Meeting old friends and new: Balletbat at The Neverending Fantasy Con
Who doesn’t love a surprise and this was certainly an awesome one!
When Mark Cookson got in touch to say that William Todd Jones was guesting and that he could get me a ticket, I was ecstatic. Mark, as a lifelong Batman Fan, was thrilled at the prospect of William and I locking horns again.
Todd was a movement consultant, wardrobe technician, and Batsuit Wrangler on Batman ‘89. I literally hadn’t seen him since those electrifying days of filming at Pinewood Studios. Our friendship had never waned and we even had the occasional interaction on social media.
On entering a very grand interior, perfect for this fabulous convention, Mark announced to Todd “There is someone here to meet you…” and that was it! A big hearty hug and Cheshire Cat grinning smiles. All the love, respect and admiration for one another just came flooding back. We relived those memories, the nostalgia so tangible. We signed photographs and memorabilia together, it was just magical.
As I wandered around the room, the ‘quality over quantity’ analogy was befitting. It reinforced yet again, my love for the movies, especially the classics. I was surrounded by such creative talent and, again, this was a world I greatly admired and felt truly part of.
I saw Steve Braund, a very talented sculptor, and his lovely wife Claire and daughter Evie. They had also been at The ‘Barbican Live’ event previously. They took very good care of me. I spent the time with so many immensely talented and creative people. Listening, chatting and having photographs together. Their contributions and work, simply staggering:
Brian Froud - Faeries, conceptual designer - Labyrinth & The Dark Crystal.
Gary Pollard - Labyrinth & NeverEnding Story III
Michael McCormick - puppeteer & sculptor - Star Wars, The Dark Crystal & Labyrinth.
Ron Hone - special effects technician - Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back and many others.
Francis Coates - sculptor - Lost in Space & NeverEnding Story.
Crawley’s Creature Shop - creature creators and prop makers.
Alan Church - visual effects supervisor and producer - Aliens, 1984, Star Trek IV and many more.
Tami Stronach - actress - The NeverEnding Story.
Joey Cramer - actor - Flight of the Navigator.
Jason James Richter - actor - Free Willy & The NeverEnding Story 3.
Frank Lenart - actor - The NeverEnding Story & NeverEnding Story 2.
Brian Wheeler - actor - Star Wars Return of the Jedi & The NeverEnding Story.
Willie Coppen - actor - Star Wars Return of the Jedi, Willow & The NeverEnding Story.
Finally, I met the immensely talented Eliane Torralba - sculptures FX puppets and illustrations and had some photographs taken with Chris, who was fantastic.
I attended a guest panel with a variety of artists, that all had a connection with this genre. Experiencing the live audience, buzz, passion and love from the guest panel, struck a chord. I wanted to be a part of this and hoped that this would happen in future conventions with Batman. What an amazing day. I was inspired to do so much more and broaden my horizons.
What I didn’t know, was that attending, triggered something:
I had no idea that Todd would send me a photograph that would literally change everything. It was a picture I had never seen before, not even knowing of its existence. It proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that I truly was there at Pinewood and contributed greatly to the portrayal of the dark knight in the most iconic Batman movie of all time!
Carl Newman relaxing between takes on Batman
