AX AMV Contest cordinators changed. ...

[DigitalPanther]

I originally posted this to the AMV Creators list on yahoo as well as on LJ. I figured I should probably post it here as well.

"An open letter to the AMV Community"

Hello to you all

As of Wednesday September 28, 2007 James and Katy Dodd are no longer the coordinators for the Anime Expo Anime Music Video contest and presentation. Those duties have been passed to myself, Michael G. Underwood and Anneke Patchen who are now the new AMV Contest Coordinators. We are both honored and excited to have been chosen to do so.

Many of you know me as Digital Panther from the AMV list and Live Journal as well as from my years working Anime Expo where I have been the Tech Director and room manager of the Main Events room for the past 5 plus years. I have personally been an entrant in the AMV contest 3 years previously (Including the infamous year Kevin Caldwell schooled us all (1998)) as well as been one of the primary editors for the Guest of Honor Introduction videos shown at the Anime Expo Opening Ceremonies all but two of the years they have been used. I have helped compile and judge the contest in past years. It was my love of AMVs that got me going to AX the first time I went (which was coincidentally the first AMV contest I entered in ’95). AMVs and video editing have always been close to my heart.

Anneke Patchen (not to be confused with Vampire Anneke of Baka Deshi Productions on the AMV Creators list and also a Live Journal user/poster) is the other primary editor/creator of the GOH intro Videos as well as Co-manager of the Multimedia Production department of Anime Expo. She is also one of the key people who, working with James Dodd and Troy Williams, pulled the all nighter during the 2002 AMV contest re-render the year we had flipped fields in the presentation tapes.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank James and Katy for their years of service and the hard work have put they put into the Anime Expo AMV Contest. It is our sincerest hope to take the positive aspects of their contributions to the contest, in conjunction with the strong foundations set by Shaun Hendricks before them, and build upon them to continue to improve and refine the AMV contest to be the best we can make it. As with any transition of leadership there may be some stumbling points along the way. We request your patience and understanding as we work through these minor issues to make this shift as smooth as possible.

We have some really neat ideas that we want to bring to the contest in the future and there will be some minor changes this time around. We hope they are well received but know that it is not possible to please everyone. We look forward to soliciting and receiving the input of the AMV fan and creator communities as we move ahead with the Anime Expo AMV Contest.

We are already in the process of clarifying and preparing the rules and deadlines for next years contest. It is our intention to have those posted publicly on the site around the end of this calendar year (2007). If there are any questions we can answer regarding where the contest will go from here please don’t hesitate to ask. While I can not guarantee immediate response I can guarantee that responses will be made in a timely fashion. We are looking to create an FAQ containing the most common questions and posting them on the AMV portions of the Anime Expo 2008 site. There will be some shifts in the submission deadlines for the contest as well as a much earlier anticipated submission start date. Additional details will be coming in the near future.

Please understand that we can not nor will we comment as to the reasons for or the circumstances surrounding the departure of James and Katy Dodd from the Anime Expo Anime Music Video Contest. We were not privy to all the details and it would be unfair and improper for us to surmise or speculate.

In summary, our goal is not to obsess on the past or to point fingers. Our goal is to make this contest all it can be. We promise to strive to provide both the creators the best outlet to show their skills and creativity as possible as well as to provide the fans of the AMV art form the best show possible.

On behalf of Anneke and myself we would like to thank you for your time in reading this letter and look forward to working with all of you.

Sincerely,
Michael G. Underwood
AKA
Digital Panther

And
Anneke Patchen
AKA
Goth Kitty

Anime Expo Anime Music Video Contest Coordinators
Anime Expo 2008

[Illia Sadri]

Let's see if Anime Expo can pull their heads out of their arses long enough to remedy not only the disaster that has been their AMV contest but also the public relations disasters that seem to keep occurring.

The fact is most amv editors have written off AX as a joke of a contest to bother with as it seems the staff cares little about what is a popular event at every other convention. Let's see a year without a major meltdown...

Basically AX seems to have entirely forgotten about fans in general and it transcends departments. I've heard it all over from people who have attended. And most of it comes down to staff doing it for their own ego and benefit rather than for the fans. As long as that mentality remains the convention will simply draw people based on it being the big boy in Cali.

My words of advice... speak with the community. I do not mean post the rules and deadline and post the winners after the convention. This is really important not being involved in the community. Otherwise it is going to be too easy to dismiss it as a body filling a role with no real purpose. There's lots of other conventions that treat their contests far better in that case.

[DigitalPanther]

All I can say is that we will do our best to do so. The current hierarchy of AX programming is alot more AMV friendly than in years past. Despite rumors to the contrary.

As stated in the initial open letter, I expect there will be some wrinkle and hurdles along the way. There are many things to work out and we are in the process of doing so.

We don't expect everything to be sweetness and light right out. However we will work to do our best.

Till anon,
DP

[The Wired Knight]

Well I wish you guys luck; AX has a really bad reputation for AMVs at the moment so you have a rather large uphill battle to fight to repair that reputation. I'll continue to support the contest (AX is my local con afterall).

[XStylus]

Looking forward to good things this year, Michael, and I definitely like what I've been hearing behind the scenes so far. Any help I can give, you have it, as always.

[animedork2075]

Best of luck to you. I was hoping to be one of the "Special Judges" again this year, but since I as well as the whole department I worked for stepped down from staff, that probably wasn't going to happen anyway. I am glad to see the contest is going to go on still, and despite last years disaster, I still think it's going to be my favorite thing to attend. So, again good luck, and hope everything goes smoothly.


David Blanck
former AX Archives staff
former AMV special judge

[KagatoAMV]

Hopefully Brad, Tommy and I will be able to host our AMV Workshop in 2008 with actual music & video.

[Castor Troy]

I'm not sure if I'll be attending the con next year because of what happened this year. However, I'll still attend the amv creator dinner (if we figure out the restaurant setup) and will be sending in a entry to the amv contest.

Best of luck to you guys.

[The Wired Knight]

Once more info is revealed I'll take a look around the area for what we can do for dinner, Brad says he knows some good places so I might ask him too. I'll be at AX anyway despite their issues last year; I have too many friends who come down for that weekend for AX to not bother to attend.