2018 VidCon Recap/Transcript

Part 1

 * Rebecca Parham: I went to VidCon and cool things happened and I'm terrible at taking pictures, so I made an animation instead because let's face it: cartoons are just better. So here are some of my favorite highlights from my trip to VidCon 2018. Hey! So there was a lot that happened this year. Too much in fact to cram into one video. I took a poll and the majority of you said you wanted a two-part special, so that's what we're doing! Also, I had to structure the video differently this year to get everything in, so I'm sorry to all of my lightning round fans. We're still gonna have fun. So here we go: my first two-parter VidCon recap. Day 1: My brother David and I arrived on Wednesday and immediately went to lunch with DaneBoe and The Annoying Orange gang. It was great to see them all again, but Dane was starting to feel a little blue that he wasn't going to VidCon this year. I kept telling him he could still buy a ticket but he just shrugged and said "Nah". We said goodbye to the Annoying Orange gang and then later went over to the cheesecake factory to have dinner with James, Adam and Ryder. Everyone but me and David was late. Tisk, tisk, this won't do it all. So yet again, I put our names in for the table. I'm still so helpful!!! They all eventually arrived and we sat down for dinner at the table. Ryder exploded his soda everywhere and James let me see a copy of his new book. After dinner, we all wanted to see the Incredibles 2. I was sitting in the theater beforehand while the guys were out getting us all slushies and that's when Dane texted me and said he bitten the bullet and was gonna get a ticket for VidCon, and I was so happy!!! I then watched The Incredibles - sitting between James and Adam which was hilarious because both of them have the best reactions ever - and afterwards, we all geeked out about the animation and lighting day. Day 2: The second day the plan was to meet as many of you as possible and then go to the big animation community lunch, being put on by Alex Clark and his animators. David and I walked around the expo hall all morning meeting you guys specifically getting caught up about an hour and a half at James' booth. Later, while I was in the main hallway talking to a fan, I got blindsided by Adam and a giant wave of people following him, but it turns out it was the animation community or at least most of them. We all talked for a bit and then Ryder texted me to come find him. I was power walking over to him when a girl in the crowd did a big ol lateral slide in front of me to block my path. Apparently, I was being a dumb butt that day because I didn't recognize her at first, and I thought she was a fan. She gave me a weird look and showed me her badge. It was Tabbes. "Agh... I'm sorry!". She had ChillyPanda and Billy but Better in tow. So we all went back into the expo hall to catch up with the rest of the animation community like CypherDen and TheGingerPale. We were all gathered together in front of the Nickelodeon booth so we began to draw a bit of a crowd. While I was happily meeting fans, a girl came up to me wearing an employee badge in an earpiece. "Uh-oh".
 * VidCon employee: "Hi I'm Christen with VidCon."
 * Rebecca Parham: "Are we in trouble?"
 * VidCon employee: "You're not in trouble, yet, but we have called security."
 * Rebecca Parham: "Uh-oh."
 * VidCon employee: "We can either set up a space off to the side for you all to do a meet-and-greet or we have to escort you out of here."
 * Rebecca Parham: Well, as it turns out, it was almost time for us to go to our big animation lunch, anyway, so we ended up getting escorted out by security. We kind of got kicked out of the expo hall... in a nice way. Outside, as we were all calling lifts and ubers to get to the restaurant. Dane texted me to wait for him because he finally got his badge and wanted to go with me to the lunch. Oh yeah I just gonna casually bring a YouTube legend with me! No biggie. We got to the restaurant and so many animators were there: Rebaka-Chan, Shgurr, Dom, Life Noggin, GingerPale, CypherDen, Tabbes, ChillyPanda, everyone!! Here's a picture: Look how cool we are!! When it was time to go, David, Dane and I got into an uber. I was in the front seat with a window rolled down, but Alex wanted one last goodbye before I left. He reached into the car window to give me a hug and I awkwardly reached out to return it, but in doing so, I hit the side of his face with my hand kind of hard. I accidentally punched Alex Clark in the face. He tweeted about it. Later that night was the YouTube party, and this year, I had an invitation. Dane also had an invite thanks to iJustine, so we went together. It was very loud and by the end of the night, it was super crowded but I did meet some cool people. I met Kathryn who was Markiplier's editor and is now the CrankGameplays editor. She and I talked like we were old friends but we were literally screaming in each other's faces because it was so loud! And I finally met MatPat and Steph. I introduced myself and their eyes lit up. They said they already knew so much about me because Ryder told them everything. Thanks, Ryder. And now Matt follows me on Twitter. They were both so cool. Day 3, after a morning of walking around the expo hall and meeting more of you I had a business meeting over at the hotel where all the youtubers are staying at then I was going to the animation community meetup event at 2:30 after the business meeting, David and I were riding on a shuttle back to the convention center at about 12:45 when I got a text from Ryder. He said he was already at the animation community meetup, the room had reached capacity and they'd closed the doors and there was a line forming outside. He basically said "You got to get here now!". So I rushed over to the meetup room, and sure enough, they closed the doors, and there was a line outside. OscarAnimates, who arranged the whole event with VidCon, was talking to the lady in charge and I tried to tell her I needed to get into that room. Oscar was like:
 * Oscar: "Yeah, let her in. She's one of the animators!"
