Knowing about photography ruins things for me. So at Fanime, I had Sam go to a cosplay gathering that Gopher was in and take pictures. Everyone was in the shade and then the director told gopher to move into the sun “where the light is.”

So Gopher, with his pale skin, red hair, and white suit, was now standing in the sun next to a group of deadpools in the shade. He GLOWED.

SO! I have an idea. For the purpose of cosplay gatherings I would like to build a giant whitebox to put somewhere in the sun outside the GSR. Either up against a side of the building which is mostly in the sun, or an area of the parking lot.

Of course, we need an okay from the GSR, but it would be some pvc and white fabric. I’m thinking something 10×20 and as low as possible (maybe 7ft?) because the closer it is to the subject, the better the light will be. This will enable gatherings to get nice soft even lighting for the subjects.

It would also provide a solid white/gray background for the subjects as well, rather than a parking lot.

If this happens, the best time for cosplay gatherings in the box will be during the brightest/harshest sun of the day (which is usually the worst time for photography). Noon, 1, 2, 3… And only if the weather is sunny. If it’s overcast – don’t use the box! The clouds make the world a giant softbox.

So I was at Fanime. I’m always at Fanime. Fanime is the reason that SNAFU Con happened. If I hadn’t gone to Fanime in ’05 and fell in love with it and gone very year after and just LOVED THE HELL out of conventions, then I never would have gotten excited about starting a convention and given my “I’m buying a house someday” money to the cause.

Fanime was great as usual this year. There were good parts and bad, but it was a blast overall. I personally missed our two best flier-handers because the group I was with was not the type to distribute thousands of fliers the way we did last year. Origami, who has no shame and will walk up to anyone with a flier, and Lindsey, who is too adorable to turn down when she hands you a flier, were both working. =(

So rather than several thousand fliers, we handed out several hundred. If you were in the hentai room at the very end of the night, Sammich, Thomas, and I were handing out fliers to people as they left. Only after 5am, though – we wanted to catch the hard-cores like us. Hentai room can always use more people late-night (the beginning is always packed). We came up with the script “Come to SNAFU Con, our hentai room has prizes!” and the first time I tried to say it it came out “Come to hentai room our S-…” which immediately was filled in by my two friends “Our SNAFU Con has prizes?” I was tired. Did I mention I got 12 hours of sleep this year? Did not sleep Thu into Fri, 6 hours on Fri into Sat, 6 hours on Sat into Sun, and nothing Sun into Mon. So… I was a bit loopy by 5am.

After the hentai room on Saturday morning, this Trio went back to our hotel room to find that my fiance (now husband) Sam had fallen asleep with the TV on. On PBS. There were cartoons on. Children’s cartoons. And they were hilarious.

So the hentai staff for SNAFU Con have come up with another piece of awesome programming: Saturday Morning Children’s Cartoons. 16+.
It will run after the hentai room and although we don’t expect a large turnout due to the time slot (6am-8am Saturday morning), it will be very funny, especially if you have an extra-dirty mind from the hentai room. =D

We have great ideas and have started working on it – if you expect to be awake, you should attend. =)

Anyway, I also got to get to know our new programming head (under gopher), Ray/Ryan. I was able to fill him in on the history of the con, and some of my feelings about how things have been going and where I want them to go. He has a great initiative, and I expect a good leap forward in our programming departments this year with him working with Gopher. He’s already getting things done, and is professional in his emails. Yay, Ryan. For those who don’t know, Ryan was our backup MC last year after Origami. Since Origami was really busy with tech, Ryan became the main MC for the weekend.

Apparently, the whole reason he ended up where he has is because of a mistake. He came for an improv audition and I asked if he was there to audition or as audience. His response was “yes,” meaning audience, but I take “yes” to an either/or question to mean either or both – sort of a “sure, whatever, I don’t care.” So he got put up in front to audition. He passed. Needed a little work, but so did the whole group. He was funny and he fit in. So he became part of the group, and ended up as the backup MC because Origami had tech, and Sam had photography and logistics. He did well (IMO) and I intend on encouraging him to continue with the staff role.

So Fanime was productive. It’s also our starter pistol. Meetings to follow.