As the landscape of autograph collecting and celebrity photo ops continue to change in the worst way possible, I find myself acclimating to the ever-increasing prices, adapting to changes in my ways of thinking, and in short admittedly more tolerant of shelling out more money and getting less in return. Or we could just say that maybe I have Star Wars fever in this particular case, as I, like many, anticipate the new Star Wars film coming at the end of the year. Case in point: paying Matthew Wood $30 for an autograph, which included a ‘free’ photo op.
Who is Matthew Wood you ask? Well I can tell you that in days gone by, $30 would have been quite an inflated price to obtain an autograph of him, but in this case, he was one of the more reasonable prices at the Steel City Con in Pittsburgh, which I attended on August 8, 2015. You might chuckle if I merely told you that he was the sound editor on all three Star Wars prequel films: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith.
But along with that role came some character voicing as well. In the first film, he several voices including Bib Fortuna and Ody Mandrell. In the second, Seboca and Megaloof (who??), but in the the third, Revenge of the Sith, he voices the role of a rather important bad guy: General Grievous, who was one of the chief antagonists of the film.
So I think I’ve made my case. He’s no Harrison Ford or Mark Hamill, or even Carrie Fisher, who charged me that exact same price for a signed photo ten years ago, but he’s still part of that legendary series, whose popularity is about to explode once again.
Celebrities of the 2015 Steel City Con will continue...
Leave a Reply