Study on AMV's at Anime Expo

[Roki]

Call for interview volunteers!

I’m Sam Close, a graduate student at the University of California at Irvine doing a project on fan video-making. If you’ve ever made an amv, I’d love to talk with you—I’m hoping to get lots of different viewpoints from people with all levels of experience, so please don’t feel like this is an “experts only” call. I’m starting off with in-person interviews at Anime Expo and VividCon. I’m calling for participants now to pre-schedule interview times so that you (and I!) can go to all of the events and panels that we want to attend at the cons. There will be an online survey as a second phase of the study, but I’m hoping to receive some input through the interviews about what questions about video-making are interesting to fans and what could be put better or doesn’t really make sense.

How to Volunteer

If you’re attending Anime Expo and would like to volunteer for an interview, please email me at sclose at uci dot edu. Use the email you’d like me to contact you at for the purposes of setting up an interview time. The interviews will take half an hour.

Topics

In this study, I’m really interested in the craft of video-making as a kind of sampling. The interview questions will be about that process, such as “how do you come up with an idea?” or “do you usually make videos from shows and movies you enjoy watching?” I will also ask a few questions about your sense of the make-up of the fan video-making community. This is not meant to be exclusive of what you can talk about (as your video-making might very well intersect with some of your other experiences as a fan or with source material, and I’m excited to hear about that) but to give you an idea of what to expect.

Consent

Before starting the interview, I’ll give everyone who volunteers a study information sheet describing the research, all of your rights as a subject, the interview procedures, and how your privacy will be protected. The information sheet with have the phone number for the University of California Ethics Hotline on it, and you can take the sheet with you after the interview.

Part of your rights as a study volunteer are that you can change your mind about participating in the study at any time, for any reason.

Privacy and Confidentiality

All interviewees will have the choice to either be completely anonymous or identified by a pseudonym. You or I will make up a pseudonym for the purposes of the study—it shouldn’t be the one you use in fan communities. If you choose to be anonymous, you will be identified in my records only by a number. At no time will I collect a name or other information that could be traced back to you. (this is why we’re using new pseudonyms and not having you sign consent forms) The email you send me to set up an interview time will be permanently deleted as soon as we find a good time, and your email address will never be associated with your pseudonym or number.

All information gathered in the interviews will be kept in a password protected computer. If you agree to have me audio record the interview, then the audio recording will be deleted as soon as I transcribe the recording into text.

Procedures

The interviews will take place in a private space away from the main con area. I’m hoping to arrange all interviews in advance, but if you’re attending the con and weren’t able to contact me beforehand, I’ll definitely try to find a time for anyone who approaches me and wants to volunteer.