Cross That Line
Mar. 23rd, 2006 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shanmuirbrodenI got a postcard in the mail today for a convention. It's an annual thing, which I've gone to several times in the past, and specifically speaking it was in Los Angeles five years ago and will be back in the area again this year. I hold this very well produced card in my hands, examine it, and realize just how much has changed... including the fact that I won't be going back to it.
Now to be fair, that's not the con's fault. It's no one's "fault" really, it just is what it is. As I come into a decade in this industry, I've made the full transition from someone who is a fan of the medium to a full professional player in it.
When I went five years ago, I'd only worked on two shows in a production capacity and been a creative consultant to another, plus a little internet based animation journalism. Now I've done four shows in a production capacity, written five scripts for a Japanese animated series, consulted others on development of properties for animation in addition to my past consulting, and I've moved on from small internet columns of a few hundred words per month to a book deal. That's not even counting a now-available-for-ordering masters thesis on the effectiveness of animation versus live action advertisements and PSAs (and yes I get money when people order it), or my involvement this past year on the editorial staff of WORK IN PROGRESS, the international newsletter of Women in Animation.
Unfortunately, as much as going would support someone I consider a dear friend, there's no point in paying money to see pros I can easily see elsewhere locally. Some of the guests have even been my bosses or co-workers on other productions. Some I know through professional organizations. Others I just recently saw at WizardWorld LA, where even there I had a "Pro" badge on.
There are a couple of people I know through this convention I would love to see, but they are so much in the minority I can't justify it. The programming doesn't offer all that much for someone at the pro level, and honestly for what this con is, should not. And anyone who knows me knows I am not into the large party social atmosphere that can accompany this cons late into the night; that's always been me.
I really hate to cop an attitude as it were, but I know I've been in this business a while now and do feel I at least deserve to have that recognized even in the little ways when it can be. And in this case, it can't be.
That said, I wish this con every success. If nothing else, to make my friend happy. I know it means a lot to him.
Now to be fair, that's not the con's fault. It's no one's "fault" really, it just is what it is. As I come into a decade in this industry, I've made the full transition from someone who is a fan of the medium to a full professional player in it.
When I went five years ago, I'd only worked on two shows in a production capacity and been a creative consultant to another, plus a little internet based animation journalism. Now I've done four shows in a production capacity, written five scripts for a Japanese animated series, consulted others on development of properties for animation in addition to my past consulting, and I've moved on from small internet columns of a few hundred words per month to a book deal. That's not even counting a now-available-for-ordering masters thesis on the effectiveness of animation versus live action advertisements and PSAs (and yes I get money when people order it), or my involvement this past year on the editorial staff of WORK IN PROGRESS, the international newsletter of Women in Animation.
Unfortunately, as much as going would support someone I consider a dear friend, there's no point in paying money to see pros I can easily see elsewhere locally. Some of the guests have even been my bosses or co-workers on other productions. Some I know through professional organizations. Others I just recently saw at WizardWorld LA, where even there I had a "Pro" badge on.
There are a couple of people I know through this convention I would love to see, but they are so much in the minority I can't justify it. The programming doesn't offer all that much for someone at the pro level, and honestly for what this con is, should not. And anyone who knows me knows I am not into the large party social atmosphere that can accompany this cons late into the night; that's always been me.
I really hate to cop an attitude as it were, but I know I've been in this business a while now and do feel I at least deserve to have that recognized even in the little ways when it can be. And in this case, it can't be.
That said, I wish this con every success. If nothing else, to make my friend happy. I know it means a lot to him.
