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Click on any picture to see a larger version. Move mouse over picture for explanatory text. IMPORTANT NOTICE: All images on this site are Copyright Ian Smith and may not be reproduced or sold on Ebay, or copied outright to other fan sites without my express permission! Quotes are based on a mini-disc recording and may contain errors owing to high noise levels from convention attendees.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of Ian Smith (this IS a personal web site and a PERSONAL report!) and do not reflect the views and opinions of any other organisations or clubs that Ian Smith belongs to or may be involved with. Specifically this article does not purport to represent in any shape or form the views or opinions of TheOneRing.net or the Official Lord of the Rings Movie Fan Club or any of its members. Things were very much as last year. Lots of stalls with things to buy! I succumbed to a very tacky computer mouse with The One Ring rolling round in transparent fluid inside it. Lots of art, pottery, costumes, competions, auctions. People were arriving and excitement was mounting! I should say at this point that my main interest at these events is the panels, but the truth is that many attendees don't attend all the panels (some don't attend any!) because they're here for autographs.. or lectures.. or photo opportunities.. or competitions.. or whatever! If RingCon has one problem it's that there's too much to do and not enough time to do it in, and as a result this report is short on lecture reports, although I was sorely tempted to miss a panel or two to attend the 'Lord of the Ear-Rings' and 'Sex in Middle-Earth' lectures! There is also inadequate photo coverage of what looked to be excellent Weta make-up demonstrations which started early each morning. I did pop in a few times but seemed to pick the worst times: whenever the subject was at an interesting stage there seemed to be a photographer on stage, moving all round the subject at a distance of just a few inches, taking endless pictures and completely blocking the view for great chunks of time. No wonder we photographers get a bad name! There were in fact a lot more photographers at this year's event, indicating the growing interest in the movies and events like this. It's not surprising because whatever your interest, for the average Tolkien fan the experience of RingCon 2003 is not much different from that of a three year-old kid let loose in a sweetie store!
		The opening ceremony was even bigger and better than last year, with more characters on stage and ending with a fun re-enactment between a Black Rider and Arwen. When it looked like Arwen had the upper hand the Black Rider declared 'Screw this!' and threw back his hood to reveal... master of ceremonies Marc B Lee! I won't comment on individual panels since transcripts are being published elsewhere on this site, except to say that I was relieved that more and better questions were asked this year. Admittedly there was one question asking 'Is Legolas gay?' (what on earth do people expect an actor to say to that sort of question?!) but thankfully we didn't experience the depths of repeated 'Are hobbits real?' at every panel! I had worried that there was a real danger the 'less well-known' names would die a death in these panels - an hour alone on stage is a long time to fill! I was particularly worried about Sala Baker and Lawrence Makaore since I've seen them on previous panels with the hobbit actors and they've usually been pretty quiet. What I'd forgotten of course is that next to one of the hobbit actors, and a fan audience of excited girls, anybody would seem quiet! I'm pleased to report that they had both done their homework, and handled their panels with aplomb. Both these guys have done a lot of work on the LOTR movies outside the Sauron and Lurtz roles that fans associate them with, so they have an advantage in having extra movie anecdotes to draw on when questions dry up. But most importantly they 'got' what conventions like this are really all about - having fun! They had a great comedy routine worked out and quickly realised that if you have fun on stage the fans in the audience are going to be having fun too. They hosted a group participation Haka that was inspired - I don't think the sight of the 'ex Uruk in tights' on stage trying to do a Haka will ever leave me (I'm not saying that's necessarily a good thing, just that it's something I will never forget! ;-)) Bruce Hopkins and John Leigh also had the place wired, somehow managing to persuade a bunch of attractive women to charge around the hall doing horse impressions, complete with clomping noises, that were reminiscent of 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'. Good stuff! I did think that Jørn Benzon struggled, and as a result his panel was a rather painful one, with most of the audience squirming or feeling embarrassment on his behalf. His honesty and good humour were appreciated, but you are going to die a death if within seconds of