 * Rebecca Parham: So they tragically opened the door for me. I took two steps into that room and got tackled on both sides and a crowd started forming around me. Maaz rushed up to me and said:
 * TheAMaazing: "Go sit next to Ryder, okay?".
 * Rebecca Parham: I had no idea what was going on. Apparently, this casual meet up in a room meant for only 80 people had turned into a very large signing event. Everyone had set up tables along the perimeter of the room where the animators would sit and a line of people would go by and get photos and signatures. We started the event an hour early and as we met people and sign things, the line outside kept getting longer and longer. At one point, David went outside and took some footage of this line. It was insane. Periodically, Maaz the unofficial emcee of the whole event, thank you so much much for being responsible. He would get on a mic and tell us to hurry up and that we only had 30 seconds with each person. At the end of this event that we started an hour early, we got through 500 people and had to turn away 1500. We were blown away. Oh my gosh, thank you to everyone who waited in that line, and we are so sorry that so many of you didn't get to see us. No one was expecting that kind of turnout. It was incredible and you guys made us feel so loved and supported. Also, the whole room of animators had to be escorted out the back by security. Later that night was the studio71 party. Ryder and I had invites and I got a wristband for David, too. We stayed there for about an hour and a half, but David and I were just so exhausted, and our feet hurt and there wasn't anyone there that we knew, so we kind of got bored and decided to leave. Although, I did get to talk to Anthony Padilla and Pat from Life Noggin on the way out. Not a total loss. Though the real highlight of the night was when we were standing in to get in a little girl who is also in line for the party, recognized me and asked for a picture. That was pretty cool. Alright, so that should do it for the first half of this VidCon recap. It feels really weird making this into two videos, but hey. Come back for the thrilling conclusion to hear the story of being backstage at the infamous animation squad Q&A panel. Thank you for tuning in, explainers, and I'll be right back!
 * [Music]

Part 2

 * Rebecca Parham: And we're back, with part 2 of my 2018 VidCon recap. If you haven't watched part 1 yet, I highly recommend watching it first, it's pretty cool and you'll have a better understanding on what's going on in this video. We've already covered the first 3 days of my trip so now we're going to jump right on in to day 4. After having breakfast with Dane because he had to leave early (sad face), David and I walked around the expo hall, meeting more of you guys. I'm talking slow so I can get more pictures in. Yes, I've been given a full access badge at this point. So early on at this day while I was meeting all of you, I began to hear that the animation squad Q&A panel with James, Jaiden and Dom that was scheduled for 5:30, was already starting to line up. There were some rumors that some people were starting to line up as early as 10 in the morning. That was a little concerning, especially because I was planning on going to that panel but I tried not to worry about it. In the afternoon, David and I went up to the YouTuber creator lounge to rest and we finally found Jaiden! Here she is, you were all asking about her in the last video. We found her, mystery solved. In fact, a lot of people we knew were walking around in that lounge. It was nice to just casually talk to everyone. A major highlight for me was meeting Arin Hanson from the Game Grumps, and I didn't even know he was at VidCon. He was so kind and even subscribed to my channel. He also knew about my animation school Ringling, which I thought was really cool. After a while, Jaiden, I and some others decided to go to the Instagram lounge because it was quieter and had lots of free sugary things. And Dave from Boyinaband was there, and Roomie was there and Dom was there. At one point, I excuse myself to go to the restroom, but I never made it there because as I was walking out, James, MatPat and Steph were walking in, and of course, I had to stop to talk to them. My bladder can wait! I actually ended up holding that pee for a really long time, but it was worth it, because MatPat and Steph are so much fun to talk to and they're full of life wisdom. About 30 minutes before the panel was going to start, James and Maaz decided to go early, and that along after, we followed Jaiden to the panel as well. I was hoping that I could stand off to the side of the room and watch the panel but I soon learned that that was wishful thinking. We arrived and found Adam backstage with Maaz. While James was already on stage, reading from his book to the audience, Jaiden walked in and the crowd went wild, and Adam and I stood to the security door in the corner. Instantly, we were noticed by the two front sections of the audience and kids starting jumping up and down and screaming our names and waving fanart, running up the barricade asking us to sign things. I will say, I was flattered by the enthusiasm, kind of made me feel like a rock star. Though it was clear to me and Adam we weren't gonna be able to stand there and listen to the panel without being a distraction or causing a ruckus so we went back to the security door. Dom showed up last. He was, on time. Hm, inconsiderate. So the panel finally began, and that's when the head security woman started talking to us about how much of a security issue this panel had to come.
