SDCC? Not Likely, But…
After the general success last year of my Comic-Con trip fundraiser, this would be about the time I’d start thinking about putting one up for this year’s trip. Although I don’t yet have a pass (more on that in a minute), I did get a hotel reserved (the Omni again). However, a fundraiser remains at this point unlikely, and therefore so does going to Comic-Con at all this year.
Last year was made possible not only of by that fundraiser (in which people who look forward to my convention photography helped pay my way, and if they donated above a certain amount could claim a print of any Comic-Con photo I took that year) but by the fact that for the six months prior to the event last year, I was actually employed.
That’s not been true in any consistent way since. And a fundraiser alone would never cover all of the costs imposed by going to Comic-Con. The hotel alone is around $1200.
All of that said, here’s the current plan. Next week, I submit materials to get a press badge as a freelance photographer. No guarantee, and I have some other options if that falls through. I’m doing this because I don’t want something to happen that allows me to go and end up not having a pass.
But the big looming deadline for something to change is May 10. Hotel reservations not cancelled by May 10 incur a $100 cancellation fee, taken from the one-night deposit required when booking the room. The entire deposit is forfeited if you hold out until June 9 before cancelling.
Basically, a change in fortunes is needed by May 10, or I will have to cancel my hotel room and forego attending Comic-Con this year. In other words, if I’m not employed by May 10, there’s no Comic-Con. The formula for going remains “employment plus fundraiser”.
The only other way to avoid that May 10 deadline would be to have the money to reimburse the person who fronted my hotel deposit, so that they are not out of that money even if I blow off the hotel cancellation deadlines. I don’t see how that’s possible, so I have to operate on the assumption that May 10 is my drop-dead date.
It’s been argued that I should run a fundraiser anyway. But the two flaws in that are these: (1) I’m in the middle of a fundraiser to be able to take advantage of the unique opportunity presented by having been chosen to participante in the official NASA Tweetup for the final launch of the space shuttle Endeavour; and (2) the fundraiser is based upon producing photographs at Comic-Con, so I can’t raise money for the trip if the trip costs would never be covered by fundraising money alone.
(Or, technically, I could but only with the promise to refund contributions should the trip not be possible. I’m looking into the technical feasibility of this in terms of the fees involved.)
If you have any bright ideas — about funding a Comic-Con trip entirely, or just about covering that hotel deposit so I can ignore the deadline and give myself more time — while I continue my efforts to convince someone to give me a damned job, click my name atop this post to send me email.