con bravo

[davemerrill]

Spent some of Saturday and Sunday down in Oakville at Con Bravo, a new multi-genre interest gathering of the con persuasion. I didn't get a lot of audience members at my panels, but that's OK, the con itself was an intimate gathering. Reports say that the con hit their targets and did over 300 attendees, and they did in fact break even.

Here's a stitched-together panorama of the main floor at about 3pm on Saturday. There aren't a lot of people about because most everybody was in the main events room or one of the function rooms.



The hotel was perfect for a convention of this size, with a small pool that as far as I could tell nobody swam in and panel rooms equipped with mini-kitchens and bathrooms, which is always a plus. Anyway, between the big events the main floor filled up a bit.



Here's a photo of two cosplayers explaining cosplay to what appears to be a Normal Citizen.



This was a general geek-interest show so you had Snow White cosplayers, Dr. Horrible cosplayers, Dr. Who cosplayers, and video game cosplayers. Dealers room was small, mixed in with artist-alley artists, and other than old import video games, didn't hold much to interest me. The VIP guest was Robert "Lord Zedd" Axelrod. I did a panel on Saturday and then we poked our heads into the costume contest:



I believe that's the first skit contest I've seen in ten years. They haven't changed a lot. Sunday we came back down and it seemed a little quieter. Did the Old School Classroom thing and there were even fewer people in the audience, which I blame firmly on the really popular "bad fanfic" panel I was scheduled against, the 5pm Sunday time slot, and the fact that you know, there are only so many young people that are going to be interested in 35 year old cartoons. The crowd was college-age, late teens and twenties for the most part. The staff was also young but they seemed to handle things with a maturity and a responsibility not seen in con staffers twice their age. For a first year show the convention was lacking in freakouts, drama explosions, emotional meltdowns, or any of the other public psychological disasters so evident at these affairs. I spoke to the con chair for a bit and he stated that their intention was to keep the show a manageable size and to try to maintain the $25 price point as long as possible. It's refreshing to see a convention that isn't attempting insane growth from day one.

Anyway, I had fun and next year I have plans for new and exciting programming that will set Con Bravo on fire. Also maybe we'll throw a room party. Anyway, that's next year. Time to not think about conventions for a while.

Late Sunday night we went out and saw the Toy Story with the Real 3D. This is the first 3D movie I've seen since they quit sucking. And let me tell you, this is no SPACEHUNTER or STARCHASER LEGEND OF ORIN, this 3D really works and looks great and didn't give me a headache. Movie's pretty good too.

Also there is a new Zero Fighter page up for you! Hope everybody down in the States had a great July 4th and at LEAST gets today off work.

Comments

[chibi-lina.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for coming to ConBravo and sharing your kind words, this has been our dream to pull off a convention of this sort successfully and I only hope to see you next year!

Christina Gyimesi
~Guest Relations

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

As a total stranger and Friend of Dave, I would like to commend you for this brief follow-up. It shows a great deal more professionalism than many older cons I know of!

Keep going the way you're going, you and the rest of the staff seem to be on the right track!

[guyhatesyou.livejournal.com]

Wait, you're giving off the impression that you had a relaxing weekend at a convention. That fabric of reality is breaking down, cats and dogs getting along, ect..

[sobieniak.livejournal.com]

I've seen a few 3D films for the past couple years, and I can detest they hadn't gotten me headaches at all, yet I have to contend with glasses that get smudged easily if I don't try to touch the lenses of. That's pretty much my complaint (outside the inflated pricing as of recent). The only drawback I see out of it is the incentive of movie studios in forcing cinema owners to keep buying into the digital projection equipment so they'll no longer handle actual 35mm prints that need to be shipped to each cinema when all they have to do is download the damn movie and play it as-is.

I'm sorry, but I just woke up and still feel a little pissed thinking about it.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but the digital prints look terrific. While I worked in a movie theater I never worked projection, but my brother did, and I'm sure he'll be along some time to tell us all what a pain in the ass it is. I mean, seriously; making thousands of prints of thousands of feet of 35mm movie film and sending them out - in their special little carrying cases - one at a time to thousands of theaters? What is this, the 1920s? Why don't we have our ice delivered daily while we're at it?

No more splice cuts, scratches, reels out of order, or that great yellow blotch as the film catches in the gate and the bulb melts it, especially exciting during a black-and-white film. Not gonna miss it.

[sobieniak.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't mind that at all (at least you're doing something with your muscles than were we are today). I used to crate that stuff to and from the library myself when I was borrowing prints from them.

I will definitely miss those things since I had to grown use to it thanks to my mom. She would never pay full price for a first-run movie when she can pay a dollar for each of us sibs at a reduce-price theater, while sneaking bags of popcorn into the theater room. That's why it's harder for me not to see things like lines or "cigar burns" every so often in a print. It also didn't help one of the first things that got me started in collecting films was in high school, and meeting a friend of my brothers that got me hooked in the whole thing (who later ended his life in a sad way).

I just can't see myself paying $20 a ticket if it came to that. It's bad enough paying to see anything these days since my job's been cutting my house lately and the competition in my town was ended 15 years ago through whatever monopolistic buyout occurred. The new owners who took over recently is already deciding on closing an 18-screen theater that was opened 12 years ago out of sudden realization of too many theaters in the area (which was a fault of the previous owners anyway). It just hasn't seen the same since the 90's for me.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Well, look at the bright side; the same digital media revolution that is ruining 35mm film is also allowing you to download cartoons from the comfort of your easy chair.

Change is an inescapable function of the universe in which we live. Don't live in the past; it's run down and the rent's too high!

[sobieniak.livejournal.com]

Thanks for making me see the light.

[jasonrmerrill.livejournal.com]

No more walking into the booth to find the entire print of Rocky Horror on the floor due to some arcane failure of the takeup platter mechanism.

Of course we hated that movie so the footprints we left on it were seen as a badge of honor.

[sobieniak.livejournal.com]

Again, I'm sorry for boring you with my thoughts, but I would have to learn to live with it sooner or later.

[beelzebozo.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I can't get on the 3-D bandwagon for some physical reasons. I don't see in true 3-D. I have a bad muscle in one eye that requires surgery to fix. When the doctors found it when I was about, oh, say, 10 years old, they said that I'd already learned to navigate without true stereo vision and I'd have to relearn to see. So no 3-D effects work on me. I even have to do a little cheat to get around my eye exam for my driver's license that involves switching back & forth which eye is dominate.

Though now doctors are saying they can fix my vision even at my age. I figure if I wait another 10 years, it will be 3 lasers and an out-patient visit. :P