Afterwards, we were able to interview both James Wan and Garrett Hedlund. We did not want to take up too much of their time, so I kept it simple and different, hoping to leave Withersin's mark. Starting with Mr. Wan, I asked "Can you describe your movie in three words?", he paused for a few seconds... "Perhaps my favorite question of the day." Then a solitary reporter behind me quipped, "Watch Death Sentence"; Wan, not hearing him or simply ignoring it, finally replies, "Protect What's Yours." Funny enough, exactly what is on the movie poster and does sum up the movie rather nicely. He was asked by another reporter if the theme of vengeance is relevant today, where Mr. Wan replied, "The theme of revenge is more relevant today than any other time in history", pointing to the attitude of most Americans towards terrorism. He also felt that the movie had enough love and family to counteract the drama and voilence, making it "a nice balance". We thanked him and proceeded to where Mr. Hedlund was.

We decided on two quick questions for Mr. Hedlund before he needed to be rushed off. I asked him also to give me three words to describe his role in the movie, he paused for a good length of time, then finally started with "Non-sympathetic, no wait, that is already two words". I told him we could say it is only one since it is a compound word, then he paused for a bit again........ "Big"........"Pissed-Off"... "Leader"; he looked relieved to be done until I asked my final question, "What is your favorite vegetable?", "Vegetable?", he aksed, looking confused. "Yes, vegetable", I replied again. Another pause...... "I would have to go with a carrot." he finally said. We then concluded the interview, thanked him for his time and got on our way.
Vegetables obviously have nothing to do with acting or his role in the movie, but I thought it made a unique personal question and why not, he probably won't forget that he was asked it and hopefully that it was asked by Withersin Magazine.
It was an amazing opportunity to be invited to this preview and we would like to thank Fox Atomic and Danni Pearlberg for the opportunity; also a big thanks to Mr. Wan and Mr. Hedlund for attending the event and answering our questions.

Ghost Whisperer
Our next stop, after 'not' getting trampled by the multitude of people crossing Harbor Drive, was to attend the Ghost Whisperer Press Conference. In attendance for this exclusive on Season Three, was Jennifer Love Hewitt, Executive Producers, Ian Sanders, P.K. Simonds and Kim Moses.
Ms. Hewitt entered to an array of flash photography; Kim kept wondering how she was able to walk straight, much less up the steps to the panel table with all the flashes she had to endure. She is very gracious and is just as bubbly and beautiful in person as she is on TV.
The conference started quickly with some information on the series and then some insight into next season. It seems that the writers are going to dive into the history of Grandview and Melinda's family will be a part of that. During the Q&A, a reporter asked if Melinda's character would be traveling, a giddy Hewitt replied "I would love to go to Hawaii; surfer drinks to much and drowns", "I could do that". The producers said that there is some probablity of other locations, but the show will still mainly be centered in Grandview and focus on its history. A comedic moment came when a producer mentioned that she writers are going to have a bit of fun at Ms. Hewitt's expense this year, after she mistakenly made them aware of her fears in life. Ms. Hewitt paused, pondering, then excalimed, "It's not clowns is it!", after which everyone laughed, including Ms. Hewitt, but she did look concerned, obviously will be interesting to watch what unfolds during the course of the show. Another question posed was if Melinda will be having a baby this season, again Hewitt was very excited by this possibility, "I would love it". The producers slyly smiled stating that "It is something we would like to work in, we just have not figured out how". Hewitt was also asked about her natural psychic ability and if she has noticed it more the longer she is part of the show, her reply was that she has not noticed any "heightened sensitivity", but has "Learned to intuitively judge people present in my life". The producers did say that they have "caught ghosts on film" and work with a real 'ghost whisperer' as a consultant for the shows content.

