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Masquerade

BayCon 2008 Masquerade Official Documents:

The basic information:

Welcome to the BayCon 2008 Masquerade. We're your competition directors, Phil and Kathe Gust. We will be at the Con, so feel free to contact us with your questions.

There are 3 main sections here... The first explains how division placement works. The second covers the rules (i.e. the things that can get you disqualified). The third is the basic briefing of what you've got to work with. There's also a fourth section for your perusal: the instruction the judges will be receiving.

"Presentation" and "Workmanship" judging are entirely separate. There is one judging panel for Presentation and another judging panel for Workmanship. Each panel selects and gives its own awards. Workmanship judging is not required for anyone, and the decisions of the Workmanship panel have no influence on the Presentation panel.

There will be a mandatory contestant meeting prior to the masquerade. If you are not represented at the meeting you cannot enter. This will also be the last chance to file an entry form for the event if you have not pre-registered. Groups may send a representative of the group.

Please remember, this competition is not all about you. It is all about you and your fellow competitors. By respecting the rules and procedures of this competition, you help ensure that all competitors get a fair shake.

This is the revision of these rules for March, 2008.

Division Placement:

Most entries will be placed in the Novice, Journeyman or Open Division. A group entry will be placed in the division appropriate for its most experienced member. If there are only a small number of entries in Journeyman or Open division, the directors may choose to combine those two divisions.

Open:

  • Any competitor may enter in the Open division
  • The open division is considered the same as the "Master" division

Journeyman:

  • Professional costumers may not enter in the Journeyman division
  • If you have won an award before in the Open/Master division you may not enter in the Journeyman division
  • If you have won "Best Journeyman," you may not enter in the Journeyman division.
  • If you have won more than three awards before in the Journeyman division, you may not enter in the Journeyman division.

Novice:

  • Professional costumers may not enter in the Novice division
  • If you have won an award before in Journeyman or Open/Master division you may not enter in the Novice division
  • If you have won any award at any international competition (WorldCon, Costume-Con, San Diego Comic-Con International) you may not enter in the Novice division
  • If you have won "Best Novice" you may not enter in the Novice Division
  • If you have won more than 3 awards of any kind in regional competitions, you may not enter in the Novice division

Young Fan:

  • The Young Fan division is only open to competitors under the age of 15 who have participated in the design and construction of their costumes
  • If a costume is entirely adult-designed or entirely adult-constructed, it may not be entered in the Young Fan division

Exhibition:

  • Any presenter may enter in the Exhibition division
  • The Exhibition division is presentation-only. Exhibition entries are not judged, nor are they eligible for any award
  • Entries that have already won awards at other conventions and have not been significantly modified should enter in the Exhibition division

If you're not sure whether you should consider a past competition to be a major regional competition or a local competition, please ask the directors. The size of the event and number of entrants in the prior competition will be considered.

For this competition, any person who made more than 1/2 of his or her annual income from costuming during any of the last 5 years qualifies as a "professional."

Any competitor may enter in a more advanced division than he or she is placed.

The Rules:

If you violate any of these rules, you may be disqualified and dropped from the competition.

  1. All contestants must be attending members of BayCon 2008. If the maker and presenter are different people, both must be attending members.
  2. You should not wear the costume(s) you are presenting at the Con prior to their appearance in the masquerade, other than on the way to the Green Room.
  3. This is a costume competition celebrating and rewarding the art and craft of costuming. Purchased and rented costumes may not be entered. Costumes using some purchased parts may still enter. When in doubt, ask first.
  4. A costume may not be entered in this competition if it has won "Best in Show" or "Best in Division" at another competition, but it may be entered in the Exhibition division (not in competition).
  5. Each presenter may only appear on stage in a single entry. One body, one presentation.
  6. The standard PG rule applies. No costume is "no costume."
  7. No live animals are allowed on stage with the exceptions of a) people and b) service animals.
  8. No materials or effects that will leave a mess on stage or in the green room are allowed. No materials or effects that may ruin another entrant's costume are allowed.
  9. No pyrotechnics or any other open flames are allowed.
  10. All special effects, acrobatics, and weapons must be reviewed with us at or before the mandatory contestant meeting (the earlier, the better).
  11. Attending the contestant meeting is required. You need it to get a feel for the stage. We need it to double-check your tech, and to make sure the crew knows what to expect from your entry.
  12. If you're going to have large props, please try to bring your own swabbies to get them on and off stage.
  13. Entries of one or two are granted 60 seconds on stage. You may use less time, but if you exceed the limit, you will be ineligible for any award. This does not include travel time up the aisle. You will be told how long that takes as we find out.
  14. Entries of three or more are granted 90 seconds on stage. You may use less time, but if you exceed the limit, you will be ineligible for any award. This does not include travel time up the aisle. You will be told how long that takes as we find out.

