The Con is over... but a rant is included

While the actual experience of San Diego Comic Con has ended, the reviews and reports post con are always an interesting thing to read.  As the many I'm sure you will likely read mine will contain highs and lows and everything in between.  I will also be adding some photos of the events I attended.  I will probably not get my post con review report up until later this week. 

But one thing I must rant about before I end for the night is the process the Sony Entertainment booth decided to do regarding the autograph session for Community held on Friday morning.  As a veteran of Comic con line and booth signings I always ask how booths will conduct their sessions and Sony was nice enough to tell me on preview night that "We will probably not start lining up for the signing that day until 30 minutes of the signing time."  Cool.  But I also know how all you (me included) comic con-ers minds' work.  So Friday morning I make my way to the NBC Sony booth and 'hover' around the booth asking all the workers any info or updates on the signing.  I don't expect them to tell me exactly how it will happen but I always attempt to build rapport with the staff so that I am familiar.

So 10am passes by and more people begin making their entrance into the Exhibit hall and of course the crowd around the Sony booth continues to grow.  No security there to tell us to "move along" or "you can't stop in the aisle".  But as most people who have been to a couple of San Diego Comic Conventions know, hey let's just line up and create some order and semblance of a line.  No problems so far.

I find myself at the back of the booth and hope that I am somewhere near the line will begin to form.  11am comes around, I check twitter on updates on the panel and begin getting more anxious about how this autograph session would start.  At 1130 I hear security staff talking about which doors to send the talent through.  Sweet, they are coming soon so a line has got to form.  Also around this time there are a couple of A One security staffers stating, "This is not a line" and "You all have to keep moving" and the best one "All the tickets are gone.  Sorry you did not get one".  Huh?!?

Here comes the cast of Community.  Everyone rushes to the area to take what pictures they can as the cast files into the booth, then they all return to their original area of the "unofficial" line and wait as the line should predictably move forward as hopeful fans file in.  NOPE!

Suddenly hands start raising in a sea of people stopped in a main aisle way at the front of the booth.  I overhear "They are randomly picking people out of the crowd".  Seriously!?!?  I leave my spot in the 'unofficial' line to confirm this.  Yup.  The person in charge of the booth, Michelle, starts picking people or pairs of people to enter the booth.  No line start.  No line End.  When asked Michelle says, "I'm picking people who seem like real fans".  That may not be verbatim but that was the general gist.  So what do you think the crowd of people do as this 'special selection' is being done?

You probably guessed right, push closer to the booth.  And then the first threat comes from the security.  "If people do not move back and keep moving the signing will be cancelled".  "Well we're not getting right now, so why should we" was a response from the crowd.  This selection continues to happen with no pure rhyme or reason.  I see a girl crying at the side of the booth and am genuinely concerned.

Her name coincidentally Michelle, was upset because she was following directions as was told by another booth staffer and now is being denied by the booth entry.  I talk to Craig, a Sony Staffer ushering the people out after they have completed meeting the cast, who verbally consented with me to provide updates on the signing as he was aware to try and get Michelle into the line.  He responds with a shrug and ignores me and doesn't make any eye contact in my general vicinity for the remainder of the signing.

Michelle and I never made it into the booth but we did get close enough to take pictures of the cast and received pre-signed t-shirts after the cast had left.  For me the shirt is nice but having that interaction with Danny, Alison, Joel, Gillian, and Yvette is the experience I cherish more.  But I did get Gillian's attention from where I was and got what i think is a pretty decent photo.  Thanks Gillian! =D

Sorry for the winded rant but I feel having the details really helps to experience that moment.  Now am I upset that I did not get into the signing.  Yes, but I can accept that because getting into the exclusive lines is not a given.  What does upset me about this signing session was the procedure.  This type of procedure was like the WB signings of the past and is what prompted the WB to move to a ticket raffle/bracelet system.  But what makes this worse is that there was so much chaos.  At least with the old WB system, a line started with a "front of line" sign and was cut off with an "end of line" sign.

There is no real 'fair and balanced' way to conduct a cast signing but I believe that having some order is necessary and not having one person deciding who is let in and who isn't.  Save that action for the bouncers at a night club.

Thanks all for reading.  I will get my week review of Comic Con (or Nerd Camp) as soon as possible.