#chicon 2008

[detailtilted]

NEW Enhanced Edition - CHICON 2008 - J2 Main Panel

Direct link.

My latest video is now up. About half the footage I used came from what AgtSpooky sent me. To the best of my knowledge, that video isn't available on YouTube, so this is a version of the panel that newer fans may not have seen. It was captured at a different angle from the other videos on YouTube, often with a more direct view of Jared's and Jensen's faces, and it has better video quality, especially after upscaling. I cut to other footage as necessary, like when audience heads obstructed the view, in an attempt to provide the best view available at all times.

Before/after comparison photos...

Click to enlarge and get the full impact of the improvement.

A recap for anyone not familiar with this project…

In December 2023, I started this project to enhance old convention videos. I'm upscaling the videos and making other visual improvements, adding extra content to clarify various references, and adding good color-coded subtitles so you can better understand the sometimes-chaotic audio.

My goal is to publish the best, most complete, and most watchable versions of these older convention panels yet seen, but this is only possible thanks to the fans who captured the footage in the first place and were generous enough to share it with other fans. If I used videos I found on YouTube, my video descriptions on YouTube will always contain a link to my sources.

If you have any old convention videos you'd be willing to contribute to this project, please message me! Even if your videos are on YouTube, the original files, if you still have them, may upscale much better. If I can get them to upscale, I'd happily send the upscaled files back to you for your own collection whether I use them or not.

[nothingidputbeforeyou]

So cute. (ChiCon 2008)

[detailtilted]

NEW Enhanced Edition - CHICON 2008 - Jensen's Solo Panel

Direct link to video. Link to YouTube channel. (9 videos available.)

My last video from CHICON 2008, Jensen's solo panel, is now up. As before, I cut between different footage to try to provide the best view available. Almost 60% came from the video AgtSpooky kindly sent me which, to the best of my knowledge, is not on YouTube and was captured from a different angle that newer fans may not have seen before. My full list of sources is on my video description.

A huge thanks to @spntrunk for helping me with some words I was having trouble subtitling in one section of the video! If anyone catches anything I missed or got wrong, in this video or any others, please do let me know. Subtitles are the one thing I can still update without hurting anything after the video is already published.

My next set of videos will be from Vancouver 2009. I'm temporarily skipping over some conventions as per my excessively long post in hope of being able to get some original video files that will upscale better. I intend to go back and fill them in eventually, one way or another.

(I don't know why the text in the above thumbnail looks weird. It looks fine in the video. The original image file I uploaded, which is just an exported frame from the video, also looks fine. 🤷‍♀️ I wanted to mention it because I was afraid people would see the above thumbnail and think the extra content in the video itself would be that difficult to read! It isn't.)

Before/after comparison photos...

Click to enlarge and get the full impact of the improvement.

A recap for anyone not familiar with this project…

In December 2023, I started this project to enhance old convention videos. I'm upscaling the videos and making other visual improvements, adding extra content to clarify various references, and adding good color-coded subtitles so you can better understand the sometimes-chaotic audio.

My goal is to publish the best, most complete, and most watchable versions of these older convention panels yet seen, but this is only possible thanks to the fans who captured the footage in the first place and were generous enough to share it with other fans. My video descriptions on YouTube will always credit my sources.

If you have any old convention videos you'd be willing to contribute to this project, please message me! I can also be reached at [email protected]. Even if your videos are on YouTube, the original files, if you still have them, may upscale much better. If I can get them to upscale, I'd happily send the upscaled files back to you for your own collection whether I use them or not.

[detailtilted]

CHICON 2008 - Enhanced Edition of J2 Breakfast Panel

Direct link.

Here's my newest video. The video quality is very bad, despite the enhancements. It’s better than the original videos, but the main panels will be much better (with brief exceptions). If this is your first time seeing my videos, please don’t judge them by this one.

I figure this can serve as a test case for my earlier assumption that people aren’t interested in the lower-quality videos despite the other enhancements. Feel free to prove me wrong. :) This is why I skipped LA 2008 which would have been even worse than this.

The rest of the panels should come out well, so I wanted to do this con and I hated to skip just the breakfast and not have a complete set. Besides, there are some really funny moments here. So I did it for myself and hopefully a few others will enjoy it too!

If you want more details about what I did to enhance this specific video, including a comparison video showing the original vs enhanced versions and a preview of the main panel quality, check the long post. If you want more details about this project in general and links to my other videos, check the index post.

[detailtilted]

NEW Enhanced Edition - CHICON 2008 - Jared's Solo Panel

Direct link.

My latest video is now up. It includes footage sent to me from AgtSpooky that I believe is not currently available anywhere on YouTube. In the first 2 minutes, there are 90 seconds that I couldn't find coverage for anywhere else in any form, and for the other 30 seconds I could only find one video with a Jared-shaped blur.

AgtSpooky's video was also recorded from a different angle than the videos currently on YouTube. It has a more direct view of Jared's face when he was facing the fans at the mic, because they only had a mic set up on one side. I cut between other videos, but AgtSpooky's footage makes up about 38% of my video. A full list of my video sources, with links where possible, is in the video description on YouTube.

I included the J2 and Jensen tags on this post because Jensen shows up at the end and there's some fun, brotherly-style teasing between them before they settle in for the J2 panel. That video is next in my queue.

