Fanime 2006-Feedback Thread

[angeljibrille]

Masquarade's award ceremony wasn't lively compare to last year.

This is because we had a sudden change in the schedule and they told us we had to be out of there by 11:00pm (instead of 11:30pm as was scheduled). So, we had to sadly rush through the awards :-(  I'm extremely sorry about that, much of what we had planned to do did not happen because of the schedule change.

Brian Doan is my speech teacher and he told me that he's gonna host the masquarade. Then I hear from the other staff that he wasn't gonna host.  What's going on?

If you were at the Masquerade - you saw he was there...? He was always planned to be the host. The only difference this year was that "Dieter" was not going to be there, by Brian's choice. Brian himself was there and had always been scheduled to be there. Some staff may have been confused because Brian also used to run the backstage stuff (organizing cosplayers, etc.) and that was taken over by a different team this year. Brian is now just the emcee and we were happy to have him return in that capacity.

Thanks~!
Marisa

[Green_Tea]

For those of you that did visit the Asian Film Rooms:

1. What films or dramas did you enjoy the most?

2. Were there any films or dramas on the schedule that you had made plans to see going into the convention?

3. Were there any films or dramas that you dropped in on, without any previous intention of watching the film, but ended up enjoying?

4. Were there any films or dramas that you did not enjoy?

5. What can we do to improve your experience in the Asian Film rooms?


Thanks!  :)

1. The random people I hung out with and I really loved Waterboys. It was side-splitting hilarious!

2. We made plans to see one at 3 in the morning becuase it sounded good, but it ended up being so late that we just crashed instead.

3. Kim Sam Soon..We just went in because we had nothing else to do. It was great though! The hair thing was hilarious.

4. Personally I only saw about 3, so even though I didn't have any bad ones it might be because I didn't watch that much.

5. Like I said, I had a great time so I don't have anything for you to improve upon. I liked it so much this year I'm actually thinking of trying to join your staff for 07.


Side note

I'd have to agree with some of the people about the rap being out of place. I was there watching them until I heard the "F" word for the 4th time in 30 seconds. The sad part is that I like rap and would have stuck around if it was more family friendly.

[angeljibrille]

Maybe I didnt stay till the second half Im not sure I was so tired by that time but I stayed up until the Usa Musume performance, I had hoped that Ramen and Rice might make a special guest apperance, watched their show and the moment it ended I left.

We actually asked them to come, but one of the two could not make it due to other obligations and sadly had to miss Fanime altogether. They were sincerely missed -- we love Ramen & Rice too!!  They were originally our idea for the "seating music". Maybe next year :D

But as you previously stated maybe the solution is just dispersing the walk ons and skits as evenly as possible although I did enjoy the two special performances.

Nodnod. I think this is going to have to be the solution. We alre already brainstorming on ideas to help make this happen.

Thanks!
Marisa

[Green_Tea]

Sorry about the double posts guys. It won't let me delete one.  :(

[Kyokun]

Dealer’s room had a decent selection of goods, and I got some decent deals on Monday.  I am happy with all my purchases.  However, I did notice a lack of wallscrolls, posters, and distributor booths.  Bandai, Funimation, and others have been in the past, and this year it seemed only Media Blasters made it.  It’s sad, because sometimes the best deals come from the distributors.

AMVs were a lot of fun.  I had three friends with me who hadn’t seen them before and they had a great time.  The only sour point was the hecklers who started booing the Naruto videos.  That was just rude.

Bishounen Bingo was a blast.  Elysium and Thorn rocked hardcore.

Schedules came out BEFORE the con!  Woohoo!

Decent selection of fansubbed anime.  I was especially happy with Rozen Maiden.

Funimation’s premiere was good; I found some new anime to look forward too.  Too bad everything was dubbed.  But it still gave me a good enough preview.  I wish more distributors had previews at Fanime.

Artist’s Alley was good in the Exhibit Hall.  Except they needed more advertising.  I walked by several times before I realized it was there.

It would help if maps were posted at the information booths, so that when they are closed at night, we can still find stuff (like if we forgot our program guide in the hotel room).  It took us forever to find Video Room 8.

Fanboy funk seemed slightly tamer this year, although it was still noticeable.  Best sign:  â€œBuy less Pocky, more soap!” at a vendor table.  One time I left a vendor booth prematurely because it reeked so bad.

