Okay, a few comments.

I know I'm not going to make any friends with this post, but there are a few concerns that I need to clear up.

1. Anime on A-Kon® TV.  I'm sorry to say, but this is most likely never going to happen.  Let me explain why.  There are several reasons.  They're even good ones.

    First, why would we show anime at the anime convention where we really want you to be on the convention floor interacting with all the nice vendors, artists and performers who have put a lot of time and effort into coming to the convention so that you could see them?  If you really want to watch anime while at the con, go to the video room.  If all you really want to do is watch anime on the TV, why bother going to the con at all?

    Second, we have yet to receive any interest from any anime distribution houses to show any of their programming on A-Kon® TV.  Without them wanting us to show it, we won't receive the permission to show it, and that is pretty much that.

 

   Lastly, and perhaps most importantly on this subject, there are THREE video rooms downstairs that are showing anime.  Every year.  They post the schedules of what they show, and it is what they do.  Showing anime at the convention has never been something that A-Kon® TV has done in its now eight years as a part of the convention.

2.  Where were the Anime Music Videos this year? 

     This can be attributed to a concern that I had about some licensing due to the changes that are taking place at the hotel.  One of my staffers was up working on adjusting the programming lineup until 5AM the next morning after this was brought to my attention, taking the AMVs out because of potential issues.  We had planned to show them almost every hour of the con up to the point, where we were forced to take them out.

  The fact that we had to redo the entire weekend's broadcast schedule also played hell with us getting regular updates from the news team online and ready to go.

   Those issues are being resolved and they will be back in the programming schedule for A-Kon® 20.

3.  The non-anime programming that we showed.  Okay, so there are complaints about the non-anime programming that we showed, and that we didn't show any of the panels.

   We didn't show much of Red vs. Blue and Ask a Ninja this year because we felt that we'd shown them too much in previous years.  One complaint that we've gotten every year except for this one is that we've shown too many repeats.

     Last year we showed three different voice actor panels.  We filmed them all, and after inputting them, editing them and putting titles on them, we could only tell them apart by the shirts that the voice actors were wearing.  The people were the same, the stories were the same.  We felt like we were doing everyone a disservice by essentially repeating the same panels over and over.  We kinda got tired of watching them, too, to be honest.   What you may not realize is that while all you guys are down on the con floor for most of the weekend, we have someone up in the room at all times that really does nothing but make sure that our feed is still on the air.  This means that pretty much all they do all weekend is watch A-Kon TV to make sure that we're still on the air.  So they see all the repeats of Steve Elvis America and Robot Bastard.  And yes, the Russian film, which we think is amazingly funny, and well put-together for a self financed film.

  We didn't show any of the panels from this year because we wanted you con goers to actually GO TO THE PANELS.  If no one goes to the panels, then the people that are putting the panels together may not think that there is any interest.

4. The news team. 

We really had fun with the news team, and the plan right now is to do a lot more with it.  However, it is not likely to be a live shoot unless we can get some serious technical issues worked out.  Right now getting anything that we shoot on the con floor up to our production room, which is normally in the north tower, which means fighting past 15,000 of you guys to get to an elevator.  Then, after we get the video input and edited, the appropriate titles generated and attached, we have to fight our way back down to the lobby, and then fight back up the elevators in the south tower to get to the broadcast feed.  And it isn't made any easier by the antics of pulling the fire alarms or breaking the elevators, or any of the hundreds of other things that I'm sure no one that might be reading this does.  You know who you are, I've seen you do it.

Please see the entry at  http://www.a-kontv.com/main/News/Entries/2008/6/3_Timing_and_Editing_of_Video_Footage_at_the_Kon.html for more info.  

   Okay, that little rant aside.  We had a lot of fun with the news team this year, and if we can get some technical issues worked out, we can feed updates to the system a little easier next year.  Once a few things are operating more smoothly, then you'll get more updates from the news team, and we'll be able to interview random con attendees like you guys.

  The Guinness Record Report ended up being cut short due to a problem that needed a resolution quickly.  I was less happy about it than anyone, because to break into the programming like that interrupted the only nap that I tried to get during the con.  On Sunday.  After I'd been there since Wednesday setting up.  After having spent the last month trying to make sure that things were going to go off without a hitch.

  The first part of the Guinness Record Attempt is on the A-Kon® TV website in the podcast feed.  There will be more coming soon.

5.  This should probably have been item 1.  The TVs in the hotels not going to channel 17.

   This is part hotel and part user error.  You see, the hotels in the Sheraton tune in two manners, depending randomly on which room you are in.  We had one of each in our production suite, so I know this for a fact. 

   The easiest way to tune into A-Kon® TV was to go into the Menu, where you'd order On Demand, and to choose Channel Guide.  From there you could choose channel 17.

   I found out about this on friday from another staff head, and did all I could to correct it hotel wide, which was to let the hotel know.  They did what they could,  but the damage was done.

In closing:  Still with me?  This is the good part.

   This year we wanted to bring new stuff to the programming lineup.  This is why you got things like The Defenders of Stan, The Guild, Cherub, the Vampire with Bunny Slippers.  We can't really show you anime, so we figured that we'd show you the next best thing; Fan Created Content.

We thought the shows were pretty good.  They were low-budget, and not terribly difficult to assemble.  We would like to see more of them. 

So I'm issuing all of you a challenge, here and now:

   If you think you can create some better shows for us to show on A-Kon® TV, then do so.   Cosplay 2 minute limitation got you down?  Get it your skit on film and we might be able to show it.  Got a grand movie that you've been working on?  Put it together.   Consider the gauntlet thrown.

We'll be posting on the A-Kon® TV website soon how to get your films to us.  We're also planning to put up a filmmaker forum on the site to help with ideas and to get people in touch with each other to work on skits and share resources.

We're going to try to make A-Kon® TV more a part of the community than it's been in the past.

I hope this answers a few questions and addresses some concerns.  I'll also be posting this to the A-Kon® TV website tonight.

Thank you,

Dan

A-Kon® TV Staff Head