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Now I have been to many events like this before but felt this one was very poorly organised. Yesterday I had a problem with my photoshoot photo. Spent hours hanging around for it, the tables with the photos on it was a free for all, everyone pushing trying to check if their picture is there. Everyone touching the photos so like another post has said, you got a load of free fingermarks for free with it. There should be a number system, kept safe. Hell even put them in plastic sleeves to protect then, we pay enough for the shoot. I had my Christopher Lambert photoshoot at 1255 yesterday. I did not get my photo till 1710hrs. I kept asking the crew and was told "another 20 mins" or "I don't know". Clearly no communication between crew members.

 

After finally getting my photo I thought I'll put that behind me, tomorrow is a new day. Unfortunately my talks with hellraiser and Christopher Lloyd/BTTF cast was ruined by a band or something playing very loudly nearby. I could barely hear what they were saying, they could not hear the questions being asked. And I was in the frst two rows. I thought that it was inconsiderate, and very poor management in that the crew did sod all to get the band to shut up or turn the guests mics up.

 

I enjoyed my two days but unfortunately due these problems i did not enjoy it as much as I should.

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I agree with you 100% about the photos ! I waited until 5 for my photo with Christopher Lambert which never appeared. The photoshoot finished about 2 ish ??? I was told that they wouldn't be back until 7 !!!! I couldn't wait any longer, as i had to catch my train.

I've filled out the form to get it posted and was told it could take up to 4 weeks for it to come !!! Not happy with that at all. It could get lost, i could get the wrong one. I wanted to go home with everything on the day.

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My friend and I waited around until past closing time so she could get her photographs. I applaud the crew for this, they could have kicked everyone out at 6pm but they didn't.

 

That band also messed up the Corey talk, it was draining out his voice, he even acknowledged it on stage. Hopefully that's a lesson learned for next year though so it won't happen again.

Edited by 80sactionfan
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I'll admit that some of what has been said re the photos MAY be true, but it's not just the crews fault, as I have seen the flicking of the photos. However it's also EVERY attendee's fault for storming in, moving the photos WITHOUT the crew seeing this, hanging round the distribution area, even when crew have asked them to move along for the time being.

 

So, and I mean this with respect, I see most of the posts are from reasonably new forum members, I'd ask you to consider this as well.

 

I believe also there's a post event discussion/meeting ( though not sure ) held by management at the SM towers. So it may be that as LFCC has grown, and considering the size of the queue outside on Saturday morning was round to Earls Court 1, it may be that the way distribution of photos may have to be looked at.

 

As the event grows, SM do learn and come up with ways in which to improve their events.

 

As for other comments about putting them online, supplying jpegs etc, I'd ask you to consider also the following:-

 

If you've ever sent pictures by email, how long does it take you to send them ? then times that figure by 800 alone for Karen Gillan.

 

Then imagine them creating a secure website for the pictures if you wanted to download them from there ..

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I guess all the main showmasters people are still recovering from the event so may not see all the feedback untill maybe tomorrow. Although a lot has been fairly negative even though it's justified I hope it's seen more like constructive criticism and can learn from them and maybe next year they can be avoided and make the shows better

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We do have a quite lively photosession pictures sent out by e-mail discussion here already: http://showmastersonline.com/forums/index....showtopic=69844

 

Just trying not to split up the conversation in two places. :(

 

I guess all the main showmasters people are still recovering from the event so may not see all the feedback untill maybe tomorrow.

 

Recovering would be nice. ;) They're not at that stage yet. Everyone is still in London or travelling. It may even be Tuesday or Wednesday before someone comments because there's cleanup that needs to be done right after the event. But they will look at it and reply, they have always done so.

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I think for popular guests having a roll number works well. Its a tried and tested method. It works. It also means only the staff member can flick through the photos within that rolls pack!

It also means no queues 5 people deep in the wrong place on the table! It was a bit ridiculous!

