We Went To Dragon Con 2018 And All We Got You Are These Awesome Videos

Friends, geeks, fellow con veterans.

I come to you today exhilarated, bone-tired, and still in my jammies at 3:30 in the afternoon.

Yep, it's the day after Dragon Con.

This year John and I did something radically different with our coverage, and I'm beyond excited. You might remember that last year we finally puzzled out a way to take crisp photos in the low light by using black-out flash, but I wanted more. I wanted to capture the feel of the place, to show you all the madness and community and spontaneous play-acting that happens in the crushing Dragon Con crowds every night.

So in addition to my normal photography - both flash and non flash - John and I decided to shoot video every day of the con, and - here's the hard part - to produce a new video for each day of the con, too.

I won't lie, it was the hardest we've worked at any Dragon Con. We didn't attend a single panel or concert, and never even went into the vendor hall or Walk of Fame. Instead, WE FILMED. We took photos and video until the wee hours of the morning, then we were up 'til 5AM editing in the hotel. Sleep a few hours, then repeat, for five long days.

And it was SO. MUCH. FUN.

We got to attend two Epbot meetups, then met a dozen or more of you randomly throughout the con. So there were still plenty of breaks for socializing, laughter, and hugs. I honestly don't feel like I missed out on a thing. I got to do what I love most: commune with fellow geeks & capture great cosplay in new creative ways.

 Thursday Epbot meet up, photo by Jen Allen 

(We forgot to take a group shot for the 2nd one!)

What's more, by prioritizing our schedule & planning all my Low Fodmap meals ahead, I felt physically better and braver than ever: not a single Xanax needed all five days! YAAAAS. (That's also thanks to my new doctor and hormone regiment; thank God for modern medicine. I feel like a new person, so much stronger and calmer than just two months ago.)

I'll have lots more to show and tell you later, but while I'm still recovering, let me start by showing you our Thursday, Friday, and Saturday videos. (John hopes to have both Sunday and Monday up by tomorrow, so subscribe to our YouTube channel to see those as soon as they're live!)

Thursday:
(This includes the famous Bunny Hutch, where cosplayers mashup their favorite fandoms with Playboy Bunny and Hef outfits)

Friday:

Saturday:

We filmed almost everything on John's iPhone 6s Plus, using this gimbal from Amazon. Maybe 6-8 shots from each video were filmed on my own iPhone 6, for the times when two awesome things were happening at once, or when we weren't set up with the gimbal.

Though John handled most of the camera work, we still operated very much as a team. I would usually talk to the cosplayers first to get permission, since my voice cuts through the crowd better, and also because I'm tiny and female and non-threatening, which goes a long way when asking a girl in her underwear for a video, JUST SAYING. (Ha!) Then John & I worked together to brainstorm new angles and shots, which was just so, so fun. That first shot on Thursday with the TARDIS? Me. ALL ME.

The editing, on the other hand, is all John. He knocked out each video in just over 3 hours after a long day of shooting, with my only contributions being to suggest a few small things and giving a final Ok. John's got a knack for editing, and though you might not notice it, he works with the music to make the downbeats line up with transitions, and so the softer parts have more beauty makeups and the faster-paced stuff has more action, and I think it's brilliant. Especially considering we're both newbs at this!

We had so much fun with video that we're planning to upgrade John's phone for a better camera soon, so you can expect more - and hopefully better - video segments here on from conventions, along with my usual photo coverage. That's right, don't worry, I'll still have photos! We took plenty of black-out flash portraits at Dragon Con, plus a TON of regular photos, and I'll be posting the best of those here. (Those photos are mostly costumes not in the videos, since we couldn't do both at the same time.)

And last but not least, I had a blast updating Instagram with lots and lots of Stories from Dragon Con, like this:

Just like with video, I'm really enjoying the immediacy of Instagram Stories for cons. I can edit and share right on my phone, which cuts down on my work later at home, and gets the fun stuff to you guys that much faster.

You can see the rest of my Stories here in my Dragon Con Highlights - and if you don't already, follow me on Instagram for more goodies and updates. (And cat photos. So many cat photos.)

Now I'm off to collapse again on the road to Dragon Con recovery. Love y'all. Talk more later!