A quick recap for anyone not familiar with this project…

In December 2023, I started this project to enhance old convention videos. I'm upscaling the videos and making other visual improvements, adding extra content to clarify various references, and adding good color-coded subtitles so you can better understand the sometimes-chaotic audio.

My goal is to publish the best, most complete, and most watchable versions of these older conventions yet seen, but this is only possible thanks to the fans who captured the footage in the first place.

A couple before/after comparison photos from my main sources...

[detailtilted]

Language prowess? (CHICON 2008 J2 Panel - Enhanced Edition Sneak Peek)

This is a small sneak peek of my next enhanced video. There are several funny moments throughout the panel, but I picked this one because I loved the way Jared made Jensen genuinely burst out laughing into the mic near the end.

All in all, the enhanced video should look a lot better than what's available for this panel on YouTube today. In my final edit, I used almost half the footage AgtSpooky sent me. I don't think that video is on YouTube, and it has a higher quality than the ones I did find on YouTube, especially after I upscaled it. The only reason I didn't use the whole video is because audience heads frequently block the view, so I switched to other videos as needed to maintain the best view available. You'll see some of that happening in this sample. The sample starts with AgtSpooky’s footage but switches a couple times to another source, which I've also upscaled and color corrected.

I plan to publish the full video on YouTube this Friday at around 3pm U.S. Eastern. I'll post on Tumblr the following Tuesday evening. I'm still trying to work out the best times to post, and I seem to get more YouTube traffic on Fridays, but I've learned not to post on Tumblr around the weekends so that's the only reason I'm waiting. I just want to give these videos the best chance of being seen because I'm putting a great many hours into them.

If you're interested in the video and you don't want to wait until next Tuesday, then I have two things to say to you… 1) I love you with all my heart and 2) you could check for it on my YouTube channel on Friday, or follow my channel to get notified when it's published.

Meanwhile, you could also watch Jared’s solo CHICON 2008 panel if you haven’t seen it yet. It took place immediately before the J2 panel, so my new video has direct references to it. The J2 panel will still make sense if you haven't seen it, except maybe at the very beginning, but you’ll have more context if you’ve watched Jared’s first.

[detailtilted]

Warning: Dimples Ahead!

I feel like I should issue a warning that my next CHICON 2008 video will be full of dimples.

This is a comparison image from one of the original videos versus what I've ended up with after upscaling and trying to do some color corrections.

The quality was already pretty good to begin with, at least compared to most of the other videos I've been working with from this time period. If you look at the full size version though, you can definitely see that the upscaling improved the details.

I think the color adjustments also helped. Truth is, if I'd worked on this video before I lost my mind over colors for the Comic-Con 2008 video, I probably wouldn't have seen anything wrong with the original colors and I never would have thought about trying to change them. I still don't trust my judgment, but I think I'm at least a little more aware of what looks bad than I used to be.

There will be portions that are of a lesser quality when I have to switch to an alternate source, but the majority of Jared's solo panel should look like this.

[detailtilted]

CHICON 2008 Request (and a tiny sample!)

This is a shot in the dark, but I thought I’d ask. Does anyone have a video of any quality, good or bad, that covers the below portions of the CHICON 2008 panels? I have videos for the vast majority of it, but there are a few small gaps annoying me and I'd love to fill them in. If you have something you’d be willing to let me use in my next set of enhanced con videos, please let me know. I would of course give you credit if I use them! Or anonymity if that's what you prefer. Even an audio file could be useful.

If you don't have anything but you're willing to reblog to increase visibility, that would be awesome too. I haven't had any success the few times I've tried to directly contact fans who were posting content back in these early days, so I don't think many are still out there, but I figure it doesn't hurt to ask.

Gap #1: The beginning of Jared’s solo panel, before he starts telling the story about his dogs sleeping with Jensen. I managed to find a very low-quality 30-second video near the beginning where he talks about the fan video that played, but it cuts off. The better-quality videos start just before Jared tells the dog story.

Gap #2: After the J2 panel, immediately after Jared finishes signing the posters and leaves the stage. The videos show Jensen clapping for Jared as he exits, but they cut off mid-clap. The next video picks up post-clap with Jensen saying, “Maybe we should wait ‘til he’s out of the room.” I think there are only a few seconds missing, not really enough to be annoyed by, but... 🤷‍♀️

Gap #3: At the very end of Jensen’s solo panel, as he’s getting ready to leave, he thanks the fans and talks about how many more viewers they've had that season. The last video cuts off before he finishes talking.

Other than that, I have a complete span of content for all three of their panels. It adds up to about 1.5 hours that will be split into 3 videos. I think the gaps are all short. I read through some fan reports and I didn’t see anything mentioned that wasn’t covered in the videos I have, so we're probably not missing anything big.

I'm only just starting the editing process on this set. so it will be a while before I have a new video to release. In case you missed it, I did publish the CHICON 2008 breakfast video earlier this week. Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with this tiny sample of one of the things I’ve wanted to do so many times while watching con videos.

I always go slightly bonkers when Jared and Jensen go off in separate directions on stage, because the camera can’t possibly follow both of them. I usually end up pulling up all the videos and trying to find one that follows each of them so I can flip back and forth between them. 🤣 Now I have the power to take two separate videos and show them simultaneously. This silly thing makes me very happy.

Context: this was at the end of the J2 panel. Jensen made a show of removing Jared's chair, and then Jared took Jensen's chair and replaced it with a smaller chair. It will be more coherent when you see the full video; I mainly wanted to highlight the split screen parts for this post.