Screenhead

Ultra special treat for you today, folks–I’ve got an interview here with the ORIGINAL chair and founder of Kuzuricon, Joe Wall.  And from what he’s told us, he’s got a LOT to talk about concerning plenty of behind the scenes drama at the recently-launched anime convention.  So settle in for a treat and brace yourselves as we go five questions with Joe Wall.

1. Let’s start off with some background.  Who are you in relation to Kuzuricon?

I am the original chair.  I am also the cons founder.  I started “Project Con” back in July of 08.  I wanted to see a con that wasn’t just about Anime, but about gaming as well.  So I hung fliers and orginized the business.  What I didn’t realize is what kind of power I was giving these people by letting them sign the articles of incorporation.  It was my intent to give them power by policy, but not by law. At this time I don’t do anything for Kuzuricon as they have removed me from my position.

2. What is your actual affiliation to Kuzuricon?  Are you its original founder?

See the previous question, I answered in that, that I am the original founder.

3. Give us some background on the “takeover” you describe throughout your blog.

Well, this group of friends that currently run the con as we speak, were all part of a group called Otakazoo.  I don’t know if that’s in any relation to the fact they drove off anyone that wasn’t in their group, but it does explain why they chose to go with Samantha Nicles artwork instead of another artist’s (I’ll just say Lisa for now).  It appears they kept Cody around, because he does not have an important role in the con.  I can show you some of Lisa’s artwork if you wish to see it.  They basically claimed I was power tripping and playing favortism, which I never was.  They constantly refused to ask me any questions or work with me on anything and constantly acted on their own.

4.  Could you explain the “Kuzuricon Abridged” comic you posted here on your With Dint page’s blog? It’s hilarious but I don’t understand much of the references.

Frame 1:  Basically me introducing myself to the staff of Kuzuricon.  I’m explaining that I’m trying to start a con, even though I know how and what to expect, I don’t have any actual experience doing this.

Frame 2: This is just me announcing to the staff our planned date to have the con. Originally we were going to have it a week before in the Radisson of Kalamazoo. But something happened to where they were no longer contacting us.

Frame 3: This is explaining how things were interfering with me personally with the con.  The staff constantly fighting (Mostly rooted from Samantha Nicles) How I had just taken on a new job in Grand Rapids that was full time and required my full attention (software engineer and on call for Diamond Phoenix).  How even though with this new job, the lack of funding to start things was an issue.  We tried many attempts for sponsorships and other things, but I can only assume I and Cody were the only two people working on that. Hotel troubles, as explained we originally wanted the Radisson, but they wanted WAY to much for use of the hotel.

Frame 4: Basically Sam starting to be pugnacious towards me, and some being, “Why are we doing this” but at the same time supporting her.  This frame probably is mostly my speculation of what she was thinking. Obviously replace, “Flying the plane” with “running the con”.

Frame 5: This frame is pretty self explanatory.

Frame 6: the bar across the door, “Fire the staff” is to show how in attempts to battle their acting on their own. I scheduled two meetings that they chose not make, and because they didn’t, by policy of or con they were fired.  Using their own, “Acting on their own” attitude against them.  But what is not explained is why I did this to fire them.  Well, they were fighting constantly over nothing, not showing any kind of progress towards the con, constantly acting on their own, and one thing samantha was noted for, belittling my position to nothing.  Now to explain, “Belittling my position to nothing.”: I was the con chair.  As con chair our constitution, (That I wrote….) stated, “This individual is usually M.C. and is president of all operations. Oversees all projects, trains staff as needed, and gives suggestions as needed.”  She constantly misquoted this and only used, “Oversees all projects” to make everyone else think that I had a lesser role in the con.  And her definition of “Overseeing” was only that of a security guard… As in she explained it, that I was to watch the staff and report to the e-board of any problems I witness.  This is obviously not what the position entailed and not what I wrote this to mean.  So they were fired, and for about 2 weeks, everything was going good, as me and Rachel noted, more work was accomplished on the con than they did in 6 months.

Frame 7: Everything was going smoothly until I got a call from a lawyer, who I still wonder if he is a legitimate lawyer, calls and states that I need to cease and desist.  And tells me I need to give all my materials involving Kuzuricon to who he claimed was the, “Current staff” which is the staff that was fired.  He claimed that since they all signed the articles of incorporation, they had legal right to the con. Which is true and probably where I shot myself in the foot.