getting on stage you're begging, wailing even for somebody to ask a question about a character most of us don't even remember from the movie and about which there really isn't very much to say. Guests need a contingency plan up their sleeves and he didn't have one, which is surprising given he is quite a regular on the convention/signing circuit. Convention fans are a forgiving lot and you're on a 'can't lose' situation with these gigs as long as you've done a bit of preparation - bottom line: I felt he hadn't done that preparation and you can only make a 'Yeah I didn't do much really. Just asked to be an extra and they let me be one' story last so long! Nathaniel Lees was also clearly uncomfortable with the whole convention experience. He bravely admitted that he usually turns down convention appearances and had only accepted this one because he'd never been to Bonn and wanted to visit Germany. Nevertheless he held his own for an hour and his sudden realisation that repeating the phrase 'Meat's back on the menu boys' would help those unsure who he'd played in the movie helped things a lot. On several occasions he brought the house down, and the realisation that his 'meat' line was a popular one seemed to help him get over his nervousness. That being said it was his work on The Matrix franchise that ensured his panels flew by. Kudos to the man too for spending some time with the fans in the bar on the Saturday evening instead of spending the evening coccooned in the 'private party area' laid aside for the guests elsewhere in the hotel. I got the impression he really didn't understand the fan phenomenon and have a sneaking suspicion that this may have been his first and last convention appearance - I hope I'm wrong! For me though there was no doubting the real stars of the convention, even taking into account the two standing ovations John Rhys-Davies rightly received. Craig Parker and Mark Ferguson were again the highlight of the convention for this attendee, and it's a source of great irritation to me that the paragraph describing their panels got completely edited out of my review for the fan club magazine, leaving the impression they hadn't been at the event (not to mention a lead-on paragraph about Bruce Hopkins and John Leigh that now makes no sense at all). RingCon just wouldn't be RingCon without these two! When the big names from the movie are asking exhorbitant fees for personal appearances your only option as an event organiser is to provide something else that will make people feel they've had value for money. Parker and Ferguson are that 'something else'. They are not only sociable, intelligent and hard-working but extremely funny. A first-time attendee friend told me her stomach was in agony all night from having laughed so hard at this pair's antics throughout their various panels, and she was not alone. It's no surprise that they were amongst the first guests to be re-booked for RingCon 2004. The first night featured a couple of panels and I had intended to have an early night for the first night of the convention, but made the foolish mistake of accepting an offer of 'a quick drink' from a friend. I think it was about 5am when the last three of us were thrown out of the hotel's ground floor bar! I have not been so drunk for a long, long time and Saturday morning was absolue hell for me. What made it worse was seeing how my fellow drinkers (Leo and Craig Parker) seemed so bright and breezy despite their lack of sleep just a few short hours later. First thing Saturday morning I'd been invited along to a TORn interview with John Rhys-Davies. It is very hard to concentrate on such things when the room around you is spinning and all you can think is 'Any minute now I'm going to throw up in front of John Rhys-Davies!' We were a pretty bar-scarred crowd as we crawled into the press room for the filmed interview. I wondered out loud how Craig Parker could look so well given the all-night drinking session, at which point Rhys-Davies gave me some advice 'He's a young man. We can't be expected to still do it at our age'. John is in his sixties and I'm in my 40's, so thanks John!
In truth, John was a charmer and I felt bad that we were wasting his time, standing around while he poured us much needed 'sobering-up' coffee instead of getting on with the job-in-hand. The questions we asked were a bit desperate and pretty thin and we were pretty disorganised. Kolsch beer is definitely off the menu for me in 2004! Interview over (JRD was generous with his time and answers) the press assistant came in to tell us our time was up. She congratulated us on the quality of our questions 'much better than the other press people', she said. How scary is that! I don't know what actors are paid to meet the press, but clearly it's not enough! Click here for next page of report (page 3) Click here for previous page of report (page 1) Click here for index of Ring*Con 2003 reports
Don't forget you can check out reports of lots of other Lord of the Rings -themed events in the Web Logs section

Email: ian@iansmith.co.uk