After Intramuros, it was time to head to the venue check out the Grinders and do some set up work. Half way through the week, there had been some discussion on twitter about how twitter coverage at Pro Tours has much more of an impact than people first imagined. While technically, you can access the live coverage on your phone if you’re prepared to pay what is most likely exorbitant international data rates, accessing twitter is much, much easier, and it’s inherent bite-sized chunks of information makes it very easy to digest quickly and efficiently. The official live coverage is also relatively slow to go up, as it sometimes has to go through an editor and always has to be formatted for publication on the website, and so on. Twitter is about as instantaneous as it gets.
The discussion was around the way Mananation had tweeted about what Brian Kibler was playing at Pro Tour San Juan, and whether they had been giving too much information away. I chimed in saying I would see if I could chat with some of the more twitter-savvy pros this weekend to get their take on the situation, which delighted the discussion participants to no end. My next thought was “ah crap, now I’m going to have to transcribe an interview, I’m terrible at that!” followed quickly by “wait, what if I somehow video’d the interview?” This was an idea I had been toying with for a while, but had been unsure of how to get started. Now with a reason to get off my ass and get on it, I fired off quick messages to Bill Stark and Evan Erwin to ask what I should use. Erwin came back saying he uses relatively high end equipment and software, which isn’t overly surprising, considering how smooth his production of the Magic Show is. Thankfully, I’d seen Stark do some reasonably basic video coverage, and he said someone had given him a Flip HD as a present one time, which was affordable, but not exactly high quality. Australian level 4 judge Mark Brown recommended the Flip as a reasonable option as well.
I figured high quality can come later, and that a Flip might be something I could actually pick up duty free on my way to the event, which is precisely what I did. Once we’d made it to the venue, I dragged it out and fired it up. As soon as we opened the doors, a queue formed almost all the way around the hall to sign up for the main event. Announcements were made that the signups for the GP Trials were actually over the other side of the room, but nobody moved. You see, in 2008, the turnout was higher than anticipated, and there was even talk of having to turn people away. While I don’t think that actually came to pass, a lot of people did miss out on their promo card and event t-shirt. It looked like the locals were uninterested in missing out a second time. I whipped out my Flip and tried to film the enormous queue, and quickly discovered a few limitations. My hand wasn’t nearly as steady as I would like, which I guess wasn’t that unexpected, and that filming while walking was practically impossible, because my footfalls would shake the camera. I tried to shuffle my feet a little, but it looked daft. You know what would look less draft? A skateboard. I’ve been trying to convince my girlfriend I should be allowed a skateboard again, but I’ll save that story for another time. I could force one of the judges to push me around the room on a skateboard. It would be like one of those dolly things they have on professional movie sets, and everything, how sweet would that be?
Aaaanyway, we ended up running six trials, which wasn’t too many lists for me to type up, so I did that while chatting with the Dale Aitken, the APAC Event Marketing Manager, who happened to be on his way to Seattle and was dropping by to see the event get under way. I mean, when you have to sign off on the expense accounts for one of these things, it probably does pay (now and again) to make sure we’re actually running the event and not drafting down at the local pub while I fabricate the coverage, or anything like that. I’d like to go on the record as saying at least 60% (if not more) of the coverage I write that goes up on dailymtg.com is not made up!
As day one got underway, I tried to track down Brian Kibler and Sam Black to film the interview. There are usually no feature matches of note during the first three rounds of any Grand Prix as the pros wait for their byes to expire, so I usually use this time to wander around and ask them the quick questions I end up spacing out through the day. That’s right, I don’t go around asking questions in any round I haven’t done a feature match, I’m usually too busy typing up the round before this one. All of the quick questions are gotten out of the way early. I know – I’m such a cheater when it comes to coverage. I found Sam, but it turned out Brian was getting yet another massage. Apparently he’d planned on getting one every day he could, because they were costing him around $10US. When I finally tracked him down, I could no longer find Sam, who I’d last seen wandering out in search of vegetarian food. Judging by the size of Sam, I’d say he’s been unable to find any vegetarian food for a few months now, and is subsisting entirely on air. Luckily, the air in the Philippines is so thick you can eat it, so that was at least keeping him alive.
