C2E2 Day 2 In Review: Superhero Improv

Cosplay: The Doctor

My Doctor found a sweet kid as the doctor 

And one as rose and then another rose was passing by

Panels:

David Tennant:

• This one filled quick, the con opened at 10:00 I was upstairs in line for the panel by 10:10 and I only snuck in. 
• Told a bit of the story of being selected to be the doctor. Because he was working with Russel T Davis on another project he had been campaigning pretty hard trying to be a guest star on Doctor Who and kind of getting the cold shoulder. 
• At one point, he was invited over to watch some of the first edits of the first episodes and over snacks and the first episodes on VHS basically was told because of unforeseen factors we are looking for a new doctor want to consider it
• Russel did tell David to really think about it because he knew David was a crazy fan as him and basically said to remember it is a bit of a be careful what you wish for. It would be odd actually doing something he dreamed of doing as a child. 
• At first, Tennant said No for a few days until he realized then he would have to see someone else in the role and always be like that could have been me.
• He talked about his podcast, which sorta started as a joke/no serious and then his agent was setting up meetings and then it happened 
• He did not give advice to Jodie about playing the doctor but advice around the consequences of being the doctor. As he said the past doctors are their own self-help group because few other roles make you instantly known worldwide.
• He discussed being in Jessica Jones and had read some of the comics but as he said "Comic Book Continuity is a bit Contradictory"
• If he could have anyone be his doctor's companion it would be his family
• And that he loved Neil Gaiman good omens because he kept the weird and made it weirder and others would try to make the story more straightforward. 

Representation in the Spider-Verse and Why it Matters

• This was a packed panel :)
• The panel talked a lot about Into the Spider-verse movie which I have not seen yet (Hay the library is only getting it this week, forgive me :) )
• It was highlighted like at other panels on inclusion how much a difference it makes and how meaningful it is to see yourself in a film and feel seen/understood/important
• One panelist who was Irish (sorry don't know he name) talked about a character who is Irish and how when he was doing press in Irland interviews kept wanting to talk about it because as he said most Irish characters are leprechauns. (Which reminded me how so many groups still need representation so whatever groups you belong to put into your work. Diversity can include you too.)
• Spider-verse was prised for causal inclusion, little things which were not focused on but were true to the experience of 1st generation children in America.
• There was a lot of discussion around technical aspects of the film and how impressive it was
• There was also great praise for Miles Morales being portrayed "so 13, doing his best but still struggling", the guys said it was an accurate portrayal "of the awkwardness of that point in the process (of puberty)" and that at that time boys are "awkward and a mess because they truly are chemically imbalanced".
• There was also praise for portraying the challenges of finding adult male role models for many POC kids. 
• Also, many of the panelists were connected to Silk (great comic you all should read especially Robbie's volumes which deal with things like going to therapy but this is another blog post in the future)
• Finally, it was highlighted that writing is a skill and you need to put in the hours however you can even if that means working after midnight as you juggle three other jobs.

Superhero Improv:

We played a bunch of fun Improv games. Dealing with action and words and staying focused. One game we played which is useful in real life was a storytelling game. First-round someone said something and then the other person started the next sentence with No. The next round the second person said Yes but, and the third round the second person said yes and. The yes and actually led to stories and while it was framed around working with people doing improv in real life Yes and thinking goes a lot further.