Frame 8: This is me basically looking back at it and reflecting how much I hate mediocrity.  I figured all or nothing. If these are going to be dead weights fire them and try to do it better, or have them fire me (I did threaten to quit on a few occasions because of how poor of a job they were doing.)  But it’s also to show that they have no idea what the hell they are doing, and thus why the con was pretty bad from what I could tell.

Now another rumor that’s going around is I was fired for being a hard ass, well that hardly makes sense, seeming it’s my job as a chair to make sure they’re doing their jobs.  And yet another rumor that’s going around is I was fired for dating Rachel, who was the artist alley coordinator.  And is part of the favoritism crap they were spewing.  I offered to help all of the staff, but they never asked me any questions.  Rachel, Cody, and pretty much anyone on the outside of that collective group of friends, were there few who actually asked me to help them. And I did.  There was Brian on the occasion, but his job wasn’t really that difficult.

5.  Will you be involved in the production of Kuzuricon 2010 in any way?

Maybe, If it even happens, I’d imagine the hotel is pretty angry at them, as well as a few other people.  But I won’t be doing anything unless they specifically want me involved.  I was thinking web admin… Since Brian has this spelling and grammar issue…  but only if I was invited back.  I did attend the con has a, “Bury the hatchet” move.  But I don’t foresee any of them planning to interact with me in the future.

And so, there you have it.  Seems that Kuzuricon was actually a gigantic hotbed of drama.  I’ve actually extended a five-question set to Kuzuricon press rep Melissa Caswell to see if we can get some rebuttal on this.  More on that when–if–it develops.

Roman Polanski can’t seem to get a break. The notoriously intense film director, who made films such as Chinatown and The Pianist, was on his way to Switzerland last Saturday to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival, only to be nabbed by the authorities. Why? Well, it seems to be due to a very old yet still publicised incident in the US. Polanski famously fled Hollywood after he was accused of raping a 13-year old girl. He has yet to return. The arrest warrent is still out and despite having travelled to Switzerland many times before, someone decided to uphold the warrent and arrest him. Polanski now faces extradition to the US and he may even spend the rest of his life behind bars.
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…almost.

Oh, man. How many people did I freak out with THAT one?  I love sensationalistic headlines….but anyway–on with the story!  The Tolkien estate filed a monster lawsuit against the folks behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy, claiming they were owed fully a hundred and fifty million bucks.  And until they GOT their whopping monster payday, they weren’t going to play ball on The Hobbit.

But that’s no long an issue, as a settlement (whose financial terms were quite undisclosed) was only recently announced that got the whole Hobbit train back up and rolling.

So there’s no need to be worried, Hobbit fans–your movie will be well on its way directly.  Kind of a low blow that it was all just about the cash that kept the Tolkien estate from playing ball, but hey…when you have to get paid, you have to get paid.

So it’s not every day you get to hear about how a movie changed the world, but this is definitely one of those times.  Hillary the Movie, a searing documentary about Hillary Clinton (I literally cannot hear that woman’s name without thinking about the Paul Wall song line: “Got a bill in my mouth like I’m Hillary Rodham“), is redefining the McCain-Feingold act.

See, once the movie was finished, they wanted to run commercials for it on a cable video-on-demand service.  But a federal judge ruled back in 2008 that it would’ve violated the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.  The judge called it “electioneering communications”.  The guys behind the film promptly argued that such a thing was a violation of the First Amendment.

Seems like an overapplication of the law to me, and hopefully it’ll be changed to cover this kind of thing in the future.  There’s a limit, and this has crossed it.

You may wonder what exactly would be wrong with those big red movie rental kiosks whose ilk now controls fully nineteen percent of the movie rental market.  It’s not the ease of use that has the studios so plainly terrified.  Nor is it the low cost, or their sheer ubiquity.

No, it’s all about the timing that’s got the studios panicking.

See, Redbox basically tries to get its movies when they’re released to stores.  Typically there’s a bit of a lag in there, forcing early adopters to buy the DVD first for anywhere between twenty to thirty dollars.  But, especially in a down economy, people looking for a low-cost alternative are more likely to take it.  And they’ve found that low-cost alternative in Redbox.

Pay a buck to rent the brand-new DVD or twenty five to buy?  Well, it’s clear what most will want to do.  And that’s what’s got the studios burning.  Sure, they make some cash selling the DVDs to Redbox, but Redbox turns around and rents them out.  For every rental, the chance increases that the renter won’t buy the movie himself.  This means huge losses to the studios.

Redbox, for what it’s worth, is responding with antitrust lawsuits and plenty of charm offensive of its own.  Whether or not this will do them any good remains to be seen, but we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it.