Exhibit Hall
Kim and I headed down to the exhibit hall for a few hours before our next press conference. If Wednesday was not packed enough, Saturday was just as bad; when later I asked Kim to describe the Comic-Con experience in three words, her reply was "Butts to Nuts". It is literally impossible to function in the hall, much less breath and if for some reason you get stuck around one of the main booths giving something away, you will be lucky to escape with all your limbs intact.
We managed to make our way over to the small press pavilion and came across some amazing talent. I wish I had space enough to list everyone we talked with, but a few worth noting were:
GRIS GRIMLEY With some of the most original dark art I have ever seen, just incredible, please check out his site full of art, books, clothing and even some great Christmas cards.
THE ADVENTURES OF ONION BOY A different type of character created by Athena Mariah LaRue. Ms. LaRue traded a copy of her quirky comic for an issue of Withersin, I'm not sure who made out with the better end of the deal. Her site is definitley worth visiting.
BOB THE ANGRY FLOWER Now this is comedy! Created by Stephen Notley, this crazy, manic and angry flower does what most people dream of doing. Laugh it up and check his website material.
TEDDY SCARES These are some incredible bears and a must have for any zombie lover. Their booth immediately caught my attention and I became mesmerized by the names and funny bios of each bear, such as Rita Mortis, Hester Golem and Granger Evermore. Each bear is horribly disfigured with a dark past and evil agenda. They also have a graphic novel and apparel featuring their loveable bears.
SULLENGREY A wonderfully illustrated dark comic created by Drew Rausch and Jocelyn Gajeway and produced through Ape Entertainment, this company also produces a number of other comics, including the Teddy Scares Novel.. This creepy, scary and haunted look into the world that is Autumn's Grove will leave you looking under the bed and around each corner. I am proud to have the first four issues as well as their new soundtrack to look at and look forward to seeing more of them.
PAOLO PARENTE'S DUST Definitely the best artwork I've seen in a comic book and a lovely gentleman to boot. Mr. Parente and Mink's Dust Comic is published through 12 Gauge Comics and they both were very gracious to talk with us a bit and personally sign the newest issue of Dust for me. A bit of a history buff, I was excited to hear the background story for this comic; set in World War II, the germans have discovered futuristic weapons and it is now up to the American's and British to play 'catch up' with their own technology and defeat their enemy. If you do nothing else, please check out their site and enjoy the beautiful illustrations.
CHRIS WISNIA Chris does old style monster comics and some other content that is different from the main stream. He gave me a copy of "Dr. DeBunko, debunker of the supernatural". This comic is even supported by Skeptic Magazine and looks to be a good read, I cannot wait to dive into it. I also received a copy of his best selling "Doris Danger" comic book; a huge 64 page book enthralling the reader with scuba diving hillbillies, the Monster Liberation Army and many more menacing monsters. Mr. Wisnia also sketched out one of his famous monsters, the Spluhh (you can see it in the background of the photo on the right) for me personally; a wonderful honor and great keepsake from the Con. A special thanks to Mr. Wisnia for his time.

We did visit numerous other booths and hope to hear from everyone that we dropped a press kit off with; we also came home with so much review material it is overloading my living room at the moment. We certainly know to keep our visits to the Small Press area next year and try to avoid the craziness of the rest of the hall.

