Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Adams.
Hi Joshua, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started out doing an online radio show on cyberstationusa.com. As well as going to conventions around the New England area. And saw people dressing up in costumes as their favorite characters. At once said convention in Boston 2010. I’m at my business partner Mr. U.K. Li and he invited me to see his documentary at a friend’s house later that month. I then invited him to do an interview on my show.
After the show was recorded I invited him to have lunch with me and my co-host. At Legal Seafoods where I pitched to him about making a documentary all about cosplay. Around that same time, my mother passed away and I felt that I needed to do something instead of sitting around my house and feeling depressed my mother would never want me to do that. Since she was there when I was in my darkest times. By taking me my sister as well as my grandmother. My father was also there to show me many different styles of Art as well as making art from painting pictures to constructing things out of cardboard.
Would she still encourage to this day? So in the weight of 2010, we started filming the documentary. Then I propose to Mr. U.K. Li that we create a YouTube channel to show the interviews. This helped us tremendously to edit as well as create the documentary as well as go to conventions and showings documentaries to many different fans as well as cosplayers themselves to get an in-depth view as well as ways of editing the documentary itself. It took 3 years and countless edits from Mr. U.K. Li to create the documentary that it is today. Which is highly credited and reviewed by the cosplays themselves as an in-depth view of the way the community is. Also as proof, check our 15 min intro of the Cosplayer Nation documentary here! https://youtu.be/vhwG-kO5ed8
We all face challenges, but would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The challenges were that we had to take work to travel across the United States from Maine to Washington State to Honolulu Hawaii well as Puerto Rico. In 2012, Mr. U.K. Li was in Seattle Washington for WorldCom doing interviews as well as footage for the YouTube channel and for the documentary itself. I was in Boston for two conventions one being a video game convention and the other one for an anime convention. We were playing phone tag that entire weekend since Mr. U.K. Li was on Pacific Time and I was on eastern time which is exactly 3 hours. I did not get that much sleep that weekend. But after the two cons.
I was trying to go to my house and rest. Just a few blocks from my house I suffered a major car accident. causing the car that my mother had given me after her death to be a total loss. I broke two ribs and had a laceration on my spleen and took a month in the hospital as well as a mouth at my place to recover. Mr. U.K. Li Was sympathetic and ran cosplayer Nation so I could recover to full health.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I consider myself to be an observer in that for anything that piques my interest I do as much research as I possibly can.
And believe that education can help not just the community to grow but help others understand the community better.
Mr. Li my co-founder and President takes part with many tasks. In no order, they include Public Relations, such as convention guest invites and screenings. Coordinating new Administrators who want to promote and report Cosplayer Nation with events such as San Diego Comic Con, PAX East, Puerto Rico Comic Con. Some production and technical aspects like videography and most dearly with consultation on editing our Award Winning Cosplayer Nation documentary, which has over 50+ interviews. Also we work together (along with our Admins) on welcoming newcomers into Cosplayer Nation’s groups from Facebook to Youtube and Discord. A personal welcome and understanding each Cosplayer’s history, is how Cosplayer Nation combats the online trends of trolling and bullying! Its something we’ve experienced personally, as well.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
That the cosplay community will still be there to help as well as encourage cosplayers even when the pandemic was still going on. The community itself is stronger than ever. I also want to thank everyone that works so hard to keep cosplayer Nation running.
But essentially, Covid brought people more indoors. With indoor restrictions, that limits creativity. At the same time, it produced creativity that no one really saw before. This is best comparable to, when you are doing a film shoot and expect everything to go as planned. But then, a major prop or actor cant make it. You need to improvise, and make the movie work. In the end, it turns out maybe better than the planned version of the movie, or cosplay, and leads to prop making ideas made from like tons of cardboard molded together. Another thing learned, are doing remote video shoots. We are always looking for new videographers and editors to help Cosplayer Nation and train them, with the lessons learned so far.
Contact Info:
- YouTube: https://youtube.com/CosplayerNation
- IMDB: https://imdb.com/title/tt4280436/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/CosplayerNation
- Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/CosplayerNationREAL
- Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CosplayerNation/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cosplayernationreal
- LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-adams-86133621
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CosplayerNation
- Gmail: CosplayerNation@gmail.com
