Con No Baka. Cosplay Press Release.

[Kaijugal]

Cheers gang! I just recived this information from Aaron Yorgenson the convention organizer and I'm passing it on to you. I hope it's helpful. I don't know anything further at this point.




We know there has been a lot of talk in the cosplay community about what
kind of cosplay programming will be at Con No Baka and so, we are
providing you with a description of our activities below.

Hall Costume contest/Photographic area

Con No Baka will have a hall costume contest as well as a professional
photography area. Cosplayers can sign up for a specific time on the
photo schedule, so they needn't wear a heavy, awkward, or fragile
costume all day (just as long as they want)to be considered equally for
a costuming award. Expect our awards to be inline with other hall
costuming awards.

Anime Plays

Instead of a masquerade or red and white show, which showcase anime
performances of only few minutes at best, Con No Baka will have an Anime
Play room. This will be for cosplay performances of 30 minutes to
an hour in length. This room will have basic staging and a/v setup for
performances, similar to what smaller con masquerades have, as opposed
to the huge one at Anime North.

What's in it for cosplayers? Have you and your friends had an idea
which would take more than a few minutes? Want to do something
different than a masquerade or similar show would allow? We're happy to
be flexible to
Encourage your creativity.

We do understand that this kind of event takes more work than a typical
masquerade performance, and we'll more than be happy to help with the
organization of your play both before (scripts, rehearsals, staging,
technical) and during the convention to make sure that it pulls together
well, and you don't feel like you are doing all the work on your own.

Since this kind of event requires organization on the part of the player
beyond simply dressing in costume, and will not include an award
component, cosplayers who develop and perform an anime play will be
considered 'staff' for the purposes of membership refunds (full or
partial, depending on their participation in the play).

Anime LARP

For those cosplayers who are interested in something a little less
structured or those who are into a more role-playing sort of cosplay, we
will be having an Anime LARP over the weekend. For those who are
unfamiliar with the term, LARP stands for Live Action Role Playing. In
this game, cosplayers will interact with each other (unscripted) over
the weekend in order to win the LARP game. Those who think this kind of
event sounds
cool will be able to sign up as referees or players. Since being a
referee is an organizational job, they will be considered con staff or
volunteers (depending on the level of their participation in
organizing). Players will be regular attendees (unless they are
volunteering or on staff for another department in the convention).
Prizes for the game winners will be inline with our other gaming events.

Panels/Workshops

We also would love to have cosplayers participate in our discussion
panels and workshops. This is an opportunity for you to share your
experiences and knowledge of costuming with the community of cosplayers
and other attendees. As with other conventions, we reward panelists
with refunds of con memberships based on the number of panels that they
are on
at the Con.

We hope that this clears up any confusion about our cosplay programming.
We will be adding specific details in our upcoming weekly site updates,
and be assured that we consider cosplay to be a very important part of
our convention. See anything in the list above that you think would be
cool to be a part of? Contact us at cosplay@connobaka.com

[Kia]

Anime Plays

Instead of a masquerade or red and white show, which showcase anime
performances of only few minutes at best, Con No Baka will have an Anime
Play room. This will be for cosplay performances of 30 minutes to
an hour in length. This room will have basic staging and a/v setup for
performances, similar to what smaller con masquerades have, as opposed
to the huge one at Anime North.

O_O Am I the only one who thinks this idea is both idiotic and just asking for trouble?

[Chibik3r0]

O_O Am I the only one who thinks this idea is both idiotic and just asking for trouble?

No you aren't. I don't know if I'm interpreting it wrong or not, but does it seem to be thirty minutes - an hour long skits? Or just that an allotted time slot for people to perform as they see fit as many skits as various groups wish to perform? It's certainly a unique idea...

[Sarcasm-hime]

O_O Am I the only one who thinks this idea is both idiotic and just asking for trouble?

.......no. No you're not. :P

Like I said in another thread.....monkeys on crack.

