Star Wars Celebration
III: Day 1: April 21, 2005
"Never will you find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."
By Phil
Videos
| Report | Image Gallery | Day 2
(coming soon)
So
the day finally came! April 21, 2005, the first day of the long awaited Star
Wars Celebration III convention! It is the biggest Star Wars convention in the
world! I woke up around 5:30 AM. Took a shower, slapped on some temporary tattoos
my sister game me the day before, ate breakfast, and re-checked all of my bags
to make sure I had everything I would need. I had my binder with the sleeves
for my autograph photos, paper to write down important info for this little
report, as well as for autographs just in case I bumped into anyone (I didn't
bump into anyone special, just so you know), video camera and still photo camera
to capture all the zany moments for those who could not attend, and of course
all the hard copies of the receipts for the badges and autograph coupons (more
on that later). It seemed all was well and in order, and I left the house at
about 7:00 AM to catch my 9:15 flight. My mom drove my dad and I (he was accompanying
me on this pilgrimage since none of my dullard friends could go!) to the Pearson
International airport. We went in and got our boarding passes through that nifty
little computer and proceeded towards the customs area thingy. On no! We are
now on United States soil! Danger! Danger! Actually, the dude who took care
of us was pretty nice. I told him we were going to a Star Wars convention and
he was all "Oh wow! When does the next movie come out?" And when we
left I overheard him talking about it with some co-worker. Sweet. We got on
the plane around 8:30 AM. It was a
very small plane. Seated about 35 people, and we had to get to it by shuttle.
It's pretty cool actually walking up the steps into the plane instead of going
through that big worm of a tunnel that connects to the door like they do with
the larger ones. Anyways, I
broke some rules and busted out my camera to film the take-off. Hehe.
That was an awesome sight, though, watching the wheels lift off the ground and
then fold up, and seeing the world get smaller and smaller as that little rocky
plane soars upwards. There's not much to say about the flight, and I'm sure
you wouldn't want to hear about it anyways since it's the least interesting
part of my trip. So let's skip to the part when we land in Indianapolis and
head off to the hotel and convention centre.
*Time warp...2 hours later*
Welcome
to Indianapolis! Or rather Coruscant as the Star Wars fans dubbed it for these
four days. Things are looking good at this point. We're here safely, and we're
headed towards four days of non-stop fun! But oh no! Something has gone wrong!
On the way to our hotel, the taxi driver tells us that we were actually booked
at the wrong place! The hotel we booked is a 2 minute drive from the airport,
and is not actually just a couple of blocks away from the convention centre
like the map showed! Apparently, the convention centre web site had an old map.
We booked a room at the Adam's Mark hotel, which was shown to be three
blocks from the convention, when actually the building was bought by the Hyatt,
and the Adam's Mark moved a lot further away. What do we do?! That's pretty
far to go everyday. What a dilemma. So we asked to be dropped off at the one
of the hotels near the convention to see if they have any rooms. We checked
the Mariott, the Westin, the Hyatt, and some other one...but no rooms for four
nights, and they were really expensive. About $200 per night. It seemed
hopeless. So we
kinda just wandered for a bit, and luckily we stumbled upon the 501st Legion
beginning their march towards the convention centre from the Marriott hotel!
In case you don't know, the 501st Legion is a group that
dresses up as all the bad guys from Star Wars. So you've got your Sith Lords,
all the different Stormtroopers, Imperial officers, Bounty Hunters, etc. They
attend all sorts of conventions, sporting events, and do alot of charity work.
Here at the Celebration III many of them were volunteers helping to control
lines and such, and by clocking in 16 hours of volunteer work they got their
badges refunded and all sorts of other benefits. but anyways, back to the march.
Man, that was awesome! It was an amazing sight. It's like you're in the movies
or something. You only ever see a gathering like that on screen, and then suddenly
there they were in front of me! Incredible. After that Dad and I just decided
to leave our luggage at the Hyatt and go get our badges from Will Call (the
badge pick up place).
When
we got to the Indiana Convention Centre we noticed that the lineups to get in
were already huge. HUGE. I know there were people already waiting in line
the day before, and there was one guy that was there a few days earlier. He
was first in line. There were two lines: one for the fan club members, and one
for the non-fan club members. We didn't really know this at first, and it got
so confusing. So we walked around the outside of the building trying to figure
out where we go. Finally we asked one of the volunteers, and he pointed us towards
the Will Call line...which wasn't really a line at all. They were just letting
people go in! So we went in and got our badges. There was no waiting at all,
surprisingly. And we weren't even directed back outside to join the line. We
could've just stayed in there until the doors opened for the people
lined up. We did stay for a while, but then we decided we should try to find
another hotel. We ended up at the Crowne Plaza hotel, which was just a block
or two from the convention centre. Takes about five minutes to walk there. Luckily
we found a room there! We got these nifty Celebration III key cards, too. We
couldn't get back into the convention centre now, so we had to join the line.
