Galactic Quest Star Wars Denver Convention Report.

Friday April 30th  
11:02 am - Registration was a breeze.  The three day passes have a menacing  picture of Darth Maul.  The crowd’s enthusiasm seems to be dampened by the rain. 

Noon - Traveling all the way from Atlanta with our child Andrea to stand in line with thousands of people in the rain may have been a mistake.  It’s cold and my wife Cynthia wants to take the baby back to the hotel.  I can’t blame her.  
Thank God we brought two umbrellas or this wouldn’t have worked. 

12:15 p.m. - We’re finally inside the main building.  Warmer but still water logged.  The “Wings Over the Rockies Air 
& Space Museum” was an interesting choice for a convention.  Booths and displays are in the center of the building with giant airplanes here and there.  With as large as this facility is, they still have two tents outside for shows and dealers. 

1:15 p.m. - Now things are hopping!  The licenses displays are bright and brilliant.  Decipher is demonstrating the  new Young Jedi card game, Pepsi’s displays are huge, and of course Hasbro’s toy display has a line going out the door.  The longest line by far is to the Star Wars store.  Some of the customers report that they are disappointed.  After going in they’ve found out that there are no toys exclusive to the show being offered. 

1:30 p.m. - Star Wars Pinball games!  These things look great!  $5,000 per machine is too steep for my budget but I can dream. 

2 p.m. - All right.  It’s time to learn how this “Young Jedi” card game works.  Jonathan Quesanberry takes a moment to explain the game.  It’s easy to learn and has potential.  These Decipher employees are going to have a busy weekend. 

2:30 p.m. - KFC & Pepsi for lunch.  A couple years ago Pepsico spent 2.2 billion dollars for licensing and cross advertising rights to Star Wars.  You couldn’t find a can of Coca Cola in this building to save your life.  The business  
world is funny.  Star Wars meets the cola wars. 

3 p.m. - Not many fans are dressed up in costume today.  I’m kind of surprised.  My Obi Wan costume is getting  some sincere compliments.  It’s fun to pose for photos.  Things are really picking up.  Cynthia and I  are glad we came.  The baby is asleep in her stroller. 

4 p.m. - The Dealers Tent. These guys look  concerned.  Since this is a tent and Denver is under a flash flood watch all weekend, they are having a tough time.  There are puddles everywhere and the tent is leaking in random places.  At $500 a table, there stuff is getting soaked and damaged.  They are trying to sell as much as they can and make the best of it.  Stuff is selling pretty good and by the time everything is over with, I have a feeling a lot of credit card are going to be maxed out.  Star Wars is good for the economy. 

5pm - Back in the main room.  We meet up with our friends from Atlanta, Derek Smith, Tom Ott, and Bob Bean aka Vaderpainter.  Star Wars fans are some of the best people.  More costumes are showing up now.  We have a Chewbacca on stilts, Han solo, Stormtroopers, and a Sandtrooper.  But Tania Perez from Dallas,  TX stole the show with her slave Leia costume which was created by her boyfriend, Nick Derington.  Photos are being taken from every 
direction. 

5:30pm  - Cynthia is done for the day.  Traveling with a child is exhausting and they head back to the hotel.  

6:30pm - This is great.  Standing in line and talking to fans is fun.  The tent fills up fast and cheers erupt from inside 
the tent. 

6:49pm - I’m in!  There is no room in this place for late comers .  At least we got good seats.  The tent holds about 1,500 people.  A huge movie screen and banners are in front of us and the stage is well lit.  When the lights go down, the crowd goes wild.  This was definitely worth the trip. 

7pm - Anthony Daniels ( C3PO ) does a smile check and praises us for our dedication.  He looks dashing in his gold coat holding a black umbrella.  Anthony loves the attention. He soaks it in like a droid going through a can of oil. After jokes and merriment, the video rolls.  One destiny,  One love,  One truth, the drama and visuals floor 
everybody.  This weekend we get to see much of what the world had waited for years for.  We are not disappointed. 

And then ... Ladies and Gentlemen, in person Jake Lloyd.  The crowd goes wild.  Anthony asks many of the obvious questions.  Such as , “how does the instant fame feel for such a young man like you?”  “Very odd.”  “Who is your favorite character beside C3PO?”  “I built him, so he ends up being cool.”  “Darth Maul rocks and Jar Jar is funny.” 

Questions from the audience include:  “How did you get the part?”  “My agent begged and begged.  About 3,000 kid applied for the part.”  “Who is Anakin’s father?”  “George Lucas is”  Jake joked.  “Has the experience changed you?”  “Yeah! It would change anyone!”  “What’s your allowance?”  “$7 ... except I don’t have to do chores.”  Jake is genuinely entertaining and handles the fame well. 

