As this was my first Convention, I didn't quite know what I was in for. Nonetheless, my expectations were relatively high after speaking with several other people who had been to Conventions by these organisers previously, and I was certainly not disappointed. In fact, the entire event far exceeded whatever expectations I may have had, and without a doubt, the main factor I can put this down to is the group of guests.

How the guests and attendees are able to interact can definitely make or break a Convention like this. In this case they certainly made this one fantastic, with each of the guests being friendly, approachable and clearly enjoying themselves as much as we all were. Following is a write up of the opinions I formed over the event of each of the guests. I could sit here for hours writing, but for the sake of those reading through this, I'll try and keep it brief.

Daniel Falconer - Senior Designer, Weta Workshop

Although all the guests were fantastic and I'm reluctant to single anyone out, I have to say that meeting and chatting with Daniel was one of the main highlights of the Convention for me. He was responsible for a lot of the design work for the three movies, including Treebeard, the Elven armour and the additional Decipher TCG cards (for the characters not seen in the movies), which were the three things he discussed in his presentations over the weekend.

Out of all of the guests, we probably spent the most time chatting with Daniel. He is a lovely man; friendly, incredibly talented and very down to earth. Very importantly, he is also a huge Tolkien fan :) It was especially exciting for me to meet him, with my love of making and designing costumes - and he's inspired me to finally make myself some Elven armour, which is something that has been sitting in the back of my mind for a while now... At least, I think this is a good thing - I'll know for sure once I'm through making it ;)

He was also kind enough to sit down and take a quick photo with us before leaving on Monday.




Mike Grealish - Senior Leather Master, Weta Workshop

It was an absolute pleasure meeting Mike. Again, he is a lovely man, incredibly friendly and more than willing to answer all of our questions about his trade. Leather working is the next thing on my list to learn (espeically now I'm making Elven armour!), so it was fascinating hearing about his work and seeing the things he made for the movie, some of which he brought along to show in his presentation.

Mike, I'm still not convinced leather working is as easy as you were trying to tell us, but we'll see ;)


Stephen Ure - Grishnakh and Gorbag (Orcs)

Stephen is an absolute gem - I'm glad we finally introduced ourselves to him at the Wrap Party on Sunday, and had the opportunity of chatting with him. I have a photo from the Wrap Party, but it was taken on Alison's camera and I've yet to get it.


Andrew Stehlin - Stuntman

It was a real treat to see Andy demonstrate how a few stunts are performed in his presentations. My immediate impression of Andy was his seemingly endless energy, and great personality. I had the opportunity of speaking with him a fair bit over the weekend and especially at the Wrap Party, and found him to be a really lovely man. I know I've described them all as being 'lovely', but they truly were, and it's the most fitting word I can find to describe them.




Brett Beattie - Scale double for John Rhys-Davis

Brett is without a doubt the most honest, down to earth person I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. It was fascinating hearing about his simple, earthy lifestyle and how he became involved in LOTR. Looking back, I didn't get around to speaking with him as much as I'd have liked, but I did have a dance with him at the Banquet - thanks Brett :) I had a photo taken with him at the Cocktail Party by the official photographer, but don't have the photo as of yet.




Thomas Robins - Deagol

Thomas turned out to be so different to what I expected - I'm not really sure what I expected, but I mean it in a good way! The thing that stood out most was his sense of humour - it was great. Through his presentations we were also treated with a showcase of his writing and directing skills, neither of which I was previously aware that he did. Thomas is a very talented man, and I'm sorry I didn't really get around to chatting with him. So many guests, and the time seemed to fly by!


David Weatherley - Barliman Butterbur

The first time I spoke to David was at the Wrap Party, and then only briefly, unfortunately. If I had to say one thing about David, I would have to comment on his wonderful speaking voice. That struck me the most, as during one of his presentations he read us some poetry, and it really was delightful. One can certainly understand why he performs books on tape!


Paul Norrel - The King of the Dead

Unfortunately, Paul is the one guest I really didn't get the chance to chat to, not much anyway. I will, however, be keeping my fingers crossed that there will be more of him and his performance in the ROTK EE, as we are hoping.


That is that. So much for them being brief descriptions! As I said, we were very lucky to have a wonderful group of guests with whom we could all mingle, and most importantly, speak with as average people, not in a 'fan to star' manner. For me personally, the latter was the most important thing.

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