MASQUERADE INFO

Welcome to Anime Conji’s first masquerade! Here is the basic information for the masquerade competition. We’re your competition director, Cheryl Hagar and Rebecca Rowan. We have three main sections here. The first section covers the rules (i.e. the things that can get you disqualified). The second will explain how division placement works. The third is the basic briefing of what you’ve got to work with. There’s also a fourth section for your perusal, the instructions that the judges will receive.

 “Presentation” and “Workmanship” judging are entirely separate. There is a judging panel for Presentation and a judging panel for Workmanship. Each panel selects and gives its own awards. Workmanship judging is not required, and the decisions and deliberations of the Workmanship panel have no influence on the Presentation panel, or vice versa.

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 everyone gets a fair shake. The goal is not to take the fun out of cosplay. We’re attempting to give stage time to as many entrants as we can support and we’re attempting to counter complaints that favoritism and politics influence competitions by providing a fair and safe environment in which to compete. 

MASQUERADE RULES

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

1.  All contestants must be members of Anime Conji. If the maker and presenter are different people, both must be members.
2. All solo entries are granted 90 seconds on stage. All entries with 2 or more participants are granted 2 minutes on stage. You may use less time, but if you exceed the limit, you will be ineligible for any award.
3. Purchased “complete” and rented costumes may not be entered. Costumes that have been assembled (i.e. “closet cosplay”) or altered in a significant way may be entered.
4. A costume may not be entered in competition if it has won “Best in Show” or “Best in Division” at another competition. It may be entered in the Exhibition devision (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 for both costume and content. 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 (this includes glitter, confetti, streamers, silly string, etc). No materials or effects that may ruin another entrant’s costume are allowed.
9. No stunts! No backflips, rolls, live weapons, or any other shennanigans that could cause someone to get hurt.  If you are planning on doing any kind of action based skit for masquerade, please make sure to tell masquerade staff what you have in mind to have it pre-approved.
10. Weapons used in masquerade must adhere to the general weapons policy of the convention.  Please have your weapon pre-approved by masquerade staff if you intend to use one in your skit.
11. No Pyrotechnics or any other sorts of open flame are allowed.

•  All special effects must be reviewed with us before the contestant meeting (the earlier, the better). You can surprise the judges and the audience, but don’t surprise the crew.
•  Attending the contestant meeting is required. Contestants not present at the meeting will be dropped from the competition.
•  Tech rehearsals are required. You will sign up for a time slot when you turn in your forms, and you must attend your scheduled rehearsal. If tech doesn’t know what to do for an entry, the contestant(s) won’t be allowed on stage and will be dropped from the competition.
•  If you’re going to have large props, bring your own ninjas to get them on and off stage.

MASQUERADE DIVISION PLACEMENT

Most entries will be placed in either the Novice or Open Division. A group entry will be placed in the division appropriate for its most experienced member.

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 director. The size of the event and number of entrants in the competition will be considered.

For this competition, any person who made more than half of his or her annual income from costuming in 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. 

• Open:
• -  Any competitor may enter in the Open division.
• Novice:
• - Professional costumer may not enter in the Novice division.
• -  If you have won an award at a major regional competition (eg. San Diego Comic Con, FanimeCon, or Anime Expo) 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 and adult-constructed, it may not be entered in the Young Fan division.
• Exhibition:
• -  The Exhibition division is an open division. Any presenter may enter in the Exhibition division.
• -  The exhibition division is a presentation-only division. Exhibition entries are not judged for either presentation or workmanship, nor are they eligible for any award.
• -  Entries that have already won awards at other conventions and have not been significantly modified may enter in the Exhibition division.

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.

This is an Anime and Manga cosplay competition. Please respect our theme. While entries won’t be turned away based on source material alone, be aware that the judges will consider theme when granting awards.

All entrants are encouraged to participate in workmanship judging. You can’t win a workmanship award if you are not judged. You may elect to have only a part of your costume judged, such as a prop or wig, rather than an entire costume, or an individual within a group may be judged separately.

If you are entering a re-creation costume, bring documentation. A letter-size color photocopy or color print of your source should be sufficient to show the judges what you’re trying to recreate (3 copies would be nice). The judges will probably ignore anything other than that. Video, floppy disks, and CDs are right out. Paper, please. (Please note: We won’t print your documentation for you).

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. Extension cords all over the stage aren’t particularly safe.

Don’t plan for complex lighting. It own’t be there. The default lighting cue is: lights go up, music starts, you come on at stage left, you leave on stage right, music stops, lights go down. If you wish anything other than default lighting, discuss it when you check in with us, and also with the crew during your tech rehearsal.

Don’t plan on using a microphone. During presentations, the MC is the only person with a microphone. Spoken narrative must be pre-recorded or provided when you register as a script for the MC. You may attempt to speak from stage, but spoken dialog will be more effective if it is pre-recorded as part of your presentation.

For pre-recordings, we will accept CD ONLY. The “5-copy” rule is a good guideline. Terrible things can happen to CDs; make a master and 4 copies. Pack them in separate bags. If you are providing a CD, make sure it only includes the material you wish to use on track 1 (no commercial CDs).

Check the programming schedule for the Masquerade 101 panel. You’ll learn about the history of masquerades, meet some of the people running the show, and pick up tips on what makes for a successful entry.

JUDGE INSTRUCTIONS

-  “Excellence deserves award” is your watchword.

-  I ask that you be serious in granting awards. A serious award with a funny name is fine. 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 all 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: If you wish to give a child a presentation award for a costume made by an adult. Name the child. If you wish to give a workmanship award to the person who did all the beading on a group entry, name that person.

-  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 photocopy or print of the image the costume is based on. You may ignore any documentation beyond that.

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

Masquerade