 

I was quite lucky, I guess, I gambled on mine and my mates photos being among the first laid out, as we were fairly early, and we were there in a row! So I scooped them up!

:(

Edited by paul
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I think they should have announced beforehand which guests would not take photos with fans. The reason for that is because when I went to meet Lisa Marie, I didn't know till I asked about a picture that her PR told me no photos were allowed and I would need to go to her photo shoot. Although, Lisa Marie's photo shoots were at 9:30 a.m and I arrived at the convention around midday, which really pissed me off. I don't know why one person managed to get a picture with her though.

IN THE FUTURE, MAKE US AWARE WHICH GUESTS WILL NOT TAKE PHOTOS TO AVOID DISSAPOINTMENT!!!

Edited by adamthehorrorfan
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If anything is known in advance it will be posted here. We warned everyone for example that Gates McFadden would at the very least request the flash to be turned off for at the table pictures.

 

Sometimes we don't get a warning though, and sometimes the situation can change on the day. If you've ever developed a headache from flashlights you know what I am talking about. :(

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IN THE FUTURE, MAKE US AWARE WHICH GUESTS WILL NOT TAKE PHOTOS TO AVOID DISSAPOINTMENT!!!

 

That wouldn't really work though. One day guest 'A' might want to let people take photos, but then gets a headache. Guest 'B' might let people take photos on the Saturday then drink too much and not want it on the Sunday.

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I don't know why I saw one person getting a picture with her later in the afternoon though? I went to her PR later after Lisa Marie left her table and when I told her that I saw one person taking a photo with her, she gave an excuse by saying something like it was possibly a special crew of people? WTF! I even asked her what about without flash photography and she still said no photos.

 

Edited to remove name calling. I understand you are unhappy, but please refrain from that.

Edited by Queen_Sindel
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The only bad experience for me was the lack of decent sound in the talks. Every year it's the same, I know it must be really difficult to sort it out but there must be a way!

 

Maybe not having a live band playing on the other stage during a talk would be a good idea. :dance:

 

Overall though the weekend was amazing and I had a great time as always. :thumbup:

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Hi

 

Just wanted to add my experiences of this. I'm not a newbie, we've collected over 170 autographs at these events and over 30 photoshoots. On the whole we enjoyed the weekend but from experience if things go wrong with these events for us then it's the queues going in (there's a separate thread on this) or the photoshoot returns.

 

We were at Collectormania Milton Keynes last year and it was a shambles. I vowed never to do photoshoots again and haven't done until this weekend. When speaking to other fans at the events there's numerous complaints as well about the returns. Don't get me wrong, often it runs smoothly but we haven't witnessed this since 2009 and since then things have got a lot busier.

 

This year there were big names so I decided to try the photoshoots again and we got Walter Koenig, Christopher Lambert and Corey Feldman's shoots.

 

There were a lot of unhappy people yesterday afternoon (like us) waiting for the Christopher Lambert shoots back. Some were paying much extra in parking to get these and others were missing trains or transport home to wait. We were lucky as we were returning today but it was a huge reminder of the problems we experienced over a year ago at the last photoshoots in MK.

 

SM often say these things are out of their hands and I really felt for the crew at the front fielding complaints.

 

I don't think SM realised how popular the photoshoots would be but by about noon it wa becoming obvious to those I spoke to that the collection point wasn't big enough.

 

Later in the day we couldn't get near the collection points as it was 6 or 7 deep. The people at the front couldn't move left or right and in some cases couldn't get out and the people at the back couldn't get to the front for everyone else. Folk at the back were trying to get to the front to collect their Christopher Lambert shots but they didn't know the photos weren't there and this was causing a backlog.

