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"I've never experienced anything else like this. It's like a rock concert. It's fantastic'" - Cameron Rhodes (Farmer Maggot) on RingCon 2002Go back to previous report on this event WARNING: This report contains spoilers for The Two Towers movie! Day 2 got off to a bad start when Leo (TORn) and I discovered that the venue for the Brad Dourif signing, as advertised from the main stage the previous night, was empty. It took us some time to find the real venue (a corridor up on the first floor). A small A4 sheet with the words "1 stock" was apparently supposed to tell us non-German speakers that it had changed location! Fortunately there was no harm done as the queues weren't too bad when we eventually found the right place. |
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The organisers (as far as I can make out this is split between two members of the German Tolkien Society and FedCon Gmbh) seem to
be split as to who the intended audience for RingCon is. FedCon's rep clearly wants to make the event truly international, while
one of the organisers I spoke to (Stefan Servos, I think) seemed to think that if they didn't deliver more in German language
they would alienate their national audience (who made up by far the vast majority of this year's attendees and so were rightly
the priority this year).
Clearly there are conflicting requirements here and the organisers need to decide what their focus is going to be next year
if they are to avoid the complaint I overheard from one American visitor who was, understandably, upset at the expense and time
spent travelling thousands of miles to a convention that, to be blunt, really didn't look after its non-German speaking attendees as well as
it should have done. One tip for the organisers: if you're going to have so many people wearing "Crew" t-shirts you need
to at least make sure they are kept informed as to what's happening (or where lunch tickets can be used!) so they can help those of
us who don't!
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That aside, and with retrieval of autograph duties out the way, I went to the sparsely-populated main hall where a presentation
on two movies that were proclaimed to be "movies made for Tolkien fans" was due to take place. These words worried me - and rightly so!
First up was an American independent production called 'Ancanar'. This is apparently consistent with
Tolkien's world and is the story of a young man with a dying father who believes the elves are deliberately hiding the source
of their immortality in Ancamar, and determines to seek it out by whatever means possible. So far, so good - nothing too
objectionable there! RingCon 2002 was
the venue for the premiere of the movie trailer, but DVD footage of director Sam Balcomb's attempt to "talk up"
the project was effectively wasted when the trailer was then shown. If I were being polite I'd say it was an homage to
the Lord of the Rings trailers, but, frankly, the words 'blatent rip off' would be more appropriate here - I'm amazed that
New Line haven't sued (must be too busy trying to sabotage other events like this I guess!) The trailer was a complete clone
copy of The Lord of the Rings trailers: The same moody "atmospheric" shots and camera angles, the same sudden "eye
of Mordor" earth cracking/drum sounds, the same music (almost!), the same damned
fading in and out of single short phrases on a black background. One has come to expect such blatent plagiarism from Hollywood corporations
low on ideas and no imagination, but really I had hoped for better from a self-proclaimed independent
production. You can find out more at www.ancanar.com, if you really want to.
At least the Ancanar production fluff was presented in a language I could understand. The next film, 'Knights of St Alban', filmed in four different countries, was a German one and the director walked on stage and gave a presentation in German that, obviously, was completely unintelligible to me. Time to move on! I soon discovered why the main hall was so empty - across the way a charity auction was in full swing. Mark Ferguson had donated his "half way through shooting" crew jacket and this went for 2000 Euros! I stayed to see a Billy Boyd -autographed TOPPS card sell for 170 Euros. Serious money! Back in the main hall was a new panel - this time from Cameron Rhodes (aka Farmer Maggot). Again, the professionalism of the actors showed through. This could have been disasterous (Cameron only has one line in the film) but was an entertaining session, despite the paucity of questions. A show reel summarising some of Cameron's other work ('Dark Knight' and 'Xena') showed what a talented actor Cameron was (GREAT British accent, Cameron!) and then the questions began. The first "question" was more a personal attack with the questioner clearly unhappy with Cameron's portrayal of Farmer Maggot which differed from her own visualisation from the book. Rhodes handled it with humour and humility. Like I said, a professional actor! One hopes the person asking the question felt better at Cameron's second session where he mesmerised several hundred people with his interpreted reading of Tolkien's original writing of the Farmer Maggot scene. Great stuff! Cameron admitted to only spending half a day on set for his part, but talked enthusiastically about his experience, about seeing Sir Ian McKellen at the premiere party ("they ran out of water before they ran out of vodka - I think it went on for days") and even entertained us (in his second panel) with an aria. There was a slightly surreal moment, that turned into a bit of a show highlight, when one fan asked if she could come on stage and act, alongside him, the part of the Black Rider asking where the Shire and Baggins could be found. With a third participant getting down on all fours to play the part of Maggot's