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Jenna Jameson

The last stop of our day was the Virgin Comic's press conference for the premier of Jenna Jameson's comic Shadow Hunter. The conference was hosted by Virgin Comic's CEO and Publisher, Sharad Devarajan and Gotham Chopra, Chief Creative Officer and Editor in Chief. Both men were extremely excited about the new partnership between Virgin Comic's and Jenna Jameson, as well as a list of other notable hollywood types, including Dave Stewart, Nicolas Cage and Guy Ritchie.Shadow Hunter is due to be released December 15, 2007 (right: Issue one cover art), the storyline is about a sexy, kick-ass superheroine who has a brush with death and finds herself battling for her sould with the legions of hell. Mr. Devarajan was quick to point out, that although the character is provocative, there will be no nudity within its pages. As they were finishing up with their intro Jenna appreared and the whole room took on an electric feeling. She is definitley a force all her own, no wonder she was able to build her own empire and remain atop it this long and still manage to keep a sense of humour. She was asked by a reporter, "Do you play a hands on role with the comic?"; her body guard quickly replied, "Wrong choice of words", everyone laughed, then Ms. Jameson said, "Yes, I am in full control of the content, emailing in the middle of the night when I come up with an idea". If the execs were not excited enough, Jenna is to the moon saying, "I have my own line of soap, but I'm not excited about that", finishing with, "I'm excited about this, for sure!". She is in love with her concept and is determined to see it rise to the top and more, setting her sites on a future movie version of her comic. Asked if she would play herself in her autobiography turning movie, she replied "No, I've lived my life once, I don't feel the need to live it again" and then proceeds to let us know that Scarlett Johanssen was picked to play her role, "She's talented and beautiful, who wouldn't want her to play them (in a movie)", said Jenna. Ms. Jameson loves her critics evenmore than her supporters it seems, "It's what motivates me", she stated confidently, also adding "I'm known for being a sexual icon and I embrace it!". If she tackles this comic like she has everything else in life, it is certain to be a hit.During the course of the conference we were privy to find out that Ms. Jameson loves horror, which indeed perked my interest and my need to find a way to slip her a copy of Withersin. Fortunately enough, she accomodated the press by giving photo ops, which we took advantage of while giving her a copy of the magazine; she then quickly packed it inside her purse. Hopefully, she will find it entertaining and worth talking about; we certainly will not forget this conference.
That wrapped up our day, we promptly muscled our way back out through the masses and onto the trolley for our hour ride back to the car, where we proceeded to a well needed lunch break at Arby's (oh, what a treat), then home for some well needed rest. We did attend the Con on Sunday, but only to pass out our remaining press kits. We were so tired by 3:00pm that we dragged our behinds home, leaving the experience, but certainly never forgetting it!

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39th Annual Comic-Con
July 23-27, 2008
The wanderers attended the Comic-Con again this year, but were the wiser. We went on Saturday and Sunday only, although they were some of the craziest days to attend they are the most entertaining. It was a whirlwind time, but we were able to get a couple photos. Lots of stormtroopers this year, much to the happiness of Misty who is a bit obsessed with them. We were ble to catch glimpse of a few stars this year... Milo Ventimiglia from the upcoming series The Bedford Diaries, Gigi Edgley from Farscape and John Cho and Kal Penn from the famed Harold & Kumar movies. To read about the rest of our Comic-Con adventures, CLICK HERE.

