CelticRob

The Final Hurrah with guests Dave Prowse, Kenny Baker and a special and last ever convention appearance by Anthony Daniels who will be going out on a high by doing a photoshoot in his C3PO costume.

Obviously the hotel itself will have capacity limits and these won't be as big as previous winter cons. It will probably be similar to the time they held collectormania/autographica at the NEC Hilton in Birmingham. If you compare the Brighton hotel to the NEC Hilton, Brighton has 5000sq/m available, NEC 6000 sq/m.

Jakers, here's the photos of Charlotte from Collectormania.... http://showmasters.photoshelter.com/gallery/Charlotte-Hope/G0000Li2_a3RS_Gg/C00007yAffkFRK4Q Some common advice... Look the guest in the eye, smile and just a quick 'Hi'. Even the odd complement helps. Sometimes a guest will offer to shake hands, sometimes not. If you're not first in the queue, sometimes you can see how a guest interacts with other attendees first. 98% of guests are willing to do a pose if you ask, so don't be afraid to. If you browse through that gallery, you'll see me and Charlotte. I simply say something like "Hi Charlotte, can we do a back-to-back pose". Look into the Lense, SMILE and you'll end up with a memorable photo. Thank the guest and 30 seconds later you'll have your photo in your hand, a skip in your step and something you can treasure forever.

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To be honest, I'd rather have one like the left hand one, a bit closer so I can see faces better. Just my personal view though, and we're equally entitled to them, neither's right or wrong! I too prefer the Showmaster Pic, I went to another event this year and the pictures where full body shots with lots of background around the edges very Meh The other event I believe prints photoshoots at a size which is 48% larger than that which you receive from Showmasters. It is a considerably larger print. You also have 100% of yourself and the actor in the photo, whereas you might have only 25-30% in standard showmasters landscape head-n-shoulders. But I guess it is a matter of preference indeed! I would say though, if you shoot 3/4 length portrait (so the floor isn't showing) or full-body (if you have a backdrop which also extends onto the floor), you still retain the ability for the customer themselves to crop to a landscape head-n-shoulders if they so desire. That's not an option if you are only shooting landscape head-n-shoulders. Personally if I'm paying for a photo of me and an actor, I'm in the camp that prefers to have as much of myself/actor in the photo as possible.

I did notice in a few shoots (not many) some Diamond passes being allowed into the gold pass queue when they weren't actually Diamond guests. I'm sure the name 'Diamond' confuses people and gives false sense of privelige when none exists apart from the guest in question. As such, I'd Personally drop the name completely and just call it "Sigourney Pass/Pack/Badge" or whatever. If you can't put the photozones in one hall, then make sure to spread them between 2 halls directly connected. It was crazy having F up on 3rd floor. Took over 6-7 minutes getting from B/C/D to F and that's trying to politely 'barge' through crowds. Having the Grand next year with another 40% space is great, but why not say how much more tickets are being planned to be sold compared to this year? 10,20,30,40%? 30% more tickets would still mean the event was congested. I'd rather you increase visitors by a limit like 10-15% and just increase ticket price 15%. I'd pay more for entry if the event was less crowded. Always remember more space to move = infinitely more happier experience for attendees. You want to leave with predominantly good memories of meeting guests, not a memory of how cramped, hot and crowded it was...and missing stuff like photos because of the distance to travel through crowds. There's some mention about crew gently nudging people. Crew should do 'hover hands' with people and it gives them the hint, but yes, even I had a gentle hand on the back a few times. Doesn't bother me, but for many I understand it will and you should really keep hands off attendees.

A very valid point. Wiggle room should be in schedules. Imagine guests like noah and Emily etc didn't cancel...I've no idea how those guests would have been fitted into the schedule since it was already bursting at the seams!!

Friday A started of with Gary, but then Giles took over. Saturday/Sun D I'm sure Gary was then working in that zone...

I'm certain Sunday E was a lady called Jenny.

In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way. There will be little effect having another event in July. LFCC had well over 100,000 attendees and the percentage of those who would pick the Dark side and miss out on attending LFCC 2016 is tiny.

Anybody who was at Milton Keynes will remember the photo area being moved upstairs out of the way from the main concourse. It was absolutely tranquil compared to the photozones at LFCC.

That makes no sense to me :) It would be more commemorative if you had your photo with Robert in full Freddy outfit, not in an LFCC t-shirt. Sounds like there were other reasons for not wearing the full gear.

Was at a few shoots when scanners weren't scanning but generally the system worked.

Based on figures SM said themselves on here (2013 was over 80,000 with a 3-hour friday) and 2014 over 100,000 again with short friday, does anybody seriously think the event was less busy? I'd be surprised if it didn't reach 120,000 over 3-days.

Great guests. Best lineup I've seen yet. Too many attendees for the type of venue. Felt like 25000 inside at times. Poor layout consideration with photos hoots meant many punters missing shoots. First time I've missed shoots in years of attending due to time spent trying to traverse dense crowds. Superstage was great. Much better entry for golds on Saturday. Yalc and golds split as it should have been.

For idea of queue time...my partner arrived at 12.30 in general entry and was in at 1.40.

They queued gold pass and yalc ticket holders in the one queue. People with yalc had people come down and wristband them up...many of which got in before the majority of gp holders. Not many gp holders got wristbands before 9...I got in at 1.20. There were still hundreds of gp behind me. There was a lack of staff dealing with gp people.

Just read on twitter random bag checks are being performed. Anybody found with no deodorant may not be allowed in!

Publishing their messages on here isn't advisable. It could rile them up and create other problems.

Guests can be cancelled right up to the very last minute.

The fact is Sonny (with his extreme comments) actually did an event, Gibson (with his extreme comments) will never do one. I specifically mentioned Sonny because Nicky knows who he is and jumped for joy at his announcement. It was 'great guest' and 'YES' etc... I said at the time 2 words on Sonny: "Controversial guest".

Even if he wasn't expensive to have over I REALLY REALLY doubt he'd want to do an event and risk his health & safety and public image further. Just think of the abuse and jeering he'd be in danger of and I've a feeling many people might even boycott him. You do realise there was a petition to have him NOT appear in The Hangover Part II, right? http://tinyurl.com/5mtdu7 Sonny Landham done an SM event, see the link above for his comments. How come he never got abuse or was jeered at...please read what he said! Did anyone boycott Sonny for his extreme racist comments? Mike Tyson spent years in prison for a very serious crime and never got jeered and abused at LFCC...

This con is sandwiched right in the middle of the busy May-July period. People will prioritise. How many of those doing events like Collectormania in the preceding weeks and have plans for doing other stuff in the subsequent weeks in June are going to be able to afford this one? To answer the original question - my advice for any con is to book travel as late as possible. Especially for an untested con like this - with no big names and given what I said above - I'd say wait till within 4 weeks before even considering travel and if it's still going ahead then you might be less worried

Good guest. But mentioning american gangster in the subline to his announcement instead of boondock saints :) He was in american gangster for the sum total of 30 seconds...