Aug 31 - Sep 3, 2012
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Costuming Contest
Friday Aug 31, 2012 @ 8:30pm DragonCon's Costuming Contest is a fashion show that focuses on the craftsmanship of the costume and inspires both audience member and contestant alike. We see many costumes in the hallways, panels, and other competitions but little attention is paid to the efforts taken to make these wearable works of art. For this reason, the contest was created to acknowledge efforts and abilities as opposed to presentation skills. It was started in 2006 and our first year came with over double the expected number of contestants, all displaying their work before head judge, Marty Gear, and his team of prestigious judges. Today, we continue to have the very best professionals of the costuming business host and judge this contest. Join us for a spectacle of hand made wonder from every skill level and genre. Frequently Asked Questions
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Saturday, Sept 1, 2012 @ 10pm This is DragonCon's adult-oriented costume contest that provides an opportunity to display and showcase naughtier, more suggestive, or grotesque costumes in a safe and controlled environment. It first began in 2004 to provide girls with revealing costumes a venue to strut their stuff away from the bars and in the spot light. We had celebrity judge, Connor Trinneer (Star Trek: Enterprise,) were in a room 2/3rds the size of our current track room and had a line that wrapped around the entire Marquis Level atrium... twice! We packed our room to overflowing and had to turn away over eight times the number of people that we could fit into the room. In 2007, DragonCon embraced the contest by hosting the event in a larger ballroom, expanding to include the male contestants, and adding all R-rated categories (gore, for example) to the costuming mix. So, come on over and let it all hang out. But remember, it's Rated-R so leave the kids and grandma at home for this one. |
Frequently Asked Questions
General Information
Who may enter?
Do you have to be a full-time or professional costumer?
Can children enter?
What experience levels are considered?
Do the costumes have to be hand-made or can they be purchased?
Can costumes be entered in more than one contest over the weekend?
Are entries checked for contestant misrepresentation?
Are there awards?
Who are the judges?
Who are the MCs?
Documentation
What kind of documentation is required?
Does cost or time factor into the judging?
Pre-Judging / Pre-Qualifying
Who needs to attend the Pre-Judging/Pre-Qualifying?
Why?
What do I need to bring?
Will there be time or space to make final adjustments or costume repairs?
What do I do if I am late?
Presentation
Can I do a skit?
What limitations are placed on presentations?
Registration
Where do I register?
Should I pre-register for the Costume Contest?
I have pictures to support my documentation for the Costuming Contest. What do I do?
I did not receive an email confirmation of my pre-registration. What do I do?
I pre-registered online. Do I need to bring a hardcopy of my entry form with me?
Contestant Disclaimer
General Information
Both contests are open to any and all registered attendees of DragonCon, with the exception that contestants must be 18 or older to enter Dragon After Dark (date of birth will be verified.)
Do you have to be a full-time or professional costumer?
You do not need to be a professional to enter. However, understand that the Costuming Contest is about craftsmanship so the better your skills and creativity, the higher you will place. Dragon After Dark's focus is less about skills and more about the overall creativity, look, and reveal of the costume.
Children may enter or be entered into the Costuming Contest, but Dragon After Dark is restricted to 18 years or older. We love to see our tiny costumers; but we also ask all youth entries take into consideration that it's a construction contest and should be set to the proper experience level in relationship to the person that actually constructed the costume. If an adult created the costume, please enter appropriately.
What experience levels are considered?
For the Costuming Contest:We have 7 different levels and awards:For Dragon After Dark:Youth (Costuming Contest only) - is intended for entrants under the age of 15 and promotes the developing talents of our young attendees.
Novice - for attendees age 15 and up that are new to costuming or have never won an award for costuming at a major convention that promotes or focuses on costuming. This is for the newbies: the ones that have talents, want to learn more and be judged on their designs and efforts.
Journeyman - intended for those that have been working at the art of costuming for a few years and have entered or won any number of costuming contests in the past. Even if they have been away from making costumes or entering contests for years, they are still considered a Journeyman based on past skills and efforts.
Professional - for costumers that have repeatedly worked on, entered, and/or won numerous costume contests at DragonCon or other conventions that place focus on costuming either in panels or contests. At this level, we are looking at construction skills, design effort, documentation, and presentation of the costume itself. These attendees are usually building and designing year-round and/or may be employed as costumers in their local cities. These costumes are judged at the highest of standards.
Best Use of Materials - a new category that focuses on how well the designer or creator used available materials, including adaptation of found materials to create the desired look or effect. It's basically a creativity award that acknowledges how well a costume is constructed from the materials used.
Best in Show - is a single award that can be given in ANY category that acknowledges how well the design was received or how well the creative effect was achieved. This is a Judge's Choice Award.
The People's Choice Award - is a single award that can be given in ANY category that acknowledges the audiences favorite costume. This award will be selected by applause.
There are 4 awards presented: 1st, 2nd & 3rd place as well as a peoples choice award.Do the costumes have to be hand-made or can they be purchased?
For the Costuming Contest:At Dragon After Dark:This is a craftsmanship contest and the costume must be the contestants own work. Therefore, purchased costumes are not suitable for this contest. However, you may use few purchased items as part of your design. For example: contestant purchases pre-fabricated armor but the cleaning or cutting from the mold, assembling, painting, and/or decorating is his/her own work. Buying armor and simply putting it on would not constitute construction: merely presentation. In this example, personal creation of the under suit, rubber neck pieces, attachment methods, etc. would be construction.
