Breaking Dawn part 2 at Comic Con

So, I'm not dead. This blog is still alive-ish. I just haven't been up to much... well ok that's a lie, I just haven't found the time to blog about it. Bon fires, Twilight in the park, Spiderman premiere, etc. I have the job of keeping TheLitOfTwi.com up and running so I'm spending time on that instead of this...

Anyway, for what you came for. This is going to be my master post on my San Deigo Comic Con 2012 weekend. I'll fill in the info bits as I upload pics and such. I'm sure there are a lot of other blog sites with all this info on it already, I'm just documenting it for my and Google searches purposes. :P

Important Note: On Tuesday, July 10, my friend was killed in a tragic traffic incident just outside Hall H of the San Deigo convention center. I actually met her in Vegas for TFMU and again that previous Saturday (July 7) for a "Twilight in the Park" event. I had just met her and when I found out Tuesday, I was a complete wreck. But this fandom has really outdone itself by showing their support and how true the statement "Fandom is Family" really is. We set up a memorial fund for her family and raised nearly $9,000. Contributions in her name can still be made to the Alzheimer's Association for a Twilight fan fiction compilation and raffled prizes. For more information on this, please visit Fandom 4 TwiFan G.

Wednesday:

8:00 pm After checking into the hotel and getting my SDCC badge, I head to the end of the line to start camping out for the Breaking Dawn panel that is scheduled for the next day.

9:00 pm There were rumors going around that the cast would show up and guess what, it was completely true. After their party/event, the entire cast and Stephenie Meyer came to the camp out line. They handed out blinkie necklaces and mini SDCC Breaking Dawn part 2 posters. We lined up all along the ropes and the cast went down signing our posters. I think every single new vampire was there because there were a lot of unfamiliar faces. Stephenie stayed until really late signing and taking pictures with appreciative fans. The one person that I desperately wanted to see was not there, Lee Pace *swoon*. Hopefully he'll be at the premiere again and I can slip him my number.

Thursday:

All too soon we're up, showered and dressed. The humidity all weekend is 80% +. We're moved/scrunched up into lines by 9:30 am.

We're inside and we take our seats. I'm surrounded by fans and more importantly fan fiction readers and authors. I meet TKgel and GreenPuma and already my day has pitched from "good" to "AWESOME".

The room is also running late by the time they start the first panel of the day: "Trailer Park". They're basically showing a bunch of trailers from upcoming movies, all of which are in 3D.

Finally it ends and we're all excited for the Breaking Dawn panel to start. They place the name cards on the table and everyone whips out their cameras to zoom in to see where everyone is being seated.

[Insert panel here]

I took video of the entire panel but I'm sure by now there are a plethora of them out there on YouTube already. It was also being streamed online so by now, I think we've all seen it. Still, I'm taking my videos and making a DVD out of them to re-live the experience. Because of what happened earlier in the week, it was hard to be "super" excited. But I had a good time. I really like the 7 minutes of The Host that Stephenie Meyer showed us at the end of the Breaking Dawn panel. That was great! I'm really looking forward to that movie.

Here are a few of my pictures that I took during the panel.

Download Volume 1 of my pictures

Download Volume 2 of my pictures

Download Volume 3 of my pictures

Download Volume 4 of my pictures

Later on in the day, Peter, Kellan, Ashley & Jackson had a Q&A with fans at Zach Levi's Nerd HQ that I went to. You can see the whole thing online but here are some picture highlights.

As you can tell, there really wasn't a bad seat in the house. It was a fairly small area and everyone was close. I took lots of pictures of the guys.

Download Volume 1 of these photos

Download Volume 2 of these photos

That's all there was to my Breaking Dawn part 2 at Comic Con experience. I tried going to the Summit booth for freebies but it was too crowded and they were only doing the free stuff now and then and going upstairs to wait for a ticket to get a shirt or totes screen printed just wasn't worth the effort this time around. I feel like a bad fan but SDCC is exhausting and I still needed to eat.

I was at SDCC for Friday as well and got to be in the room for the 10th anniversary Firefly panel (the panel to end all panels). It was amazing. I kept crying :'D

Saturday I went down to San Diego for the TFMU meet up. I love meeting people that you only see online in real life. I met some really awesome ladies there. Chicago TFMU 2013 is in the works already so I'll probably flounce on SDCC next year to go to it instead.

Cheers!

Grauman's Chinese Theater Ceremony

Friday 11-4-11 update: All videos are now on YouTube. Scroll down to view!

We did it! Strike me down if I ever complain about being too tall. My monkey arms came in handy today!

I arrived just after 4 in the morning and was 94th in line. *phew* The early birds in line slept there as evidence by the sleeping bags and cushions. At 6 am, they moved everyone to the back of Jimmy Kimmel Live (alley) then up to the corner of Hollywood and Orange. They took our names and gave us our numbers. Initially, they said that they would let in 120 people but after seeing the numbers and counting they went will 100. Good thing too because otherwise it would have been really crowded and uncomfortable. At 8:30 am, they started handing out wrist bands. Once you got these you were good to go.

S. Meyer

It wasn't much longer that they herded us behind the barricades. The sun started rising then and we weren't looking forward to watching everything with the sun in our eyes. Luckily, the sun went behind a building and I was in glorious shade.

The ceremony started out with Jimmy Kimmel saying hello and introducing Stephenie Meyer. She said hello and thanked the actors blah blah blah. She looked really great though. I loved her dress. It was super cute. Jimmy then introduced Rob, Kristen and Taylor. They said thank you, we're so grateful, blah blah blah.


This was our view for 99% of the hand and foot printing ceremony:

No amount of screaming would get these security guards to move. It was frustrating to say the least. I took hundreds of pictures and they basically as worthless as this one.

Thankfully, our heroes are super classy and turned around and spent some time signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans (just us 100). Check out the link below for all of the pictures I uploaded.

View whole album (20+ photos so far!)

Videos:

Breaking Dawn Director Announced

Los Angeles, CA April 28, 2010 – Summit Entertainment has confirmed that Academy Award® winner Bill Condon (see his IMDB profile here) will direct THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN, based on the fourth novel in author Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN, is currently being written by Melissa Rosenberg, and will star Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. Wyck Godfrey, Karen Rosenfelt, and Stephenie Meyer will produce the project.

"Bringing Stephenie Meyer's BREAKING DAWN to the screen requires a graceful and intelligent hand and we believe Bill Condon is exactly the right steward, having shown equal and abundant talents of immense creativity and subtle sensitivity,” said Erik Feig, President of Production and Acquisitions, for Summit Entertainment.

Added author Stephenie Meyer, "I'm so thrilled that Bill wants to work with us. I think he's going to be a great fit, and I'm excited to see what he does with the material."

“I'm very excited to get the chance to bring the climax of this saga to life on-screen. As fans of the series know, this is a one-of-a-kind book - and we're hoping to create an equally unique cinematic experience," said Bill Condon.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions.

Condon is well known for writing and directing DREAMGIRLS, KINSEY, and GODS AND MONSTERS, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1999. He was nominated for a second Oscar for his screenplay for the movie musical CHICAGO in 2003. Most recently the multi-hyphenate directed the pilot episode for the Showtime series “The Big C” and produced the 81st Annual Academy Awards telecast, hosted by Hugh Jackman.

The third film in the franchise, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE is due in theaters on June 30, 2010.

source

What I want to know is when and where they're filming because I want to be there and set stalk visit the local tourist attractions near-by. =D

Update 4/29: The LA Times wrote an article "What kind of Breaking Dawn will Bill Condon make?"