Boycott

[Duo Monkey]

Alright, this will more than likely get deleted but maybe not before someone sees it. I would like to ask people to boycott the cosplay contest. It's insane that they won't let people compete that bought their costumes. Not every person can sew. Some people need help from others. Personally I would compete in a cosplay thing for the content on the skit. How good is it? Is it funny? Or is it something that puts everyone to sleep? A skit is made to be amusing, not so people to judge the costume. If you wanted to have a craftmanship competition go for it. Have it seperately. The Masq is made for skits, not sewing skills. The way the Masq has been handled since Brian left has been horrible, and this just shows it even more. If my friends weren't coming to this con I personally wouldn't go at all.

[luckyends]

i dont participate in the cosplay constests because i dont think you should compete with costumes there just for fun so i guess i suport u even though i make my costumes i buy some parts. so i understand both sides so ill help u by not going or joining ^_^ well good luck

[angeljibrille]

Alright, this will more than likely get deleted

LOL. I am not going to delete this. Nor is anyone on staff. Believe it or not, we are not out to get you. Though I expect this all will soon be up on Fandom Wank... Ah the drama...

It's insane that they won't let people compete that bought their costumes. Not every person can sew. Some people need help from others.

Did you read the entire thread? I would like to point out again:

We are flexible. We allow found items. We allow your group leader to make costumes for the entire group. We allow everyone in a group (or even with another group) to work together on their costumes. We allow your mom or dad or grandma or cousin or husband or wife to help you. We are a LOT more flexible than many conventions.

The trick here is that you DO NOT need to compete with the person making the huge angel in armor costume with the flufffy wings. You can just as easily make a Luffy costume (from one piece) by purchasing a red shirt, ripped-off jeans, a straw hat, and sandals... and still be able to compete and win the contest. You can make a basic Sakura dress (from Naruto) and still win the contest.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AN AMAZING COSTUME MAKER. PERIOD.

The people with the amazing costumes are going to be competing in the craftsmanship contest. They will also be trying out for the peformance awards, but the performance awards are STRICTLY BASED ON PERFORMANCE (9 awards!).

The only award that is for "both" Craftsmanship and Performance is Best of Show.

So, if you "mostly" made your costume, you are fine. We all start somewhere, and making your costume (even if it's found items) look right is part of the deal. Of course I expect people to purchase jackets and such... such as a leather jacket for Squall (FFVIII). Examples:
We are OK with people buying Naruto headbands,  Cloud's sword from that spiffy new company making them, prop weapons, boots, shoes,  tights,  jeans,  belts,  wings, wigs, teeth, contacts, leather items, shorts, t-shirts, jewelery, series character items (like the Naruto headbands), etc.
The list of things it's OK to buy could go on for about 5 pages.

As long as you did everything else on your outfit, which means putting it together the way it's supposed to look to be the character, and you aren't trying to represent it as something you personally made, you are OK.

An example is my Temari costume.
I bought the purple v-neck shirt that went under it, I bought the headband, I bought my hair ties, and I bought the "Naruto Shoes" because I tried to make them and just about had a nervous breakdown. The major item I spent 10000 years on was the "breastplate" (made of heat sensitive fabric and covered with silver fabric) which I had to fit to my, ah, chest and I had to learn how to make darts and how to make it fitted-- all just by trying things, ripping it out, trying it again. I also had to learn how to do rivets (sp?), and to make it tied in the back. I also spent a lot of time making the skirt (from a Simplicty pattern that looked close) and the bow (just by eye). I purchased the fan from Cost Plus, spray painted it with white paint (I had to tape it up first) and then painted on the purple circles with paint from my friend's kindergarten class. I made the little black netting things out of nylons from Hot Topic.

I spent hours on my hair to get the "Temari" poofs. A wig you styled yourself would also be acceptable. I put on extra stage-type makeup (because it looks better on stage / in pictures) and then went on.

A recap: what did I actually make myself? The bodice, the shorts. What did I customize? The fan, hair, makeup, nylons. Found items? The shoes, the shirt, the headband, and technically the fan and nylons.

Could I enter the Fanime masq with this outfit? Yes. Could I win a Craftsmanship award? Maybe a novice or honorable mention award. Could I win a performance award? Absolutely, if my skit was enjoyable.

And yes, this message is going on and on and on, but I seem to need to spell this all out, which is fine. That's what I'm here for. I'm NOT here to kick you out. I'm just trying to be fair to all participants.

We have to draw the line somewhere, especially because we usually get more people applying each year than we can take in (we have a fixed running time). You will not find very many conventions that do not have the "must make your costumes" rule. I believe that the majority of NorCal conventions (from anime to sci-fi to fantasy to SCA to comic books) and most US conventions all have this same rule.

What is prohibited? When you buy your ENTIRE costume made tailored for you (or in your size) and all you do is your hair and makeup.

Personally I would compete in a cosplay thing for the content on the skit. How good is it? Is it funny? Or is it something that puts everyone to sleep? A skit is made to be amusing, not so people to judge the costume..

... and you are judged for this. We have half the awards dedicated solely to the skit, costume is not a factor.

If you wanted to have a craftmanship competition go for it. Have it seperately. The Masq is made for skits, not sewing skills.

And we do have a separate craftsmanship competition. It is not required. However, we do prohibit the ENTIRE costume being purchased.

The way the Masq has been handled since Brian left has been horrible, and this just shows it even more. If my friends weren't coming to this con I personally wouldn't go at all.