All in all, my friends and I had a great time.  Thank you all for making it possible.

[Babbit_Chan]

asianfilm

1. What films or dramas did you enjoy the most? Considering I only watched one throughout the whole con, I'll say Duelist. It was beautiful.

2. Were there any films or dramas on the schedule that you had made plans to see going into the convention? Duelest, Water Boys, A Tale of Two Sisters

3. Were there any films or dramas that you dropped in on, without any previous intention of watching the film, but ended up enjoying? Not really, I didn't really do much of that this year lol.

4. Were there any films or dramas that you did not enjoy? When we went to see A Tale of Two Sisters they couldn't get the subtitle track to play so they screened a different movie about a murder investigation instead. We tried it out anyway but we were out of there in about 10-15 minutes - it was boring.

5. What can we do to improve your experience in the Asian Film rooms? I can't think of anything right now, but I was pretty happy about the variety offered. I did notice that there was kind of a lack of Chinese material, particularly in the drama area.

[asianfilm]

4. Were there any films or dramas that you did not enjoy? When we went to see A Tale of Two Sisters they couldn't get the subtitle track to play so they screened a different movie about a murder investigation instead. We tried it out anyway but we were out of there in about 10-15 minutes - it was boring.

5. What can we do to improve your experience in the Asian Film rooms? I can't think of anything right now, but I was pretty happy about the variety offered. I did notice that there was kind of a lack of Chinese material, particularly in the drama area.

We actually had a ton of Chinese movies on the schedule, but we'll work on adding some Chinese dramas as well.

As for the subtitle problem with A Tale of Two Sisters... REALLY sorry about that. We figured out what the problem was, and we're taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again next year. I'm sorry to hear you didn't like The Big Scene, though. I do admit that it is very slow at the beginning, but once it picks up, it's actually very good. Maybe next time, perhaps? :)

[joshness]

This, being my second year, I found it much better then last year. I think this is mainly because I had more friends go and I had an idea of what to expect and what to look for.

Artist Row
I personally like having the artist row on the main concourse. Yes, it made things at times a little hard to walk through, but I spent more time looking at the artist stuff. I spent maybe 20mins in total in artist row. The concourse felt really empty because of that.

Dealer's Room
I loved the dealer's room this year. It felt like there was way more dealers this year then last year. The only complaint I have is that there wasn't enough variety in the merchandise; way too much Bleach and Naruto stuff. (Even though I love Bleach)

E-Gaming
Brilliant, I didn't spend too much time there, but it looked like a blast. Having the Swap Meet there was really great for us that were purchasing. It wasn't stuffy and there were a ton more people selling stuff.

Asian Video Rooms
For my friends and me, this was really amazing. The movies there were great! I personally only watched 3 or so movies, but I had some friends that watched maybe 5+. They enjoyed every movie except maybe one. Our favorite movie, by far, was Shinobi. Wow! The only suggestion I have, and this is for everything in general, is to have signs up saying where things are. Kind of like the street signs you see at San Francisco that point you where Chinatown and Fisherman's Warf is. Last year, I could not find the Asian Video Room to save my life. I think this would help greatly for new-commers.

Table Top-Gaming
Horrible room. I had no clue where the room was (looked for it where it was last yaer). I couldn't get into the Holdem tournament because I couldn't find it, and second, not enough tables. Plus it felt stuff in there and I would have hated to be in there on Saturday and Sunday

Stage Zero
Excellent idea! It was the only thing going on in the Concourse. Certainly gave a little life. I didn't spend much time there, but it is definately a keeper. As far as the rap goes, I didn't dig their style of rap which was basically why I didn't like it. I can't stand Hyphy rappers to begin with. I think if you do do rappers again, get conscious rappers and have more of the other elements worked in. The B-boy thing was cool and thought that worked. I would look into bringing in a group like Crown City Rockers which are a rap band (meaning drums, keys, etc). Speaking of which, instead of having the bands play in the small room, why not put them out on stage zero? maybe too many people will gather?

MusicFest
EXCELLENT! I didn't care for some of the bands like Poplar and Miami, but the others were amazing! Swinging Popsicles and mothercoat were just wow! It was sad that the place wasn't full though. It was definately a highlight for me.