We found the non-fan club member line and looked for the end. It was far. Really
far. The line started at the main entrance, went around the east side of the
convention centre, up the steps of the RCA Dome
that's connected to the convention centre, around to the back of the dome, down
a bunch of steps and down a big long driveway leading into the dome. That's
nuts. We got in line around 1:00 PM. The wait was long, but kind of fun. The
two guys in front of us were nice and we talked to them a bit, and we saw all
sorts of costumed people come around. The
best ones, though, were the Ghostbusters! Yeah, Ghostbusters at a Star Wars
convention. They wouldn't dance for me, though. Tragic, but I moved on...into
the convention centre, that is! At 3:15 we finally got through the doors and
into Celebration III! WHEEEEE! The first long wait of the convention was over!
Many more were ahead during these four days, however.
As
soon as I got in I rushed towards the Celebration III store, where they sold
all the CIII t-shirts, the exclusive Vader action figure and so forth. Unfortunately,
though, the line was capped. They weren't letting anymore people line up for
the store! NOOO! So I gave up on that for that day and decided to head on over
to Hall A, the autograph hall. What I hated about the autographs was that you
needed to purchase these autograph coupons to get things signed. Each actor
used a certain amount of coupons, and then if you wanted to get an official
photo signed you had to buy an additional photo coupon. I had already bought
my coupons online so I didn't have to wait in line when I got there and could
go to the "Fast Path" line which had no one in it. I got my coupons,
and went to look for Dave Prowse, who plays Darth Vader. There were two sections
of the autograph hall. One was for the small-name actors. They were just sort
of lined up against the wall and you could walk right up to their table. The
other section was for the bigger-name actors. They had barriers there to control
the lines (it was all kind of maze-like). They figured these are the
ones who a lot of people will want to see, so they gave us wrist bands with
a number on it. When the sign displays your number, you can go get your autograph.
That's actually a pretty good idea (the autograph hall was the best organized
place out of everything at the convention...more on that at the end of the full
report). However, the lines were so short for this day that they didn't even
bother to keep someone at the back of the line to check wristbands. I found
the "line" for Prowse and walked right up. I maybe had to wait for
3 or 4
other people before I got my autograph. I
finally got up to him, and it was magical. It was my idol, Darth Vader, right
in front of me...*swoon*. I carefully chose the photo I wanted him to sign
(I got the revelation scene photo! Best scene EVER), and then he signed it.
Heh...kind of anticlimactic, eh? I would've talked to him, but I have no idea
what to say to these people. It's not really starstruckness, though. More like
"What if he chokes me with the Force?" Prowse IS Vader. I must fear
him. Anyways, I got it all on video, took a picture with him, thanked him and
went on my way. That was cool, I MET VADER! Wheeeeeee! My life is complete.
I was going to get an autograph from Jeremy Bulloch, who plays Boba Fett, but
he was in some Q&A thingy at the time and wouldn't be back until 4:15, and
I wanted to see the One Man Star Wars Trilogy at 4:30.
So I went to Hall G, the "Saga Stage" where the One Man Star Wars Trilogy was going on. That was close to 4:30. Now, the guy who does this show is just insane. His name is Charlie Ross and comes from British Columbia. He toured around doing this show and has also added the One Man Lord of the Rings Trilogy to his act. Basically, in one hour he goes through the entire original trilogy, recreating all the characters, sound effects, music, and dialogue on his own. You really have to have a good understanding of the movies, though, because it just zips by so quickly, one scene after another. Similar to my Low Budget Empire Strikes Back. I was laughing from the beginning when he did the 20th Century Fox intro, to the end where he sang the Ewok song. In between he has some little asides and pokes fun at the characters (During his "unmasking of Vader" scene, as Luke he points out it is his last line of the trilogy, and becomes horrified at the thought of being known as The Joker from then on...as any Mark Hamill fan knows, Hamill is very famous for doing the voice of The Joker for the animated Batman series), and also pokes fun at the changes Lucas made for the Special Editions and the DVD release (When the Death Stars blow up he jumps off stage and runs around the room imitating the Special Edition "explosion ring", and quickly changes from Old Ghost Anakin to Hayden Christiansen). It was a riot, and I'm sure it was one of the highlights for everyone who was able to see it.
