My camera equipment was stolen at Katsucon

Hey guys, Dan from iShinobi Studios here. As many of you know I am a cosplayer and videographer in the Asheville, NC area. 

The cosplay community is like my family and I have become passionate about supporting it with my craft, Video. Over the years I’ve been creating cosplay music videos to help bring other cosplayers of all cultures, colors and races together to share the joy and motivation of seeing themselves on screen in a cinematic video montage.

So... here's where i need your help!

This most recent convention I attended (Katsucon) my equipment was stolen. In so many ways this broke my heart. I never, in a million years would have thought this would happen to me. 

I lost my canon 5d Mk4, my Tokina 11-16mm lens, 64gb Sandisk card and my DJI Ronin-M. All this totaling around 5,000$ (which I am currently still paying off)

I was so sick to my stomach at this situation I just lost all hope. It was stolen on 2/15/19 friday evening between 9-10pm and for the rest of the weekend I was so upset I had a really hard time enjoying anything at all.

I talked to security, checked the hotel lost and found, checked the katsucon lost and found, filed a hotel report, filed a police report, contacted public safety, asked if there were cameras that may have recorded the incident and made a post on Instagram. 

Not much later I saw some others sharing my Instagram post and signal boosting it so more people would be aware of my stolen property.

It honestly made me happy to see that others cared about me and wanted to help. After a few hours dozens and dozens of people began to share my post. Some, people I’ve never even met. This feeling reminded me of the feeling that made me fall in love with this community. The love, care and support of everyone resharing the post and reaching out to me literally made me cry. All this made me realize there’s no way I’m going to stop supporting this community. Somehow I need to get back on my feet and figure this out. 

After talking to a handful of others about what I should do, a few mentioned I should start a gofundme. I hate asking for things but even if it’s just a signal boost to help share my situation to help someone else avoid what I’m going through in the future that’s still very helpful. But really any donation big or small will help.

I’m going to make a goal of 5,000$ to help me get back what I lost. I don’t make a lot of money where I work and I usually invest directly into my equipment so I’ll be putting everything I can set aside into getting back this equipment too. Until then I may not be able to attend many cons in attempt to save every penny I can. 

Thank you all for helping to created this wonderful cosplay community, I couldn’t have made it through the weekend without all of your support and love. I can’t wait to continue to do what I love and keep making awesome videos with you. I love you all!

P.S. If you have any questions or just want to get in touch to send good vibes feel free to contact me through instagram at @ishinobistudios
or if you're on facebook, message me at facebook.com/ishinobistudios
if you'd like to see my collection of cosplay music videos, check out my youtube channel at youtube.com/ishinobistudios.