London Super Comic Con

 For my live brief, I intended to use the Leeds 'Juice' poetry slam. However I was contacted by the man who runs the London Super Comic Con, after seeing my Iron Man film from 2nd year online. He asked me to film the upcoming London Super Comic Convention, which is the biggest UK comic con. Thrilled, I took on the brief, which was to produce 3 films ranging from 2-3 minutes. I was hesitant, as I knew I would have to use the Av suite, but I managed to control that. To start with, I was passed onto the head of media production for the event (Gary) and talked directly with him concerning what he wanted (these are contained in my submission disk, but not online for obvious reasons.)

I then looked at the previous videos that had been done for the previous LSCC's, done by a company called Sneaky Zebra. which you can view here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTkiEPrg_jo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAO0WNdMMgY

After seeing the style and quality they wanted, I was confident I could complete 3 videos to this effect, but I thought it better to assemble a team for a event this big. I asked the best student of film I know, to see if he wanted to help with it, luckily he did and he was just starting a production company. With Si, Ash, Stuart, Greg Shackleton and Chris Hallas I formed the team for the shoot.

We wrote the equipment list, and hired out as little as possible form the AV suite, going over every piece of equipment and double checking it before we left. We were told not use the boom mic, and instead camera mounted mics, which was not as good as we wanted, but figured as the are music/event videos, we would not be needing sound recorded. I arranged with Gary for us to be put up in the same hotel that the comic artists, writers and publishers were staying in, as well as the people organising and working at the event. We saw as they mingled at the bar as we were filming a separate video, unable to talk as we were working. We scouted the location the evening before, and met with Gary. He showed us around the venue, the exits and entrances we would be using, were certain events would be taking place, were the crowds would be coming in and at what times (the early birds and the big opening). We then got back to the hotel for the night to be fresh for our early start. We shot in groups of two, Si used the Black Magic and Movi as Ash and Chris rotated between the Black Magic URSA and the digital camera as Greg acted as our organiser for people to shoot as we set up the cameras. Me and Stuart both used 5D's as we could work these efficiently best. We had team polo shirts to identify each other with, radio's and earpieces to communicate effectively and regroup. We worked closely with Gary as we responded to what was sometimes last minute shoots, such as the arrival of Jonathan Ross and Johnny Vegas. We spent a long two days filming, and relied heavily on our creative minds and knowledge of the history of the comics to come up with things to film, and ask the cos-players to do. The most challenging part of this shoot was the final shoot we wanted to get, wish ended up consisting of almost every cosplayer there, and uncountable amount (over 300), along with everyone else there standing and watching this event. This shot was so big, we had to take them out of the event and into the long corridors of the Excel. Six men pulled this off with radios and will power and we got that shot. We set up many smaller shoots like this in the venue also.

We stopped overnight to unload the footage, and look for what we needed more of for the next day, meeting up regularly to capture as much footage as possible. I think we worked brilliantly as a team, and am sure we will asked to also do them in future. Now I know the guys that run this event, I have talked with them about getting a table next year to sell on. As John would like this to be a mix on big names and up and coming artists, he has said if we show him what we are selling, and he approves, he will sort one out for next year. As me and Stuart are starting a business in this industry, we intent to have a number of issues ready along with business cards, posters and original pages. We also intent to stay in the same hotel, and mingle with the creators, talking about our ideas. Si took on the role of editor, as he was the most skilled in the area, Here are the finished videos, along with some production stills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqK-9R7eDgA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qtF7zVrteE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARGRYic_6S8