Star Wars Celebration IV

I missed the previous 3 Celebrations. Mostly because I had no idea such a thing existed. 2 took place when I was effectively still in college and locked into finishing projects and drinking beer. The last one was on my side radar but took place in Indianapolis and I had no want to travel to such a place for a convention. I had no costumes at the time and no links to the Star Wars community; not to mention no one to go with me.

It was announced last year that the fourth Celebration would take place on the weekend of the 30th Anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars. It was rumored to be moving to Los Angeles. This excited me to no end as I now had a costume and links to the Star Wars community; not to mention I live in Los Angeles.

Soon after the dates and location were finalized: the convention would take place over Memorial Day weekend 2007 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The first official day of the convention would fall on Friday, May 25th 2007. 30 years from when all this madness was started.

I immediately began planning.

The first hurdle was getting tickets. Luckily the start time was Pacific Standard Time so I could get on it at work instead of losing 3 hours of lead time to people on the East Coast.

The second hurdle was whether or not to stay in a hotel. I originally decided to commute over the hill into downtown LA from Burbank. It would save money and I am close enough that it wouldn’t be too bad. I would pay for parking at the LACC and pay for gas and brave the morning commute. As I started researching what parking would cost and how long it can take to get to downtown from the valley in traffic and how much was going on at night and I quickly realized I needed to consider staying downtown.

However by this time most people I know had already booked hotel rooms with friends. I was lucky enough that an awesome couple I know, Paul and Lesley Farquar, had an open bed at the Wilshire Grand and offered it up to me for whatever I could afford to pay.

With everything set for the stay I could now look to getting my costumes ready.

By running away, Rebels finally get their due

Starting February 11th and running until the end of April, Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination is showing at the California Science Center.

This is a science center event featuring scientific explanations of real-world technology appearing in the Star Wars universe combined with props, costumes, and models from the films.

I was lucky enough to be included in the events scheduled around this event as a costumed volunteer. The first being the museum’s annual Discovery Ball. This is their big fundraising event centered around their largest exhibit; which this year happened to be Star Wars. I was also lucky enough to be portraying a face character so I used for some special stuff over the rest of my fellow volunteers. I able to hang out in the Cantina early in the night with the infamous Marie Prestin in her ANH Leia costume; chatting and taking pictures with the attendees. I also used in a staged firefight between Rebel troopers, Han, and Leia and Stormtroopers on scaffolds. Beside being waaayyy too long at 3 minutes it was fun. At the end I was required by Lucasfilm to grab Leia and run out as Darth Vader shows up. Apparently, LFL doesn’t want any hero characters to be captured. Instead we do the courageous thing and run away.

This nice thing about running out was that Marie and I got a jump on eating. Which was good because we were quickly grabbed to take pictures with the VIP guests. These tables were purchased for $25,000 or more so the diners were given the opportunity to take professional photos with the face characters from the Original Trilogy. Marie (as Leia) and myself (as Han) were joined by Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Old Ben, and Luke Skywalker as we went from table to table taking pictures.

It was a fun night despite being work and we were very proud to say we helped the museum raise over a million dollars. The first time they had ever done so.

All it took was Star Wars.

Parade of Roses

Around the time I joined the Rebel Legion there was this buzz going around. It could be heard at the Cinemax event and through the 1’s and 0’s on the online boards. Like ringing in your ears. Like a mosquito flying around your ear while you try and sleep. Whispers really. Speculation. Quiet speculation.

About a parade.

Strange thing to be excited about I know. But, as most people know now, George Lucas was chosen as the Grand Marshall of the 2007 Tournament of Roses Parade. This is old news to anyone in the Star Wars community. It was announced by Steven Sansweet at Comicon this year. The “thing” kept mildly secret for a while was that members of the 501st Legion would be marching in formation behind the Lucasfilm floats. Great for the Uncle George. Great for the 501st.

“What about the Rebels?”

Was the question asked by many for a long time. Ed “Reaper”, our Legion CO, asked the same question to Sansweet and Mary Franklin at LFL. The answer was to wait and see. Exciting things would be revealed in time.

So, around the time of the Cinemax event, it was announced that LFL wanted non-Stormtrooper characters to march around the floats and add some color to the parade. There was a made-up photo submission date. People went about finishing projects. Excitement filled the air. People had to decide if they could actually walk 5 miles and if they wanted to submit.

With all things regarding LFL, the photo submission date was, as previously stated, made up. The date became way earlier than previously expected. Most of Sunrider was not able to finish their Endor Troopers for the photo submissions. I, myself, was scrambling to try and get pics done in time. I got them done and sent them to Mary Franklin as soon as I could.

Now, I know my costume is pretty good. But I had no thought, ever in my head, that I would be chosen. Not because I am self conscious and negative. It’s because we were told, early on, that LFL was mainly looking for generic Rebel and Imperial characters. If you were submitting a face or hero character, that is one with a name and a famous actor attached to it, that they would heavily weigh how much you look like the character. That is, from 10-20 feet, do you capture the look of the character and the actor? Do you look iconic enough that people will know, immediately, who you are? Especially those who may not be huge Star Wars fans? Those pesky football fans that come to a parade based around a college football game?