[Kia]

No you aren't. I don't know if I'm interpreting it wrong or not, but does it seem to be thirty minutes - an hour long skits? Or just that an allotted time slot for people to perform as they see fit as many skits as various groups wish to perform? It's certainly a unique idea...
Sorry, I'm tired and grumpy tonight, so this is just coming off as a recipe for disaster to me ... if I was forced to sit through 30min long skits, I think I'd shoot myself ... 1minute is the perfect amount of time, it holds the audiences attention just long enough before they start getting antsy. I wouldn't trust anyone to do anything longer than even 5 minutes, not unless they were a theatre troupe.

[Amy the Yu]

Sorry, I'm tired and grumpy tonight, so this is just coming off as a recipe for disaster to me ... if I was forced to sit through 30min long skits, I think I'd shoot myself ... 1minute is the perfect amount of time, it holds the audiences attention just long enough before they start getting antsy. I wouldn't trust anyone to do anything longer than even 5 minutes, not unless they were a theatre troupe.

Actually, I would LOVE to watch a 1 hour long play...and see how badly the participants want to get off stage half way through as they're sweating under the lights, forgetting most their lines and about to die of thirst and exhaustion. -_-;;

I'd also love to see how many people will show up and leave after a few minutes leaving the participants to perform infront of a non-existant crowd.

[dani]

I believe there is always room for creativity, new ideas, and improvement. Just because something works it doesn't mean something else outrageously new won't. But... have these plans in particular been brainstormed and discussed before making them public? Keeping the audience's attention for more than 30 seconds ( the average TV ad) is an art that few master, and that's after years of training.

[Eleryth]

I'm curious about how someone wins a LARP game ... unless it was of a Battle Royale sort, which wouldn't really require costumes or real LARPing. I don't know how you'd judge that sort of thing. It could be fun, definitely, since people love acting in character (well, some do, anyway), but I'm not sure how it would work over the course of a weekend. Then again, I'm not a regular LARPer, so perhaps there's something I'm missing.

Didn't bother mentioning the skits thing since it's been brought up.

[Oselle]

We do understand that this kind of event takes more work than a typical
masquerade performance, and we'll more than be happy to help with the
organization of your play both before (scripts, rehearsals, staging,
technical) and during the convention to make sure that it pulls together
well, and you don't feel like you are doing all the work on your own.

This confuses me...if the organizers are expecting a large turnout, who is going to have time/expertise to do this? And even assuming they do, it seems to me that beyond the technical and safety aspects, quality of performance is the responsibility of the performer. >_<

It's definitely an interesting idea, but I too worry about the draw something like this would have, as others have mentioned.

[Ninja Sensei]

I'm a little concerned about...

(a) their "workshops" and the quality (Who are they getting to run these? We're having a difficult enough time organizing the costuming programming for Ad Astra ... and I think our contacts in the costuming crowd are pertty good.)

and...
(b) who else besides Aaron is involved in this? (I have a growing suspicion that some undesirables or wannabes are lurking in the background.)

I've not heard anything about this convention that has given me any confidence in it at all. Not one thing.

[JustinCredible]

Like I said in another thread.....monkeys on crack.

I smell T-shirt possibilities... Yeah, this sounds messed up. Looks good on paper, wait no... even then it seems hard to put together.

[JoeTheBarbarian]

I've been to see several Toronto Trek plays (costumed or not) which
tend to go on well over an hour, not to mention Jason Taniguchi's one
man plays at Ad Astra which are getting to be longer than movies which
he is parodying. Guess what, hudereds of people of all ages attend these.
and they don't seem to run away after thiry seconds (Even though I know
for a fact - and personally - that some performers up there in the TT
plays have very little or no training or experience). How come?