dog ("Three would have been too much" Cameron had told us when quizzed about the apparent disappearance of two of the dogs from the movie version). Rhodes hammed it up big time and rightly had the crowd in stitches with wild applause for his over-the-top performance. This is the stuff good conventions are made of. Cameron touched on a point that Mark Ferguson had covered the day before in his panel. If the elves and hobbits thought they had it tough with their make-up, wigs and contact lenses the orcs suffered more. "The orcs contact lenses were like half marbles" Mark had told us, and Cameron repeated this impression. When asked about his own hobbity hair, Cameron revealed that this hadn't saved him from having to wear a wig. He was asked (rather predictably) what the other main Fellowship characters were like and revealed that although he sat next to Sir Ian McKellen, most time between takes was spent learning lines so there was little time to chat. Sir Ian was apparently seen a lot on the local New Zealand theatre scene and was always perceived as enthusiastic and friendly. Cameron was revealed to be the man behind winding his actor friend Brett McKenzie up by revealing him as the actor behind Figwit (whose appearance was so fleeting at The Council of Elrond that he got named Figwit - 'Frodo is great - who is that?'). Cameron was soon joined by Sarah McLeod (Rosie). Cameron revealed he'd first encountered Tolkien when he'd played the part of Balin in a school play at the age of 11. He still remembered the song he'd had to sing and gave a great rendition that got a standing ovation. Sarah revealed that she'd used the Internet in researching her role, as much as the book. She talked about her first day on set, "It was the Merry and Pippin scene in the pub on the extended DVD and I was excited like a child. I saw the set and it was 'Oh! My! God!'", she told us. Both hobbit actors were asked if they'd had tattoo's done like the fellowshop (sometimes one really has to wonder what people are thinking in asking such questions) and Cameron took it in good part saying "Actually I had the word 'Maggot' all over my bottom". Sarah chipped in with "I'm not telling you where I had 'Rosie' tattooed". On a more serious note, Rhodes talked about how the movie is boosting the local work for actors, with new studios being built on the back of the movie's success. One audience member kept pushing each panel member for some "gossip". Most refused but Cameron dealt with it very diplomatically. "There is only one piece of gossip - and that is that we'd meet a lot of the cast in town and they'd always buy us drinks. They're just really nice people." he told the crowd. New Line may have been conspicuous by their absence at the convention, but, as is becoming a habit at these things, they were very much there in spirit - but not in a good way! Stories of deliberate attempts at sabotage, with cast members being told in bullying style that they can't attend events like this are pretty much grist to the mill for movie party/convention regulars who've, almost to a man, renamed the company Orc Line. But they seemed to have exceeded themselves this time - publicly giving organisers the impression they supported the event, but with a leaked internal email showing quite the opposite was happening. Despite what cast and crew may say privately, publicly they have to maintain the status quo, with most seemingly feeling that very little of what's in the next two movies can even be hinted at as there's a danger it may get back and incur the wrath of the large Hollywood corporation. Such nanny-ism, when most information is freely available on the Internet anyway, doesn't go down too well with most fans, and it's to Craig Parker's credit that, having schmoozed with attendees throughout the whole event and got a better feel for what they knew and what they wanted, he stepped on stage with a dramatic opening gambit: "Hello. I'm Craig Parker. I play Haldir and I..." (makes exaggerated cutting motion to throat with hand) "...in the next movie". If the fans hadn't loved him to bits before this they did now, and he played them like a pro He had small feet - 'Are they like a hobbit's?' someone asked. Off came his shoes and socks while he checked. Discussing his death scene (which he recreated in a mock comedic fashion) he was philosophical: "It's one of those things that you don't want to happen. But for an actor death scenes are good". He talked about his feelings that you need to be a natural blonde and that wigs, even those at 15,000 dollars a throw like his, only ended up making you look like "one of those drag queens you see at about 3am in Frankfurt". There were times during his panel when the event looked in danger of reaching Orlando Bloom fan danger levels, but Parker coped brilliantly. 'I love you' was one so-called question. "Where were you when I was 13!" came the immediate mock-angry response. I gate-crashed a web site interview with the actor later that day (no it wasn't clever, but sometimes needs must when official routes keep letting you down!). It gave me a chance to ask the actor how he coped with the rather over-the-top sort of fan hysteria I'd witnessed and whether he sensed it was becoming a problem. "I started when I was much younger in a soap opera at home" he explained, "And that was good training. It's always very flattering but you still go home and hang out with your family and people who know you and they tell you to shut up and stop being a dick". It's easy to pretend to be humble of course, but I later witnessed Parker on a one-to-one "interview" that I thought was running way out of control and way over time and the man had the patience of a saint and was never less than encouraging, polite and good natured even though he just had an audience of one! Before this convention I'd wondered what all the fuss was about (my email inbox is full of requests for more Craig photo's and these requests started minutes after the first report appeared!) but it's not hard to see why he's so popular, especially with girls and younger women (yeah! yeah! and probably gay men too, but he's not my type, OK?!) But I digress! Back to the panel and Craig talked about bloopers and how Peter Jackson had enough material to blackmail the whole cast. 