...The downtown trains are full with all those Brooklyn girls...

[hazelchaz]

My Animé Los Angeles report, part 3: Friday, through Opening Ceremonies. (See also part 1, part 2, part 4, part 5, part 6, and part 7.)

The Autographs, Photography Studio and Cosplay Gatherings ran smoothly, mostly. The Autographs area was in the same room as the photos. We did have an issue with the photo area being reserved at the same time as some other major thing using the space. We'll need to make sure we don't double-book (or triple-book) that room. The Cosplay Gathering/Photo Room reservation people will need to coordinate with the Program Department better next year.

The Cosplay Gatherings had a few issues with double-booking. It's not usually a problem, in fact for most of Saturday, most hours had two gatherings scheduled for each hour -- but for one of those times, the two gatherings were for Naruto and Pokemon, two of the more popular series out there.

We also had some groups (Resident Evil/Biohazard, Phoenix Wright) schedule gatherings for "Hotel Lobby" and there was some confusion as to whether that meant the lobby proper, upstairs; or the foyer in front of Registration. My suspicion is the organizers really meant the public lobby, but we ended up putting out signs that said "Gatherings -Hotel Lobby (here)" near Registration.

Artists' Alley went smoothly as well. Setup was Friday morning, and it didn't require my attentioon, so I assume it went flawlessly. Our Artist Guest of Honor for next year, le_moose usually has a space in Artists' Alley but we're putting her in the Dealers' Room next year. And we're going to put the Costume Exhibit in Artists' Alley next year. We're also looking into alternate sources for the mannequins -- the Costumers Guild West ones are difficult to work with.

Last year at Gallifrey One, in the same hotel, they had two rooms set up as the "Pass-Through Lounge." There was a lot of comfy seating, and some small cocktail round tables, and it was a pleasant place to hang out (like a con suite without food) as well as way to get across from one hall to the other. (right)

I wanted something like that. But I also thought we might be able to have a fan table or two in there, and ala_mokita told me that he thought that the Art Directors Guild would have an exhibit to show in there as well -- a bunch of the concept art from the designs for the movie Twilight. Not directly anime-related, no, but something that perhaps a number of our members would enjoy seeing.

I was thinking we could have a few of our benches, maybe some beanbag chairs and some regular chairs... But how it ended up was there were two very large exhibits lining the south wall of each room, and the fan tables in one room (two or three tables) were commandeered entirely by loscon. A shortage of lounging-about space, mostly tables along the north wall and the exhibits along the south.

If we have a static exhibit next year -- which is uncertain -- I'm leaning towards having the exhibit in one room and the fan tables in the other, and to have some kind of lounging furniture in each room. And allow the fan tables to be along the south wall, where the power outlets are.

Opening Ceremonies, featuring Marianne Miller. I met Marianne Miller at CSU Northridge a few months ago, where she sang the Portal song, "Still Alive." (left)

As it happens, last year Scott Ramsoomair used "Still Alive" in a music video that he posted on his vgcats.com website. With Scott coming as our artist guest of honor, I thought it would be really cool to see if she'd be willing to come and perform it live in sync with the animated video.

All we needed was the video by itself, and a vocals-stripped-out karaoke version of the song... Scott and Patrick stayed up late, right up throough Thursday night, to pull together the audio track and video and be able to play it at Opening Ceremonies. This meant that our Opening Ceremonies had to have full tech, more than just one mic and a set of speakers. My sincere thanks to them for pulling everything out of the fire, and Marianne for being such a good sport to come and perform it.

Opening Ceremonies went nearly perfectly. I read out loud my admonishments to the membership -- don't be rude about ribbons, basically -- and completely forgot about mentioning the Fairy Godfathers (who were all the news last year). So next year, I want to include them. Is there anything else we should incorporate into the Opening Ceremonies? Mostly it's a chance to introduce the Guests of Honor, to get everyone started on the convention, and to explain that Tadao will be doing the talking so I don't have to. "See you at Feedback and Closing Ceremonies on Sunday. Bye!"

After Opening Ceremonies, a few people wanted to interview me. A lady from Colombia, and two people with a video camera, didn't catch what they were doing. They filmed me answering the Colombian lady's questions before they asked their own. I think that the timeslot after Opening Ceremonies is perfect for this kind of thing -- I'll have to plan it that way next time. I'd told someone else that the best time to find me would probably be late afternoon Saturday; I now think that the post-Opening timeslot is even better. In any event, another shoutout to magi_sammy for helping me prepare for that day as well as later in the convention when a Japanese television station interviewed me.

Comments

[magi-sammy.livejournal.com]

"In any event, another shoutout to [info]magi_sammy for helping me prepare for that day as well as later in the convention when a Japanese television station interviewed me. "

No problem! Hey -- I'm glad my Film 1 documentary actually came in handy. (Needs to remember to post that up...)

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

One of these years I should make it out to Anime LA. That maybe next year, since the day before is the Rose Bowl.

Rose Bowl

[hazelchaz]

I'm not sure about that.

This year the convention started on Friday, the 2nd of January.

Next year (2010) the convention will start on Friday, the 8th of January.

But yes, come on out and have big fun with us in any event!

[summoner-lenne9.livejournal.com]

I think you're missing a sentence or two from the first paragraph.

"The Cosplay Gathering/Photo Room reservation people will need to make sure that Program Department "

In other news- wow, I didn't know we had that for Opening Ceremonies! I wish I went now! Though, err, I think I was still sleeping. o_0.