CMPC 2015 Con Report – Nine panels up on YouTube · 5:44am Aug 2nd, 2015
TL;DR: I recorded some panels at my local pony convention and put them up on a new channel.
I cover a lot of ground in this blog post, feel free to comment on anything without having read the entire thing.
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I’m not really a fan of conventions. I went to a ton of Anime conventions in my teenage years and I’ve grown really tired of cons. It’s a combination of a lot of things: parking, city driving, crowds, cost, duration. Cons really aren’t my thing. I will inevitably walk away from any convention wondering why I even bothered going.
So I have an unwritten rule now with myself that to attend a convention I have to do something there. I can’t just observe or I’ll get bored. So for this con I had my heart set on running a panel. I made some preliminary plans for it but procrastinated on signing up before the cut off date (in my defense, they didn’t have a date on their website when they’d stop taking panel entries).
I felt really depressed about the whole thing, but then I had a different idea. What if I recorded every single panel I could attend and put it up on Youtube? I’m in the unique position to do this. I can borrow the equipment (I don’t know why my school library lets people borrow hundreds of dollars in recording equipment no questions asked, but they do!) I know the software. I know how to do this.
And then most things that could go wrong, did go wrong:
The extra battery I got for the Canon Vixia Camcorder? It runs out of power within fifteen minutes.
The recorder I was using to get good audio for the musician’s panel? I forgot to turn it on.
Try to use the camcorder recording on the highest quality settings? The 8 GB SD cards I have will last 40 minutes, max; panels are an hour.
The extra Rode microphone I attached to the camera in order to get better sound quality? I forgot to switch it on.
The ten minute break between panels to set up recording equipment? No one — not even the head of the con himself — knew to end their panel at the fifty minute mark instead of the hour.
So... not exactly as planned.
Luckily, a friend of mine who goes to my same university wanted to help and he borrowed an extra camera with even more battery life, and even more SD cards. Woohoo! If it wasn't for him, I probably would've only gotten about half the number of panels recorded.
However... the majority of the panels I recorded... weren't really... well... that.... umm... how do I put this as nicely as possible... umm... good. 
And you know what, that's fine. This is a small con, and I'm grateful that people had the courage to even run a panel. Public speaking takes guts, determination, and I'm so proud of the people that tried, especially if this was their first time. Kudos to them!
So with that disclaimer out of the the way, have another one: I'm about to introduce an idea to you that may or may not absolutely ruin how you enjoy panels in the future, so if you want to stay in the dark, just skip down to paragraph π.
I judge how good a panel is by how soon the panelist opens the floor for audience questions. At that point the panelist is not in control of their own lecture, it's up to the whims of the audience how the panel will go and it often goes poorly or derails. I first got this idea by watching two guys give a well done lecture on how to run a panel. And they were vehemently against having questions from the audience at all.
I really want to fight this idea, but they are right most of the time! Audience questions are generally terrible. To do questions correctly, I prefer the method LtUE has done in the past: have the moderator write down several good, well thought out questions beforehand to ask during the panel. And if there happens to be extra time, ask some of those questions. This ensures that the panel is relevant, consistent and well... good.
While I don't want to go the extreme route of having no questions at all, I feel pretty convinced it should at least be avoided until the last ten minutes of the panel.
π The perfect example of a really well done panel was Dr. Wolf's voice acting panel. I didn't even record this one as Silverquill was already recording it. Let me lay this out.
5:00 - Dr. Wolf enters his panel room. He's late because the previous panel did not end at the :50. That's beyond his control. However, he quickly sets up his laptop with slides and video prepared.
In five minutes, he's already set up. He was prepared to let the previous panel take five minutes to break down and set his own up afterwards to start his own panel on time.
5:05- He stands up, he gestures. He engages the audience by having them raise their hands during certain questions. None of his presentation is based on the hope that he will have a working internet connection. All of the video has already been set up in iMovie. Despite how much of an introvert he is, he's gregarious while expounding on relevant interesting information. And it's helpful too! I find myself writing down in my notebook quotes like "Idleness, more than anything, will kill your creativity," in between doodling terrible fanart.
5:40- He opens the floor for questions.
5:50- He ends the panel.
Now, I know Dr. Wolf is not the norm. He has several advantages. I'm pretty sure I've heard most of what he's talked about in that panel in videos he's already created; and he's been at this for three years. He used to be—and still is—a very introverted person, and yet given time and practice it's very much possible to give good presentations like that. This lecture he presented at CMPC is an example of the kind of panels that people should strive to conduct.
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Well anyway, I'm going to delve into what some of these panels I recorded were about and give my two cents on them. If you don't need to actually watch the video to experience the panel, I'll put an [AUDIO] tag.
Writing Fanfiction with BronyWriter, VikingZX, Ponky, and via LiveStream: TotallyNotABrony and Pen Stroke. [AUDIO]
This was the best panel of the convention. And I forgot that the external Rode microphone I was using was not switched on until twenty minutes in. I about cried when I noticed. 
Watch if you care about writing fanfiction or if you want to see Ponky's last appearance in the brony fandom.
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Writing Crossover fanfiction [AUDIO after sixteen minutes in]
The nice girl that presented this has never written any mlp fanfiction before and mostly writes on Fanfiction.net. She has a really nice powerpoint presentation (I added in each slide in post edit guys. Am I awesome or what? :) ). But after that it's Q&A so you can probably skip everything past the sixteen minute mark. It was a pretty chill discussion though.
Watch if you want to write crossover fanfiction.
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Writing Likable Humans with BronyWriter [AUDIO]
I'm pretty sure BronyWriter wishes there wasn't a recording of this. But I have to give him mad props for doing his first panel. That takes a lot of courage. He was nervous, but he still did an okay job! I actually learned a lot about "seat of the pants" writing here. Him and George R. R. Martin are totally good examples of that writing process working out well, and it was refreshing to hear that different perspective on writing.
