It’s an honor to welcome guest posting with Culturally F’d, the furry channel most in tune with everything we do here. Thanks Arrkay! – Patch
Hey Fluff Punks, it’s Arrkay here from Culturally F’d. Hope you had a restful holiday! Today we’re going to round up 2016’s best of furry YouTube.
Furry friends, I’m honored to share a special invitation to you from media producer Ben McShane. A professional studio is being offered for you to make YOUR video show. (Please be aware this is on site in Burbank, CA.)
When Ben’s call for furry talent came to my inbox, I had to be careful to screen it. (We know about ‘the media,’ right?) I saw that Ben’s genuinely into cool stuff, has worked on some shows you may know (Battlebots, Shark Tank), and is associated with Nerdist. I’m copying from his resume to show the guy who’s inviting you:
Producer, Project Alpha – Legendary Digital Networks / Nerdist Industries
“Currently I am the producer on a number of shows for Project Alpha, the exclusive, interactive, live-streaming SVOD portal for Legendary Digital Networks. I manage a small budget, oversee staff hires for the shows, and lead creative. Many hats!
Live broadcast and digital content are exciting new frontiers for me as a producer. As a life-long table top gamer and über-geek, coming to work with the Nerdist and Geek & Sundry families has already been one of the most memorable stops of my career. I can’t wait for the shows to launch so I can say more!”
Check Project Alpha and browse the shows to get some idea of what they already have… I sense a great opportunity.
Ben shares details of the project:
Howdy Fluffer Nutters. Hope life is treating you well. Did you like Zootopia? Of course not. You loved it! I bet you have the blu-ray and have watched it ten times over one weekend. I feel Animation is the true place anthro animals thrive. Whenever my mind reads a Furry story it paints it like a cartoon. It’s possible to do it in live action, but unless you have an amazing make up team, it rarely works as well. Although since animation is so time consuming it’s not something you find too often. But when you find ones that do it well, it can be so much fun.
So that’s why we have this. A combination of five Furry (whether they want to be call that or not) Animation Shorts that I wish to share with you guys. You may already be familiar with them, or seeing them for the first time. The only thing they have in common is they are all awesome. So lets begin.
A Fox In Space
I’m sure most of you have already seen this, but I cannot stress how amazing this animated series is even though it only has one episode. Created by Matthew Gafford, he has taken the basics of Star Fox and mixed it with a combination of late 70’s/ early 80’s animation of Fantastic Planet, Heavy Metal, and Filmation cartoons. I can’t wait to see what they have planned for the series down the line, but I’m positive it will be amazing.
Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com. Here’s headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.
FOUR cons for the US Pacific Northwest? (Tip – Fuzzwolf.)
Furvana (2018). Anthro Northwest (November 9-12, 2017). Pacific Northwest Fur Con (Spring 2017). And a rebirth for Rainfurrest (under parent organization RAIN, who actively runs other events year-round.) All of these are intended for one region. Amazingly they seem cooperative, with none replacing another.
On Reddit’s r/furry, a con staffer explains more about all the activity.
In late 2015 Dogpatch Press looked at five regions for “One Town, Two Cons: Let’s compare and ask organizers about Furry community growth.” It was about fan support, competition and cooperation, with questions about how to sustain more than one central event. But four is unprecedented ambition.
It could only come with 2016’s amazing Year of Furry. From Zootopia’s billion-dollar success, to Fursonas (the first movie about furries with mainstream distribution), to the continued explosion of cons, there’s much more to come.
Furry party posters from the 1980’s.
In the 1980’s, sci-fi cons gathered fans of funny-animal cartoons for room parties. Mark Merlino and Rod O’Riley have the Prancing Skiltaire furry house in So Cal that has posted some of their party flyer collection. There was drama about the “furries” being weird, because that stuff isn’t for grown-ups is it? So in 1989 they got their own con, ConFurence. Look at how they multiplied like bunnies. Now it’s too late to stop them. Just don’t let anyone with a time machine go back and change the flyers to send them to Floor 13.
The More You Know is a new video podcast hosted by Victor Dimitroff. Season 1 Episode 4: Media in the Furry Fandom talks to guests Pup Matthias (David) from Dogpatch Press and Makyo from [Adjective][Species]. While Victor is still in the beginnings of building his channel, I see a lot of promise in his approach to finding guests and planning notes for good conversation of interest to furries. Take a look.
This is about media by furries, not outsiders. Specifically the kind that covers what’s going on within the subculture. There’s much more than you would realize just from talking to friends. That’s why it’s so fun to start and run your own channel.
Victor comments about how Dogpatch Press seems to find endless stories to fill our regular posting schedule. So how do we find them all?
For the answer, watch Victor’s Q&A and then read our site(s). You see, it’s a bit of a secret recipe. But the foundation of everything everyone does in this fandom is about participation and loving what we do. That’s not really a secret at all.
With all the stories out there about furries deserving to be known, and all the dislike for the trashy kind in the mainstream, I take it as an informal mission to Be The Media. I am furry fandom, and so can you! (Ha). Check our About pages for how to share your story tips or guest posts. We want you.
Thanks very much to Victor, Makyo, and Pup Matthias. Everyone had in depth chat the whole time. I wish I could have been present to give more details about the site founding, mission, and investigating stories (I’ll be there in the future.)