 

I would love to see:

(1) An SM guarantee that photos would be back in the building within 2 hours of them leaving the building with the times of leaving and returning (to the building) clearly displayed on a noticeboard somewhere and if the 2 hour limit (or whatever it is) is broken then if people go to a desk with their ticket stub then they get a refund of (say) 50%. This would restore the faith of many fans in photoshoot returns and I genuinely believe it would ensure SM put every resource into the photoshoot returns

(2) Wherever the photoshoot collection point is then I'd suggest a noticeboard high up behind the desks advising which shots are back, which are en-route, etc. This would stop people trying to fight through a crowd to collect photos which weren't there yet. If it was high enough then folk at the back would see it.

 

Thankfully we were returning today to collect our photos and we were pleased as always with the photoshoots themselves and quality. One of our photos was badly finger-printed and thumbed as it had been out for some time though as we couldn't stick around long-term yesterday.

 

I just wanted to point out that while most are happy with the photoshoot returns, it can ruin weekends for people and cause immense problems for some and it shouldn't. It's not an isolated instance or something that's new either and it's not just "newbies" who whine about it on the forums.

 

Things did look better today though as the collection point had moved but it was too little, too late from what I could see.

 

Don't get me wrong we had a great time and enjoyed the weekend but it's the same problems that come up time after time.

 

I'm sure the mods will come on defending things in the above (or delete it) or some diehards will quote sections of this but it does get frustrating over the years

 

Sorry for writing so much

 

Steve

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IN THE FUTURE, MAKE US AWARE WHICH GUESTS WILL NOT TAKE PHOTOS TO AVOID DISSAPOINTMENT!!!

 

That wouldn't really work though. One day guest 'A' might want to let people take photos, but then gets a headache. Guest 'B' might let people take photos on the Saturday then drink too much and not want it on the Sunday.

 

HA! Anyone in particular today....

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After finally getting my photo I thought I'll put that behind me, tomorrow is a new day. Unfortunately my talks with hellraiser and Christopher Lloyd/BTTF cast was ruined by a band or something playing very loudly nearby. I could barely hear what they were saying, they could not hear the questions being asked. And I was in the frst two rows. I thought that it was inconsiderate, and very poor management in that the crew did sod all to get the band to shut up or turn the guests mics up.

 

I enjoyed my two days but unfortunately due these problems i did not enjoy it as much as I should.

 

I agree about the live band. That was taking place at stage 2 and ruined both the Lloyd and Harry Potter talk. You could barely hear what they were saying. Having a live band scheduled at the same time as a talk is just a bad idea.

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If anything is known in advance it will be posted here. We warned everyone for example that Gates McFadden would at the very least request the flash to be turned off for at the table pictures.

 

Sometimes we don't get a warning though, and sometimes the situation can change on the day. If you've ever developed a headache from flashlights you know what I am talking about. :thumbup:

I think they oversell the shoots, 800 photos in one day for Karen , different if she was their two days ,she could of done 400 a day. They also need to find a quicker way of getting the photos back, the last photo shoots should be at 2pm if they can't guarantee they will be back by 5.30ish. On another point the tardis was a waste of time, I had about an inch of it in my photo.

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IN THE FUTURE, MAKE US AWARE WHICH GUESTS WILL NOT TAKE PHOTOS TO AVOID DISSAPOINTMENT!!!

 

That wouldn't really work though. One day guest 'A' might want to let people take photos, but then gets a headache. Guest 'B' might let people take photos on the Saturday then drink too much and not want it on the Sunday.

 

HA! Anyone in particular today....

I was talking about when I met Lisa Marie.

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(2) Wherever the photoshoot collection point is then I'd suggest a noticeboard high up behind the desks advising which shots are back, which are en-route, etc. This would stop people trying to fight through a crowd to collect photos which weren't there yet. If it was high enough then folk at the back would see it.

This is a great idea, Steve.

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The prospect of guests allowing photos or not crops up regularly on here as well. I found it interesting that Lisa Marie and Derek Jacobi had signs up yesterday saying no photos (or no posed photos) and every time I passed their tables they had little to no fans.

 

Today I passed the desks and the signs were down. It's also worth noting that when the signs were down, they were busy.

