Welcome to volume two of Louis and Mon’s Fan Expo Canada 2024 con diary. We share all the things we got up to on the second day of the con. Let’s just say, it was a very new and very fun experience for us.
Louis: Friday was a day for experiences. We tried things we hadn’t done before at Fan Expo Canada. We started the day with Speed Besties, an event for geeks to meet fellow geeks they didn’t know. Like speed dating for friends. I wasn’t really sure about this event, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. I had so much fun chatting with people I didn’t know. I asked them about their favourite fandoms. I met a lot of people who were attending their first convention, so I got to dispense advice as a seasoned veteran of the con. The only drawback was that two minutes per person just wasn’t enough time. And it was so loud! That room wasn’t made for this event.
Mon: Speed Besties was a great concept, much better than Speed Dating that they’ve had at the con before. Besties has a totally different, more relaxed vibe to it, which is why we finally went for it, as opposed to the Speed Dating that we’ve avoided. I had fun chatting with people, but I have to say, it was too loud to have extended conversations, and most of us were too far away to hear each other anyway. Also, I was part of the row that kept hopping from seat to seat, not what I needed first thing in the morning. But, all in all, a really fun time. I hope they do it again.
Louis: I attended the ‘Echoes from Hill House’ session with showrunner Mike Flanagan and actor Kate Siegel. One of the first questions from the moderator was about Siegel going into directing, like her husband, Flanagan. Siegel recently directed the sci-fi short V/H/S/Beyond, which is set to become a feature film. She’s also one of the directors of a horror anthology series of YouTube shorts, exclusively directed by female directors. We always need more female directors, so I was glad to hear this news.
Of course, the bulk of the conversation was about The Haunting of Hill House. Siegel’s Theodora was a fan-favourite and Siegel talked about how the character was the most sensitive among the five Crane siblings, but also the most closed off. Siegel derived from her personal feelings to play the character. She spoke about how she feels like she’s an exposed nerve, feeling everything. This was especially true when she took on the role of Theo, because at the time, she felt like she was being observed and uncomfortable. It was surprising listening to Siegel talk about acting. It doesn’t sound like she particularly enjoys it, or at least, didn’t enjoy the experience as much before but has accepted the strangeness of it. I didn’t expect that.
Flanagan talked in depth about episode six of The Haunting of Hill House, which was a one-take episode. He had pitched that episode idea and that was why the series got picked up. Except, neither Flanagan nor his director of photography, Michael Fimognari, knew how to do an episode as a one-shot. They took inspiration from the 2017 film One Cut of the Dead. They ended up creating the set with hidden corridors for the crew to move around without being seen as the set was changed, and the actors were interacting with it. The rehearsal itself took 6 weeks, and that was before Flanagan even brought the actors in. Flanagan was honest about how difficult it was, saying it was the “hardest thing” he has ever done and how “helpless as a director” he felt trying to make the episode work. Well, it paid off because that episode is remarkable to watch and being a one-shot ramps up the suspense and anxiety of the horror story immensely.
Flanagan did get the chance to mention that his new film, The Life of Chuck, is going to debut at TIFF. Both Flanagan and Siegel are Stephen King fans and were excited to tell the audience about it. Flanagan calls the film a “fragile little animal,” and his favourite movie that he’s worked on. He did also mention that Doctor Sleep, Flanagan’s adaptation of King’s sequel to The Shining, didn’t perform well at the box office, and so other King adaptations died, including Revival, which Flanagan wrote a script for that he still loves. The room definitely enjoyed Doctor Sleep and Flanagan seemed touched by the sentiment. Fingers crossed I can review The Life of Chuck for WWAC!
Mon: Meanwhile, back in the South building, I attended two smaller panels. The first was about self-publishing comic books, and the other was about co-writing a comic book. Both panels had local creators, and honestly, the main takeaway from the panels was: make friends! I’m not even kidding.
Some specific tips from the self-publishing panel was to try and get into anthologies, especially the ones that pair up writers and artists so you don’t have to go searching for someone to complete your work. Anthologies are also a good way to build up one’s portfolio.
Also, networking. Man, I hate that word. But, that’s life, I guess. They mentioned that cons like Fan Expo are a good place to meet people and get to know what others are doing within the industry. Most importantly, however, is to remember that these things take time. It’s not like you can meet someone and immediately get your comic book out there. Unfortunately, they also mentioned that making a comic book is much like starting a business, which means you do need to put some money into it to get things rolling.
The How To Co-write a Comic Book Series panel was held by Josh Stafford and Howard Wong, who’ve written the series, Damned Cursed Children. I’ll be honest, I don’t know what I was expecting from this – maybe I didn’t read the blurb properly – but two people talking about how they worked together to make something seemed like not essential knowledge. I mean, anyone who has a job that requires team work, knows the best way to collaborate. And honestly, considering they both have day jobs and alluded to the same a few times, I thought them sharing the hot tip that you should use Google Doc with track changes on to leave comments on your story was pretty basic. But then again, maybe that’s not common knowledge to newer, younger creators, even though it’s a normal part of my life (hot tip, Louis and I wrote this con diary in a shared Google Doc and left track changes and comments for each other).
