Cosplay Act Competition Rules + Q&A (Sign-ups Closed!)

[Saniiro-San]

These are the rules, the signups are open!

Cosplay Act Competition

Rules

Signup:

• You have to sign up for the act compo using the application template. See FAQ for more details.
• You can sign up untill the 8th of August.
• All required audio-visual material has to be send to us before the 17th of August.
• Acts may last a maximum of 5 minutes.
• Acts may consist out of one or more people.
• There is a minimum of 5 sign-ups, or the competition might be canceled. However: we are trying everything we can to make sure this competition will happen and are definately aiming towards more sign-ups.

Audio/visual material:
Video

• You can use one of the following codec’s: WMV, DivX, XviD, H.264, MPEG.
• The following file types are accepted: WMV, AVI, MKV, MP4, MPG.
• We don’t accept other file types like FLV, SWF, ASF and other exotic formats.
• Make sure the resolution is always MOD16. A minimum resolution of [4:3]640x480 is required. Examples would be: [Widescreen] SD 704x400, HD 1280x720, [4:3] SD 640x480, HD 1280x1024.
• We don't know what the beamer will support. If it only supports 4:3 and the video is Widescreen it will get black bars added (same as 4:3 on a Widescreen beamer).
• For video use a bit rate of at least 1000kb/s.
• All video material needs to have 5 seconds of black screen at the end.

Audio

• For audio you can use one of the following formats: MP3 (min 196bit), WMA, MP4, AAC.
• We don’t accept other file types like FLAC and other exotic formats.

Script rules:

• Use the supplied template when making your script. See the FAQ below for details!
• Scripts have to be send to us as a .doc, docx or pdf file.
• Scripts may only contain pictures for clarification, not for the artistical value.
• Text has to be black and the text size 11 points.
• Put clear technical cues into the script. (colour marks)
• In the template there is room for a full list of required audio/visual equipment as well as used props (e.g. chairs, tables, confetti cannons, windmills, etc). This list is mandatory.
• Scripts that don’t follow these rules will be rejected.
• The act needs to have a clear link to japan either by the characters used or the content of the script itself.

Selection round:

• Before the selection rounds are over, we will not accept changes to the scripts. After the selection has been done, selected groups may send in updated scripts until the deadline of 13.08.2010 (this may be minor updates, not a completely different act).
• The results of the selection round will be given on 01.08.2010
• Acts with inappropriate language, nudity or intensive violence will be rejected without question.

The rehearsal:

• It is mandatory to be present at the rehearsal, you will be disqualified if you aren’t there or late. The rehearsal times will be made know to the selected groups. If you know up front you are unable to attend or will be late, please send us an e-mail with the reason. If the reason is deemed valid enough you may be exempt from this rule.
• The rehearsal is not for you to practice your act, rather for you to get used to the stage, and also for the staff to make sure the sounds and lights are working correctly for the show and practice the technical cues.
• We will not accept new audio-visual materials or requests during the rehearsals.

The competition:

• By participating in this competition you give us the right to record your act, which will be put online on our website and used for promotional purposes, all rights reserved to us.
• If you want your act to be filmed by anyone else besides our camera crew, you can request this through e-mail minimally a week before the convention.
• There will be a short break (approximately 30 to 60 minutes, for lunch and spare time) between the rehearsal and the actual show. All group members must be present (backstage) 10 minutes before the start of the show.
• For problems or questions during the rehearsal or show go to either Peter (tech) or Bram (stage) before the show (aswell as during the rehearsals and the break), or the Super Gopher backstage during the show.
• The order in which acts are set will be decided by the staff and is not open for discussion.
• Judging results are final and are not open for discussion.

(these rules are subject to change)

[Saniiro-San]

FAQ

Q: On what day will the Cosplay Act Compo be?
A: The Cosplay Act Competition will be on Saturday like previous years.

Q: My script isn't ready yet, can I still sign-up in advance?
[a]Yes, you can (and it's even prefered that you) sign up in advance. Just mail us the template and don't forget the short description of the act. As long as the script has been received before the deadline it's fine.

Q:  How do I sign-up?
A:  You have to use the following templates:
Sign-up Template

• Office 2003 / OpenOffice
• Office 2007
• Or check the attachements at the bottom of this post.

