Vegas con report 4

[valoise]

Just Another Roll of the Dice (Peter, David, Jon)
It seemed like the unofficial theme of the con was the changng world of media and that was the focus of this panel. High quality hd cameras are a fraction of the cost of traditional cameras, but other production costs are still high and there are new questions about how to fund programs.

Because of Tivo and digital recorders that automatically edit out commercials people often don’t see commercials at all. On top of that, it is increasing hard for advertisers to hit their target audience; people watch programs whenever it’s convenient and not when the advertisers expect them to be viewing. All of this makes it increasingly hard to finance broadcast television through advertising. Increasingly sponsors are promised product placement in very unsubtle ways that interfere with the story. For instance, Jon said that on 24 the producers promised a car company that their product would be prominently featured during the show, but the stipulations were very hard to include and move the story forward. The car logo had to appear for a certain amount of time, a bad guy couldn’t drive the car, the car couldn’t be in a wreck, and so forth.


Autograph session
This was one of volunteer tasks. There was some scrambling around to get people organized, but most got their things signed on Saturday with only a small group left for Sunday.

The Big Gamble (Jon)
Jon talked about his career from film school in Ottawa where he studio radio/tv broadcasting though his early career as cameraman and director of photography. He learned a lot from watching directors work, both what to do and what not to do. I asked him if they used any consultants on 24, particularly in their approach to national security issues. He said that while they do have fact checkers, they don’t have regular or full-time consultants although sometimes they get information from writer Vince Flynn, seems to know more than he should about these things. This led him to tell us about visiting Washington, DC where they met with various people and were invited to visit the real conter-terrorism unit. He found it strange and interesting that the inside of the facility looked just CTU on24. The show was older than the real CTU by a few years, was this life imitating art?


An Evening at Jim’s (concert)
This was one of my volunteer jobs, R. J. and I checked badges as people came in. Once the concert started John Farris took over for us. He spent the rest of the concert there at the door looking like a bouncer – turns out he has worked as a bouncer in the past.

Peter started the concert and he was great. I hadn’t heard him sing in person, only on dvds from other cons, and he was great, his voice very strong and he really got into his performance. This was the first time he has played the guitar in public and I know he was nervous. He played Babylon by David Gray and really nailed it; his face broke into a wide smile when he finished. He played two more songs and was great.

It was Jim’s turn next. I had heard him play one other time, but he was even better in Vegas. He played several songs and then David came up. Always a powerful singer he sang two songs, including a do-wop duet with Jim.

Next it was Jon’s turn. He doesn’t act, sing or play an instrument, but he still found an excellent way to entertain us: he played a clip from one of Peter’s appearances on 24. This was from the show where Peter’s character, Emmerson, has his first scenes together with Jack Bauer. Can’t say much about it, but Peter was great. He has the ability to really pour himself into a character and make each one unique. And let me tell you, he does menacing extremely well.

Jim back out and rocked the house and gave us an encore of Johnny-Be-Good.

Comments

[reshcat.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for posting these con reports. You've helped me remember specifics that I might have lost in the general glow of wonderfulness.

Hope you're having a lovely Thanksgiving!