They did mention that the upside of co-writing is that you can catch continuity errors, and they talked about bringing different perspectives to the story. I liked Wong’s point about letting the character become a third person in the room when you’re creating the story. Now, that’s a helpful tip.
Mon: After a pit stop at the press lounge – yay, there’s finally a lounge for us to sit at and get some cold water and hot coffee, where was this all these years – Louis and I headed off to A Star Wars Duo: Snips & Rex panel with Dee Bradley Baker and Ashley Eckstein. We’d seen Eckstein last year at a panel with Matt Lanter and James Arnold Taylor, but I really wanted to complete the set by catching Baker, who voiced the other main character of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Captain Rex.
The panel was a lot of fun. It’s always heartening to listen to Eckstein who seems to be committed to devoting her life to Ahsoka and being better for it. Baker was humorous, but what blew me away was how effortlessly he changed his voice to mimic some of the beloved characters he’s voiced. This happened near the end of the panel when the moderator, randomly, asked them to read out dad jokes. Baker read them out as different members of the Bad Batch – it was so good. He is a top talent in his field and you can tell why.
I really don’t know why they had the jokes section in there, because it ate into the Q&A section of the panel. I’ll admit, Q&As can sometimes be a chore, for the audience and the panelists alike, but fans look forward to it. The line for the microphone was snaking, and we hardly got through 5 fan questions before the session ended. I felt really bad for the fans who were brave enough to prepare to ask a question and never got the chance.
Louis: Racing out of the Snips and Rex session, we were greeted by the world’s longest queue for the Agatha All Along session. I mean, it was long. Like, I saw parts of the MTCC that I’ve never seen before. I was certain that we would either not get in or end up getting in well after the session began. That did not happen. Not only were we let in well in time, but we got a decent enough seat near the side. The Constitution Hall, formerly room 100, is massive. It can seat probably a thousand people. And there are screens everywhere so we get to see the people on stage.
The Agatha All Along panel featured actors Kathryn Hahn and Joe Locke and showrunner Jac Schaeffer, who was also the showrunner on WandaVision. Both Schaeffer and Hahn spoke about how the history of witches, and the way they were othered, especially by men, has informed the witch coven in Agatha All Along. That statement definitely got our attention, but I’m going to wait to watch the show to see if they follow through on it.
Obviously, nobody on the panel could really talk much about what happens in the show. Joe Locke kept insisting his character is just called ‘Teen,’ which is hilarious because the character must have a real name, and it’ll probably be a well-known name from the comics. But he was being a good sport about it. Locke did make everyone in the audience feel super-old when he said he was five when Iron Man was released. Five. Five? Are you kidding me? My back hurts just listening to him!
Schaeffer and Hahn had a bit of fun talking about where the audience will find Agatha at the start of the series. She was left completely depowered by the end of WandaVision and for her to get anything done, Agatha will need a coven, which is not something she wants because Agatha isn’t the most sociable of witches.
One thing I’m a bit worried about is that there’s apparently a lot of music in Agatha All Along, and I don’t know how I feel about that. I don’t mind a jukebox musical from time to time, but musicals are not my jam.
Mon: Yeah, the trailer they played at the end of the panel had a looooot of singing. This worries me.
Mon: We ended our Friday with Friendship Trivia, a quiz about friendships across fandoms. We were given random teams to join, and it was another attempt to get people to mingle. I had a mix of bubbly and intense teammates – and mostly rather young people – who all brought a range of knowledge to the team.
Louis: My team captain thought Friendship Trivia meant it would be about My Little Pony, and she did research on them. She was also super young and had only recently finished watching My Little Pony.
Mon: No way!
Louis: Yes, indeed. Thank goodness it wasn’t because I would have contributed even less than I actually did.
Mon: Oh gawd! Let’s not even think about it.
Mon: I ended up being team captain simply because my phone had the most battery, and we were supposed to be using our phones to answer. Well, the first question came up and my teammate whammed the answer, except, it refused to select the answer. We soon realized the app or whatever wasn’t working, so the quizmaster had to conduct the quiz manually.
What proceeded was utter chaos – my team seemed to know a lot and kept telling me to keep my hand up, but the quizmaster was telling us to keep our hands down. Chaos! But my team and I had a lot of laughs. I don’t even know why we, well, mostly me, laughed that hard, but we did. Of course, I have fond memories because my team ended up as joint winners. I take full credit for this because I got the 5-point question which none of the others knew.
Mon: That was a lot of interacting, but it was the most fun I’ve had at Fan Expo in a long time. I’d love to do this again.
With Friday using up all our introvert energy, we felt energized but were also looking forward to the next day when there would be a lot of standing and waiting, but much less talking.
