xstylus wrote:That was back in 2006 or 2007, wasn't it? That was under James. There's new people running the show, in case you hadn't heard.
At least as far back as 2006. I can't remember the exact year but I think it is fair to consider that falling within "recent years". As for who ran the event during that time period or now is only partially relevant. You must consider the viewpoint of someone looking at the whole gamut of AX for the last 10 years during the online AMV era. On the whole there has always been a high level of drama. Some self inflicted by AX contest coordinators and some inflicted by entrants, and on several occasions inflicted by the general AMV community itself.
When dealing with AMV contest entrants it often helps to thing of things in terms of customer service procedures. It could take many months to win over the creators to your side but only seconds to lose them forever. That's simply the reality. This is exacerbated even more when you consider the AMV scene 2005-current has a lot of creators who are friends or interconnected through online communities/activities or know each other IRL.
Also keep in mind that it has been popular to hate on the AX con as a whole for many people dating back to near the end of the VHS-era fansub scene when AX started "getting too fucking big" (I heard that exact phrase used in 1998). AX is definitely the biggest con now and thinking in those terms people automatically assume you're the biggest so you should be the best period and never have problems (which is laughable).
Joke an mmo buddy of mine he applied to a particular guild situation once: The bigger a .... gets up in this mutha fucka the more they want to see you fail =p. It's hard for me to describe but from 1999-2009 I've seen AX AMV contests go through a microscope. I think over the years the AX stigma has built up and creators just plain don't trust the con itself because they have the perception that the AX con has the most to lose should any legal situation arise. All the legal mumbo jumbo for entrants which happened at one point and the "legal permissions" or whatever it was for getting stuff to show at the AMV creation panel just made a lot of people say fuck it they aren't one of us so they're against us (thus let's disassociate ourselves from them).
I think it should be noted that AX appears to be reaching out to AMV creators somewhat through their current AMV staff's efforts. It's just they have a lot of baggage to reverse. No one cares if they are new staff running the show they are waiting to see what can they do for them now and most of those they need to convince don't have any "thanks for X in the past" experiences so it's all the harder to woo them.
ACen's contests were definitely not held in good regard within the AMV community for a time period in the 2000s. I think there was a lot of luck involved that didn't make things crash & burn for Sailordeath and later myself when I joined. Even disregarding all the effort and work that was put in if there was enough other factors I think it could have just deep-sixed everything. Sometimes timing is everything. AX AMV contest may have failed to achieve the success it should have because it may in fact be missing the biggest things they should target. I don't have enough data here to work with but I think some of the problems with judging complaints may have less to do with the judges and more to do with the judging processes. The amazingly one-sided talk about how Death Note Rhapsody was mis-categorized seems to indicate a fundamental breakdown or loophole in the process.
Also keep in mind that if your main judging panel isn't experienced or "in-line" with current creators and the scene there is always a worry that the community might perceive judging out of line or uninformed. This is hard to work and something I often worry about as despite being a creator myself I am definitely not in-line with the current AMV scene.
this year, but that is not in the hands of the judges, but in the hands of the creators! Big thanks to everyone who helped the event run so smoothly , I have big respect for all of you. Now I think its time for the creators to pull together and put on a great show next year. yaah?