Script Template

• Office 2003 / OpenOffice
• Office 2007
• Or check the attachements at the bottom of this post.

The group representative/contact sends an email using the email form on the website. The body (message) of the email will have to contain:

• Subject: [CAC] Group Name - Act Title, e.g.: [CAC] saniiro - staff class act
• Your name
• Your Email
• Download Link to the Sign-up template, and the script template. Please package them together in an archive (ZIP/RAR/7z/GZIP) if in any way possible.

If any of the information required is missing, the sign-up will be rejected. We will notify you if your sign-up has been received.

Q:  How do I supply you with my music, video and other required files?
A:  The group representative/contact sends an email using the email form on the website. The body (message) of the email will have to contain:

• Subject: [CAC] Group Name - Act Title, e.g.: [CAC] saniiro - staff class act
• Your name
• Your Email
• Download Link to the material. Please package several small (audio and data) files together in an archive (ZIP/RAR/7z/GZIP) if in any way possible.

If any of the information required is missing, the sign-up will be rejected. We will notify you if your sign-up has been received.

Q: What are accepted languages used in the performance
A:  Accepted languages are English, Dutch and Japanese (though in this last case you need either subs or a translator ;-]) in both spoken as well as written form.

Q: What is an "Archive" and how do I use it?
A: If you have trouble creating an archive, check out this tutorial. We accept the types of Compressed Folder (Windows Native)/ZIP/RAR/7z/GZIP. We highly recommend using this since it saves us a lot of trouble.

Q:  I don't have hosting of my own, how do I upload the files to you?
A:  Use one of the below sites to upload your files, and send us the links those sites supply you for download.

• MegaUpload (www.megaupload.com) [This has our preference]
• 2Shared (www.2shared.com)
• SendSpace (www.sendspace.com)

[meeltjuh]

Today it's the first of July. If the template will take another week to make people will have less then a month to sign up, isn't that a bit short?

[Saniiro-San]

a shorter sign-up period does not decrease the time you have to work on your act though... but yeah, we'd like to get it up asap but it's taking a little longer than expected.

[Saniiro-San]

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my staff chamber door.
"'Tis some evil manager," I muttered, "tapping at my staff chamber door —
Only this, and nothing more."

Then this sinister being beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient otaku wandering from the Manga Store —
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Otaku, "Nevermore."


(aka: the signups are open )

[majinhope]

Originally Posted by Saniiro-San

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my staff chamber door.
"'Tis some evil manager," I muttered, "tapping at my staff chamber door —
Only this, and nothing more."

Then this sinister being beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient otaku wandering from the Manga Store —
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Otaku, "Nevermore."


(aka: the signups are open )

Good lord, this reminds me of the time I read the play "Hamlet" of W. Shakespear in it's original content...old English is harder then this poem though xD . Eitherway, we know you are awesome, why proving it once more?
Me and my buddy will be entering this year aswell, only no fighting act this time... a shame, but we didn't prepare anything and believe me, one or two months isn't enough for such an act.
Futhermore, this year I hope it will be better organized, because last year. . . let's say it took away half of our Saturday.
And last but not least I want to wish everybody good luck and want them to have fun writing a script, preparing an act and give the people a show!!!

MajinH. out

[Rasha]

well to be fairly honest if you still need to make an act now your a little late.
i know we only just opened the signups but that shouldn't have stopped anyone from making their acts already...I mean common did we ever NOT have a cosplay act compo?

[majinhope]

Ow, but dear Rasha, we DO have an act already. I was only awnsering ahead of people if they wanted to ask me why xD . I think people enjoyed it last year, see me suffer from an injury I had... not that much fun, but we will come back one day with an fighting act, good enough to impress people, easy enough to preform without immobilizing myself .

Here a lil' teaser: The act we gonna do isn't from an anime, but from an Brittish cartoon. I'm sure you all will like it. ^w^

[Saniiro-San]

it will still take up a lot of your saturday. but it will definately be better streamlined compared to last year. we made a few mistakes (mostly wrong assumptions about how long certain things would take) which we took alot of effort into fixing for this year.

we do have a problem though: the act has to have a clear link to japan. a brittish cartoon won't have that link unless the act itself brings that link.

[Meowzy]

Oh goodness gracious. Dutch is allowed this year? Just when a friend of mine from America is attending the convention.