FAN Expo Canada 2006
(CN Anime 2006)
MTCC, Toronto, Ontario

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If the line up for masquerade tickets was any indication of the crowd, I would say the line up for the masquerade was haphazard.  I found the end of the line about 5:45 pm had already grown long. I marked my spot by remember who was in the line in front and rear of my postion.  Two hours was hell for someone who takes pictures at cons. Yet I wasn't going to miss this year's event.

The chap above was my marker in line which we talked about Gundam and other mecha anime for most of the time.

I would occasionally move out of line to get more pictures while we waited. Apart from the panorama shots here, I took little before the masquerade started since I kept close to my postion in the line.

Setting up a camcorder in a crowded auditorium

Once in I immediately headed center isle for the best isle seat I could get.  Isle seat is extremely important. For one, it hard enough to setup in isle seat. Two, if someone wants out, you can quickly move into the isle to let them through. Three is when the show ends, and you have to move quick.

I didn't want to sit too close as the camcorder weakness is close range. Not to far back or I be straining to zoom. I did manage to get a seat to the left of the guy who was professionally capturing video for the two large screens on either side but also the gree room where other masquerade contestants could watch the show.

My setup was tripod with the legs close in. I placed my backpack underneath the tripod to keep it out of the way without taking another seat or blocking the isle. The height of the camcorder is decided by how high I could comfortably handle the controls while seated. LCD screen was tilted for viewing while seated. After all this, I turn and ask the audience behind me if I'm blocking anyone's view. No.  We're good to go.

The stage was a disappointment. The left side (stage right) was unlit. Meaning anyone standing stage right was in the dark.  Last masquerade I had problems with the auto-focus cosntantly auto-focusing. At first, I thought that  I just let the camera focus then switch to manual.  Test during the summer showed that didn't work. (One of the reasons you should practice with your camera BEFORE an event.)  I ended zooming in the the back railing on the stage then manual focusing. The problem with every battery change I had to redo manual focus. With 3 batteries and 3 tapes prepped, I had no reason to let my batteries or tapes run to the end. I prep my tapes by recording the first 30 seconds with the lens cap on. Any glitches with the tape will be at the start.

With the hall partially lit during the masquerade so chainging batteries wasn't a problem as at Anime North. I also had a sticker on the top of each battery with different marks to distinguish them so I didn't confuse grabbing a already spent battery.  I stood briefly to switch tapes so I could grab the finish tape with one hand and insert the new tape with the other and close the camcorder. I prelabled each tape (VERY important) and once the tape was full I switched the write protect tab on before placing it in it's case. (EXTREMELY important  thing to remember.) This will prevent you accidently erasing or recording over important footage.

The masquerade itself was okay ... except for the dark part of the stage which left some performers in the dark.  The MC had joked that there was no could see what was happening behind the podium. So every once and while, the cmeraman beside would drop his camera down the podium.  This brought tons of laughs from the crowd and the poor MC wonder who was playing a joke behind him.

Notes on this panorama for Nightko

Since Nighko from Studio of Masquerade Arts is getting into doing panoramas, I'll post details of this difficult picture.

This panorama is the largest I've done that worked. I tried to use Photostich 3.1 that came with my camera to do the entire panorama but it curled up and was unusable. The trick ws to use Photostich in sections. I merged left, right and back of the hall with Photostitch. I used the same picture in the end for each seperate panorama so they match up better in the final stage. For the final stage I used the stitch feature in Arcsoft Photostudio, which came free with my scanner. I found I had to crop the picture close to the point I was using to match up sections to prevent ghost imaging. The picture is actually larger than it's preview image above. The thumbnail was over 900 pixels so I trimmed it to 800.

End of show chaos

End of show is always insanity for all as they try to leave. Worse for someone who has gear like me setup during a show.  The time to pack up isn't when people start moving. It's when the MC is starting to make his closing comments, even before is better. Before, you should only keep what is necessary to keep running your camcorder like the next battery and tape. As the batteries and tapes are done, put them immediately away. I had quick release on my tripod and my camcorder bag open and on my shoulder. Once it was over, people started moving instantaneously. I barely had time for bag my camcorder with lens cap on, grab my backpack andplace it on my seat then move my tripod beside my seat in the isle. People bulked at me standing practucally ontop of my tripod but they clue in and move around. There was no point of trying to take down the tripod with people all around. I either damage the tripod or hurt someone or both.  I waited for the crowd to thin out then collapse the tripod. Repack my gear, remove the battery from the camcorder then place the camcorder bag in my backpack.

With the end of show, everyone had left. Only a few acts from the lastpart of the con remained. I grabbed what photos I could and headed to local internet cafe to backup the day's photos onto CDR and my portable compact flash hard drive I had won at Stan C. Reade Photoday courtesy of Lexmark. I headed back to my bed and breakfast room to recharge myself and all my batteries.

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