[Vidman1981]

Welcome Press,

As of Dec. 2nd The Press Policies & Press Registration for Anime Central 2011 is online.

You are also welcome to utilize this thread to ask any questions or comments about our current press policies.

Enjoy!

[kthardin]

Vidman1981, on 02 December 2010 - 11:00 AM, said:

Welcome Press,

As of Dec. 2nd The Press Policies & Press Registration for Anime Central 2011 is online.

You are also welcome to utilize this thread to ask any questions or comments about our current press policies.

Enjoy!

One in particular catches my attention:

Video & Audio Recording: ANY Video or Audio Recording for Anime Central Staff-organized events, (such as the Masquerade, fashion show, etc) are not to be uploaded to the internet, or made available to the public, in their entirety. If you wish to use recordings of such events, you must create a highlight clip instead. Any use otherwise is in violation of the Rights held by Anime Central.

This is new; or at least was never said in such an unambiguous fashion before. This is what a lot of us did, from what I recall...not that I was exactly able to release anything for last year's Masquerade due to that start stopping right before the Yoshiki event and the confusion during the Q&A on weather or not we could record. I'm curious as to the reason for this change?

I would like to note a few things on the subject, however. This is a rule for Press only, from what I can tell; it does not seem to apply to regular attendees. I suspect if you wanted to cut down attendance drastically, being draconian about recordings from the attendees would be a good place to start.

I'm curious if ACEN plans on releasing their own full videos of these events; this being one of the largest reasons why AC Paradise, myself, and others even started taking video since conventions, such as yours, obviously were taking video, but then locking it up in a vault somewhere never to be seen by human eyes again.

I'm curious as to the 'rights' you speak of. You're not paying anyone to put on the Masquerade, Fashion Show, etc; except maybe the support staff, like Tech Gendo and his crew. The attendees are paying *you* to come to this convention, and take part in these events, and without the regular attendees these events don't occur. One would be curious if you're making them sign over distribution rights for their walkons and skits before this occurs, which is questionably ethical, questionably moral, and quite possibly questionably legal (especially since a lot of these attendees aren't even 18 yet...you would need their parents for this, which can be a logistics nightmare on its own...though this is only ONE example). You're basically telling them they don't own what they're about to do, and will be receiving no compensation at all for it, not even the ability to see and show others what they did via the recordings the press makes...unless they are? This raises a few other questions as well, if this is the case.

So, what's the word on this situation?

[Vidman1981]

I will respond in detail as soon as I am able to get online on a computer tather than my cell. However, to touch on the paragraph you quoted from the press page, that has been in the rules & regulations for Press repeatedly for at lest the last 5 years.

please stand by for a more elaborate response, touching on all your questions & comments soon.

Thank you.

[Vidman1981]

kthardin, on 16 January 2011 - 03:13 PM, said:

One in particular catches my attention:

Video & Audio Recording: ANY Video or Audio Recording for Anime Central Staff-organized events, (such as the Masquerade, fashion show, etc) are not to be uploaded to the internet, or made available to the public, in their entirety. If you wish to use recordings of such events, you must create a highlight clip instead. Any use otherwise is in violation of the Rights held by Anime Central.

This is new; or at least was never said in such an unambiguous fashion before. This is what a lot of us did, from what I recall...not that I was exactly able to release anything for last year's Masquerade due to that start stopping right before the Yoshiki event and the confusion during the Q&A on weather or not we could record. I'm curious as to the reason for this change?

I would like to note a few things on the subject, however. This is a rule for Press only, from what I can tell; it does not seem to apply to regular attendees. I suspect if you wanted to cut down attendance drastically, being draconian about recordings from the attendees would be a good place to start.

I'm curious if ACEN plans on releasing their own full videos of these events; this being one of the largest reasons why AC Paradise, myself, and others even started taking video since conventions, such as yours, obviously were taking video, but then locking it up in a vault somewhere never to be seen by human eyes again.