I'm sincerely sorry you feel this way. The majority of the participants and the audience seemed to have an excellent time last year. We did everything we could to make the contestants happy and comfortable, and to judge them fairly and explain the judge's decisions, and not reward one person 20 times as in years past. However, no matter how things were run, it was going to be different. Obviously that is going to upset some people, and I am sorry for this.

[luckyends]

yay i have the same temri costume ^_^

[angeljibrille]

yay i have the same temri costume ^_^

Temari <3 ! :)

I'd also like to point out here a couple winners from last year who had "Novice" and mostly found item costumes who won prizes...

Gainax Boy Productions
- Simple Shinji & Asuka school costumes, but a really neat puppet and a great original skit.

Tenjou Tenge Takes a Hike
- First time on the stage, drafted by friends, came up with their skit in 5 minutes in the Masq Reg room, really only had custom wigs and found item costumes, won a performance prize.

[BrightHeart76]

OK...let me first say that I find it really rude to lay into people because you don't like that things aren't going the way you want.  A lot of us are upset by the rule, but there are productive ways to work with it.  Calm down, boycotting someone else's work is not a very productive thing to do.  At least in my opinion.

What other options do we have?  The rules for this year are set.  Period.  The end.  So we use the link for people who are new to sewing, we get help from other people and use our resources as best we can.  Masquerade isn't over for those of us who bought costumes, it just has a new and difficult challenge.

Let's have a rational, civilized conversation about what changes we would like to see for next year.  At this time people are being told to go to Stage Zero to do a skit if they bought their costume.  The problem as I see it is that people at Stage Zero aren't there to watch a skit, and they can be mean.  We would all like to participate as equals, those who bought their costumes and those who made their costumes.  What are the chances of having more space available next year so that people who bought their costumes can participate in Masquerade as well?  People could decide which awards they would like to try to win, obviously someone who bought their costume would never try to win a craftsmanship award.  As I see it the problem would be time.   That would be one LOOONG Masquerade.  So lets try to find solutions.  

This is supposed to be "by fans, for fans".  So as fans lets behave and find solutions to what we would like to see changed.  I can't promise there will be changes, but the chances of things changing increase when people honestly try to find solutions.

Sorry if I'm sounding preachy, I just want things to be fair, and for people to still be able to enjoy themselves without hurt feelings.  This is a fun thing!

I am by no means a voice of authority, just someone with an opinion.  Disregard my opinion if you choose to.  Thank you for reading this.  :-)

[DayDreamerNessa]

I actually really like the direction the masquerade is going towards. I don't really want to argue but i want to say i appreciate what the fanime masquerade staff is doing, and last year's by far was the most enjoyable masquerade i've been apart of. They are caring and work hard to make everything run smoothly, and try to accomadate to people's needs who are in the masquerade.

And like others have mentioned, those of us who put a lot of effort into our costumes are getting recognized, before it was people complaining bout no attention to craftsmanship and the work cosplayers put in there costumes, and now there are people complaining about costume qualifacations in order to do a performance.

You got to realize they are trying to make everyone happy, and i think there doing a good job.

[MisakiFan41]

The trick here is that you DO NOT need to compete with the person making the huge angel in armor costume with the flufffy wings. You can just as easily make a Luffy costume (from one piece) by purchasing a red shirt, ripped-off jeans, a straw hat, and sandals... and still be able to compete and win the contest. You can make a basic Sakura dress (from Naruto) and still win the contest.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AN AMAZING COSTUME MAKER. PERIOD.

The people with the amazing costumes are going to be competing in the craftsmanship contest. They will also be trying out for the peformance awards, but the performance awards are STRICTLY BASED ON PERFORMANCE (9 awards!). You could be wearing a bag over your head and wearing an anime-style potato sack and still win a performance award if your skit is funny, makes the audience laugh, and impresses the judges.

Please note that costumes purchased or rented from a costume shop, designer direct, eBay, Yahoo Auctions, Yahoo Japan Auctions, Cospa, any other costume store or online resource, or any costumes made for you by a designer or seamstress, are prohibited. Ignoring this rule will negate your eligibility (and your group's eligibility; even if only one person in the group has a disqualified costume) to participate in Masquerade and will also disqualify you for any performance and/or craftsmanship awards. Honesty is always the best policy; tell us if one person in your group made all the costumes. That person (as long as they are a member of your group) is still eligible for a Design Award (see the Awards section for more details). There are two notable exceptions to the "purchased or rented" policy:
- Rules of Masq from the Website

wait, I'm confused, what I'm reading from your post is that we can still win the performance awards even with bought items like in the example you've given but in this write up, it says and I quote "Please note that costumes purchased or rented from a costume shop, designer direct, eBay, Yahoo Auctions, Yahoo Japan Auctions, Cospa, any other costume store or online resource, or any costumes made for you by a designer or seamstress, are prohibited. Ignoring this rule will negate your eligibility (and your group's eligibility; even if only one person in the group has a disqualified costume) to participate in Masquerade and will also disqualify you for any performance and/or craftsmanship awards." meaning we will be disqualified from the Performance Award for store bought costumes?

Ok I'm using myself as an example, I'm gonna wear a RPD Uniform from Resident Evil in the masq, I bought the uniform but sewed on the patches, got a custom made badge, and home made insignias. I only wanna compete for the Performance Award, is my uniform going to disqualify me because my uniform was bought and modified?

[angeljibrille]

Ok I'm using myself as an example, I'm gonna wear a RPD Uniform from Resident Evil in the masq, I bought the uniform but sewed on the patches, got a custom made badge, and home made insignias. I only wanna compete for the Performance Award, is my uniform going to disqualify me because my uniform was bought and modified?

Your example is acceptable, just like my Temari costume as explained above :)