I'd completely forgotten about Anime Expo's ongoing attempt to add an E3-like industry-schmooze component to their program -- but then they
issued a press release detailing their plans for the con.
It's a set of "Industry Conference panels", probably open to all con attendees, probably with some additional industry-only events. Topics mentioned include:
- State-of-the-industry keynote addresses from Austin OSUEKE (eigoMANGA), Shawne KLECKNER (Right Stuf) and Kun GAO (Crunchyroll).
- Making manga and anime into Hollywood features. (With bonus pluralizing difficulty. It is sometimes inconvenient that Japanese doesn't conjugate by number.)
- American-origin manga (OEL is a term I've heard, but dislike).
- Digital distribution, piracy, new ways to monetize.
Frankly, none of it looks even slightly interesting. Plus, I've attended these panels before, and the participants, for the most part, didn't have any interest in anything but money -- and, what's worse, they had no idea how they'd gotten profitable to begin with. (If you were there and have managed to find this column, the odds are very good you're one of the people I didn't want to punch in the face. Congratulations.)
But I'll be there just the same. Even if I think I know the answers (making movies is hard, but we keep trying; soon it'll all look like manga anyway, but selling it as manga if it's not from East Asia is a doomed effort; and we need to adapt by finding new revenue streams) -- even so, I would love to be surprised.
words from chris, 2009-06-17 00:27:00, los angeles