[EternalMalachi]

Kim Sam Soon!  ^,^`  My friend and I were just wandering the halls and made our way down the Asian film area and were drawn in by a thrown cake and a steady beat.  ^.^  I wanted to watch more but my friend and I had to make our rounds to show of the costumes.  Maximum exposure!  ^.^`

[mDuo13]

1. What films or dramas did you enjoy the most?

I saw:
- Densha Otoko ep 1
- Men Suddenly in Black
- the second half of Initial D
- A Bittersweet Life
I liked Densha Otoko, but I didn't want to get worn out by watching huge chunks of it at a time - I didn't realize that each episode was an hour long. Men Suddenly In Black was pretty good, especially the camera-fight scene, which had me laughing about as loud as is humanly possible. A Bittersweet Life was visually stunning, but the plot was a bit hard to follow and it seemed amazingly long. However, it was awesomely intense, and about as hilarious as any of the comedies, perhaps unintentionally and due to the comments friends and I were making (as we comprised 3 of the 5 or so people present). You have no idea how many in-jokes we came up with from that movie.

2. Were there any films or dramas on the schedule that you had made plans to see going into the convention?

I planned to see Densha Otoko because I had heard about it from several people prior to the convention. The others were just sort of a drop-in, like late at night when I said, "Well, the other rooms are either in the middle of marathons or hentai, so I guess Asian Film it is!"

3. Were there any films or dramas that you dropped in on, without any previous intention of watching the film, but ended up enjoying?

See my response to #1. In short: yes, all of them.

4. Were there any films or dramas that you did not enjoy?

No. Though all the movies had their flaws, they also had awesome parts.

5. What can we do to improve your experience in the Asian Film rooms?

Highlight a few filims in particular that are really popular or must-see events. The way it is now, every movie I see in the Asian Film rooms is a "sleeper hit" in a sense. Otherwise - the Asian Film rooms are so well-prepared in advance that I just wish the other viewing rooms could be as organized: summaries in the doors, those and screenshots at the doors, and everything planned in advance, too! Waaaaay above par for Fanime viewing rooms.

[FanFicGuru]

Wow. I'm glad to hear so many positive things about the Asian Film rooms. It's always gratifying to know that all the work we do is appreciated by the attendees of the convention.

Now, some questions.

For those of you that did not visit the Asian Film Rooms:

1. Was there any reason that you did not visit the Asian Film and Drama rooms?

2. What would it take to get you to watch Asian Films and Dramas next year at Fanime?

Thanks!  :)

I myself have not visited the asian film room in the last two years that I've been there...and I'm not quite sure why... I know that movies like Saikano live action looks really interesting to me, so maybe if you have that by next year I'll swing by.

Movies like Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and others are really appealing to me, and I know you had breakdowns of certain movies up, but maybe if you categorized the asian film rooms further? Like, Asian Film 1 would be Action/Martial Arts, Asian Film 2 could be drama and Asian Film 3 could be comedy? Something like that would make me want to visit them a bit more, because I would look at the schedule and I really didn't know what I was looking at as far as titles. *shrug*

Certain Dramas would be cool to see...I think most of it is me breaking myself into the genre. ^_^

Anyways, I look forward to checking out the Asian Film room next year. ^_^

[FanFicGuru]

One other thing, the Tabletop gaming room was definitely NOT as good this year as it was last year. It was way too cramped, and the BO in there was taking up permanent residence. Move it to a bigger room...maybe if it had it's own corner in the E-gaming room that would have been cool too.

That's my only other main complaint.

[E-Chan]

Alright, so I was a Rover and I was doing Desk, I'm sure a lot of people saw me... I apologize in advance to anyone that I may have been short with, I tried to be nice, but I worked 8-14 hours every day and so sometimes I was hardly aware of what was coming out of my mouth.

Anyhow, I didn't get out much, but what I did see, I had comments about.

[list=1]

• Stage Zero[/b]
  Absolutely brilliant! I'm glad we had the entertainment out on the concourse, I just wish there had been more late-night filler for when nothing else was open. It couldn't have been too incredibly hard to have set up the system so there would be like... filler amv's all night-- the best of past years, perhaps... but for a first year program, it was good. (I'd love to see it back with some improvements for next year).
  
  However, I was a Rover (as I said) and I know people repeatedly had to go out there to do crowd control because of fans getting too crowded and blocking walkways. Because of this I'd love to see more space for crowds next time.
  