Hints and suggestions:

The following information will help you ensure you get the most out of your investment in the competition. You don't have to follow these suggestions, but it would be advised.

The current plan is for a ground-level stage 25ft wide by 10ft. deep. You will enter from the green room stage left, exit center stage through the audience, and return to the green room through a rear door. The distance from green room to stage is approximately 20ft, and from stage to rear audience is approximately 40ft. The mandatory contestants meeting will be in the masquerade hall, and we hope to give you access to the stage to check your timing and blocking at that time. Final plans will be discussed at the mandatory contestant meeting at 1:00 PM on Saturday.

Arrive in the Green Room promptly. Official Con photography and workmanship judging takes place prior to the masquerade presentation. You need to be in the Green Room for both of those.

All entrants are encouraged to participate in workmanship judging. You can't win a workmanship award if you're not judged. Workmanship judging happens backstage before the presentation. Your entire costume or a piece of it may be judged. You choose.

If you're entering a re-creation costume, bring documentation. At least one letter-size color image of your source should be sufficient to show the judges what you're trying to recreate (2 copies would be nice). The judges will probably ignore anything other than that. Paper only, please. Digital viewing will not be available.

If you think a personal or business relationship with a judge will make it difficult for the judge to be objective, please talk to us. We will consult with the judging panel, and we'll come up with a reasonable course of action.

Don't plan on having access to power on stage. It won't be there.

Don't plan for complex lighting. It won't be there. If you wish anything other than default lit stage, discuss it with us and the crew, at the mandatory contestant meeting. Lights on and off on a particular cue is possible with advance notice. If you have a question about that please ask.

You will not have a microphone. Spoken narrative must be pre-recorded or you may provide a script for the MC to read (large clear type please!). Do not plan to speak from stage. The room is large and has 500 people in it. You will not be heard.

Speaking of pre-recorded, we will accept digital files or a CD. We have been told any digital format will work, but we know that MP3 is safe. Bring a backup CD or thumb drive! Terrible things can happen to sole sources of recordings. We've seen too many people lose their only music or have the single copy fail to play properly. Test your CDs on several machines if possible.

If you are providing a CD, make sure it only includes the material you wish to use on track 1 (no commercial CDs!) and nothing else. If you are using commercial music (you didn't write & perform it!) you must fill out the information on the entry form for ASCAP. This is required.

Basic Instructions for Judges

"Excellence deserves award" should be your watchword.

Be serious when granting awards. A serious award with a funny name is fine, but please don't grant an award if you don't think the entry has real merit. No "joke" awards.

You are encouraged to award "Best in Show" and "Best in Division" (for each division) if you find such awards are appropriate. For any other awards, please judge each entry on its own merit.

For each award granted, please identify the entry and the competitor being granted the award. For example:

  • You wish to give a child a presentation award for a costume made by an adult. Name the child who presented it.
  • You wish to give a workmanship award to the person who did all the beading on a group entry. Name the person who did the beading.

If you need help identifying the appropriate person to grant an award, ask your clerk.

Competitors who have entered re-creation costumes are asked (but not required) to provide as documentation a color image of the costume it is based on. You may choose to ignore any documentation beyond that provided by the competitor.

If you think a personal or business relationship with a competitor will make it difficult to be objective in your judging, please talk to both us and your fellow judges about the problem, and we'll come up with a reasonable course of action.

  
 

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