8pm - We watch the trailers and it’s a powerful ending to a day that has turned out to be quite a dream. 

9pm - Bob Bean gives me a ride back to the hotel.  It’s time to tell my wife all about the show and call it a night. After all I am still operating on Eastern time.  

Saturday, May 1, 1999 10am - From inside the main tent, a video greeting from George Lucas,  Ian McDiarmid , 
Ewan McGregor, and John Williams.  It is a wonderful welcome to a slightly less rainy day. Anthony Daniels jokes 
that this is the Star Wars Woodstock - complete with muddy fields.    Before things get going, the Denver shooting is remembered.  The tragedy that deeply wounded this city and the whole country has been on our minds throughout this trip.  It is profoundly noted that the message of Star Wars is that “Fear leads to anger.  Anger leads to hate.  Hate leads to suffering.  We must conquer our fears, fight evil, and choose the right path.” 

Back on track now,  to the video.  It will appear on MTV on Monday, but we get to see it now.  Doug Chaing shows off his amazing conceptual art and walks us through his thought processes on many of the designs.  The ships and vehicles have and organic look to them.  It’s amazing how he developed the  beautiful prequel 
universe under George Lucas’ direction. 

Rick McCallum takes the stage and announces that the film is in the can and is ready to print.  When Anthony Daniels asks him what his opinion of the movie is, Rick’s response is “Unf***ing believable”  Anthony was quite shocked at his answer and repeats he quote to make sure he got it right.  It’s an awkward moment for some and I’m sure Rick’s enthusiasm could have been expressed in a better way.  Stephen Speilberg’s “Oh my God” comes to mind.
 
They move on to other questions and details.  The film has running time of 2hrs and 6min.  and a budget of 115 million dollars.  One announcement was very well received,  the art department met last week to discuss the details of Episode II.    When Rick was asked if Episode I will take down the big ship (Titanic) in box office sales, his answer  was a confident “YES!”  In addition to these things they spoke about when  the trilogy would be released of DVD and that they had something big in mind for that.  No dates have currently been set for its release.  Also Episode I has officially received a PG rating.  Many fans were quite happy about that. 

12 noon - After the show was over its time to get back in line again for a chance to see Ray Park, who plays Darth Maul.  Rumor has it that 40 thousand people have come to the convention.  They all seem to be in line and loving it. 
Today we dressed up my daughter, Andrea as Yoda.  When I lifted her up on my shoulders everyone in line grabbed there cameras.  The costume really turned out great, and it was a big hit. 

1:30 p.m. - Same seats, different show.  Trisha Biggar and Ian McCaig show off their work on the prequel costumes. 
They are incredible.  George’s instructions to them were to “make the costumes so regal that you could sneak out the back and no one would notice.”  The Jedi braid was something that designer Ian McCaig  came up with as a visual element and George Lucas decided to make it a symbol of a jedi in training and when he becomes a master the braid is cut off .  ILM recieves 50 portfolios a week and many of the people in the audience were interested in working for Lucas film.  ILM's phone number is (415) 258-2000 if you are interested in persueing your dreams. 

Rodney Barron of Roswell, GA was fortunate enough during this whole presentation to come up and inspect Queen Amidala's dress up close.  When he touched it, Anthony got nervous. 

Anthony Daniels then begins to taunt us with Ray Park's appearance.  Someone in the crowd yells "We love you R2!"  This stopped Anthony in his tracks.  After a long delay and even more retribution from Anthony, Ray Park makes his appearance!  He was also very entertaining with his stories of make up artists who had to pick his nose so that his make up wouldn't be ruined.  Getting into make up took 1 1/2 hr each day.  Park is in great condition because he doesn't smoke or drink.  He never experienced any injuries in the filming.  Park studied Kung Fu & fencing for 17 years.  We also found out that a different actor will be the voice of Darth Maul.  Ray Park's description of Darth Maul... he's Naughty. 

3 p.m. - Neil Strauss of the New York Times interviewed us.  It later appears in the Tuesday, May 4th issue.  

6 p.m. - More photos with Tania Perez (Slave Leia) this time in front of  the Jabba statue.  That's a picture for the web page!  Then Steve Sansweet, author of a billion toy books, was hanging out at the Topps display.  We talked a bit.  "Some of the most spectacular things are going to be happening in the Star Wars Universe.  I am really excited about it."  Steve said with a tired look on his face. 

7:30 pm - The Star Wars Celebration come to a close for us.  In the car we reminice about all the great events and contacts we made.  It was all VERY worth the time and money!  The photos and costumes where awesome.  We have a permanent smile plastered on our faces and we can't wait to get back to Georgia to share our expeirence with our friends and cutomers.