County Hall
The light was fading fast, and it was getting cold by the time I got to the festival halls. What surprised me (at first) was the number of people milling around the building- I guess I wasn't the only person to avoid doing the Christmas shopping!
After a little walking around I found the organisers in the Café and grabbed a few minutes of quality time to go over the what IMAF is all about.
IMAF: I'm Rob Kirk (event Manager), and this is Neil Parry (Sales & Marketing Manager) for the International Manga and Anime Festival. We are working in conjunction with County Hall Animation Studio Enterprise, which is a fully functioning Production company that has been formed to attract talent into the Anime and Manga genres, in order to produce work for a commercial market.
AoD: What is the purpose of the IAMF?
IMAF: It's an festival, through which we hope to attract International interest, both in the in the Production and the viewing of Anime and Manga. To foster interest we are running a competition to encourage people to submit their work to our International panel of judges. Also we are offering a scholarship for some lucky (young) person to come and work here in CHASE, full time. And at the same time allowing the general public to come and view this new work. We are also running free public screenings of the more established Anime in the main debating chamber (see fig 5), these have been kindly supplied by ADV.
AoD: So it's a two pronged attack? On one hand you hope to raise awareness in Anime and Manga. And on the other you hope to foster commercial interest in the production of these genres? What sort of interest have you had so far?
IMAF: Yes, exactly. We've had competition entries from UK, Canada and China and our panel of International judges will make a decision early in the new year . And we are very happy with the quantity of public visitors who have stopped by to look at the works on show.
Neil Parry & Rob Kirk
AoD: How does a Festival work better than a Convention?
IMAF: We wanted to attract people who had none or very little knowledge of this art form. The problem with a Convention is that you are already preaching to the converted, and as such it excludes the general public. Not to mention that this is free, and we may have not have attracted as many people if we had put a price on the door. This Festival is for all; We've even managed to grab people who have just been walking by, as well as the local hotels.
Young people drawing Manga
AoD: How do you create Manga and Anime in the middle of London? You realise than Manga and Anime fans are very snobbish about their source material.
IMAF: We actually have 4 Japanese artists who are part of CHASE, and help others to create the genuine article. Of course it will be slightly different, but it will still be the real thing. And the Japanese artists tells us that it's not from where the material is created that counts, but the style and presentation. To get this out to more budding artists we are also running group classes where people can join in and learn how to draw in the Manga\ Anime style (see fig 3)- this has been very popular.
Five simultaneous viewing screens
AoD: What obstacles do you see needing to be overcome to get people interested in this genre?
IMAF: We ourselves are on a very steep learning curve. There has been a big misunderstanding in this country, some people think it's Martial Arts or some perverted violence. So we have been very conscious on how we word it, and how we present it. We didn't want to confuse or dilute the message. The people who are contributing to this festival have helped tremendously to clarify what the genre is all about. We hope we have passed this message onto the general public, and we have tried to be genuine in our approach.
Public display of the many entries
AoD: What do you see the next Festival containing?
IMAF: Next year we will be much bigger, and we will use the (2005) festival to showcase the work that has been produced throughout the year. This will come from CHASE and other International Production companies.[smile] We hope to have a few exclusives to showcase, exclusives from around the world, including Japan. We will begin planning the next festival in January. We want to give people more time to get their entries completed and submitted, and we want to display those entries in the main debating chamber (see fig 4).
We also hope to have debates and perhaps some lectures, in order to stimulate discussion and exploration of the genres. As well as educate, inform and bring this out into a wider audience.
Also throughout the year 2005 we hope to run mini screenings or showcases, in order to keep Anime and Manga in the public eye.
A little latter I caught up with Hugh David [ADV: Head of Marketing UK] who had been supplying the majority of the anime used in the public screenings. I ask him for his reaction: He said he was very happy with the public's response, and he wasn't talking about the hard core fans either, but "Joe public". It would seem that "Last Exile" and "Azumanga Daioh" were a very big hit with the Mum's, Dads, kids, as well as the fans and organisers. This he considered to be a very good sign that Anime had a very wide appeal, and could be enjoyed by anyone willing to give it a try.
Hugh David (ADV) , somewhat happy
It has to be said that this festival was very much a toe in the water venture, to garner, as well as foster, public reaction to Manga and Anime. As such it has achieved it's modest aims. The guys did drop several hints at to what next year will contain, and it's very exciting to say the least (mums-the-word).
I look forward to the International Manga & Anime Festival 2005, as this will allow the organising committee the time and creative input to plan a much bigger and extensive festival that it should evolve into. On paper it will have everything in it's favour; financial backing; public interest; huge amount of space to spread into; a location that is very easy to get to by public transport. This could well be the start of something special in the UK.
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