MCM Comic Con, London’s Bi-Annual nerdfest took place last weekend with YouTube-centric Vidfest in tow.
Taking place at ExCel London – the same venue Summer In The City will be in later this year – MCM Comic Con welcomed thousands of people through its winding walkways for a weekend of pure and unadulterated geekiness.
We caught up with the YouTube gang in the VidFest section to hear all about the weekends goings on and get the low-down on the greatest cosplayers (spoiler alert, it was Ellen Rose and she looked amazeballs).
The lovely people of WildSeed Comedy were busy peddling their wares to anyone who’d stop to listen by offering sweets in exchange for subscribers. Sweet4sub, it’s the next big thing. Paul Neafcy was on hand with his very own posters for comedy series Phillip Human. However, it was Gordon, Neafcy’s co-star, who truly stole the show on their booth, with no-one being able to pass by without taking a quick selfie. It was like nobody had ever seen a stuffed cat with horns and wings before! Honestly.
Fawn was also a contributor on the ‘Women on YouTube’ panel that took place on Friday alongside Dodie Clark, Chloe Dungate, Mandy Hynes, Lucy Moon and Jellie Bee. Girl powerrr.
Jonti Picking (a.k.a Mr Weebl)‘s Q+A session was a must-see on Sunday for anyone wishing to pursue a career in animation. After being asked for advice on how to succeed by an aspiring animator, Jonti spoke to the audience on the issue of how watch time is affecting animators, before advising that animators join forces and create a collab channel to aid content being uploaded at a more regular rate and to keep YouTube’s algorithms happy.
He also dropped some hints about whats to come for Mr. Weebl and his merry band of characters- including the possibility of it heading to TV, and maybe even a non-musical Magical Trevor! (Who’d have thunk?!). Watch this space!
Next up was a panel with Wildseed Studios named ‘How to Make a Low Budget Feature Film’. Hosted by Chris Bingham, the main focus was on the film Hungerford (with director and writer Drew Casson in attendance on the panel) and also the announcement of Hungerford 2, which is set to star Cherry Wallis and Bethan Leadley. The pair were given a surprise when Jesse Cleverly, Creative Director at WildSeed, announced a sneak peek of the film, with both of them exclaiming ‘Even WE haven’t seen this!’ before it screened.
When she wasn’t watching her starring role on-screen, Bethan was a busy bee with her own stall and Q+A in which she talked about discussing her life on YouTube and music career. We like Bethan. She’s so musical.
“What would you go into if you decided to stop doing YouTube videos?” someone asked Tom Ridgewell in his Q+A. “Poverty” he answered bluntly, to a round of applause from the crowd that had literally packed out the room.
Taking time from a never-ending queue of selfie seekers, Tom’s Q+A session was as hilarious and insightful as you would expect, and the third of the weekend after doing one on Friday and Saturday as well. Along with announcing an upcoming addition to his ASDFmovie series, he also announced he is working with animators on an upcoming book. “Don’t worry, the illustrators will get credited on the front of the book with me!” he assured the audience. The shade.
The biggest queue of VidFest went to the Yogscast team who were somewhere hidden behind the crows of people – we assume, we couldn’t actually see them. It didn’t slow down throughout the entire day, either – just think how many Sharpies they must’ve gone through!
Back to the panels. Can we just acknowledge the fact that Felicia Day, Queen of Geek, looked at us RIGHT IN THE FACE HERE?! We died. We lived. We everything’d.
Talking about all aspects of her work, Felicia was full of sound advice that made us love her even more. Speaking about her persistent nature, and how even after taking off she would still flyer her local coffee shops promoting her channel, she told her audience about the work involved behind the scenes. “You can’t expect your audience to just work for you in getting your name out there” she said.
She also spoke a lot about the entertainment industry and Hollywood in its recognition of YouTubers, skeptical of their intentions. “Before, Hollywood didn’t care about the web, and now all they care about is the web but its only, just the audience, not the artistry.”
She also mentioned a new TV series she’s working on, but kept tight lipped as to what it entails, or even if it will end up being a digital release, oh and she also has a book coming out in August. Exciting.
And with that MCM Comic Con wound down to a close. The three days truly knocked it out of everyone but we’re confident everyone will recover in time to do it all again in October. We promise to be there snapping everything for you guys, too. We’re nice like that.
Photos by Ellen Rose and Tilly Jeanette Pearce
Feeling Nerdy?
Why not check out If YouTubers Were Game of Thrones Characters… and get your TV geek on. Perhaps even find out which 13 TV Shows Would Be Improved With YouTubers On Them?
Were you at VidFest and MCM Comic Con? Did you get a picture with anyone Cosplayers? Tweet us your pictures to @TenEightyUK and don’t forget to Like TenEighty UK on Facebook.
