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Saturday started with John Leigh’s panel. During his panel, he did a great impression of Christopher Lee. John was asked why Hama’s son has a girl’s name. He said that giving the boy a girl’s name, it would put him in more fights and toughen him up. When asked what other role that he would play in the trilogy, he said he would play Gollum. He follows the answer with a Gollum impression. John talked about riding horses and how he could never own one. The only place he could keep a horse is in his bathroom. Must be one hell of a bathroom. RingCon was John’s first convention. He, too, cut up on Mark losing his passport. He later did some more voices, that of Treebeard, Gollum and Yoda. John did a great job on stage. Nathaniel Lees was up next. It was really great having him as a guest since the Matrix Revolutions had just been released. It seemed like every time this man would get on stage, he would come out with his arms pumping, just like Captain Mifune in the Matrix. He was asked if there was really a machine built like the one he used in the Matrix. He said that there was one actually built, while the rest on the screen was digital. While filming those scenes, he started hollering while shooting. The directors seemed to like the screaming, so they had all the other guys do it, too. The directing style of the Wachowski brothers seemed to be nothing next to Peter Jackson’s style. He said that Peter was very articulate and that LotR was much more enjoyable to film thanks to Peter’s vision. It took weeks to film the hobbit kidnapping scenes. And Nathaniel treated the crowd by repeating the “Meat’s back on the menu, boys” line. Nathaniel was asked about other actors and crew members on the Matrix. The training crew from China was spectacular. The actors had some say in their characters. He said that Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith/Elrond) has a talent for finding the one thing that makes a character true. Nathaniel said that Hugo seemed relieved that the whole Matrix thing was over when he saw him at the premier. How has Nathaniel’s life changed since doing LotR? He said that he would never wear prosthetics again. The prosthetics covered him in two inches of foam. It was awesomely stressful and hard to eat while wearing it. To look mean while wearing the prosthetics, you had to smile. Smile if you wanted a snarl, snarl and you look stupid. Nathaniel likes LotR more than the Matrix and is proud of anything LotR. If Nathaniel could have any other role in LotR, what would it be? He chose Galadriel. He said that Cate Blanchett had the best role. Nathaniel now resides in Wellington and finds gardening therapeutic. After Nathaniel’s panel was over, I stopped into Gondolin to see how the make-up job was going with Rogier Samuels and Carola Brockoff. They did such a fantastic job transforming whoever they had into an orc. It looked quite real and downright creepy. It was such a treat to have their talent shared with everyone. A lot of people really found what they did to be amazing. I’m still not sure if everyone understood the KY references, though. The next event that I attended was the auction hosted by Mark Ferguson. Mark did a fantastic job, especially since it seemed that more people were there to watch Mark than to buy anything. But the people who did want to buy did a great job. Although I just couldn’t get him to relinquish his shirt. *sigh* Later on, Mark and Craig were on again! Hooray! This time they just answered questions. I don’t think the crowd will ever stop thinking of things to ask them. One audience member asked Mark why there is a photo of him dressed as a woman. The hell if I remember, it was just so great to see Mark trying to explain why he was dressed as a 10 dollar hooker. Whoever you are that asked Mark about the picture, you did a wonderful job! Craig was getting presents galore for his birthday, which I thought was really sweet. I think Craig may have said that he deserved the presents for all the problems he had to go through on his birthday in the airport. Craig continued to tease Mark about the passport ordeal. My friend Earonn got up to the microphone and told Mark that she had a present for Craig, but Mark had to give it to him. Mark rolled his eyes but accepted the request. He understood once he saw what the gift was. As Craig returned from going backstage for a makeshift throne to sit upon, Mark said that he would do anything if Craig would stop mentioning the passport. The crowd got a great laugh out of that one. After Mark realized what he had said, he got down on his knees as Craig sat on his throne. Good Lord, this was so great. Craig was feeling so full of himself, getting ready for Mark to present yet another gift from his faithful fans. But it was sabotaged! It wasn’t a Craig fan that had a gift. It was a Mark fan! Mark presents his gift, telling Craig that he was now an honorary Mark Ferguson Elven Princess. The crowd busted out laughing and Craig hung his head low. Yet he overcame his humiliation and put on the Mark Ferguson Elven Princess size medium women’s t-shirt on top of what he had on. Damn my camera for having a dead battery. The fun continued, though. One of them said that Haldir was so uptight because he was always on his tippytoes due to being the short fat elf. Haldir didn't want to hug Aragorn in the one scene was because Aragorn was so filthy and smelly. The reason Haldir died was not because of the blow to the head, but because of Aragorn’s scent. Craig sister asked him if Aragorn touched him. He said yes, and that it was good. He also said something about Haldir didn’t wear a helmet at Helms Deep because he didn’t want helmet hair. Craig also told an interesting story about shooting a scene with a piglet on one of his TV shows. Apparently, Craig and another person had to pass a piglet back and forth about 30 times. The piggy was having stomach problems. By the time the scene was finally shot, they were covered in piggy waste. Eeew. Mark was asked about his upcoming project Spooked. Spooked is about a guy in a computer company. He finds some secret bank files and tries to get the bank to pay him for the information. The people at the bank try to kill the guy. Mark will be playing the boss of the man that is up to no good. Mark also mentioned the Gil-Galad orgasm shot. Haha. And he called Craig Craigy. How cute! Finally, John Rhys-Davies appeared onstage! He jumped right into talking about the stinkin’ drunken’ little hobbits at a pub in Queenstown. They decided that everyone in the fellowship should get a tattoo. So John sent his stunt double to get the tattoo. Someone asked him what the dwarvish line that he said to Haldir meant. He said it meant – Why don’t you put your unattractive face in a very dark place where doubtless your mother and father created you. Or something like that. He explained how some movie sets have you in front of a blue screen all day long and how it can depress you. You need to be around light and color, which he was for a lot of LotR. During the retakes this year, he said that anytime someone would get onto the set, they would come onto the set walking as gorillas because of Peter's next project. John has bought a 10 acre olive grove in New Zealand.
Up next was the costume contest and fashion show. The costume contest is always a delight to watch. The creativity of the contestants is amazing. And the participation of the guests is always quite a treat. And the judges were the best looking group of judges that I have ever seen! Let’s see if I remember all of them. There was Mark, Lawrence, Craig, Sway, two other DTG ladies, and ….um….I’m missing one or two people. sorry While the judges were in the back making their decisions, the fashion show started. This is the first year for the fashion show. The fashion show has a lot of potential. As long as a few changes are made (and maybe some up beat music), it will be a great staple for the RingCons in the future. The judges returned and presented wonderful awards like Best Sporty Elf, The Costume That Gave Lawrence Chills, Best Wannabe Aragorn Award, Best Use of a Family Pet as a Handbag Award, Best Michael Flately Lord of the Dance Award, Best Flute Played by a Vegetable, Best Special Affects, Best Use of Gollum In A Non Speaking Role and Best Not Understood by the Judges But Understood by You Guys So We’ll Give You an Award Anyway Award. It was a nice time. |
