Comic-Con 2016: Production Designers and Women Rocking Hollywood

On Day 3 of Comic-Con 2016, I:

Attended a panel of production designers whose work ranged from “The Avengers” to “Justified,” “True Blood,” and “America’s Top Model,” and learned that one of the most important distinctions between designing for movies and designing for television is: doors. For a movie, the entire story is spelled out so you know everything you will need for entrances and exits. But television series go on (if they’re lucky) for years, and you never know when you’ll need another door.

Attended a panel of top women producers and directors whose work included “Twilight,” “300” and the upcoming “Wonder Woman,” who talked about working to make sure we see more strong, independent female characters presented by more women behind the scenes,

Had my picture taken with the characters from “Kubo and the Two Strings,” coming out next month.

Saw vinyl versions of the “Star Wars” soundtrack with holograms of the Millennium Falcon and X-Wing fighter suspended above them.

Realized that a lot of what I see involves not-scary things being made scary (zombie teletubbies), or scary things being made not scary (Funko Pop Freddy from “Nightmare on Elm Street”).

Heard the Captured Aural Phantasy Theatre perform stories from 1950’s and 60’s romance comics.

Attended the Masquerade costume competition, always one of the highlights of SDCC, with a sensational version of Lumiere from “Beauty and the Beast” and an Addams Family number that included “relatives” Sam, Patch, Douglas, and Grizzly. Both won top awards.  But the highlight of the evening was a re-enactment of the climactic fight scene between Kylo Ren and Rey in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”  When Rey held out her palm to use the Force, Kylo Ren dropped to one knee and pulled a red ring box out of his pocket. He was proposing!  And she accepted!  The crowd stood up and cheered.