Here's a roundup of stories on fandom works in the news that might be of interest to fans:

• Indiana Jones fan Jeff Gurwood created a stop-motion film of the Raiders of the Lost Ark opening which gained media attention. The film took "six months of work, 45 hours a week" and "cost him about $500 to $600." The fan film was undertaken only after he and his creative partner attempted to sell a film based on an original work they had made and after the "Syfy channel came close to green-lighting a series. And Adult Swim, the late-night arm of Cartoon Network, talked to the pair about a year before producing Robot Chicken, which also features action figure stop-motion." He currently has at least one offer: "A major toy manufacturer saw the Raiders video and is looking to hire Gurwood to make videos for its toy lines."
• The band My Chemical Romance's new video was partially created by a fan. "Emily Eisemann, a 21-year-old from New York, had created a collage-like YouTube video called “My Chemical Romance - Celebrating 10 Years as a Band,” which singer Gerard Way and crew stumbled upon while mining for footage to use in a similar purpose." Now available on YouTube "in a nod to Eisemann, her original video -- and story -- is also linked prominently."
• Filmmaker Ryan James Yezak "was better known on YouTube for his glittery remakes of Katy Perry and Rihanna videos as gay love stories" before he turned his hand to a new project, a successful fund raising effort to create "a full-length documentary, called Second Class Citizens." The current trailer "takes the viewer on a fast-paced journey through the gay rights movement, starting with historic footage denouncing “homosexuals.”" A major supporter was actor George Takei. "“This young filmmaker made my Spidey video,” he tweeted, referring to a campaign to have Takei play Spider-Man on Broadway. “If you watch one clip today, let it be this.”"
• Less inspiring is a recent trend to get celebrities to read fan fiction on camera, the more potentially embarrassing the better. Ralph Fiennes' appearance reading Harry Potter fanfic was covered by dozens of sites including TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, The L.A. Times and Vulture. A post at Crushable mentions a similar recent case in Twilight fandom. While it has been considered poor etiquette for fans to confront celebrities with fan fiction written about them or their projects, the media seems to be setting different boundaries for ratings fodder.

If you're part of My Chemical Romance, Twilight, Harry Potter or Indiana Jones fandoms, why not contribute to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!

Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

Here's a roundup of stories on evolving fandom that might be of interest to fans:

• Lately it appears that every participant in a collective interest is termed a fanboy, whether they enjoy beer or they follow certain religious figures. GamingUpdate attempted to explain the origins of fans citing a radiology study. "Brain areas responsible for emotion, touch, satisfaction, and memory are involved in our reactions for sex and brand loyalty as well as religion." The author concludes that while sex may be the draw, marketers are to blame for the creation of fandoms. "If your encounters with fanboys (and increasingly fangirls as girl gamers grow more confident in their place in the gaming culture and increasingly reveal their true gender to their guildmates and playmates online) often leaves you angry or frustrated with them, at least you now know who to blame: the advertising executives and the people who create the ad campaigns that give birth to those fanboys."
• A recent series of essays suggests that the English Romantic Movement created fandom. "Much as the "market revolution" in the United States during the 1830s and 1840s changed the very nature of cultural consumption and participation, Eisner writes that, in England, the Romantic period of the late 18th century...saw the popularization of recognizable "fan practices," spurred by the growth of consumer culture and the development of a mass audience for culture generally.""
• Perhaps because the series Mad Men deals with the advertising world, its RPG players seem particularly interested in seeing their activities as a professional form of work. Twitter's Betty Draper "Helen Klein Ross established herself as a writer and creative director at top ad agencies like FCB and Ogilvy, but in the last five years she’s reinvented herself as a social media renegade." Ross certainly seems to be keen to stay away from fandom in general, as she claimed that her term "brand fiction" originated at a SWSX presentation given by Mad Men RPG players on Twitter. When an audience member claimed they were performing fan fiction, Ross insisted that it was actually "marketing -- extending the Mad Men story out of the television box and into multiplatforms really markets Mad Men." However, she confessed herself disappointed that AMC chose not to legitmize the Twitter players by utilizing their work in canon.

If you take part in RPGs, or are part of Mad Men or any other fandom, why not contribute to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!

Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

Here at the OTW, things are gearing up for the beginning of the 2012 term! The interwebs are humming with activity and excitement as we get ready to welcome new staff and start the new year's work.

The end of December and the beginning of January was our official hiatus, during which most of our staffers and volunteers* took a well-earned rest (at least in theory)! This is also the time when our committees dissolve and reform, and our hard-working Volunteers and Recruitment Committee sort through all the lists of people who are 'Willing to Serve'. This is the main time for taking on new committee staffers, and is an opportunity for people to step up to new roles (or to step down from old ones). Some people are returning to the committees they have served on before, others are getting ready to try something new, and we have a bunch of new folk joining us! \0/

With the new term, we formally welcome our 2012 Board of Directors: Julia Beck, Francesca Coppa, Ira Gladkova, Kristen Murphy, Naomi Novik, Nikisha Sanders and Jenny Scott-Thompson. We're excited to have another diverse and dedicated Board.

After three years of formal service, Rachel Barenblat and Sheila Lane have become Emeritus Board Members, as have Hele Braunstein and Allison Morris, who stepped down at the end of last term for personal reasons. We thank them all for their hard work on the Board, and we look forward to working with them in other capacities in the future.

One of the first tasks for the new Board was to select committee chairs for the 2012 term. We're thrilled to say that all those invited to serve as chairs have accepted: we have some folk returning for another term as chairs, and a few new faces too. Now that the committee chairs have been appointed, they have been sent the lists of people who are interested in joining their committees, and will be reviewing those over the next few days. If you're a new volunteer for a committee — or if you were a staffer last year and wanted to stay on — you should be hearing from us very soon. If you're volunteering for a non-committee role (such as tag wrangling or coding) you may wait a little longer to hear from the committee who manages that work, as they will need to get up and running.

We're very grateful to everyone, both past and present, who donates their time and skills to the Organization for Transformative Works. You make the magic happen!

Without further ado, Board officers and committee chairs for the 2012 OTW Term. Welcome — or welcome back — to:

OTW Board

Kristen Murphy, President
Jenny Scott-Thompson, Secretary
Julia Beck, Vice-Secretary
Nikisha Sanders, Treasurer
Francesca Coppa
Ira Gladkova
Naomi Novik

OTW Committee Chairs

Abuse
Franzeska Dickson

Accessibility, Design, & Technology
Amelia and Elz

Communications
Claudia Rebaza and Lucy Pearson

Content Policy
Rebecca Tushnet

Development & Membership
Kristen Murphy

Financial
Nikisha Sanders

Internationalization & Outreach
Andrea Horbinski

Journal
Karen Hellekson

Legal
Rebecca Tushnet

Open Doors
Heather Cook

Support
Matty Lynne

Systems
Sidra and Arrow

Tag Wrangling
Alison Watson and Xparrot

Translation
Agnieszka Siemienska and Julia Beck

Vidding
Francesca Coppa

Volunteers & Recruiting
via_ostiense

Webmasters
blue_meridian

Wiki
aethel

Let's get ready to move some more fannish mountains!

* Staffers are the awesome folk who serve on committees and thus make a more formal commitment to the org, which involves working on a fairly consistent basis (at least a couple of hours a week). Volunteers are the awesome folk who also work hard to contribute to the org, but on a more informal basis: they don't usually have to attend meetings, and it's easier for them to dip in and out and contribute as much or as little time as they wish. We love them all — different roles just suit different people and different tasks.