BayCon 2007 BayCon's New Hotel

BayCon 2007 Masquerade Official Documents:

The basic information:

Welcome to the BayCon 2007 Masquerade. We're your competition directors, Andy Trembley and Kevin Roche. You'll be able to find us on Friday and Saturday at the convention at the masquerade desk, across the foyer from the information desk.

We've got 3 main sections here... The first explains how division placement works. The second is 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 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.

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 your fellow competitors get a fair shake.

This is the final revision of these rules. April 15, 2007

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 combine those two divisions.

Open:

Journeyman:

Novice:

Young Fan:

Exhibition:

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 competition will be considered.

For this competition, any person who made more than 1/2 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.

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 2007. If the maker and presenter are different people, both must be attending members.
  2. This is a costume competition celebrating and rewarding the art and craft of costuming. Purchased and rented costumes may not be entered.
  3. 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 division (not in competition).
  4. Each presenter may only appear on stage in a single entry. One body, one presentation.
  5. The standard PG rule applies. No costume is "no costume."
  6. No live animals are allowed on stage with the exceptions of a) people and b) service animals.
  7. 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.
  8. No pyrotechnics or any other open flames are allowed.
  9. All special effects must be reviewed with us before contestant meeting (the earlier, the better).
  10. 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.
  11. If you're going to have large props, bring your own ninjas to get them on and off stage.
  12. Individual entries are granted 60 seconds on stage. You may use less time, but if you exceed the limit, you will be ineligible for any award.
  13. Group entries are granted 90 seconds on stage. You may use less time, but if you exceed the limit, you will be ineligible for any award.

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.

All entrants are encouraged to participate in workmanship judging. You can't win a workmanship award if you're not judged.

If you're 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 (5 copies would be nice). The judges will probably ignore anything other than that. Video, floppy disks and CDs are right out. Paper, please.

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 won't be there. If you wish anything other than default lighting, discuss it when you check in with us, and also with the crew at contestant meeting.

Don't plan to use 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.

Speaking of pre-recorded, we will accept tape, but we prefer CD and will also accept MP3 files. The "5-copy rule" is a good guideline. Terrible things can happen to tapes and CDs; make a master and 4 copies. Pack them in separate bags. We've seen too many people lose their only music.

If you are providing a CD, make sure it only includes the material you wish to use on track 1 (no commercial CDs). If you are providing a tape, same deal, and make sure your material is recorded at the start of both the A-side and B-side (tech snafus happen, but this can help you avoid one possible snafu).

Judges' 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 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 choose to ignore any documentation beyond that.

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.

Download

Masquerade Rules and Forms [149KB PDF] 10 pages 5/6/2007