The Best Laid Plans...
[NOTE: I finally decided to get rid of all those unreliable eSnips players from my older posts and have replaced each of them with a simpler and more dependable music widget. So if there was a song that you couldn't play before, feel free to try listening to it now.]
Some of you may remember my "30-Percent Rule" when it comes to tackling the madness of Comic-Con International: if you are able to accomplish even just 30% of your goals here, you should consider that a successful outing. In an event where the enormous (and often rabid) crowds mixed in with last-second and surprise announcements/appearances can totally throw off even the most veteran attendees, you'll always have to prepare yourself to face some disappointments along with your triumphs...
This year, the chaos of the convention proved to be especially daunting and taxing for me. Despite spending the prior 2 weeks researching every possible press release and announcement regarding Comic-Con, I still ended up hitting probably only 40% of my objectives, while completely missing many of the most exciting moments of the weekend (such as Hugh Jackman stopping by with an exclusive first-look at the "Wolverine" movie and/or the surprise appearance of Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh for "Mummy 3: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor"). But on top of all that, I was hampered even more by some recent changes that has me questioning how I should approach SDCC from now on.
Three major developments took place between this year and last which have made my convention experience a whole lot tougher than ever before.
First, Comic-Con pre-sold all its dates online, capping attendance at the San Diego Convention Center capacity of 125,000 people. On the surface, having no on-site registration while limiting the number of attendees would seem to be a good way to ease and manage crowds. However, I think that the unintended consequence of these early sell-outs is that a ton more people (who normally would have waited until around Saturday to attend) are now committing themselves to attend all 4-5 days of the convention instead (as well as those people buying Thursday/Friday tickets because they were unable to buy Saturday and Sunday passes). That means that the convention is now packed at full capacity practically every day (even during preview night); there are no longer any "slow" days where you can enjoy the convention at a more relaxed pace.
Second, the major booths in the Exhibit Hall are now holding many of their own celebrity autograph sessions, without the guidance of Comic-Con organizers (who has a strong track record on handling such events). As a result, booths like Warner Brothers have dealt with nightmarish first-come, first-served autograph lines that have compromised crowd control and safety throughout the weekend. On the flip side, booths such as Lionsgate and Fox opted to pass out tickets to their autograph sessions, although the exact time(s) when they are supposed to be passed out can be completely random or unrealistic for the fans most eager to participate in them. (I was thoroughly annoyed that no one at the Fox booth bothered to tell me that they were going to pass out autograph tickets to the "24" and "Prison Break" signings until it was too late, despite my checking in with their staff every morning.) Neither system appears to be ideal, and I think some better planning needs to be involved for next year's autograph sessions.
Finally, autograph sessions are much more publicized now than they have been in the past (there are even advertisements now in the program guide, whereas you often had to know the right people in the past to know where to find them). This, when combined with fanatical crowds at any given moment, have led to far too much competition and time-consumption when it comes to trying to get an autograph. I now spent an average of 2 hours per autograph line compared to 1 hour or less in previous years; this severely limits the number of panels and other special events I would have liked to enjoy as well. And that's just for the signings I managed to fight my way into (no such luck for the Tite Kubo or Harold & Kumar signings). In fact, I pretty much wasted my entire Sunday waiting for autograph lines that were closed before I could even get in. It's just getting too hard; next year I may decide to skip over autograph sessions (my typical convention activity) in favor of enjoying the Exhibit Hall and special panels instead.
Thankfully, media coverage has skyrocketed in recent years, allowing me to catch up on some of the panels I missed from NBC and Sci-Fi.
Nevertheless, all the setbacks and frustrations paled in comparison to the tremendous fun I had hanging out with the AWA crew during these five days, especially during our wild late-night excursions through the Gaslamp Quarter. Also, while I couldn't obtain many of my most-wanted autographs, I was more than happy to acquire some items and signatures that were high on the wishlists of my friends from Atlanta. So overall, the time was well-spent.
My full convention photo album plus my Comic-Con 2008 video collection are now also up. (Although I must confess, I loaned my camera to Lord-Darkseid for Friday's events, which prevents me from showing you anything from my personal encounters with Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris, Yoshitaka Amano, Mike Mignola, Yasuhiro Nightnow, Matt Wagner and Takashi Okazaki).
CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:
Amerie - Crush
Some of you may remember my "30-Percent Rule" when it comes to tackling the madness of Comic-Con International: if you are able to accomplish even just 30% of your goals here, you should consider that a successful outing. In an event where the enormous (and often rabid) crowds mixed in with last-second and surprise announcements/appearances can totally throw off even the most veteran attendees, you'll always have to prepare yourself to face some disappointments along with your triumphs...
This year, the chaos of the convention proved to be especially daunting and taxing for me. Despite spending the prior 2 weeks researching every possible press release and announcement regarding Comic-Con, I still ended up hitting probably only 40% of my objectives, while completely missing many of the most exciting moments of the weekend (such as Hugh Jackman stopping by with an exclusive first-look at the "Wolverine" movie and/or the surprise appearance of Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh for "Mummy 3: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor"). But on top of all that, I was hampered even more by some recent changes that has me questioning how I should approach SDCC from now on.
Three major developments took place between this year and last which have made my convention experience a whole lot tougher than ever before.
First, Comic-Con pre-sold all its dates online, capping attendance at the San Diego Convention Center capacity of 125,000 people. On the surface, having no on-site registration while limiting the number of attendees would seem to be a good way to ease and manage crowds. However, I think that the unintended consequence of these early sell-outs is that a ton more people (who normally would have waited until around Saturday to attend) are now committing themselves to attend all 4-5 days of the convention instead (as well as those people buying Thursday/Friday tickets because they were unable to buy Saturday and Sunday passes). That means that the convention is now packed at full capacity practically every day (even during preview night); there are no longer any "slow" days where you can enjoy the convention at a more relaxed pace.
Second, the major booths in the Exhibit Hall are now holding many of their own celebrity autograph sessions, without the guidance of Comic-Con organizers (who has a strong track record on handling such events). As a result, booths like Warner Brothers have dealt with nightmarish first-come, first-served autograph lines that have compromised crowd control and safety throughout the weekend. On the flip side, booths such as Lionsgate and Fox opted to pass out tickets to their autograph sessions, although the exact time(s) when they are supposed to be passed out can be completely random or unrealistic for the fans most eager to participate in them. (I was thoroughly annoyed that no one at the Fox booth bothered to tell me that they were going to pass out autograph tickets to the "24" and "Prison Break" signings until it was too late, despite my checking in with their staff every morning.) Neither system appears to be ideal, and I think some better planning needs to be involved for next year's autograph sessions.
Finally, autograph sessions are much more publicized now than they have been in the past (there are even advertisements now in the program guide, whereas you often had to know the right people in the past to know where to find them). This, when combined with fanatical crowds at any given moment, have led to far too much competition and time-consumption when it comes to trying to get an autograph. I now spent an average of 2 hours per autograph line compared to 1 hour or less in previous years; this severely limits the number of panels and other special events I would have liked to enjoy as well. And that's just for the signings I managed to fight my way into (no such luck for the Tite Kubo or Harold & Kumar signings). In fact, I pretty much wasted my entire Sunday waiting for autograph lines that were closed before I could even get in. It's just getting too hard; next year I may decide to skip over autograph sessions (my typical convention activity) in favor of enjoying the Exhibit Hall and special panels instead.
Thankfully, media coverage has skyrocketed in recent years, allowing me to catch up on some of the panels I missed from NBC and Sci-Fi.
Nevertheless, all the setbacks and frustrations paled in comparison to the tremendous fun I had hanging out with the AWA crew during these five days, especially during our wild late-night excursions through the Gaslamp Quarter. Also, while I couldn't obtain many of my most-wanted autographs, I was more than happy to acquire some items and signatures that were high on the wishlists of my friends from Atlanta. So overall, the time was well-spent.
My full convention photo album plus my Comic-Con 2008 video collection are now also up. (Although I must confess, I loaned my camera to Lord-Darkseid for Friday's events, which prevents me from showing you anything from my personal encounters with Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris, Yoshitaka Amano, Mike Mignola, Yasuhiro Nightnow, Matt Wagner and Takashi Okazaki).
CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:
Amerie - Crush