  
  • Asian Films[/b]
    I saw that there was a particular form, but I just have a couple comments since I only poked my head in for one or two movies the whole weekend. I liked the choices, but some of them would have been better switched to different times. I do understand that you can't please everyone all the time, so I think it was fairly well done. I don't especially like Old Boy, but I know that a lot of people like it. (Enough to play it two years in a row though?)
    
    
    • Peace-Bonding[/b]
      It should have been placed more places-- a location in the Dealer's Hall and maybe on the Concourse would be nice. (I know we were terribly understaffed, however more people with peacebonding training could have done more). I know a lot of people who normally would get bonded couldn't find the Rover office. *sigh*[/list:o]
      
      I can't think of anything else right now.

[Tris-chan]

Just wanted to post some quickie great things about this year's fanime:

MASQUERADE WAS ON TIME!! If I hadn't been there and seen it, I would never have believed it could happen  :D Marisa and all of the masq team, congratulations on such a great show! (By the way, Brian, your son is the cutest kid on the face of the earth)

Stage Zero was a great idea that I hope can be expanded next year. Maybe have rotating hosts? Or even have that be the j-pop/j-rock hub of the con? (It sort of was, and sort of wasn't...)

The guests were great too! It was great talking to them, and they all gave wonderful interviews. I hope they enjoyed it as much as we did :)

And finally, the press staff, specifically Pamela. I hope you read the boards, Pam, because you were an EXCELLENT press liason. Really truly, you ran a tight ship and it was great to see! Thanks so much for keeping us (that'd be the cosplaylab.com reps) informed about any changes that were needed right when you knew. You were courteous and helpful and awesome and I hope we can see you again in the same position next year ^^ Although any team would be lucky to have you!

And a couple of quick suggestions:

As everyone has said, it might be good to have the walk-ons either judged in a different competition or to have them all go on one after the other during the masq. There were some wonderful costumes shown, and all that hard work is certainly appreciated, but having a walk-on come on after a particularly energetic performance tends to cut that energy off at the knees :( It's just great to keep building the momentum up during the show.

Stage Zero, as I mentioned, could probably be expanded. It'd be cool to have a j-pop/rock only cosplay competition- the stage is big enough (and there were enough microphones) to have some great performances. Although it might have to be moved to a different place for that, since the crowd during anything like that might be too big to allow for good traffic passing through >_>

Please god move the karaoke competition. Lots of people with nine-to-five jobs don't get off work on fridays until after (or right at) five, so it's hard for those of us who want to participate but have work :( Both of my other group members this year had that happen, and that kind of sucked. Saturday might be a better day...but then it would conflict with music fest, right? I dunno. Just putting it out there.

Thanks to all the staffers and volunteers this year for giving us a great con!

[ip136]

Fwou~ I might mention things that were already mentioned but then I forgot easily this sorta stuff and and and. yus.

I LOVED this year a lot more than almost any other year (hookay, there were personal non-con reasons, but still. ^_^; )

++ I was sooooo happy about the whole previewing stuff on Thursday for the pre-reg people. Showing The Maxx was 'boss' and very 'rad'.

++ The Martial Arts performances in the Artist Alley room was VERY cool. ^_^ All of those people are so talented!

++ The layout for the E-Gaming was great! It was all in one section, though I got confused where the tabletop was, and didn't get my bearring straight on it until Sunday Night *sadness.. doesn't take direction really well even with a map*

-- The Swap meet on Friday was a little confusing because there was e-gaming stuff going on/getting set-up. I would have liked to see the swap meet in its own room again, though not like last year. With the line switching back and forth. X_x; Maybe more a seperation? Since it was all along the one wall it got confusing for me because it was so spread out.

+/- Artist Alley. Hookay. I had a table, and it was aaaaaaaall the way in the corner in the back. I don't mind that actually and it was a lot of fun. ^^ I was hoping that being over near one of the stages, something was going to go on there, but I guess I was wrong because the only thing I actually saw going on there was there were couches and some people just hung out at them. X_x; The major problem for me was the fact that there were 4 empty tables between mine and the next person close to the front. The way the tables were set-up it caused most people to only stay towards the front of the room and us people in back left-hand corner didn't get nearly as much attention - I'm going to guess less than half. Perhaps some sort of table re-assignment can take place if there are empty tables? It was probably possible, but I wasn't sure n' too shy to ask. ;3; Still, I would love to see some sort of 'zen-type' set-up for the tables next year that would help make the flow of con-going traffic move through the entire room *nods* But I loved the fact we were in a seperate room, having the main con floor open was really nice and no where near as claustrophobic as it was for meeh last year. (p.s. thanks everyone who bought some of my stuff/watched my little short on the Death of Aeris! ^_^)v )

