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Last sunday it was that time of the year again. Time to charge up all the batteries, polish the Microphones and get the our geek muscles flexed. As I doublechecked my geek-bag for the presence of camera's, spare batteries, sd-cards and press-tickets, Niejana dove upstairs to pull on a sexy skirt and take her pick of my various geek T-shirts to wear for the day. Yep : It was the perfect recipy for our annual visit to F.A.C.T.S. , Belgiums biggest cosplay manga games and sci fi expo in Ghent. It was the second time we where going after ending up at F.A.C.T.S. last year out of sheer curiousity. But since we had such an awesome time last year , the promise "We have to do this again" had to be obeyed .. so off we went. After doing a video and photo coverage of the event last year we decided to "up the ante" and make our visit to F.A.C.T.S. a little more professional. So we relied on some Knightwise.com afficionado's with expert professional skills at shooting pictures and shooting video. Burly cameraman Stefaan Lesaage and Shutterbug extraordinaire Konrad Dvojak. On our way to Ghent we buzzed by Brussels to pick up Konrad and his charming girlfriend and set course for the "expo halls" in Ghent. The weather was on our side. Where we had been baffled by rain and wind last year while "standing in line" there was sunshine, a nice warm temperature and … no lines. So all we need to do was find Stefaan Lesaage who was standing at the entrance waiting for us , swing our presspasses around and walk right in. The con was pretty packed , but we did notice right away there where not as much cosplayers as the year before. Our dire warnings to "F.A.C.T.S.-Virgin" Konrad regarding the scantly clad ladies he would encounter on our travels through the booths where almost moot. Allmost I say, because 5 minutes into our tour we bumped into the lovely Dutch Duo who cosplayed as "Leia and Steampunk girl" last year. Leia had a different outfit and her charming friend was even more awesome then the year before. We chatted , shot an interview and looked around to notice that a small crowd was gathering around to watch us at work. The videocamera's , giant photo camera's and crew of 5 people ( Stefaan, Konrad, Magda, Niejana and me) seemed to have a more 'professional' allure then the year before. In search of leadership to answer the question "where do we go next" we unanimously voted Niejana to be "our producer" leading the charge as we plowed through the halls. Under her expert leadership we managed to single out interesting cosplayers, talk to booth-holders and get harassed by a couple of stormtroopers. As we passed by the signing booths where celebrities where asking money for an autograph or a photoshoot, we sneered arrogantly and moved on. Sure, Dirk Benedict was there and some other stars , but F.A.C.T.S is not about the celebs, its about the fans. And boy did they deliver : Interviews with stormtroopers, photo shoots with Mary Poppins, fantastic one-on-ones with Orks and 3 princes on kids bikes where just some of the things we encountered. As Photog Konrad aimed and fired his giant flash, Niejana handed out business cards, Stefaan hovered around me with his videocamera and I stuck my mike underneath every powdered nose that looked interesting .. we started not only go get some "room" to do our work (people gave us a wide berth as we worked) , we also got 'trailed' by people as we walked though the con. Getting ready to round up we passed a grey alien on some kind of operating table who was dancing around for a photo shoot. I thought it would be a good idea to have him in the background for the closing shot. As Stefaan lines up the camera , i feel a hand on my shoulder and before I know it I'm sprawled out on the operating table getting 'probed' by the (very exited) alien. What a closing shot ! (and what a slightly disturbing way to end a weird day :p ). All in all we had a great time covering the event and will be putting out our video coverage in the coming weeks. But the great work of our resident Photogs Stefaan and Konrad is available below for your viewing pleasure. Check out the work of these very very talented photographers and capture the fun friendly atmosphere that exists at F.A.C.T.S. I want to round up by saying I had a fantastic day thanx to the great crew I worked with and will probably be doing this again … next year :) Pictures by Stefaan Lesaage ( Also our main Cameraman )
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Pictures by Konrad Dvojak ( Excellent professional photographer : For hire ! )
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
"Behind the Scenes" shots by @niejana.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
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