 

As a fan, we often won't go near guests who don't allow photos and it looked like others were doing the same. This year we made an exception and bought some photoshoots (my earlier post).

 

I was keen to get an autograph and photo with Clive Barker but since yesterday lunchtime he wasn't doing posed photos so I didn't bother and since then every time I passed his room was emptier.

 

Just a few observations.

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I think people are forgetting that they expect the photos back approximately 2 hours from the END of the photoshoot, not the time the photoshoot starts and it is just an approximation. With Christopher Lambert his photoshoot was nearly an hour long. Also the photos are not printed on site, they are taken off site to a professional photo lab for printing which obviously takes time to get there and back plus of course processing time. I personally think we should be grateful to get them back same day at all under those circumstances. It's never going to be possible for them to give a definitive time for photos to be back as it depends on a number of factors and I imagine those photo labs were under a lot of pressure to get several thousand photos printed within such a short timeframe.

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Gotta say that all my shoots were back on time this year!

 

I normally hit the collection area about 10 minutes before the allotted 2 hours-after-end-of-shoot is up! With both my Karen and Alex today they were back before the 2 hours. Not much before but they were back!

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My friend and I waited around until past closing time so she could get her photographs. I applaud the crew for this, they could have kicked everyone out at 6pm but they didn't.

 

That band also messed up the Corey talk, it was draining out his voice, he even acknowledged it on stage. Hopefully that's a lesson learned for next year though so it won't happen again.

 

Well said.

 

I found it annoying especially when Corey was trying to talk over the music which he shouldnt of had to do

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For the record I have been going to conventions/signings for probably 10 years. Just the fact my forum account is new doesn't mean this was my first experience. it's just lately I have had a reason to post.

 

As for those complaining about the likes of Lisa Marie, I also found with more than one guest refusing posed pictures and yet a few people in front of me got to. Cary tagawa was def one of them. and even after me people got to as well. reason given was I would have to pay for photoshoot.

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I'm sure the mods will come on defending things in the above (or delete it) or some diehards will quote sections of this but it does get frustrating over the years

 

Steve, sorry for just quoting sections now, but that post was quite long and I wanted to cut to the chase.

 

I do get a bit tired too about attendees constantly claiming we randomly delete things.

 

If a mod deletes in 9.5 out of 10 cases there will be a reference to this, normally with a detailed explanation. Sometimes we forget for one reason or the other, we are not perfect. But we will never delete anything because we have a personal issue with the poster or don't like criticism or something like that. You may not like our reasons, but we really don't do it for fun and giggles.

 

We will never delete appropriate and valid criticism, as long as the user who posts does it in a civil manner. For example the posts about "why no photos at the table?" has been left untouched because it is a lively discussion and being a fans too I see both points. But I did step in when a guest was called rude names for refusing a photo as that is obviously beyond the line.

 

We do see more details in posts than you do, so yes, sometimes what looks like a perfectly valid post to a user will be set invisible by us because we know it was made by a known troublemaker.

 

I have moved 6 posts to the mod section so far over the whole weekend, four of them by one of said troublemakers who unfortunately managed to register again. For the two other posts I have informed that member in question what happened, that he didn't do anything wrong and his posts were only moved because he was replying directly to the other member.

 

Your idea with the whiteboard is a really good one, and in case this post gets overlooked I will definitely point it out to Showmasters.

 

The idea about the guarantee though, I doubt this can be put into place. There's too many unforeseen things that can happen.

 

If someone asks on here we normally say 2 hours at the lowest, but I personally more go with the three hours mark. I take it the estimate that was given at the event was 2 hours? Like jael has said, it is an estimate.

 

From personal experience I can tell how antsy I get to get my photos back too, and way too many attendees are like me and tempted to hit the table "are the photos back?!" at the two hours mark. Human nature probably. That creates some of the problems that have been experienced this weekend. Maybe we simply need to go down from the 2 hours estimate.

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