It’s a watershed year for furry stuff, and it’s going to be fun to look back in 2017. Hope you look forward to many great stories to come.
More from The More You Know:
Co written by Patch and Fred Patten.
Happy Pride month! Check out this short animation, Flamingo Pride. It screened in the 2012 annual Animation Show of Shows, an international touring festival. Read on about why the festival deserves your attention, and what this means to furries.
Ron Diamond, producer of The Animation Show of Shows, contacted Fred Patten:
Dear Fred, I want to thank you for the great write up on The 17th Annual Animation Show of Shows. I was delighted about the kindness you extended to me and the filmmakers in covering an otherwise unorthodox medley of quirky international animated shorts. I’d be grateful if you can share this with your readers, to help build awareness of alternative animation that has a message that pleases and inspires. Warm regards, Ron
The 2016 Animation Show of Shows will be the 18th annual edition. Fred has previously reviewed it for various animation websites (here’s reviews from 2013 and 2015.) Diamond is president of Acme Filmworks, an animation studio in Los Angeles that produces animated TV commercials in a wide variety of styles. His curation of the Animation Show of Shows is well known. It consists of about a dozen short films, some from big studios like Disney and Pixar, but most by independent animators and students from colleges around the world. Most or all are prize winners at international festivals. Many have gone on to win next year’s Academy Award Oscar in the Short Film (Animated) category. They show Diamond’s stellar record for predicting success.
Up to now, Diamond has shown this festival at major animation studios and animation colleges mostly in North America, but also in some other countries with large studios or chapters of ASIFA (Association Internationale du Film d’Animation; the International Animator’s Association). Now Diamond is trying to raise enough funding through a Kickstarter campaign to get it into theaters where it can be seen by the public.
What does it have to do with furry fandom?
See The Raccoon’s Den on Youtube. Thanks to Bandit and Pup Matthias for collaborating on this special guest article.
When I say the word ‘creator’ in the furry fandom, what do you think of? Mostly likely 
you would think of artist, writers, musicians, animators, game developers, fursuit makers, etc. One type that doesn’t cross most people’s minds are video creators. There are examples like EZ Wolf and Duke the Dog with their shorts and music videos, Culturally F’d with their educational videos, and this year has brought us Dominic Rodriguez and Eric Risher with their respected documentaries exploring the fandom. But it’s a relatively small pool compared to the others.
Part of that lies with platform. Most furry sites don’t offer a way for video creators to showcase their work and build a presence like the others. They’re always having to link to YouTube or Vimeo and hope someone will click the link. Furry Network looks to be the only one working on offering video creators a player to support them. Time will only tell on that front.
(Note from Patch: the medium also brings challenges. That’s why our ‘Special Features and Top Articles’ just added a section about THE NASCENT FURRY MOVIE SCENE.)
What’s truly sad about this is the way video creators have the best opportunity to explain and showcase what our fandom is. Capturing the moments of celebration, joy, hardship, misunderstanding, and exploring what makes the furry fandom what it is.
There’s a series for that already. It’s been going on for over seven years, with almost one hundred episodes that explore what the fandom is. That show is The Raccoon’s Den.
Christopher Parque-Johnson, creator of the Raccoon’s Den, is better known as Bandit in the fandom. He was introduced to the fandom from a fan-made forum for the film ‘Over the Hedge’, which inspired him to have a raccoon fursona after the title character of the film.
I got into the furry fandom after seeing “Over the Hedge” in 2006, joined a fan-made forum and a friend on there made an RP account for RJ the Raccoon on MySpace (back when people used it). I joined the fandom on July 20th and up until 2009, I was just another person on the internet who liked being part of the community. I felt welcomed and accepted for being myself here and that was something I wasn’t able to feel outside of it.
Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.
Boston Globe: Furries are finally having their moment.
It was originally titled “Revenge of the furries.” The revenge is on haters who should accept Furry as something that’s always been around, and not exotic weirdness. “Finally” is a good word to see about one of the most genuinely loveable subcultures of the internet age.
At FWA- photo by Maura Friedman.
Furry Weekend Atlanta: Journalist gets it.
“I was fascinated to meet people who are so invested in a niche, often ostracized interest. It’s hard, emotional labor to love anything society labels uncool – teens everywhere can attest. But thousands of those people – fursuit fans – were coming together, and I got to be a respectful witness to their community.”
That’s beautiful. Thanks, Maura Friedman. And there’s also this: Furry Weekend Atlanta takes over Downtown.
Escapist Magazine: COSPLAY DOSSIER – Why I Love Furries. A wonderfully positive piece – there’s a lot of those lately, and who’s complaining?
Last year, I shared the fantasy concept of a “Furry Film Festival“. It was inspired by many potential reasons for why it could happen for real. Fred Patten recently shared a response article – and that brought even more response. It’s very encouraging to see the idea catch on for discussion with other super dedicated fan publishers. In time, hopefully it could lead to a festival for real.
Thanks to JM, editor of [adjective][species]:
“The [adjective][species] team think that the furry film festival idea is a fantastic one, and we would like to humbly submit the following suggestions (in screening order). This short list is a collective recommendation from several of our contributors.”
