Supporting Non-AMV Editors

[macchinainterna]

You know that is an interesting idea. I've seen some conventions that do the non-AMV contests, and I really do like what I see with some of them. I really wish there were more conventions that would hold a second contest for videos like these. I think I'll ask another con I work with if they would be interested in doing something like this, no promises. The reason I say that is because of prize support.

Gene Starwind 21122

Honestly, it wouldn't even have to be a contest. This year Anime Conji had a non-competitive expo for fan videos set to animated sources outside of Japan and anime itself. I think a non-competitive expo would be a good start to see if enough editors supported the idea and submitted videos. I know I would love to have such an expo at NDK, but some anime cons are wary about moving past being strictly about anime and Japanese culture.

[GloryQuestor]

Honestly, it wouldn't even have to be a contest. This year Anime Conji had a non-competitive expo for fan videos set to animated sources outside of Japan and anime itself. I think a non-competitive expo would be a good start to see if enough editors supported the idea and submitted videos. I know I would love to have such an expo at NDK, but some anime cons are wary about moving past being strictly about anime and Japanese culture.

While some conventions are worried about losing their identities, there's a better reason why many are hesitant to move past being focused on Japanese anime/culture convention:

In order to have copyrighted music and copyrighted video publicly shown at their conventions, they have to pay various Performance Rights Organizations (PROs) royalty fees to be allowed to do this. Obviously, the more that they need to cover officially, the greater the amount of royalties that they have to pay out to PROs. Since anime and Japanese culture conventions are narrow focus and small scale, they usually do not have to sink a lot of money into royalties -- just enough licensing to cover public display of live-action Japanese films/TV video, anime video, AMV, and any concerts or dances they may have. Because many conventions do this year-to-year, they get into a comfort zone of working with the same groups and know what to expect their licensing royalty payments to be for their financial forecasts.

Now, if they started incorporating more non-Japanese anime video or more extensive music choices, then the royalty payments to their current PROs might increase and they might have to work with other PROs that are unfamiliar to them. This changes the balance sheet of the corporation or individuals financing the convention, thus requiring more money to be brought in through the convention to ensure the current convention and their next convention(s) are financially secure. While some are able to work it out financially, not everyone has the capital or connections to make this choice.

So, if you want to investigate if a particular convention is willing to support more non-anime events, just ask them if they are. Maybe they already have the broad licensing and would be willing to do it, maybe not. You could also check with Comic Conventions (like SDCC, DragonCon, and NYCC), as they also have video-making contests that are most likely licensed for the sources you are looking to exhibit.