Last week was the 40th San Diego Comic Con. It is a HUGE convention that takes over downtown San Diego for 5 days every July.
I spent this year, doing triple duty, as a photographer for Pr-Photo, as a comic pre production artist and as a representative of my printing company 1of1Printing. This made the con a very tiring experience that can be summed up in one word…. waiting. It used to be that the Comic Con was about comics, then the Manga comics and plastic toys started to show up and the comics got pushed to the side. Then the video game companies showed up and the comics got pushed to the side.
Then came Hollywood.
And the comics at the San Diego Comic Con have all but disappeared.
There are still the large crowds and the folks that come in costume and the free giveaways and the long long lines.
I’ll start with the press side of my weekend. I was working for a wire service and had a legitimate press pass for the convention.
Did this allow me to shoot the panels? Nope.
Did this allow me to shoot the interviews? Nope.
Did anyone know what was going on? Nope.
On Thursday, I was told that I needed a wristband to be able to access the photo/interview area. The problem was that no one knew where to get a wristband. It turned out that the wristbands were given out by the studios, but no one seemed to know who or where to get one. I finally just walked out past security to the media area.
This is the TV row that was setup on the South side of the convention center. A lot of milling around and waiting until the stars from Twilight showed up to give each station 2 minutes. Publicists milled around trying to look important while camera crews from the networks, internet sites and other random media outlets stood and waited.
And waited.
And waited…..
Finally some of the cast from Twilight were ushered out to the waiting media. Any chance for a good photo op? Nope.
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