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13th Annual Temecula Valley Film and Music Festival
SEPTEMBER 12-16, 2007
Our adventures at this venue started on Wednesday during our check-in, or what was supposed to be our 'check-in'. First we had to wait about 5 minutes before 'we' had to call someone over to help us out. We explained who we were and she had someone else come over, who also did not know how to check us in. They did not have any 'official' press passes, but we did wind up getting a press sticker on a piece of paper that we stuck in our old Comic-Con press passes. After getting all that done, they let us get a couple glasses of wine and then booted us out to the patio so they could lock up the Hospitality Suite. Seems they needed to take the alcoholic beverages down to the after-party and left no-one to man the Suite, which we decided needed to be called the 'IN-Hospitality Suite' since we seemed to get attitude from 90% of the people we had to deal with there and they had a tendency to lock it up at odd times. Other than that the week seemed to go pretty good. We managed to catch a few movies, mostly shorts, since the features booked up pretty quickly and also seemed to not start on schedule.We met the writer/director of 800 CD's, Chris Valenti, who obviously encouraged us to catch his movie. I did manage to watch a showing on Friday, which was wonderful, funny and educational on the business of networking, it was well worth watching and we will be posting a review on it to our Withersin Reviews site. I also tried to watch Aids, Inc., directed by Gary Null and although looking to be a promising documentary; the technical difficulites that plagued the film festival prevented sound during the showing rendering it pointless. We did manage to see Itsy Bitsy which was directed and starred in by David May. This was a nice change of pace; a very humurous short, only eight minutes and still managing to tell a complete story. I'm glad that this was the Short Film Audience Award Winner of the festival. We were able to get back to the hospitality suite for a quick bite, some wine and an intimate concert with After Midnight Project. Now, this was only an acoustical playing without all the amps, but instantly we were amazed by the versatility and energy this band has. Kim was definitely smitten and cannot say enough about their musical talents, especially after listening to their five song EP, The Becoming. She even posted a review on our Reviews website (so check it out). We finished off our night visiting the Music Festival, but nothing really peaked our interest, so we headed home.
Saturday was another busy day with a stop into an animation shorts showing: One Rat Short, Sin-a-Rator, Exact Change Only, Bare, Arjuna, Cirugia, Aeotearoa, The Intruder, One Day, The Twonky and The Tragic Love Story of Dr. Faust. While most of these shorts were okay at best, we really enjoyed One Rat Short, which happened to win the Best Animated Film Award from the festival; very well deserved! We were also able to catch some regular shorts, which included Adam Bolt's, Vanished Acres. This was amazing and very well worth the craziness of a delay in showings. Although, it did not win an award from the festival, , it is certainly "The Best" in our minds and hearts and we hope he continues to make these amazing films. In between showings, we managed to catch another musical act, Kandace Ferrell, she has a beautiful voice and amazing muscial talent; don't mind that she is only 19, her persona is well beyond that! We headed out to the inhospitality suite in time for dinner, actually just in time, as the food was completely gone before we finished our plates. We headed out to the Music festival to catch some more acts, including another perfomance by After Midnight Project, this time with all the bells and whistles. WOW, does not describe the energy of this band, they commanded the stage, truely, truely incredible! We got moving, preparing for some well needed rest before hitting the Black Tie Gala on Sunday. Sunday was a day of rest for both Kim and I; then we headed out for the Gala, held at the Pechanga Casino Grand Ballroom. We had our typical issues getting into this event, multiple people not knowing what was going on or what credentials we needed to have. We eventually wound up in the care of Platform Media Groups', Henry Eshelman. After some additional confusion and heated conversations, we were allowed to attend the VIP pre-party and were then allowed to sneak in for the dinner in the main ballroom. Definitely need to say "THANK YOU' to Henry for dealing with us and allowing us to eat, the dinner was incredible. If the filet, chicken, shrimp trio were not enough, and they were, the dessert was heavenly; a sinful Tiramisu set inside a chocolate film reel. The festivities of the evening started soon after the dessert and continued for a bit over three hours, although it felt longer. The gala was for the major VIP awards, but was interesting none-the-less. All in all it was a very productive few days, passing out a few copies of Birth 1.1 and making some new friends along the way.

The following is the list of VIP Awards, congrats to everyone:
The Daniel L. Stephenson Humanitarian Award given for lifetime achievement for dedicated patronage to the arts:: EVE CRAIG
Founder's Award for Lifetime Achievement in contributions to film education and preservation: ROBERT ROSEN
TVIFF Rising Star Award for emerging young actress: TECHNICOLOR
Mayor's visionary award for outstanding career achievement in film composing: CHRISTOPHER YOUNG
The Terry Gilmore Award of Excellence for outstanding career achiement in acting: MICHAEL MADSEN
Pechanga Maverick Star Award for lifetime achievment in music: SMOKEY ROBINSON

There were performances by the lead singer of Lemon Sun and a closing performance by Kandace Ferrel.

The Film Festival Awards:
Best Picture: BILLO, LE GRAND DAKHAAR
Special Jury Prize (Directing): JESS MANAFORT of THE BEAUTIFUL ORDINARY
Special Jury Prize (Acting): PAXCAL ZULLINO for II_RABDOMANTE
Special Jury Prize (Acting): DOUGLAS SMITH for CITIZEN DUANE
Best Short Film: A LITTLE LIGHT
Best Animated Film: ONE RAT SHORT
Special Jury Prize: THE DESCENDENT
Special Jury Prize (International Film): ANTES Y DESPUES DE BESAR A MARIA
Special Jury Prize: POP FOUL
Best Documentary Film: UNSETTLED
Special Jury Prize: GULF WAR SYNDROME - KILLING OUR OWN
Honorable Mention: DAMNED TO HEAVEN

Audience Chosen Award Winners:
Feature Audience Award Winner: HEBER HOLIDAY
Documentary Audience Award Winner: JOURNEY TO PALOMAR
Short Film Audience Award Winner: ITSY BITSY
Animation Audience Award Winner: EXACT CHANGE ONLY

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14th Annual Temecula Valley Film and Music Festival
SEPTEMBER 17-21, 2008
Coming Soon

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