It’s our third year of existence. And it certainly didn’t go the way we thought it would.
But really that’s true for everyone.
How We’ve Been Doing Personally
For most of the team things have been fine. Mermaid Child is working towards being a veterinarian. Plus she gets to pet all the animals. Tacocat got accepted into the Masters program at Texas State for astrophysics. Allybelle got married to one of the best people on the planet (Ryan is fun to be around… and is certainly about as dipshit as the rest of us). Luis… has continued being Luis.
I didn’t think I’d be the odd one out.
I’ve been unemployed since the start of 2020. At the beginning of the year I didn’t think much of it. 2019 showed that I was able to get work (even if it was on contract) and get people to talk to me. So I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal at the time. When things started clamping down in the US I was like “Yeah, no one’s gonna be hiring for shit.” And I was right. Even the Texas Workforce Commission reduced their work search requirements to zero for a while.
What was NOT known at the time was how the TWC systems were not prepared for the CARES Act. Or its extension. Or if your ‘normal’ benefits may expire in those periods (and restart, which I found out). Not knowing the systems would completely break there have been a few times where I was like “Fuck, how am I gonna pay rent and shit?” Thankfully the apartment management at my place has been understanding. Plus I’ve been able to get help through friends and other sources. Admittedly since I really only have myself to worry about in that context maybe I’m a bit lucky in that regard. I fully well know people who might be in similar situations but also have families who will have it way worse.
The other thing I did not expect was just how difficult finding decent work would be. I’ve applied for jobs where I’ve literally done everything that was in the job listing. But yet I’d get rejected. I’d just be like “Well just what the God damned fuck do you want?” It’s like everyone cranked up their fuckin’ HR bots difficulty to Inferno or some shit. To a point I get it with all the job losses that have occurred there’s probably a lot of resume shotgunning. But damn.
I’m surviving I suppose. It just would be nice to have some stability.
How MTA is Doing
When the lockdowns started we were all “Hey, we can just pivot to written work for a while.” I mean if you’ve known us we love to write.
But there were a few things:
1: Allybelle would end up getting absolutely slammed at work (and still is as of this post). Along with doing all of the wedding planning. So her writing articles was out.
2: Really just some ideas would not lend well to a written format.
So a few months after everything took a shit… I asked Tacocat “Well, what about streaming?”
I’ve been wanting video to be a bigger part of MTA for some time now. But there’s been a few obstacles to that. For one, having me exclusively record video for whatever we were doing would take me out of the “photography mindset”. Two, using mounted cameras of some sort (we had a couple of GoPros for this for a while) didn’t allow for a presentation I’d like. Three, having a dedicated videographer was difficult to schedule. Plus having quality gear AND them knowing how to use it would be things to figure out. So the whole video idea got dropped for some time.
With regards to streaming… I had a ton of background in that. There was a podcast I was a part of where we brought in HD streaming back in 2009 (admittedly at 720p but still). That led me into doing video projects for other groups. Which would lead to streaming for MAGFest and eventually running it’s media team for some time. So there was certainly a lot learned there.
When we fold into that the advances in video conferencing and all of the people we knew there were certainly opportunities there. There were chances to introduce our audience to artists they may have not been aware of. The biggest opportunity here was having the space to talk about subjects that may not make it as a panel at a convention. I’m pretty sure it’s obvious that we’ve had a lot of questions regarding the “larger cosplay world”. And after talking with some of our cosplay friends they have had similar thoughts. We’ve had some really good discussions… even if some did end up going longer than we thought they would.
Due to Real Life we did have to stop streaming for a while. But as of this writing we will definitely be bringing it back.
So What Does Year Four Look Like?
Since things are still so fluid right now it’s a bit hard to say.
The big thing is for the five of us to be able to get back together and do shoots again. According to CDC guidelines released they stated that if everyone in a group has received some sort of vaccination then getting together in an indoor space should be fine. Of course we’ve been keeping an eye on the current vaccines and their efficacy against the variants. But if everyone on the team gets taken care of and all of the data looks good then we might be fine with working on projects. What projects they might be is still up in the air. Our list prior to this was pretty long anyway so who knows what we might choose once we can work together again.