It wasn’t until round three was well under way I got them sat down next to each other and the flip pointed in their direction. I was getting worried I’d not actually manage to get the interview filmed, or that maybe it wouldn’t turn out. I figured if it took too long to upload, it wouldn’t have to appear in the coverage, but it would at least be done. I tried to steady it on my knee as I got them started with the topic at hand. Thankfully, they were both willing to chat at length and the interview clocked in at just over seven minutes. At one point, I was worried the Flip wasn’t picking up Sam’s voice over the background noise, because I couldn’t really hear what he was saying myself and I was across the table from him, but it turned out the Flip hasn’t been to nearly as many Heavy Metal concerts as I have, and certainly didn’t play in a band when it was younger, and it picked him up fine. The other problem I noticed was that I had difficulty stopping myself from nodding in agreement with what they were saying, which felt like it was shaking the camera.
However, it turned out fine. I would go as far as to say great! Uploading the file to youtube took ages, and it tried to spit the dummy about me not having processed the file somehow, but it seems like you don’t *have* to do it, it’s just something they like you to do, or something, so that’s okay. All things considered, if I had to review the Flip Mino HD, I’d say it’s an excellent, low-cost video camera. The picture and sound quality were acceptable, and with the addition of a tripod, I could probably produce some reasonably not-quite-professional videos with it, and I’m sure whoever stole it from me later that afternoon would say the same.
The Tournament Organiser David Ong had warned me earlier in the day about leaving things on the stage unattended. Usually the stage has a row of tables along the front, with the scorekeeper and Head Judge sitting alongside me. This time, I had a single table off to left, while the Head Judge had one on the right. The scorekeeper was set up on the floor to the right of the stage while the feature match area was on my side. After David’s warning, instead of leaving my various coverage-related items on the table by my laptop, I put them in my open backpack on the floor behind my table. The last I saw the Flip, I’d put it in my backpack. Now I don’t mean buried it amongst the other camera stuff in that part of the bag, the external flash, the battery charger, the cable, I just sort of put it on top of that in the small fabric carry case it comes with. I didn’t notice it missing at any point because I’m not really used to counting it amongst my coverage gear, and it’s small enough that it could easily have fallen down inside the bag and be floating about the bottom. On the Monday, while repacking my bag to leave Manila, I didn’t click that it wasn’t in there until after I had already checked my luggage in at the airport. Once I was through immigration, I developed a nagging feeling that I hadn’t seen it since Saturday. Sure enough, when I got home, it was nowhere to be found.
What annoys me the most is not that I have to buy another one to replace it. I won’t miss the money a year from now, not really. It’s that the only people who were in that hall were Magic players, so the odds are very high that whoever stole my brand new Flip camera, was a fellow Magic player who was here for the Grand Prix. I was there working my butt off trying to promote the event and Magic in the area, with a camera that I purchased with my own money specifically for the event, and some selfish prick decided they would take it for themselves. How do they justify that? The very worst part about this is that next time I’m in Manila, I’m going to be that much more careful with my belongings. I mean, I’m not so naive as to think that people don’t steal things elsewhere in the World, but I’m not going to be able to help remembering that last time I was in Manila, someone in the tournament I was writing about, stole from me,
And I don’t know who it was. It could have been anyone. Every person I see near the stage or wherever I’m set up from now on, a small voice in the back of my head is going to ask “is that another person about to rip you off?” I’m now subconsciously thinking ill of my fellow Magic players – my friends from all over the Globe – I’m thinking that they could be someone who wants to rip me off. Because some cock-knuckle took it upon themselves to take something that didn’t belong to them. The only thing I really feel about this now is sad, but let’s not let this one person spoil my trip and these rambling stories. Next up, the rest of the event!
I also feel sad that someone whom we considered a guest and friend of Manila as we played host was victimized like this. I still do hope that your recent visit was more positive than negative, and that you still feel goodwill to us Filipino Magic players.
That’s sad to hear. Good that event coverage wasn’t ruined. Whoever got that flip will never gain from it. Tsk.
Yeah you need to be careful where you leave your stuff. One time i left an old event t-shirt lying around at a music event and it gotten stolen within minutes. People these days just make me angry!