Wednesday, September 9, 2020

The Dragon Con Virtual Parade Is Just What We Need This Week

Last weekend Dragon Con went virtual, streaming 3 channels of 24/7 content, from reruns of old panels to fresh new content like interviews, musical performances, and even costume contests. (Don't worry if you missed it; you can still buy a membership pass for $10 and have access to it all and watch at your own pace.)

My favorite so far, though, has to be the Dragon Con Virtual Parade.

I missed the livestream and instead watched Sunday morning, before I even got out of bed. Within minutes I was grinning ear-to-ear, and by the end I'd laughed out loud, gasped with delight, and even shed a tear or two. I don't want to overhype it, but this really captures the spirit of Dragon Con: fans coming together to play and laugh and create cool stuff. 

So what exactly is it? It's a socially-distanced parade, put together virtually. Fans submitted short videos of themselves walking a "parade route" in costume, and the Dragon Con team edited them all together - by fandom! - then added crowd and traffic noises (ha!), and two hosts doing live color commentary. Like the real parade, there's a huge range of fandoms, ages, and skill, featuring everything from young kids in their backyard all the way up to professional builders using slick videography effects. So we get about 30 minutes of pure, geeky joy.

And best of all, you can watch it for free on Dragon Con's YouTube channel! I'll embed it here to make it easy, though:



The actual parade doesn't start 'til the 10 minute mark, but if you're a fan of What We Do In The Shadows, then watch from the beginning to see the two commentators - Nadja and Nandor The Relentless - doing what they do best.  The parade ends around 42 minutes, so it's not the full hour the video shows.

I've watched this twice now, and for the second run I decided to jot down a few of my favorite moments.  I left a LOT out, because most of this is awesome, but here are some bits that most jumped out for me:

13:40: The Spider-Man/Jonah Jameson interaction is SO clever & fun

14:45: Doctor Who use of forced perspective, yasss

20:30: Mind, BLOWN. Daaaang. There's our reminder that some Dragon Con fans are professional builders and videographers! 

23:05: Awesome use of effects for The Flash, and again at 23:18 for Aang!

25:30: Excellent Alien group. I like how so many of these are like quick skits in-character.

27:17: Someone beams in!

27:29: This whole History channel "Aliens" interaction is GOLD. Ahh, there's that Dragon Con wackiness we know and love.

29:28: TINY RAINBOW BRITE - and then a little Rosey the Riveter not long after!

33:20: Dragon Con gives you wiiiiings

34:48: Awww, dancing in the woods is so perfect for these two. Makes me hope Dragon Con does this every year, so folks who can't be there in person can still do entries like this.

34:54: !!! That's some professional-level Hocus Pocus!

35:33: They cosplayed the crowd watching the parade. Bahaha!

35:44: I laughed out loud at this Jurassic Park group, and then GASPED. Eeeeee!!

41:04: Don't miss the Jawa big finish - and turn up your sound to hear the song. (So happy to see Chess Jawa in there! He's been a fixture at Dragon Con since at least 2014, when he was just a young kid. Now he's so tall!)

I hope this made you smile, fellow geeks, and made you think of happier things and better times ahead. Dragon Con is the only convention I've really been sad to miss this year, but it wasn't 'til last weekend that I realized just HOW much I miss it. I've been re-watching my videos from last year and bawling like a baby, but at the same time, I'm so grateful for the Dragon Con team putting this together - especially since it lets EVERYONE get a taste of Dragon Con, not just we lucky few who usually get to be there in person.

Sending y'all hugs and hopes that we can be together at the real deal again next year. ::MWAH::

*****

Psst. Need any new t-shirts? 'Cuz hey, we sell those! :D

Check out the Epbot Threadless Shop to see all our designs. (We're up to 7 now, I need to get on John to add more.)

John and I just got our "Should You Need Us" tees and they are SO CUTE. (Mine's on brown, John's is gray - but the artist Kristi got hers on navy blue, and I think that looks best of all.)

11 comments:

  1. I don't know what it is about people in those dinosaur costumes, but I *always* dissolve into giggles when I see them.
    Bless the person who invented them, may their coffee always be hot.

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    1. Same here. Those dino costumes will ALWAYS be funny to me.

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    2. They always make me smile, and there are more of them every year. Here's a post I found from 2 years ago of a bunch them dancing in the Hilton: https://twitter.com/1TomGirlGamer/status/1035048505507831808?s=20

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  2. Loved the Doctor Who cosplayers! I randomly chose a spot on the video timeline and landed on them :^}. That was before I saw your video timeline typed out. ~LST

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  3. I don't know if y'all have landed on a name for your service project yet, but reading the end of this post, I think "Should You Need Us" could be really sweet.

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    Replies
    1. THIS. THIS IS THE BEST IDEA IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS.

      Your Pal,

      Storm the Klingon

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  4. How fun! I look forward to checking it out! Tonight I was engaged in something similar: my family tradition is the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. I haven't been able to go for awhile because we moved, but this year it's online! $20 was a steal for me to enjoy good stories and some sweet nostalgia.

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  5. Yay! Nandor is my friend Crispy! Fun story- he and I matched on a dating app. Never dated but became FB friends through our love of the Muppets. He posted a link requesting DragonCon volunteers and 3 years later I’m a committed regular part of the puppet track family. Even got to conduct an interview during a virtual tour this year. Yay DragonCon! ❤️

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  6. Someone sent me the Jawa video, what a paradoy! It so good. I really missed DragonCon this year. I hope next year we can get back to normal and have an awesome time there.

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  7. It wasn't the same as being there, but the Dragon Con crew did an amazing job this year! We had a great time, and we actually got to see some panels. Since we're normally working in the vendor hall we usually miss most of that.

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