Wednesday, July 30, 2003

San Diego: Part Four After a day of press, autographs, hugs, and panels, I arrived at the party in a pink dress and black high shoes. At once, I could tell I was the youngest person there. I quickly spotted Richard Taylor and became very nervous. It took me 5 minutes of pondering until I finally went up to him and said “Great job on the film.” I showed him one of my Gollum drawings. At the end of this sorry encounter, I said bye and went back to my seat miserably. Joyce intervened and sent him over to my little table. Richard and I got on very well. He told me about himself and the story behind WETA (www.wetafx.co.nz ) Richard told me that he was bitten by the bug when he was young, and his parents didn’t understand what he wanted to do with his ability, to see things in a different and artistic way. We chatted a little more, and were interrupted when a crowd of guys came in. Richard introduced me to his crew. I talked to most of them, but got on particularly well with Ben Hawker and Daniel Falconer. I met Sean Astin and his brother Mac. Sean played Samwise Gamgee in the film. He and his brother are very nice. They both look out for others. They invited me to their costume and props demonstration the next day. Sean and Joyce talked about her activist comics. She is going to send them to him by way of snail mail. 11:20:21 AM