Saturday at Comic-Con: Around Town and Back

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Saturday morning could have been Once Upon a Time, followed by Futurama, The Simpsons, and Family Guy. But, I woke up at 6am to consider heading down to get in line for Ballroom 20 (Hall H was busy with the big movie panels and all) and took a look at Twitter. Things didn't look fabulous... in fact, it was already starting to be doubtful that I'd get into that room, and I hadn't even considered the fact that Warehouse 13 was in that room before any of the things I was thinking of seeing even started. So, I made the executive decision to roll back over for another hour and a half, then truck on down to the Con.

I spent a couple of hours on the floor, hitting up various booths and grabbing swag (including FOX for the poster tubes and ABC's The Neighbors for a shirt and a "new name). Then, I ventured next door to see the Batmobiles exhibit, the Hobbit video game testing, and then into downtown to see what was going on. Jonathan and I apparently hit the Grimm area at the only down time they had all weekend, so we were able to meander through at our own pace.

Photo by Jonathan Bredemeyer

Photo by Jonathan Bredemeyer
(you can see the Gandalf hat and my "Danica Patrick" nametag)

We made our way through the throngs of the gaslamp quarter, deciding to pop into the CNet party for a bit (again, lucky on the timing - less than 10 people were in front of us in line! and BATMAN was the DJ!) and getting a ton more swag, including some Science Channel bags.

Photo by Jonathan Bredemeyer

Then, we stopped over at the Omni to donate blood - there's a big drive every year at Comic-Con, you know! True Blood gives you some good stuff for doing good, and the process wasn't that slow. Actually, quite a few people there were talking about how the lines were the greatest of any at Comic-Con! You sat in the waiting room, then went to a room to fill out your paperwork, then waited for someone to call you over and input your information into the system, then waited for a nurse to call you in to take your blood pressure, iron level, etc., then waited to turn in your paperwork, then were given your blood bags and sent to another room, where the line was a bit slower but still moved... and you got right into a chair and away you went! By the time we grabbed our swag and had our snack, we hadn't even been there 90 minutes - yes, slower than your everyday blood drive, but not bad for what was going on! The only downside is that, when we went to the Sails Pavilion later that night to see if we hit any of the TON OF DRAWINGS they did for all of the donors, neither of us won anything. The number before mine won a Vamplet thing, but the number before Jonathan's got A SIGNED STAN LEE POSTER! Anyway, moving on...

By 4pm we were in 6BCF for The Following Screening and Q&A. I'll talk about the pilot itself another time, but here are a couple of highlights from the panel, which featured Kevin Williamson, Kevin Bacon, Marcos Siega, and James Purefoy.
- Kevin Bacon wanted "to play a hero who had some complexity" and "a darker side."
- Kevin Williamson alluded to the fact that the second episode hasn't even been written yet!
- They were surprised with how much gore they got away with... they shot it as a cable show and then toned it down as required.
- Kevin Williamson: "it turns out, Kevin Bacon has chemistry with everyone!" (as if the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game had never taught you that...)

Next up in that room was the Person of Interest Screening and Q&A, which was a little different, not being a brand-new show and all. [sidenote: I didn't really care about this all that much, but it was in the room after The Following and before Revolution and MythBusters, so I wasn't prepared ahead of time.] After the typical updates like the return date (9/27) and the DVD release date for the first season (9/4), we jumped right into some Q&A with panelists Jim Caviezel, Michael Emerson, Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Chapman, Jonathan Nolan, and Greg Plageman.

Photo by Jonathan Bredemeyer

- Taraji says that her character "believes in the moral good of all men" and that she get that they're "doing good things" even if they're continuing to break laws.
- Kevin shared that he'll hear people say, "hey, I like you on that show. Try not to get shot."
- As a child, Jonathan Nolan realized that nobody watched the security cameras all the time in London, and in Chicago there were no cameras, so he began to wonder what happened to the information collected, which is where the idea for Person of Interest came from.

At 6pm we were treated to Revolution pilot screening and Q&A, to promote the new fall NBC show. Again, we'll be covering the new pilots at a later date. The Q&A with the panelists (Eric Kripke, Billy Burke, Giancarlo Exposito, Tracy Spiridakos) was very short, and the most interesting moment had to be learning that Billy is learning his swordsmanship from the guy behind The Pirates of the Caribbean.

Photo by Jonathan Bredemeyer

By Saturday evening, people are really in the Comic-Con groove. A good chunk are hitting up the Masquerade in either the competition room or watching from an overflow room. Many flock to see the annual Kevin Smith panel. Others are out in the streets of San Diego, either hitting up parties or enjoying the weekend nightlife. Well, 7:15pm found me settling in for the MythBusters panel with stars Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman, Tory Belleci, Grant Imahara, and Kari Byron (moderated by John Landis) for 45 minutes (not the hour that was advertised, by the way). This is a show that I don't regularly try to catch, and I have really only seen a handful of episodes. I'm not against it, I just don't care enough to make the effort to tune-in. Still, it was a great panel, so let me share some moments with you:

Photo by Jonathan Bredemeyer

- When asked what their favorite mythbuster is, Jamie said "whatever the latest one is" and Adam likes the car stuff (like the re-creation of the Speed bus stuff).
- all of the cast members are sick of being asked questions related to Kari.
- There are some myths they'd like to tackle but they can't because of danger/expense, like the Indiana Jones refrigerator theory when it comes to nuclear weapons. There are others that insurance has just turned down - like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. And, sometimes, insurance is picky about WHICH one of the cast members can bust the myth! To debunk the idea that falling through canvas awnings would break your fall, they turned down Adam but allowed Tory to do it!
- Adam's motto is that "failure is always an option."
- They were all kinda surprised at the outcome of the blind driving experiment. The amusing part was having Jamie drink and then give instructions to a blind driver - he drove like he was drunk!
- They get letters all the time from people disagreeing with myths they've covered, like ice bullets, split arrows, and even the plane on the conveyor belt.
- It would have required too much precision to use curved mirror on the Archimedes Death Ray.
- when asked if they would test some pregnancy myths, Kari says that "one of you guys can knock someone up. I'm done."
- Adam's favorite thing to blow up is a hot water heater.