I ripped this panel apart in post edit though. It's now a really smooth panel, no long pauses or anything. And I love Audio and Video crossfades, they almost remove any evidence that there was a cut.
Watch if you like BronyWriter or if you want to write Human in Equestria stories.
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This was not what I expected, but it was still nice. You can pay $50 for a mostly pre-made plushie and you can stuff it and sew the head on and have your own plushie by the end of the panel. Props for being hands on. You get to hear a really nice mom talk about her late-teens children and how they sew a lot of plushies together as a family.
Watch if you have any plans to go to a "How to sew a pony panel" at another pony con. It will most likely be in this same format and given by a member of this family. Otherwise you will probably be better off watching a youtube tutorial series.
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Voice Acting with Missbunniswan and Lochlan O'Neil [AUDIO]
Y'know that really good fan Pinkie Pie voice actor? She's on this panel! It is just Q&A, but this was the only panel I was smart and actually got the recorder working and so the audio on this is the best I did the whole con.
Watch if you are interested in voice acting in getting voice acting advice and you've already seen a lot of the other voice acting panels of the show staff on youtube. There's also the Rob Paulson podcast for a lot more voice acting advice.
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Fluttershy's Guide to Massaging a Bear
A panel on how to give massages? At a brony convention? HECK YEAH! The massage therapist who is presenting this is a very charismatic public speaker. This was a fun panel to be at but I'm not sure if the transfer to video did it justice. That and he moved around like crazy and my camerawork could barely keep up.
Watch if you want to learn about giving massages. I'm sure there's good tutorials on Youtube, but the MLP twist to it and the charismatic presenter makes this fun.
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Musician's panel w/ PonyFirestone, LunaJax and Jupitermaroon (and two other guys I couldn't hear their names) [AUDIO]
This was one of the first panels I tried to record and I messed up pretty bad. Not only did I forget to press record on the recorder, but I didn't realize I would run out of memory and so a good portion is lost. Luckily, through editing it doesn't sound like that too bad.
Watch if you like any of the people on the panel. Or take a minute and watch this part where Luna Jax does an impromptu "Discord" cover because someone in the audience asked for one.
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Wubs Done Right with PonyFirestone and JupiterMaroon
This was a good one. I've met PonyFirestone before and he's a very introverted guy. But when you take an introvert and tell them to talk about something they love for an hour, wonderful things happen. This is basically a rough introduction to a music creation software called FLStudio with some good music production advice thrown in. You get to see the process into how this song was made.
Watch if you like Ponyfirestone or JupiterMaroon OR if you're curious how music production is done in the fandom.
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Animation Panel with Petirep, CrikeyDave and HeroStrain
Y'know those RainbowDash Presents videos? He's here. Or the "so and so Does a Thing" creator? Him too. And a cool SFM animator, he's here too.
And I embedded their animations right into the panel! (and got their permission to do so).
Watch if you like any of those guys.
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I debated for a good while whether to put all this on my personal Youtube channel. I ended up deciding against it because it would flood my current video account with things... I really only observed. It felt odd to put it there, so I made a new channel, Chinchillax Recordings.
You won't know how good a panel is going to be until after it's over, but by then it's too late to record it. All in all, cons are exhausting and so is editing. I spent way too much time on each of these. But at least now that I've made a lot of mistakes, hopefully that means I'll be better at recording and editing video like this in the future.
PS.
I'm way more proud of this than I should be. 
awesome :D
I dunno though, I prefer having as many audience questions as possible on panels. That's usually how I do writing panels, though those are the only sort I've ever been on. If left to my own devices, I always feel like I'm being preachy or telling people stuff they already know.
3288826
I think there's a big "it depends" when it comes to questions from the audience. If that works for you, then I guess it's okay.
For instance, the crossover panel at CMPC was handled pretty well. She had a good presentation and when she was done with it after fifteen minutes she opened the floor for questions. There weren't very many people in the room and so everything after that turned into a pretty chill conversation.
But that kind of panel is a presentation rather than a normal panel discussion.
A presentation is usually one or two people with powerpoint or something. But a panel discussion is with two or more people and they are usually a long conversation about a topic. I feel like panel discussions can be made better by having the moderator prepare good questions beforehand to ask for fuel for the discussion. I have seen this backfire though. At LtUE, a writing symposium, this year the My Little Pony panel was basically a discussion of the show instead of a discussion about writing fanfiction or writing in general. The moderator didn't hit on the right questions.
I just want to feel like the presenters prepared something for their panel rather than being thrust on stage and at the mercy of an audience.
3289308
I imagine a single person would be better able to come up with a presentation than a group. (The last time I saw a group try to have things to discuss at the start of their panel, it didn't turn out so well.) Moderators aren't always around, but they can be very useful.
I think I have to agree with you about the queations. At BronyCon, the best panels are usually the ones with the show's voice actors/writers/other VIPs. But most of those panels also involve a lot of Q&A, and most of the questions are terrible. Sometimes the panelists are especially charismatic and can still make it entertaining to watch even with bad questions (shoutout to Daniel Ingram and Rebecca Shoichet), but they don't always have much to work with. I really wish they'd at least have a moderator prescreen the questions.
Awesome! Thanks for your efforts. Some great tips and analysis about panel presentations, too.
3289351
Yeah, leave presentations to single people. And having a moderator for a panel discussion really depends on the convention, unless you have you designate someone on the panel beforehand to be the moderator.
3289363
I know, having someone listen to the questions before giving audience members access to the microphone could go a long way.
But I do give mad props for the people that can take a terrible question and turn it around with an amazing answer.
3289615
Thank you! It's nice to be appreciated!