'Do you like dwarfs?' was, believe it or not, one of the more intelligent questions asked (if I'm being harsh it's because one of the promoters' talk of trying to get Orlando Bloom next year is filling me with dread - PLEASE guys, No!, If some of what I've witnessed at these conventions with lesser known celebrities is the end result then Bloom at a convention would be a sure-fire recipe for nothing but banality and an endless procession of screaming or hyperventillating women!) On the subject of dwarfs Parker responded quick as a flash, "For nasty, smelly, ugly people who live in caves I think they're great". Thankfully the questions soon got better. The controversial subject of elves at Helm's Deep came up and Parker explained that he thought Jackson wanted to show that the elves had allegiance with men and didn't all just leave. "Elves are great fighters, and they're very graceful. They die when they go to War. This wasn't just Hollywood going 'We'll have a babe there.. and we'll have a car chase'. It was done differently from the book for a good reason." The subject of Parker's two battle games came up (or, more accurately, the fact that he lost one) and the actor faked a small breakdown with "Did you have to mention that? I was only just getting over it" before humourously implying his opponent may have been "a cheater" - an accusation that was to have some hilarious Maori comeback in a final panel co-hosted with Mark Ferguson the next day (of which more later!). Discovering the big screen behind him, Parker couldn't resist looking at it, shaking his ass and asking the audience "Does my bum look big on this?". It was nice too to hear that he's a fan of French & Saunders and loved their spoof of the movie, which he recommended everybody try and get a copy of. Talking about the rest of the cast, in particular the big names, he repeated what others before had said about his first day: "I was terrified. It was their first day and they were as nervous as I was so suddenly it felt like making a little family film". What were his first thoughts on seeing Haldir, one fan asked. "Zzzzzzzzzzzz" came the reply. "Well", he went on to explain, "It WAS 3am in the morning!". When asked how he prepared for the role the actor explained "I moved to the forest for six months and ate lembas - but it's so hard to find the right flour". He admitted it was tricky playing elves - ensuring that they appeared as non-humans, but having human qualities. 'Can elves swim?', someone else asked. "Like a fish" Craig authoritatively replied, before adding "But they don't like it because afterwards they have to spend hours blow-drying their hair and plaiting it". Parker's hour went by far too quickly - it's hard to convey the sort of humour that works at conventions like this but is of the "you had to be there to understand" variety. Suffice to say here that both he and his friend Mark Ferguson are natural stand-up comics. It is incredible to hear that this was the very first convention either had attended. They were having a blast, and it showed with everyone getting caught up in their enthusiasm! |
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Before closing off this third report (oh Lordie, the download times on this page are gonna be horrendous) just a quick mention
for Sarah McLeod. I seemed to spend way too much time after each panel going to the press briefing room as advised, only to find
nobody there. On one occasion staff took me to try and find the press liaison officer and Sarah was around and escorted me back to
the press area and sat waiting with me (see picture in right column just before start of costume competition pictures) to keep me
company. She really is an absolute sweetheart! After Mark's panel the big evening event was the costume competition, judged by a panel of special guests and other Tolkien alumni. The photo's speak for themselves really, but the highlight for many was the Arwen and Aragorn (wearing raincoat) recreation with Mark deciding not to take Arwen's troth but to instead steal it and run off to the jewellers. We assumed this had all been rehearsed beforehand, but Mark revealed in the panel the next day that he was just asked by the contestant to appear with her and they performed spontaneously. Great stuff, in the tradition of the best conventions! There were scandalous rumours of one judge (wearing a rain coat) showing favouritism during the judging and a mock punch-up appeared to be taking place between him and Craig Parker as the final votes were being debated. Arwen didn't win, but she did get a prize (as did everyone) for a wonderful performance "in spite of being hampered by a totally inept partner". Yet again, another great day at RingCon and it went on late into the night, with many of the guests partying and bigging it up on the hotel's dance floor. Man, there were going to be some SERIOUS hangovers for the third and final day of RingCon!  Just one more report to come, but real life has rudely intervened and there is not much chance of getting the final report and photo's up before Friday night at the earliest. Pleace check back then and, in the meantime, thanks for reading! In the final report: Craig and Mark bring the house down, Craig does the time warp, the closing show party sees a wraith proposing to his girlfriend and we all get a sneak preview of the convention DVD On to the final report..... |
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| Email: ian@iansmith.co.uk |