I knew I didn’t have this magic. Not that I don’t look enough like Harrison Ford from 20 feet. My problems were thus.

I chose the costume no one remembers.

My hair is cut short and is lighter than Ford’s.

But I submitted anyway. As Obi-Shawn stated, he never wanted to walk in the Rose Parade but it would be pretty cool to do it. I submitted and waited. I got my rejection letter and wasn’t surprised. I went about supporting those that I knew that got accepted. And there was a few people I knew, or had met, that got chosen. Bryan, one of the Anakin guys I know from Sons of the Suns got picked to walk as ROTS Anakin. Obi-Shawn and Vince Sanchez walked as Stormtroopers (as well as a lot of other guys I have met but can’t remember exactly who–I’m not part of the 501st yet–I appologize for leaving anyone out). Rob, Jon, Lawrence, and Joslyn from Sunrider walked as various good guy characters.

It was a fun thing to wake up to on New Year’s Day. The floats looked awesome. Kudos to everyone that helped build them; including a few Sunrider members! Kudos to the 501st and Rebel Legion members who marched. Kudos to LFL for the great idea and floats. And kudos to Uncle George for giving all of us something to occupy our free time.

Which one are you?

So after finally joining the Rebel Legion, I was able to participate in my first costume event. Cinemax was gearing up to play all six Star Wars films on their premium Hi-def channel, aptly named CinemaxHD, as a marathon. They asked us to help out with some events for either the public or their employees. They had some of us make appearances at their call centers so their employees could take pictures. These were usually during the day or on weeknights before I could get out of work. There was also an event in Hollywood that was during a weekday.

The event I was able to attend was a 6 hour long event on the 3rd St Promenade in Santa Monica. It was an all day event featuring a pavilion with info about signing up for CinemaxHD, a green screen wall where people could take a pictures with Darth Vader, and some martial arts people in really lame karate giis pretending to fight each other with Force FX lightsabers billed as the Jedi Training Academy.

Us members of the Rebel Legion were joined by member of the 501st Legion, the “bad guy” costuming group. We were there to hang out, outside the pavilion, and get the crowd interested, take pictures, and generally not freak out kids. It was my first event in costume like this. I learned a few things.

Apparently, these charity events are usually typified by our group being shafted out of agreed upon things. Like the Cinemax event; where we were promised lunch, a changing area, bathrooms, and breaks. We got none of these things. Apparently this happens often at these things and you just have to learn to roll with the punches. Or be one of those bitchy guys that everyone wants to shut up. One or the other. Your choice.

Paying for my own lunch aside, I had a great time. Got to meet a bunch of fine folks in the Legion and the 501st. Saw Obi-Shawn’s infamous H-Wing of the Road Squadron. Got to chat with an old school Han Solo costumer: Vince Sanchez. I actually own a few of Vince’s replica for my costume. So chatting with him and finding him to be a really nice, funny, and open guy was way cool.

I learned an important lesson about kids (and non-hard core Star Wars fans in general). They all just want to take pictures with Darth Vader and Stormtroopers. And there’s a very good reason behind it. Masked characters always look like the person they are dressing as. No matter what the person underneath looks like. From 500 feet or 2 feet, a guy in Stormtrooper armor looks like a Stormtrooper. So people always flock to them because they look like they are straight off the screen instead of some dude in a costume. Especially the TKs.

The only thing that stopped the crowds around the TKs and the Vaders was C3P0 and R2-D2. We had two people willing to done the Golden Rod suits that day. They can only really wear them for a few minutes at a time as it is hot, stuffy, claustrophobic, and dark. We had a guy who brought his remote control full-sized R2. Whenever someone donned the 3P0 and stood with R2, the crowds would flock.

Third thing kids flock to, after the Tks, Vaders, 3P0s, and R2s, is Jedi. Kids know the prequels better than the original trilogy. So they all know Anakin, Obi Wan, Mace Windu, and anyone in tan tunics. The Jedi have an added weapon at their disposal: the light-up lightsaber. Everyone loves lightsabers. Especially kids. So if they see one that lights up AND makes noise, held by a real Jedi, they go nuts. Especially if it’s getting dark. I swear I am gonna put an LED in the barrel of my blaster next time I do a evening event.

There’s probably some steps in between I forgot. But whatever. My original point was to show that people go to OT characters last and I have chosen the most obscure of the OT hero characters. When mild fans think of Han Solo they think of the vest. He wore one in ANH and in ROTJ. People don’t remember he wore a jacket in ESB. They don’t tend to remember he wore brown pants either. If they don’t know the gun or the holster they don’t usually recognize me.

It’s why I decided to do ROTJ Han for the time being. Just a simple addition of a vest and a new blaster. It’s also my reason behind getting a wig. I can keep my hair cut however short I want, throw on the wig, and voila! 70’s shag. Easy peezy, lemon squeezy.

Sadly, that day I did none of these things so not many kinds wanted to take pictures with me. Most of the time I was just greeted with the question,

“Which one are you?”