After it was over, I stayed in the hall and waited for the next show while my dad ran over to the Hyatt hotel to grab the luggage we left there and bring it to our new hotel room. This next show was called Rebels vs. Imperials. I wasn't really sure what it was, but I stayed to watch it because there wasn't much else going on that interested me. The only thing I wanted to do was see the Ian McDiarmid interview, but it had already been going on for 30 minutes and would end soon. So I stayed there, and the show wasn't too bad. Less exciting than I had hoped for, but still enjoyable. It was hosted by Warwick Davis (who plays Wicket the Ewok in return of the Jedi), which was very cool. He was the MC for the Saga Stage for the entire four days, so I ended up seeing him quite a bit. That guy is funny. He really knows how to entertain. Anyways, this show featured four Star Wars actors...low key actors, but still Star Wars actors. I knew them well from the movies, though. The show was called Rebels vs. Imperials, so there were two actors who played characters from the Rebel Alliance, and two actors who plays characters from the Imperials. The Rebel actors were Garrick Hagon (Biggs Darklighter) and Ian Liston (Wes Janson, Wedge Antilles' Snowspeeder gunner). The Imperials were Richard LeParmentier (Admiral Motti, the first character we see get choked by the Force by Vader in the conference room on the Death Star) and Michael Sheard (Admiral Ozzel, also gets choked by Vader in The Empire Strikes Back...very famous choke amongst Star Wars fans. "We have moved out of lightspeed and are preparing to agh...!"). Basically, Warwick just talked to them first about their Star Wars experiences: how they got the jobs, what it's like working with Lucas, etc. Then they played games! Three games, to be exact. The first one was a test for them to see how much of their lines they remembered from Star Wars. They played a scene, and stopped it right before their character spoke, and they would have to recite the line for us. They all did pretty well, give or take a few words, but it was cool having them right there saying it. The second game was the best. They played the scene from A New Hope where Luke, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were sitting around eating dinner. But the actor guys had to make up all the lines for them. The scenario was that Beru made crummy food, but Owen and Luke didn't want her to know it. It somehow ended up being about Hooters. The third game was an odd one. They broke off into pairs, and one person had to be an alien and one person had to be the translator. The aliens would speak in some alien languages to each other and the translators would make up what they were actually saying. Some of it was kinda funny just because it was weird seeing these old guys making up alien languages.
After
that was done it was about 7:00, and my dad and I decided to go line up (again
with the line ups...crazy Star Wars fans love lines for some reason) for the
opening ceremonies at 8:30 which was happening in Hall B. We kind of walked
around there for a while looking for the line (there are always lines everywhere
so it's hard to tell where to stand). Eventually we joined one, but unfortunately
it was the handicap line. Grr. We eventually found the regular line, and it
was LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG. It went all the way outside, around the west
side of the convention centre and up this big set of stairs. And, of course,
like every other line, it was capped. So I didn't get to see the opening ceremonies,
sadly. I was really looking forward to it too. It would've been fun to see all
those bands play, the 501st march in, and see all the actors on stage and whatnot,
but oh well. People must've been lining up since 5:00 or something. Again, this
whole Star Wars fans lining up thing just baffles me. Since we couldn't see
the opening ceremonies, we decided to just check out some of the other halls
we never went to before. Well, we just went to Hall C, the Fan Fair Hall. It
was kind of...boring in there. There wasn't much. It was all the stuff that
fans suggested for the convention, like the Star Wars tattoo display, the cars
people decorated with Star Wars images, the action figure dioramas, etc. I got
a picture
next to a giant X-Wing, though, with Obi-Wan and a pilot! Sweet. He was a really
good Obi-Wan, looked like him and even talked like him. The dioramas were cool.
Lots of scenes were recreated using the action figures. Then all the halls closed
at 8:00, and the only thing left to do was watch Episode IV in a big theatre.
So we went to the 500 Ballroom, which was where it was showing, and they directed
us to another line up! Ugh...hooray. We lined up for a little while in one room,
then they moved us to another room where we had to wait again. There were still
2 hours until the movie started, and I really didn't think it was worth it to
sit there for two hours to see a movie I've seen a gazillion times, even though
it will be with hundreds of fans and on a giant screen projected digitally and
with amazing sound...also my dad was really tired, so I just told him we'll
call it a night and went back to the hotel.
"He's no good to me dead." Day 2 (coming soon) --->
The
Videos (Quicktime,
Streamable. * = video was in report):
- The airplane takes off!
*
- Gigantic lineups
outside the convention centre *
- Ghostbusters...?
*
- The 501st Legion
of Stormtroopers march to the convention *
- Dave Prowse (Darth Vader)
signs an autograph for Phil! *
- The autograph hall
- Inside the convention
centre
- The 501st marching inside
before the convention begins