So needless to say, discount video renter extraordinaire Redbox is NOT happy with Warner Brothers‘ edict that there will be a mammoth twenty eight day speed bump between the releases of their material and their availability at Redbox kiosks.

Redbox is fighting back with every tool in their arsenal–they’re not just calling in the lawyers, who already are primed and ready with nasty words like “antitrust” and variants on  “market manipulation”, but they’re also launching a bit of a charm offensive.

Redbox set up a link, savelowcostdvds.com, to show you where the many many MANY Redbox kiosks out there can be found.  And indeed there are many–I know of two of them just in the little town I live in.  And considering that both Sony and Lions Gate both just recently signed deals with Redbox to get their material in the kiosks, I think Warner is likely to knuckle under and cut out the twenty eight day wait.

Now here’s an awesome bit of news, folks–seems that Stephenie Meyer, the horrible woman who foisted sparkly vampires on us all–is coming under plagiarism accusations over her book Twilight.

In a cease-and-desist letter sent to Ms. Meyer’s publisher, Hachette Book Group, Mr. Williams drew comparisons between scenes involving a wedding, a tryst on a beach and a description of the transformation from human to vampire. Ms. Scott plans to file a copyright infringement lawsuit in federal court, Mr. Williams said, though she does not plan to seek monetary damages.

Now there’s the most interesting part of the whole affair, no?  She’s going after Stephenie Meyer, but NOT for any money!  Maybe she’s trying to hawk her own vampire novel and do so by making Meyer respond to her allegations!

Admittedly, from what I’ve seen so far the case IS pretty flimsy–basically, Scott and Meyer have a vampire wedding, vampire sex on the beach, and a pet name in common–but you never know where something like this could end up.  We’ll keep a watch on it–this isn’t the FIRST time Meyer’s been accused of cribbing, either–and when we know more, you’ll read it right here.

Piracy has pretty much plagued Hollywood since the dawn of VHS, but the ever increasing bandwidth of broadband internet is causing major headaches for studios. Torrent programmes are bypassing laws and methods of tracing pirates, and even new and more intricate ways of getting the latest movies are possible. Almost every Christmas sees the release of Oscar potentials online as screeners are copied. 2007 saw the leak of American Gangster a week before its initial release. But possibly the biggest blow to Hollywood yet is this week’s leak of the forthcoming summer blockbuster Wolverine.

A sort of prequel to the X-Men films, the Hugh Jackman vehicle is now working its way through the internet, a month before its worldwide release. The version is a workprint cut, meaning that many special effects are incomplete, some of the sound needs to be refined, and there are probably scenes that need to be added or cut. But, according to those who have watched it, the quality is quite good.

Needless to say, Fox are pretty unhappy with this, and are estimating that several hundred thousand people have viewed it. The FBI are currently investigating exactly how a workprint was leaked. Meanwhile, most established movie review websites are refraining from posting reviews of an incomplete movie. On the bright side, if those who watch the workprint enjoy it, not only will they most likely watch the complete version next month, but they may generate good word of mouth and actually boost box office intake. American Gangster, for example, went on to make $266 million worldwide.

Lionsgate Films and The Weinstein Co. have filed lawsuits in Los Angeles and New York claiming they had an agreement with producers to distribute Push: Based on a Novel by Sapphire.

It is being reported that Weinstein had a “firm agreement” with the film’s producers and that Lionsgate interfered. However, Lionsgate claims the producers signed a written agreement stating they had no written or verbal agreement with Weinstein.

The film in question tells the story of a young, illiterate woman who is the victim of incest and trying to find her way in 1980s Harlem.

Now here’s a piece of good news in this cold, harsh January. Over the past month or so news has been coming in of a legal dispute between Warner Brothers, who were planning to release comic-book adaptation Watchmen in March, and 20th Century Fox, who claimed to have owned the rights. Things didn’t look good when the case’s judged granted tha Fox did indeed have a claim to the film’s rights, and that this may lead to the film being postponed, or even never seeing the light of day.

Last week was supposed to see the two parties return to court, but it was delayed due to a seemingly positive settlement. And now we know the result of that settlement, in which Fox will receive 8.5% of the gross box-office intake, plus a lump sum in cash, plus a share of any sequels or spin-offs. This means that Watchmen will indeed be released on March 6. Comic book fans can now rejoice (die-hard comic fans can scowl). In other news relating to the film, it now looks like it will run at 163 minutes, a suitablly long time for the complex comic.