FAN EXPO DOC: NOW WHAT DO I DO

At this point my Fan Expo Doc project is stalled. I have not been able to get any response from Nadia since our shoot in August. This could mean that she is busy, that she is out of town or that she just has no more interest in continuing with the project. Or at any rate, no interest in going on cam and providing narration for the footage of her which I shot

Without her input there is no context to that footage. It's just me following around a couple of cosplayers. Certainly not enough to be the heart of a documentary

I've not totally given up on Nadia but I need to answer the question What do I do if she no longer wants to participate

I have to go through the footage to see what is there. Unfortunately, because Nadia was the last day of the shoot, I geared the previous footage towards her being the heart of the video, as in mostly what I have is B roll. The good thing is, this B roll is fairly generic, the bad thing is, it's fairly generic

I do have some interviews. The interviews with the cosplayers are short and really just like introductions, "I am ... I am playing this character ..." A few of them talked about why they were there and what they liked about the show. Again, fairly generic

I did a few other interviews with people who were at the Expo to promote a group and/or raised money in its behalf. The Toronto Steampunk Society, a Ghostbusters group, a LARP (Live Action Roleplaying) group, an X Men group that raises money for charity

There could be something there, it's actually fairly interesting stuff. These are fans who have taken their love of a certain genre and turned it into something beyond a simple hobby. If I chose to explore that avenue though, I would need more. I would have to contact one of all of these groups and get interviews with them, follow them to other events, get the history of their groups etc.

That could be interesting but it's not what I intended in the first place. I wanted something more from an individual's personal perspective rather than that of a polished and practised group. I wanted more documentary, less promo vid .. I've done those thank you very much

Another option is to try to execute my original concept, find a cosplayer and follow them through the expo and have them comment on the experience in VO. Fan Expo is over but Comic Con will be up in March; it's a different event though, usually much smaller and instead of taking up both halls of the convention centre, using only one. So I don't know how much of this current footage I'd be able to use

So what I'm left with is logging the footage and seeing if I can make something out of it. It won't be the first time