How We Got Here
It’s weird to think how long I’ve been involved with various Game Over Videogames events over the years. A lot of them had to do with recording/capturing various nerd music events they held (all the way back to 2011). But then when Classic Game Fest became a more organized thing at the Palmer Event Center I was there. Primarily to record video of the music performances. But also to get photos of the event overall.
Fast forward to 2019… and we were brought on to be cosplay guests at the event. That was a lot of fun meeting people and hanging out with our friends in the nerd scenes.
As we got closer to 2020 we started talking about future events. One of which included CGF. As we had done the photobooth at Anime on Ice not long after CGF 2019 we had wondered if there might also be a place for that. But we also had to wonder if there were pieces we could bring in that could make the idea “very CGF”. We did some great work at AOI. But since CGF is a retrogaming convention we had to think through what we could bring in to make it more specific to that event.
I had met with David Kaelin, the owner of Game Over Videogames and Classic Game Fest to pitch the idea in February 2020. In previous years there were various backgrounds people could take photos at. But what if we could offer something more? I will say there were a few ideas that certainly got his attention. Very crazy things no one would have considered. So he certainly wanted to see what we could do with the idea.
But then Rona happened.
We were originally brought on for the 2021 event… but given the availability of vaccines at the time we decided it was best to back out, at least as a group. I myself did go as a pretty last minute thing. I did not expect the layout changes, primarily where the lower floor would be all vendors/artists and the upper floor would be music and panels. That was a good change in my opinion since the bands would not have to deal with a room that was basically metal and concrete. I mean have you heard how hard performers like Descendants of Erdrick, Creative Mind Frame, and Bitforce play? The upper rooms made for much better sound.
When the planning started for the 2022 event, David asked us if we’d be onboard. We genuinely felt better about bringing our ideas to this year’s event, so we were in. Though given a number of factors we didn’t go 100% in the direction of what we had pitched back in 2020. But we could certainly do a lot without the pieces that had helped bring the overall idea to mind.
If you’re wondering what those pieces were… let’s just say they involved custom CGF props. And a bunch of video game consoles. We’ll leave your minds wondering for now.
The Event
With regards to our shooting space, it wasn’t too far removed from the photo booth space we had at Anime on Ice in 2019. But instead of a 13’ by 11’ foot locker room we had a 10’ x 20’ vendor space. With tables in one half of the space. The tables were great for us to show off merch, hide some of our gear, support our tethering system (which we added a 24” monitor to this time around, which was VERY helpful), etc. Though at times one table could kinda get in the way if I need to do a full length shot of someone. At one point Kirsten suggested “Just shoot from in FRONT of the table.” Good thing I had a long enough cable to be able to do that.
There was a very interesting theme that developed pretty early on in the event: Very Dramatic Lighting. And by that I mean opting for more tightly focused lighting in various ways. There was a bit of deviation from this at times. But for some reason with a good amount of the characters we were able to shoot, going that route made a lot more sense. I don’t think we can put our finger on WHY that was… it just was. Maybe it was something akin to that joke about adding garlic to food: “Keep adding it until the voices of your ancestors whisper to you to stop.”
Given we hadn’t done a photo booth since Anime on Ice 2019, photo demos since Ushicon 2020, and that this was Classic Game Fest we honestly had no idea how people would think of us and the way we worked. I can say with 100% certainty that much like other events people were totally onboard with us. So it was nice to see that we’ve been able to maintain consistency even with an almost 2.5 year gap.
Final Thoughts
It felt good to finally be able to put together a photo booth at a new space. People really appreciate being a part of the creative process, and the attendees of Classic Game Fest who stopped by were no different. Though we couldn’t have done it without David seeing the value in having such a thing at CGF. And we’re thankful he gave us the opportunity to do so. Hopefully we can do this again next year.