With the streams those (as of this writing anyway) should still be a thing. When Tacocat and I were talking about possible schedules for streaming I very specifically wanted it to be every other Sunday for the bulk of them. Since weekends can be a little odd for scheduling at times I wanted to give us space for both streaming and shooting. So we wanted to make sure we were able to work around both. But if an idea comes along for a stream that may be “out of cycle” for that kind of schedule we’ll just do it if possible. Trying to apply ourselves to the grind level Twitch expects just did not fit with us. Having some structure plus flexibility so far seems to work well. We’ve also added some gear that will help us do more crafting specific streams. So that will be something else to look forward to.
With regards to events… eeeehhhhh, that’s another thing entirely. While a good number of events during the normal con season have already pushed out to 2022 we do know of a few that are attempting to do some sort of in person event during that period. Thankfully vaccine availability has greatly improved. But when we fold in those who are vaccine hesitant and the amount of people who say they won’t get jabbed (WHICH IS COMPLETELY DUMB AS FUCK) that is another data point to consider.
Honestly we think most events are SOL for us being there in any capacity for 2021. And based on a lot of community commentary we’ve seen elsewhere they seem to be in agreement. Though maybe that will change if new data comes out showing some level of safety for ourselves and others.
If you’re reading this then one thing you will have noticed is a drastic change to the website. We’ve always wanted to help educate people in both realms of cosplay and photography. Because of the lack of photo shoots for this year we wanted to present more educational content. But when we got to looking at what we had with the current site design we realized it was hard to tell where the educational materials were and what subjects they might speak to. Plus we also wanted to highlight other resources we’ve utilized throughout our creative journeys. So revamping the site was sorely needed here. Hopefully people will have an easier time finding helpful material with this redesign.
What About Beyond Year Four?
With everything that is still going on it’s hard to say what we’ll actually be able to accomplish in Year Four. So now is a good time to try to think through some ideas we’ve had in mind for some time and how to apply them past that.
First, we want to offer our photography services to others. And not just cosplayers. But other creative individuals as well. We know so many artists and musicians that could really benefit from the kind of work we do. And really we do get along well with other creatives. So there is a synergy between us and whoever we’d work with that would make for great photos.
Second, we would like to bring cosplay crafting and photography workshops to the community outside of conventions. Initially we were going to start with photography workshops since that might be an easier thing to organize. Even then we were going to go about the idea in a different way compared to others to help make it more of an experience for everyone involved. Cosplay crafting focused events would need more structure but we feel like it’s an idea that’s achievable.
Third, we’re considering expanding our team. There've been a few individuals that we’ve met over the years that we felt really vibed with the way we go about things. Plus they could also bring in new creative perspectives we may have not possibly considered before. So that might be something that happens once we can freely interact with others again.
We don’t think any of this will occur in Year Four. But at least it gives you some idea of how we’re looking to grow.
Final Thoughts
If there’s anything to appreciate it’s how all of this has caused a “rethink” for how things were done before.
We’ve had a lot of concerns with how things have been done with cosplay and photography in general. With a number of things being so “event centric” there was a mode of thought along the lines of “X thing has to be done and can only be done at Y event.” I mean that was part of the reason MTA was even created. We wanted to avoid as much of that as possible. And explore the space that might be provided because we didn’t do that.
With events not being a thing cosplayers didn’t have the pressure to create something specifically for an event or even just be there. Now I know for some cosplayers the fact that pressure wasn’t there did wipe out their creative energy for cosplay. And that’s okay. Some work better with those kinds of deadlines. But for some it did give them the freedom to work on projects at their own pace. And maybe even learn new techniques they could eventually apply to other projects without the thought of “I absolutely have to do this.”
Another piece we’ve picked up from cosplayers is how they may interact with events in the future. Conventions and everything around them can be rather overstimulating. The panels, the photo shoots, the dealers room, hanging with friends, etc. From conversations we’ve had with cosplay peeps we know about the subject it seems like there will be more of a shift to “hanging with friends” over everything else.
As for the events themselves we have to wonder where the shift to an online only presence may play out in the future. A lot of them pushed things to where being there in a certain space and time was the only way to fully understand that event. But maybe now with some of the online applications that have been thrust upon them that can be utilized to help build a community around a convention all year round. How many will seize upon that will be an interesting thing to watch.
All of this has brought about some reconsideration about how things were done in the past. So it will be interesting to see who goes back to the “previous normal”. But it will be more interesting to see who applies new things they have learned this past year and where that takes them.
None of us have been in a place like this before. Though who knows what new discoveries might have been found.