I'll note that TT asks for proposals & scripts for their plays before hand.
Seems a reasonable thing to do to ensure they have an idea what is going to
be going on, and can ensure come quality control. And the people coming to
the con can know what to expect. And could be a good idea for Masquerades
as well (those that don't already do it)

Do most people honestly think that cosplayers only have enough talent
and creativity to be entertaining as long as a listerine commercial?
(other than the kind of crowd that thinks that going up on stage and
spraying their hair is cosplay) Or that cosplay audiences have the attention
span of a three year old with ADD? That sounds pretty harsh, don't you think.

Now, It seems like there's plenty of petty name calling going on. It looks
like people are denegrating both cosplayers *and* their audience. I'm wondering
whatbenefit it's supposed to serve? Is it really wrong for anyone to want to
move beyond the box of restrictions that a masquerade can consist of. Is is
really wrong to encourage this? Seems like terms like 'happy to help' 'flexible'
& "encourage your creativity' are alot more compelling and positive about
*costuming* than 'idiotic', 'monkeys on crack' & 'forced to sit'. Sounds like
some consideration was put into the release, which is more than I can say for
some of the responses.

Maybe the Con will pull this together, maybe it won't. That remains to be seen.
But hidebound attitudes and knee-jerk attacks don't serve anyone, least of all us
cosplayers

[ikegami]

O_O Am I the only one who thinks this idea is both idiotic and just asking for trouble?

I don't have any problems watching long performances. I went to see mBrosia at AN2004 and enjoyed it. But before mBrosia could take the stage, I'm sure they had to prove their worthiness in one way or another. I don't see any mention of this. Without the screening process, I can see too many groups putting too little effort into making coherent (forget enjoyable) plays to make it worthwhile for me to watch. Amy's concerned about the participants forgetting their lines. I'm worried that the participants of most act will not have lines to remember, relying mostly on improv instead.

I'm left with these questions: Will there be a screening process? What happens if too few groups sign up? Is there an alternate plan, or will the criterias be relaxed to allow more groups if too few make the cut?

[ikegami]

I'm curious about how someone wins a LARP game

Prizes could be given for good performances. Masquerade judges are good at making up awards for anything they believe is worthy of one. Couldn't the same system work here? I don't know personally, having never LARPed. Also, I can imagine a system where one or two smaller prizes are given based on votes from the participants.

[Eleryth]

Good questions, Ikegami. So, really then, "play" does not have to equal "long skit" (like a one-act), but a performance (along the lines of mBrosia, Sailor Jamboree, or whatever else is new out there)? Sort of like ANs skit contest with a much longer time limit? There are probably some famous plays that could be tweaked to fit some animes and their characters; reenacting a scene or two could be interesting (if it were a bit re-written, that is). I suggested famous since they're more likely to be recognized. Very few people have the right talent for writing a good play/one-act, but I'm positive some of them are anime fans (after all, a lot of drama people love cosplay).

I missed out on those TT plays he mentions...anyone go to those? I know there were special MST3K events...but that's it. I was new to the con, so I didn't get to learn about everything.

I suppose you're right about the LARPer thing, awards wise. But if it requires being in character, you need a judge who's seen a lot of anime. I had a paragraph written, but I suppose it's somewhat pointless to ask questions until hearing more about it, so I deleted it.

[Straywind]

I don't have any problems watching long performances. I went to see mBrosia at AN2004 and enjoyed it. But before mBrosia could take the stage, I'm sure they had to prove their worthiness in one way or another.

Just speaking as someone who is a member of mBrosia (although my part was small last year and I wasn't involved right from the start when the group formed with the purpose of putting on a big show) it takes a TON of work to put together a long performance. I don't think that what is being said is trying to belittle an audience or the performers in a show, but is stating the truth. In order to hold an audience's attention for such a long period of time, the performance has to be interesting, well planned out and organized many, many months in advance.

As others have said, short skits tend to be more interesting. They’re less stressful for the performers and better received by the audience. Our long show was made up of several skits and dance numbers.

It's an interesting and fun idea, but it's expecting a lot. It has the potential to go over well, but it could be a disaster.