JCC Comic-Con 2013

Oh, the front was definitely the Twilight fans, for the most part. But we could hear the reactions further back. Like the very different reaction to "this will be the last twilight movie" than to anything else they said or announced.

And the alternative would be if they cleared the rooms after every panel, otherwise that'll always happen. And I don't see that as manageable. And then it gets rid of the tactical fun of slowly working my way up to the front of a room over time, hour by hour. It's the closest thing to a sport I'll do.

 

Hahaha that happened during the Legend of Korra panel last year, which was right before the Firefly reunion. They were recording crowd cheering for the new season, and after asking for just women, then just men, Andrea Romano asked for just kids to cheer and there was like 10 kids. She was like "This is a kid's show! Where's the kids?!" and one of the voice actors was like "they weren't born when Firefly was on."

 

No, the alternative would be to manage all the popular panels the way they managed Twilight, frontload them, don't put anything in a room it's not big enough for (ParaNorman in Hall H? Really?), and don't put anything with a small following right before anything with a huge following. Also, if you're going to, have, say for a random example, a Firefly Reunion and a Joss does Q&A panel... put them back to back instead of putting 4 hours of random unrelated junk between them. (I'm not sure if the Bones panel was fully prepared for so many David Boreanaz questions from Angel fans.)

Yeah, during the Korra panel the guy next to me was WATCHING SERENITY ON HIS PHONE. I shame-twitpicced him:


MEANIE

Language.

 

Yeah, I had gone to the Community panel it's first two years but there was no way to go last year because it was in there before Firefly. On the Comic Con phone app, the Firefly panel had more people saying they wanted to see it than any other panel. It had 1/4 more people than Doctor Who or GoT, which were about tied up in second. Yet it was in Ballroom 20. In the afternoon. Do they seriously not realize how insane Whedon fans are?

I have to say, I don't completely blame people who are sitting there on their phones or listening to music while waiting for a later panel. They didn't schedule them. I've been that person before, sitting there listening to Harry Potter audiobooks during the Fringe panel because I really, really want to watch that show but was waiting for it to be totally done so I could marathon it. I didn't want to get spoiled, but it was before another panel I really wanted to go to.

I hate being in panels I'm not interested in. Sure, once in a while you see something cool for a film you didn't know much about (like ParaNorman). But usually you just sit through stuff you're not interested in, and I personally also feel really bad about it because I wish I could give up my spot to someone who really wants to see that panel. But when you want to see something later in the day, there's no way around it. Granted, I watch a lot of stuff so usually even if the main panel I want to see is later there are still earlier things I actually want to go to as well.

I completely agree that they need to be smarter about scheduling. Way smarter. I actually personally wouldn't mind them clearing the rooms, either, and making separate lines for separate panels. I get that this would mean you couldn't see back to back panels. Once in a while that would really, really suck. But so what? It would also mean that if there was one thing you really wanted to see, you could camp out just for that and see it. More people would get to see more things they actually wanted to on the whole. And then you would also be able to go to some of the smaller, niche panels during the day instead of being stuck in B20 or Hall H.

Last year, almost everything I really wanted to see happened to be in Hall H. But there were also things I didn't care about, and I would have loved to clear out of there and go to some of the smaller panels for some video games and such.

 

Clearing out hall H would take FOREVER.

 

Note to COU: Record Squirrel Girl event population for Healer Leona.

 

If people actually had other panels they wanted to get to, I don't think it really would. I remember back when studios used to give out grab bags with tons of swag at the exits. Amazingly, people would make it to the doors pretty quickly.

Loading in Hall H, however, might take quite a while. Better scheduling could probably alleviate the worst of the "can't get to this smaller panel because it's before a bigger panel" problems, I guess.

 

No Comic Con, but I do have my tickets for LeakyCon in London this year.

 

Yeah, actually, I missed the beginning of both Warehouse 13 (B20) and Fringe (Hall H) last year because even though I was in line early enough and they were the first panel of the day, they took too long loading people into the rooms and started the panels with the rooms half full. I don't think Hall H was even completely full by the end of Fringe, it's just so massive, and hard to fill in.

 

Part of it is them starting the load-in too late. The first load in of the morning takes well over an hour.

 

Back in my day they didn't even have to use Hall H, DC and Marvel got their own rooms, and you could buy a four day pass the day before, etc. etc. bitch moan etc.

That said I completely agree that the organizational efficiency has not kept up with the pace of play, especially with respect to the big panels. Needs some extensive overhauling.

 

i still contend that they should switch over to my idea of livestreaming of Hall H to screens at some of the nearby convention rooms in hotels that aren't being used.

 

I've never been to one, but I've been toying with the idea of going to it one of these years. Fat sweaty people scare me though.

 

Tomorrow I'm auditioning to be a moderator at Phoenix ComicCon.

 

I'd love to see you in action Kate.

Rachel, you know I'm not going to have an issue with a room full of women. Possibly was going to have a friend tagging along but his schedule has been screwed with again so looks like I'm flying solo again.

And I've gotten the email with details for badge sales finally. Now the joy of trying to get tickets and yelling at the computer for an hour or so.

 

This whole experience sounds awful. Do they broadcast panels to big screens, or mobile devices, elsewhere in the convention centre for convenience?

 

Nope, no broadcasts, jp. Except they do show sort of the highlights somewhere the last day, I think.

 

I wonder if there will be any highlights on TV with G4 becoming some upscale men's channel this year?

 

Got my confirmation. I see this as a stepping stone to taking over the geek universe.

 

Oooh, congrats Kate! I hope there's footage somewhere of your MCing!

Lowie, last year they showed replays each day of that day's Hall H and B20 panels in rooms at the Marriott and one other hotel. They didn't include any of the preview footage, but you got to see everything else.

 

I was reading on the comic con website that when you buy your ticket you can also register someone else, so if I register another person can I still buy their ticket tomorrow morning?

 

Yeah, but that doesn't seem to cut it for people that want to see things live, and I think omitting the preview footage also is a mistake. it's a step in the right direction, though.

 

Yeah, but the question was "do they broadcast panels" and you said "no" and I was correcting that misinformation.

 

The question seemed to refer to things in some sort of live sense. In the same way that I wouldn't think of describing high school football as being broadcast when some highlights make the news as part of the sports coverage. But I can see a different interpretation on that.