 * Head security woman: "So you're the panel that's been causing all the trouble?"
 * Rebecca Parham: "We are..?" She explained that many people have been turned away after waiting hours to get into this panel, and the energy of the crowd both inside and especially outside of the room was getting, kind of, rambunctious. In fact, she said that she hasn't seen a security issue like that since they did a Black Sabbath concert. "Our fans, equal, heavy metal concert.". What are your parents feeding you guys?! The head security woman told me and Adam to stay out of sight of the audience and no one in our group was allowed to go through the doors that lead to the main area. She really started building up this situation, giving us a play-by-play of what was gonna happen the moment the panel ended, like we were secret service agents or something. She even told us there was a chance there could be a breach on the security doors. Things were beginning to feel a little tense. Ten minutes before the end of the panel, we all started getting ready to move and security guards positioned themselves on both sides of the stage. And the second the panel was over, security guards grabbed James, Jaiden and Dom and dragged them to the security door while dozens of kids started rushing the stage. James, being James, ran up to the barricade and grabbed the first thing he could from an audience member much to the dismay of the security guard, and Jaiden nearly tripped over herself, trying to pick up fanart that have been thrown up at her. But as soon as they were through the door, a security guard shouted:
 * Security guard: "RUN!"
 * Rebecca Parham: And we all started booking it down the backstage hallway. This was just in case of the aforementioned breach of the security doors. But nothing happened, everything was okay, and when it was clear it was safe, we slowed to a walk. We were all starting to calm down from that intense moment, so James looked at the fanart he grabbed from the audience. He said:
 * TheOdd1sOut: "I grabbed the first thing I could and it's something for Rebecca."
 * Rebecca Parham: "For me?! Oh my gosh!". So, whoever drew this, your drawing now holds a special place in my heart at the ultimate souvenir from this panel. Security put us on shettles and set us off to the YouTuber hotel. I mean, David and I weren't staying there but we were like:
 * Rebecca Parham and David Parham: "Well, whatever."
 * Rebecca Parham: When we got there, we ran into Hank Green, founder of VidCon. James, Jaiden, Adam and I stood there to him explaining what just happened at the panel and also what happened to the animation community meetup the day before. I'm pretty sure he had already been breached on what happened but he listened to us and took it very seriously. He promised that changes will be made for next year to better accommodate our fans. I want to take this moment to apologize to anybody who had a bad experience at the panel or the meetup. I don't think VidCon or we for that matter expected this much enthusiasm to the animation community. But I will say thank you so much for showing how much you care. It really means the world to us and we'll do what we can to make next year better for everyone. After all of this, a lot of us went into the cheesecake factory for dinner and that's where I met Ross O'Donovan from Game Grumps and Commander Holly. We all scrunched into one of those corner booths and it was a great way to be compressed after such a chaotic day. Okay! So, day 5 was just me, David and Ryder going to Disneyland and having fun. At one point, we met up with Draw With Jazza, Roomie and Emma Blackery and Jazza made a really great vlog at that day. If you wanna see it, I'll leave a link in the description below. Though I do have to mention when I was in line for the haunted mansion, one of you tweeted me that you were there. I tweeted back "Me too!", but when I got off the ride, three of you were waiting for me at the exit. Expert-snooping skills, my explainers. And that's pretty much it. Wow. What a VidCon! Thank you so much to everyone who came up to me and said "Hello". I'm pretty sure I met over a thousand of you, and I'm sorry to anybody else I missed. VidCon continues to be the highlight of my year, and I can't to wait more of you next year. Thank you so much for tuning in, but now, I gotta tune out. Bye!