What’s it actually like to be a Hypable writer at SDCC? Read our daily diary. Preview Night involved some Exhibit Hall swag, some celebrity spotting, and a lot of sunburn.

In addition to exhaustive San Diego Comic-Con coverage of all your favorite fandoms, this year Hypable is also bringing you a blow-by-blow blog from each day of SDCC from the perspective of one of our writers. Get a personal, insider’s point of view of how we at Hypable pull off the craziest week of our year and what we do in all the moments that we’re not bringing you breaking news. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot of lining up.

SDCC Preview Night: Wednesday 20 July

Immediately upon waking, we had to make a grocery run to the trusty Ralph’s on G St, which probably sees its best week of trading all year during SDCC. I mention this both as a tip for others – go before Wednesday afternoon for your essentials, like cases of water and granola bars, because it will become nightmare status from Wednesday night onward – and also because this tray of cupcakes is unfortunately now a thing that lives in my hotel room.

My first order of official convention business involved – what a surprise – queueing. The “world” premiere of Star Trek Beyond (it already had red carpet premieres in Sydney and London this month) was being hosted by San Diego Comic-Con on Preview Night, using an outdoor IMAX screen and the San Diego symphony orchestra. SDCC offered fans the chance to win passes to the event by holding a raffle for all badge holders on Wednesday morning, so at 11am a group of us Hypable staffers joined the line for a 12-midday drawing. It took another 90 minutes for us to get a chance to draw – that’s two and a half hours total – in full sun out on the marina, and I now have some of the worst and most unexpected sunburn of my life, which should prove really fun for the rest of the week. None of us won the lottery, but the Star Trek team did organize for an ice-cream van to show up distribute free frozen treats to all the losers as a thank-you for lining up, which was very nice.

The ticket lottery line for the Star Trek Beyond premiere is INSANE! Did you get a ticket? #startrek #roddenberry #project366 #startrekbeyond #premiere #sdcc #sdcc2016 #comiccon #insanity

A video posted by Roddenberry (@roddenberryofficial) on

One of the logistical tasks we have to undertake while covering SDCC as part of a press outlet is coordinating with representatives from various networks or studios in order to organize the handover of panel passes, which are reserved seating tickets for certain events (by no means are they granted for every panel!) that we’ve applied to cover. MTV was able to grant us passes for the Teen Wolf panel on Thursday, so after liberally applying aloe vera, we headed back out to pick them up from the lobby of a certain hotel, taking in the sights of a transformed Gaslamp District along the way – highlights included the giant blow-up Powerpuff Girls floating over the pond in the Children’s Park, the set-up of an installation for the Mac Star Trek collaboration which included a video screen view of the stars from the bridge of the Enterprise on Front St, someone blasting Hamilton out of their car while cruising Harbor Drive, and, as always, the Conan Funko wrap on the Marriott Marquis.

A truly ridiculous aspect of SDCC is the amount of celebrities gathered in the same small place at the same time – they’re on every freaking corner. This year, that particular insanity started when we were waiting in the lobby to meet our MTV contact, and I spotted a guy who looked a lot like John Cho. As soon as I said the words “Is that John Cho?” out aloud, Chris Pine appeared from an elevator bay in adorable sweatpants, and gave him an excited hug, and they were followed by a crowd of people including Karl Urban, Sofia Boutella and Zoe Saldana, all clearly arriving to prepare for their premiere that evening. No big deal. They presumably appeared later all dolled up, like this:

It turns out we may have caught some of the last few moments in the life of Chris Pine’s glorious silver beard, which was sacrificed tonight and replaced by a handlebar mustache, for reasons. Possibly a dare.

SDCC used a different system this year for badges – in order to minimize onsite pick-up, most badges, including the brand-new RFID cards that we now have to scan to enter the building – were sent to attendees’ homes. So far, the scanning has worked, but I remain skeptical about this change – if it breaks down, there is going to be chaos. However, the home delivery system meant that there was less urgency to pick up the traditional lanyard, bag and book pack which was once handed over when you picked up your actual badge. By the time we went, at around 6pm before heading into the Exhibit Hall, it was actually weirdly subdued. Of the 16 designs, I received a Flash bag, which I later traded on the con floor for a Supernatural one.