I'm curious as to the 'rights' you speak of. You're not paying anyone to put on the Masquerade, Fashion Show, etc; except maybe the support staff, like Tech Gendo and his crew. The attendees are paying *you* to come to this convention, and take part in these events, and without the regular attendees these events don't occur. One would be curious if you're making them sign over distribution rights for their walkons and skits before this occurs, which is questionably ethical, questionably moral, and quite possibly questionably legal (especially since a lot of these attendees aren't even 18 yet...you would need their parents for this, which can be a logistics nightmare on its own...though this is only ONE example). You're basically telling them they don't own what they're about to do, and will be receiving no compensation at all for it, not even the ability to see and show others what they did via the recordings the press makes...unless they are? This raises a few other questions as well, if this is the case.

So, what's the word on this situation?

Ok, thank you for your patience on the reply of your statement. Lets take this one paragraph at a time.

1. As I mentioned in my previous post, this has always been the wording for Press policies in the past regarding such Staff-organized events. It’s been literally cut-n-pasted on our version of these rules and regulations year after year. The only drastic change that we’ve made in the last few years is the policy on those who apply for press passes under the Film/ Video, non-broadcast media. (i.e. Documentaries, etc).

2. We did have a lot of confusion last year with many last-minute Press issues regarding the masquerade and the special guest.

3. This rule does apply to regular attendees as well as Press, however a good majority of Regular attendees are probably using cell phones or cameras capturing specific clips of the masquerade. Even those of them using camcorders would have a hard enough time capturing the whole event due to its length. However, this rule, specifically, isn’t so much for the capture of the whole event but for the Release (uploading DVDs, etc) of total events.

4. If you have noticed this year, there is a Videos page on our website. We are still in talks about releasing such media in its entirety, but we will touch on this in the next paragraph when I talk about rights. We are not, by any means asking you to lock this footage in a “vault” never to be seen again. We are simply asking that you would use the footage in a manner of a highlight fashion in anything that you are using to “produce”. If there is one thing I would like you (the press) to keep in mind is that we provide Press Passes and Press access to our convention for the turn-over in (positive) publicity that we hope to receive in return. We run a pretty decent convention. However sites like youtube are littered with Room party footage and other negative views on the convention as well. We invite Press & media outlets to help fight that and keep a positive view on the convention. With the exception of a very few media outlets, photography and video specifically, we have seen very few in-return services for press access. My department sends out a request every year to the attending press to send back to us articles they’ve written, photos they’ve taken, video they’ve taken and/or uploaded as well as feedback to their experiences with the Press Departments functionality as well as the operation of the convention over all. We’re very close to making a decision on making this mandatory for press vs. optional. We can only find it fair and justifiable that your free access to the con be in good faith for reviews and reports of your experiences here.

5. Onto the rights, a big issue in our sides, you are right when you say we’re not paying anyone, for putting on events such as this. However, we are organizing an event that includes copyrighted and trademarked characters likeness, music, even things that may seem as silly as “copyrighted phrases”. To record these events, especially for mass viewing or distribution is where we as a convention and whomever is doing the distribution of the piece can get into legal issues with the owners who hold rights on such likenesses. I believe under 18 members for skits are required to have permissions for such events.

I will be more than happy to talk to you offline on this subject matter. I believe my contact info is available on my profile or you can send me a PM with a request of a phone call or email address.

This post has been edited by Vidman1981: 18 January 2011 - 08:04 PM

[nazrin]

When will email replies to press credentials and other questions be going out? I sent the required information out March 27th and have yet to receive another email from Anime Central staff.

[Vidman1981]

nazrin, on 11 April 2011 - 12:35 PM, said:

When will email replies to press credentials and other questions be going out? I sent the required information out March 27th and have yet to receive another email from Anime Central staff.

If you've recieved youro initial approval letter you are all set.

The reply with Press Credentials will also be accepted in person on site when you check in to accept your press passes. we just want to make sure all attending press are the real-deal.