anything else going on that we were incredibly interested in, but it was just great to walk around and enjoy talking with people, walking around the Exhibit Hall checking out merchandise, just taking in the Star Wars atmosphere. We did, however, check out some more fan films in the evening. Nothing great was showing, although we caught one of the Pink Five fan films.
We could not believe that the Convention was almost over. One more day, and that would be it. Actually, it was only like half a day on Monday. Two years since Celebration III we had been waiting for this Convention. And soon, once again, it would be all over with.
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