++ The viewing rooms were large and awesome. It was great the diversity of anime that was being played

+/- I really liked the programming pamphlets that explained what each event was, but what I would have loved to see (that I saw some other year) was a short description of each anime/movie that was being played. It was all on the website, but it makes it difficult for people who might not have realized that. Even a short description on the board infront of the room that would be changed out each time for each anime would be helpful (shucks, I would help make that happen! *waves her arms* I'd design the temple, buy the paper and print the stuff out if need be). Otherwise a person would have to look at their watch, find the video room on the schedule and see what the anime was called.

oh! another +/- I liked how the schedule was blocked out! I wish we could've had a color version in the pamphlet though.. and if we could've been able to get the entire schedule at once that would have been very awesome. My only other downside with it, was when the Sun/Mon one was printed, a bad batch got set out and you couldn't really read the text. ;_; I so would've gone to the early Dollfie panel (before I opened my artist row thing) if I could've read it as that. ._.;

Uhm uhm.. what else.. ou~ Suggestions!
If Stage zero remains, use the mic system to announce big things for people! Like popular panels, events, anime being shown! Like "Attention, photoshoots with Kamijo are starting in 10 minutes in blahblahblah" I dunno if this was actually done (most of the time I was in artist alley playing with chibi figurines. XP ), but it would be helpful and I think pretty awesome~

I loved this year and for the first time I'm certain I shall return for another. :D Great job staff and volunteers!!

[Pimpstress Rei]

Hey all,

I must again apologize for such small font on the schedules. I wrote this whole long thing out, but the hamsters ate my post, so I'm going to summarize.

We bought a commercial printer/copier to be able to produce faster and better prints. The tech-guy inspected it and deemed it fine. Of course the printer (whom we named Fluffy) died the night before con. There was scrambling and help contributed from other department heads (thank you guys!) to try and reformat the schedule to be able to print at Kinko's. Alas, our hours of effort were in vain because the schedule turned out funky anyway. At this point we decided to format an excel sheet with the schedule and try to print from there. There were problems associated with this, but at this point, at 4am on Friday morning, we had to go to print.

We tried to print a small batch at first so I would be able to fix up the schedule and do a mass print job later, but that backfired with not enough people receiving the schedule.

Also, by the time I got to various Kinko's that night, many of them had long queues so we had to wait hours for our 10,000 print order to go through. By Saturday at noon, they arrived and they weren't at the standard to which I was hoping to produce.

I am not trying to excuse myself, only explain the situation so that you all know that I tried my best to produce something that could get you by. It's just bad luck this year, I suppose.

But next year I will have more back up plans and I will try my best to produce something that you will all enjoy.


RE: the program guide

If you have suggestions for next year's program guide, and would like to help implement these changes, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]. I am more than happy to get feedback on what I could do to improve the program guide for next year.

Btw, overall, was it ok? I heard the food map went over well, and I will try my best to print hours and price ranges for all of the restaurants next year.

I hope you all had an overall good time at the convention and I will see you next year!

[ADORABLEAZN06]

the dealer's rooom is pretty good....but all the dealers have the same thing.. thing like naruto and bleach....so much kon and ichigo and naruto plush..
the area of lareine is the best.. cool music and good music

[Kyokun]

Oh, yeah, one more thing.  I would've preferred to have women's Fanime shirts (i.e. babydoll) with a front print rather than a youth's t-shirt.  I bought the youth one, but it doesn't fit nearly as well as a women's cut shirt would've.  The only women's shirt was only available as XL and I think they were leftover from last year.  I really really liked the pattern this year, and would've loved it even more if it was printed on the front, instead of the back.

[ADORABLEAZN06]

i think i will go to fanime con 2007!
did anyone of you know the cheapets price of the hotel ????

i lived in hotel hilton, its so expensive!!!!
i wannt to have cheaper price!!!

[angeljibrille]

Btw, overall, was it ok? I heard the food map went over well, and I will try my best to print hours and price ranges for all of the restaurants next year.

It was a really beautiful program guide -- I loved the artwork.  :)

Marisa