Statement about Shavs Media Productions
AVTP v1 began as a @shavs-media-productions project. We experienced the same professional and personal failures described by Dott, up to the point that AVTP v1 was essentially dead and the thought of continuing it only brought our team members stress and pain.
We are disheartened to see that years afterward, the same patterns are continuing on SMP and no lessons have been learned. Everyone makes mistakes, especially when someone starts something with little experience, as Shavs did with a project of AVTP’s size and scope. Mistakes should generally be forgiven…however when those “mistakes” are handled with stubbornness/deception and continue despite repeated and constant opposition from everyone else involved…those mistakes stop being mistakes and become testaments to the person’s character. At that point, they are much less forgivable.
Plenty could be written about our experiences working with Shavs, but we’ll leave that to the individuals who wish to speak up. All we will say is that many people here and elsewhere were drastically hurt by Shav’s complete lack of consideration, empathy, and regard for the wellbeing of others. When push came to shove, Shavs looked out only for herself. Our artists felt abused and our writers felt ignored. Our leads were put in extremely compromising positions where, unless proven otherwise, they were assumed to be part of the problem by the team, even if they were trying harder than anyone to be a part of the solution. Everyone was hurt and saddened to various degrees, depending on the amount of involvement and emotional investment they had in the project and with Shavs as a friend. They were very rough times and this project was almost lost because of it.
This is not a hit piece or a bandwagon to jump on for others to “cancel the new villain on the block.” This is both a call to action for Shavs and an attempt to raise awareness to anyone who may find themselves working with or connecting with her. After abusing and hurting many of us deeply, she thankfully mutually agreed to leave AVTP because she was worried that the failures of AVTP would tarnish SMP’s “good” reputation…but SMP is something more than AVTP is and needs to be handled with even more care. SMP is a paid project. People rely on SMP for their financial well-being. Dott left her job and education for SMP. Artists are inspired to grow alongside SMP and hope to flourish with the budding studio Shavs pitches SMP to be, with her “connections to Netflix” and whatnot. When most/all of that turns out to be untrue and the cracks begin to show beneath the surface of all that hype and excitement she brings…it’s heartbreaking. Livelihoods are at risk. Creative futures have to be replanned. SMP is so much more than just Shavs and her “replaceable” assistants. Hopefully Shavs can come to realize that before anyone else has to go through what Dott and some of us went through.
SMP is going through some rough times right now at the hands of its producer, but what they have there is something truly special - a beautiful collection of artists, writers, editors, musicians, and actors who are passionate about their craft and the characters they bring to life. We don’t wish for their failure. They deserve for SMP to succeed and provide them what they were promised. We hope that SMP can provide that for them someday. As Shavs has been told many times behind closed doors in AVTP v1…this is not HER project…this is THE ENTIRE TEAM’S project, and she needs to treat it accordingly if she wishes to have a loyal, passionate, consistent, and reliable team. While part of her job is to fund, write, and edit; her most important job as producer is to manage the experiences and enjoyment of her team members. She is not the most important member of her team. She is not SMP. She is just as “replaceable” as anyone else on the team is. Anyone and everyone there can (and often does) leave to greener pastures any time they wish. The solution to this problem is not to just scout out more artists who have never worked on projects before and thus do not know to look out for these issues. We hope she can learn that someday and adjust accordingly.
As for anyone else working with and relying on her…please be aware and protect yourself. Hold her accountable. Do not take placating phrases at face value. Go through contracts with a fine toothed comb and remove any room for loopholes or misunderstandings no matter how “common sense” they may seem. Maintain your boundaries. These are good practices in general, but please don’t be lulled into putting your guard down no matter how friendly or engaging it may feel.
Thankfully, despite all odds, AVTP v2 is alive and well again. We have a healthy mix of AVTP v1 members and excited new members, ready to make something amazing together. It took years of pain and struggle to rebuild, replan, mend bridges, and get to the point where this project can be enjoyable again. Thanks to the incredible resilience and passion of our artists, writers, and voice actors; we’re able to give this another shot. Our new workflow prioritizes organization, transparency, and team member enjoyment - all things that were previously lacking. Our goal is to help provide what our team members wish to achieve here; whether it’s a growing portfolio, exposure to bigger studios, or just making friends and celebrating successes together. All profits from this project are transparently reported on our team discord server for all team members to see and will be allocated to the charities of the team’s collective choosing. As much as we would love to pay our members, it simply isn’t possible with a fan project using existing IP’s like Invader Zim…but hey, if AVTP works out well, who’s to say we can’t move on to something original someday? That sure would be neat. We have ideas. Until then, perhaps we can benefit the world a little bit.
Fortunately, since the reboot began roughly a year ago, AVTP v2 had and has already taken every step possible to correct mistakes from our past experiences with SMP. Every bit of advice and accountability we previously presented to Shavs on AVTP v1 has been the basis of our vision for AVTP v2. A vision that is currently being carried out. We understand that there has been trauma attached to the name of AVTP, and we also understand that we are new to this, thus we will make other mistakes in the future…but we want to be held accountable for those mistakes and make any changes necessary to ensure the happiness of our team. With a happy team, our viewers can also expect much more inspired content as well. We understand that a few remain suspicious due to past events and lack of knowledge or proof about how everything went down on AVTP v1…and honestly, that’s good! That is exactly the kind of accountability we need! We expect that in due time; testimony from our incredible artists, writers, actors, etc about their time on AVTP v2 will put those concerns to rest. Things will finally be as they were always meant to be.
Thank you for listening 👽 Now, prepare for invasion, filthy Urthens. See you very soon.
annaxmalina
baratheonpilled
pixelskylines
dededos
blakekathryn
stormborns
