Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-20644-20170413232133/@comment-5014364-20170414033805

I live in the NYC area and commute into Manhattan for school/internships.

I just finished running 8 hours' worth of Game of Thrones programming at my local scifi convention. Academic stuff mostly, as offline I have a master's degree in medieval history. I recorded all of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JLINuOxJiY&list=PLxojMpX5XGoWb4yX5zeMvstlZnozOjiuK

( I made panel 4, on "The World of Ice and Fire" sourcebook, with the approval of its co-authors Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson)

Given that George R.R. Martin's editor lives in the NYC area I even wrote in to him via his LiveJournal to ask if he could shoot them a message about coming as guests, and he did. Ultimately they were unavailable (plus it was a small convention), but I appreciated his moral support: http://grrm.livejournal.com/530742.html?thread=25950006#t25950006

I originally wrote them up as New York Comic Con panels but they didn't accept any Game of Thrones programming last year.

Year before that (2015) they rejected all panels as well, but I managed to interview cast members at autograph booth (Just as a private citizen; there was no line and they had free time): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09XYxFn4Edo

The year before that I didn't go to New York Comic Con 2014. And the guy who Wikia sent on a pre-paid international flight to the Game of Thrones NYCC panel mostly took selfies with the cast members while not really mentioning Wikia or commenting on the TV show storyline.

I'm going to be re-submitting my panel proposals to NYCC in a few weeks, things like "LGBT people in Game of Thrones", "Medieval Women in Game of Thrones", etc. etc. I hope that showing them at prior cons may boost my chances, yet as a private individual without organizational backing, my chances are slim - unless this situation changes.

I've also been putting together a series of videos on the YouTube which I actually intended to post up on the wiki this weekend (phased rollout), regarding a few major, controversial topics which have confused us in the adaptation from books to TV series:


 * 1 - Dorne
 * 2 - Jeyne Westerling to Talisa with Robb Stark
 * 3 - Major plot holes pointed out by critics in the Battle of the Bastards
 * 4 - The Jaime/Cersei sex scene in episode 4.3
 * 5 - Why Sansa Stark's entire storyline from the books was abandoned from Season 5 onwards, instead putting her into a rape subplot with Ramsay Bolton that gutted her political agency

The only one up and running at this very moment is the Dorne one, but it's gotten around 2,000 views in the first 24 hours since I put it online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdE8VEQReP0

I make no secret that I am critical of showrunners Benioff and Weiss. But objectively, they're going to be working on this franchise for at most another 2 years, while GRRM, Elio & Linda will still be part of it forever.

There was a time when Scott Lobdell was running Red Hood and the Outlaws to much controversy. I don't imagine that everyone over on Marvel Wiki was happy with this, and eventually he was indeed removed from the project.

Benioff and Weiss have rejected all of our attempts at establishing contact for Q&A in the past six years - they're not going to suddenly start now. So yes, I criticize them in my panels and videos - as a book fan judging an adaptation. And because at this point I'm not worried about jeopardizing a relationship which never existed - what are they going to do, stop giving Q&A they never gave in the first place?

(In contrast, just a few weeks back, as a private citizen, I took part in twitter Q&A with Pablo Hidalgo for Star Wars Rebels - because the Star Wars team is cool; they actually have a functional relationship with Wookieepedia )

So live-action adaptations of the works of GRRM, which this wiki describes, are a franchise which could go on for...maybe 20 years (Tales of Dunk and Egg prequel series? Then a Dance of the Dragons prequel series?  Maybe a Sons of the Dragon prequel series?) --- I yeah, I'm critical of Benioff and Weiss, much as Marvel fans were openly making negative news posts about the controversy surrounding Steve Lobdell before he got kicked out for rampant sexism. Because one writer is transient, while the franchise is forever.

Prior Fandom op-ed pieces on Game of Thrones included an interpretive essay on the Faceless Men that wasn't vetted...and a heavily promoted comedy post, containing videos of people intentionally mispronouncing names from the TV series:

You can choose to make Fandom posts for Marvel filled with joke videos of fans mispronouncing X-Men character names...or you can make Fandom posts reporting on hot-button issues in "the fandom", such as a report on the controversial situation with Scott Lobdell on Red Hood and the Outlaws.

One choice now is to make more posts along the lines of "Aren't you excited for Season 7?" "Wow, look at the cast members walking around in the latest teaser trailer!" -- interchangeable fluff no different from dozens of other entertainment news websites...which people won't feel compelled to click on.

In contrast, people see "Why Dorne Failed, a detailed report from a GoTWiki Admin" in their sidebar, they'll feel more compelled to click on that - because it's hard-hitting original content that can't be produced elsewhere, dealing with the controversial hot-button issues of today for this fandom.

And more pageviews means more ad revenue for Fandom/Wikia. And, incidentally I hope, a better informed fan-base.

My suggestion:

On your own, please watch the 8 hours or so of panel videos I edited together, and consider running them as a news item: I've got "Gender & Sexuality in Game of Thrones", "Social Status of Women in Game of Thrones", "Medieval Economics in Game of Thrones", "Costumes in Game of Thrones" (Costumes didn't record well, I'm going to redo it in an online version). Consider running those separately or as a group (I think separately might work better - Gender alone is 2 hours long).

Please watch the nearly 3 hour long "Why Dorne Failed" video I made and consider whether it is worth running as a news item - yes it is dealing with a controversial topic, and yes, I slam the showrunners for their mistakes in it (the word "incompetent" is used more than once), but I supposed the questions that would be asked now are: "Is this a quality analysis?" "Would people want to click on it and thus generate ad revenue?", "Will it damage an already non-existent relationship with Benioff and Weiss we don't even have?", "If Benioff and Weiss aren't going to be part of this franchise in two years, but GRRM, Elio & Linda will for the prequels, and they're fighting each other, who do we fundamentally want to build a lasting relationship with?"

Or...just watch the videos and tell me that in your capacity as a private citizen that you think they're awful. I'm not an objective judge.

I'll be rolling out the other videos over Easter weekend.

In answer to your original question, yes, I would be kind of interested in on-camera video opportunities.