The Exhibit Hall on Preview Night is always a chance to get in early for exclusive purchases or freebies. The giant WB booth (#4545) had a very fast-moving swag line, and was handing out bundles of all four alternate covers of the SDCC TV Guide and t-shirts for various projects (I got a vintage-style MAD magazine one, shrug) and signing guides. They also had a display of their DC heroes costumes – a fullsize Flash, Arrow and Supergirl – and a little look at The Lego Batman Movie’s Wayne Manor, as well as other upcoming collectibles like Supernatural’s die-cast Impala and figurines.

Next up, I visited Starz’s beautiful American Gods installation (#4029) – an immersive walk-through representation of the Bone Orchard that Shadow dreams about, with white-painted bare trees and an ankle-deep gravel path lined with shattered skeletons and watched over by a full-sized buffalo statue – an important image of the book. The room was lined with screens that show flickering images that I’m told are not actually footage from the show, but are appropriately thematic – flags and flames and hands and diners and chaos, soundtracked by echoey recitations of recognizable quotes, including the exchange between Shadow and the Buffalo Man: “What should I believe?” “Everything.” The buffalo is also the show’s emblem, and out the front under the booth’s neon sign, fans were able to collect t-shirts and tote bags featuring the stylized skull.

Over at MTV (#3729), my Not Another Teen Wolf Podcast co-host Karen and I got a first look at Teen Wolf season 6 through their unique 360 degree virtual reality gaze-activated experience. Using cellphones that slotted into Oculus headsets, the MTV staff showed us two interactive scenes – one featuring Scott and Lydia in the tunnels, and one featuring Malia, Liam and Mason in the library – speaking urgently with you, the viewer, about the new villains the Ghost Riders.

These ghastly figures wear long trench coats and wide-brimmed hats – honestly, I’m Australian and to me it looked like a Driza-bone and Akubra hat, very Australian Outback – but more importantly, they seem to have the ability to make things – and people – disappear, removing them from even the memory of others. We had a great time theorizing with the MTV staff about what this discovery might imply about the upcoming season!

Here's Karen doing the VR experience. We'll have more details soon! #SDCC2016

A photo posted by Not Another Teen Wolf Podcast (@natwpodcast) on

For some, the Funko booth is the Holy Grail of the Exhibit Hall, but thankfully there’s none of their wares that I’m that keen on this year – my priority in terms of exclusives usually the Marvel booth (#2329.). One of our gang was able to get in line and pick up a couple of the Skottie Young collector pin sets – Steve and Bucky, of course – and their clothing range this year includes a few Black Panther pieces, a Winter Soldier shirt with a background of his trigger words, a totally shippy “end of the line” design with the Cap and Bucky star designs mashed together (fandom did it first) and an adorable Scott Lang “thinks for thanking of me” Civil War quote shirt.

Aside from their massive central stage where autograph signings will take place, and their swag counter which was passing out free comics, posters and cardboard Cap shields, the centerpiece of their mega-sized stand is obviously the Steve Rogers 75th Anniversary statue, on display for all to see and take pics with (and bronze or pewter limited edition miniatures available to buy, for a few hundred dollars.) The booth is also distributing free mini-comics with a story themed around Steve himself attending the statue’s unveiling.

Once the hall started closing down for the night at 9pm, it’s time to tackle prep for the first real day of the con – writing questions for the next day’s press rooms, checking and double-checking our schedules (there’s a lot of spreadsheets going around Hypable right now) and, of course, writing any coverage from the day – also known as this diary. Tomorrow: the first full day of programming, including our coverage of Teen Wolf!

“A Day In The Life at SDCC” will be published for each day of the convention on Hypable, in addition to our usual SDCC coverage.
Wednesday – Preview Night
Thursday – Day One
Friday – Day Two
Saturday – Day Three
Sunday – Day Four