On Saturday I went to WonderCon in San Francisco with a friend of mine, first actual convention thing I've been to. I enjoyed going, and seeing all the stuff there was cool/interesting.

I recently read George R R Martin's book A Game Of Thrones, first of a series with the fifth book coming out in June. Apparently HBO is doing book one, and it sounds like it'll be one of those rare times where TV listens to the author of the book and doesn't screw it up. And they had an area at wondercon with a piece of the set and some glass cases with some of the costumes. The book was good, but it took a few hundred pages before things started making sense and I could tell who all the characters were and how they related. But the book is long, so that's less than half. (chapters are titled with a character's name, and the chapter follows that person. 3rd person POV, but the "over their shoulder" kind) The main set of characters is large, and once the chapters fully cycled through the characters twice, things started making sense and when I finished the book I looked forward to the next one. I assume it won't take as long to get into because now I know the characters an am familiar with the chapters-cycle-through-characters setup of the story.

We went to a 'sneak peek' of the upcoming movie Hanna. A panel, showing the trailer and a few clips from the movie. The lead actress, and a guy who I think was the writer of the script and probably also the director or producer, were both there. They talked about the movie, and did Q&A. And I'm definitely interested in seeing it, the panel certainly made it seem like it'll be awesome. It seems that the film was made more with the idea of film as an art medium rather than film as a method of entertaining a crowd to make money. The guy talked about things they were trying out, in exploring film techniques, and themes in the film, and his artistic vision in doing this film. I was shocked to learn that the lead actress is only sixteen. At the panel, hearing her talk, she's extremely mature for her age. Also, apparently most or all of the action had no stunt double-they trained her to do the stuff. The idea was that the character (and actress) should be doing things that a sixteen year old girl with the right training would be physically capable of doing in "real life", so that Hanna is not a "strong female character" with inborn ability to do all the action stuff that makes them need a stunt double- rather, one who is strong from earning it and working/training. So more of 'woah it's not special effects and stunts, the actress can do that stuff for real.'
A movie with more focus on the story and film technique rather than lots of focus on special effects and stunts and how to market to bring in a crowd. And they spent some time bashing the way that the film industry sexes-up female actresses and their characters, particularly in action films, especially when they're the main characters. So this movie will have a girl being badass without being "sexy", wearing normal clothes not some skimpy/skin-tight/slutty outfit. For once, more focus on story and character and not "hur hur sex and sexual relationships".
Actually, the character Hanna travels with a family that has a daughter her age, who provides contrast with the character because Hanna has never been exposed to the normal world and other people and such, while the daughter is a "normal" teenager girl into all the latest trends and everything. One of the clips seemed to imply that the girl might actually become a love interest. Her and Hanna. If so, then it's yet another thing this film is doing that's rare for mainstream, and for many genre's it's being labeled into.
(Yeah, that panel got me totally sold on the film. Perhaps I am getting overly excited. But it's rare that I'm interested in seeing anything so I guess that means something.)

But WonderCon was also quite overwhelming. Such a huge amount of people crammed into a huge space but still too small for all the people. Impossible to walk anywhere without being pressed up against people on all sides. Going anywhere by essentially shoving past people in a totally non pushy/obnoxious way because it's like swimming in a sea of people and everyone's walking anyway so nobody seems bothered. Seriously, being in crowds is not really my thing, but being in a giant space that is so full of people that it's like being on a bus that's packed like sardines...but a huge room. And people with really strong perfume or cologne...urgh. And the little sounds of everyone just echoing all over the place made my head feel weird and it was disorienting. Like the noise from fluorescent lights, or when a tv is turned on but much worse. At one point I tugged on my friend's sleeve and demanded we step outside for a bit because I started feeling really dizzy like I was going to fall over. I wasn't overheated or dehydrated or anything, just...too much going on. And then when we stepped outside I was disoriented again because I'd gotten used to the echo-noise-thing and then it suddenly not being there did the same thing.

(So `yuumei, that's why I was really out of it when we stopped by your booth. >.< Sorry. I remember saying hi, and chatting a little bit, and I remember standing there feeling awkward and disoriented because you were saying something or asking something that was totally normal/reasonable (like, "what do you think of wondercon so far?" or "how've you been?" or something like that) but I got really confused and mumbled something vague. And I remember hearing you saying something, and the friend who was with me saying something, but my mind being like "they're talking to me. words. what are the words?" and somehow forgetting what was said as soon as the talking stopped.
I was really, really overwhelmed by Enormous Crowd of People. Did I sort of wander off? Or did people come to the booth to buy stuff so you were busy? I vaguely remember wandering away from the booth with my friend and not being sure if that was after I stood there confused, or if we were like "ok we're gonna walk around now, we'll stop by later". (which we did, but you were on lunch break, and some point soon after that we left to get food, and didn't go back to the con)