Best way to describe SDCC ? Line-Con !
This is my first year at San Diego Comic Con where I was not an exhibitor but as an attendee. Last year, I was behind a booth for pretty much the whole four days. This year, I had a chance to go catch panels (okay, only one panel), check out the dealer hall and hang out a bit.
This year, I really saw the lines. Lines to get in, lines to get Starbucks, lines to get wristbands so you can get in line to get con exclusives, lines in the bathroom. At times, I felt like I was at Coachella - minus the music and the burning desert sun.
I spent the first day in the dealer hall. There's lots to see and for me, I'm not as much of a buyer as I used to be. I've tried to keep my life is simple as possible and not to be a pack rat so for me, I'm pretty much immune to the dealer hall....except I really wanted that Transformer/G.I.Joe Shockwave Hiss Tank !
Thanks to nerves of steel - I only spent $30 bucks in the dealer hall. I bought some comic books and those funny oversize mustache you can wear.
As for the panel, I went to check out one on journalism and indie publishers - the panel is pretty much dedicated to indie artists who want to get some press for their works. I had a list of other panels but they pretty much went out the window while I was there. My days turned to attempting to get footage to do a cosplay music video. One advice for people is make a schedule - but make it flexible because you'l never know what's gonna happen at SDCC.
If you remember, I attempted one back at AM2 about a month ago. This time around, I borrowed a camera stabilizer from When Was This Taken and used my Canon G9 instead of using the Glidecam and Canon Rebel. I figured for SDCC because of the crowds, this be a better choice.
So here's my thoughts on that.
The Canon G9 built-in lens wasn't wide enough for me and forces me to be further away from the cosplayers to do the shot. If I went with the Rebel and a 17-35mm lens, it would probably be much better.
The stabilizer worked alright but it as well as the lighter G9 felt not heavy enough for me. I think it would have worked better if I borrow my friend's Glidecam again. Probably wouldn't use this set-up again.
The sheer size of the convention made it pretty difficult to work. This place reminds me a lot of DragonCon where there's so many people packed at the con, it works better if you were outside where there was more space. I admit it, this is a pretty tough convention to shoot in.
Be prepare to really hunt down cosplayers. Unlike anime cons where if you stand in one place, many will cross your paths, cosplayers are harder to find at SDCC. If there's 120,000 people here, how many do you think cosplays ? My guess ? Less than 5%. Be prepare to walk a lot.
I did see a few cosplay photographers I recognized and they were doing shots outside the con in not-so-packed areas. Thinking next year, I'm going back to my 5D camera and do cosplay photography in addition to grabbing quick shots on my phone.
Though these videos are fun to do, I probably won't do another one for a while. I'll leave it up to the cosplay videographers to do so.
In the meantime, while looking for cosplayers to photograph, I would just run into people I know and hang out a bit. For some reason, I ran into Darryl and Mike the most. Maybe since they're photographers , I dunno. I also ran into tons of cosplayers I know ... once they tell me their names again ! See, I have a bad memory for faces and names and cosplayers change so much that I really can't identify them. To tell you how bad it is, Jessica Nigri says hello to me, and I gave her a blank look - and I've met her several times at other cons ! *shakes head* Look, I'm just bad with names and faces, okay ?