A good rule of thumb: if the contestant did not personally construct 90% or more of the costume, it would NOT qualify for entry in the Costuming Contest. For those costumes, please refer to our list of other costuming contests at DragonCon.
Costumes can be either bought or fabricated by the wearer.
Can costumes be entered in more than one contest over the weekend?
A Costume cannot be entered into the Friday night Costuming Contest and be entered into another major costuming event for the same weekend at Dragon Con. Also, a costume cannot be entered if it has won an award at past DragonCon's or other costuming specific events at other conventions. If you have entered and not won OR won but made significant changes (reflected in your documentation), these costumes can be considered for entry. The final decision will rest with the Judges. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.Are entries checked for contestant misrepresentation?
Unfortunately, we have had one or two cases where contestant dishonesty posed an unfair advantage over other Costuming Contest contestants: usually by journeymen or professionals claiming to be novices and presenting their more experienced work along side beginner-level contestants.Thanks to those few incidents, we have added filters to level the playing field and ensure that contestants are competing only with those that are within their experience level and category.
Our staff, judges, and many of our fans are well connected across numerous costuming communities. Contestants claiming someone elses work as there own or misrepresenting their experience level are VERY likely to be caught. However, we cannot guarantee that our system works 100% of the time.
Because Dragon After Dark does not focus on craftsmanship, misrepresentation is not an issue.
Yes. However, DragonCon has not yet announced what the 2012 awards are.Judges for both contests have not yet been announced..The Crossed Swords are MCing the Costuming Contest on Friday night and John D. Ringo and Kelly Lockhart will MC Saturday's Dragon After Dark Contest.Documentation
What kind of documentation is required?
For Dragon After Dark, none. As part of the Costuming Contest, however, judges need to know how the costume was constructed, designed, and/or created. We want to know what the inspiration was and how much work went into it.Documenting (journaling) your creation process and then bringing those documents to the contest with you is an excellent way to show judges how much of your costume was pre-constructed and how much was by design. Judges will also accept drawings, inspirational photos, pictures of the construction process, a materials list and fabric samples as supporting documentation as proof that you are indeed the creator of the costume.
Does cost or time factor into the judging?
Time or expense that went into the creation of your costume is not a factor. By the very nature of experience, some people will require more time than others to achieve the look of their costume. Therefore, time alone is not a factor. The Costuming Contest focuses on final results vs. effort expended while Dragon After Dark focuses on the over all look of the costume.Pre-Judging / Pre-Qualifying
Who needs to attend the Pre-Judging/Pre-Qualifying?
Everyone that plans to participate as a contestant must attend to avoid forfeiting their entry. For the Costuming Contest, contestants and their models (if they are not the same individual) must plan on attending.
Costume Contest Pre-Judging serves two purposes:
Judges use this time to interview you, the designer, and examine your costume and documentation. This is where you will defend your designs so come prepared.
This contest is intended to be family-friendly, we need to make sure that all costumes are appropriate in nature. Costumes that are too revealing may be disqualified or asked to transfer their registration to the Saturday evening Dragon After Dark contest. While we are not discouraging revealing costumes or costumes based upon creations of a more mature theme, we do request that you consider fully the costume you are wearing and the venue in which you will be presenting it. If you have questions about the type of costume you have prior to arriving at the convention, please feel free to contact us so the staff can make a determination for you.
Dragon After Dark Pre-Qualification allows the staff to:
Look at your costume and/or presentation to make certain that it conforms to GA state laws regarding public nudity, exposure, and content-appropriateness.
We must also place you in the line-up. If you have a large group presentation or a bulky costume in either of these contests (props, etc) we will need time to make position you in an area backstage that will be easier for you to get on and off stage in a timely manner.
Here's a list of things to consider:
Contestant number card DragonCon badge Drivers license (Dragon After Dark contestants only) Copy of your online pre-registration (Costuming Contest contestants only) Documentation (Costuming Contest contestants only) Safety pins Extra batteries (if your costume requires) Lint roller Hair spray or hair gel Make up Handler (if your costume involves a degree of difficulty in moving) Any out-of-the-ordinary items that you may need to prepare and comfortably stand in your costume for long periods of time. No one knows your costume better than YOU. Please bring the necessary materials needed for your costume. The Costuming Track will not have repair materials available.
Will there be time or space to make final adjustments or costume repairs?
Yes, we will have space backstage for contestants and repairs can be made while you are waiting to go on stage.
Please bear in mind that we have only 3 hours to pre-judge Costuming Contest contestants. While this may sound like plenty of time, for 50 contestants this leaves only 3.5 minutes per contestant with the judges. That's just not very much time.
Dragon After Dark has only an hour for all contest preparation, including pre-qualifying.
Each contestant will be given a number. If you find that your number has already been called, we will continue in order through to the last contestant and then call all previously unanswered contestant numbers at the end. The second call is the final call. Regrettably, contestants that are not present by the second call are disqualified... no exceptions. So please be on time and listen for your name and/or number to be called.
Presentation
For the Costuming Contest, the simple answer is NO. If the focus of your costume is the story behind it, DragonCon's Masquerade is better suited for you. The Costuming Contest focuses solely on the skills and effort behind the costume, not on the comedic nature of the costume or how well it is presented. Bear in mind that if your costume has a "reveal" nature to it, that is OK and can be used in this contest, but the reveal must be able to easily be seen in advance by the judges. For example: if your costume is a caterpillar that transforms into a butterfly with a large wingspan, demonstrating the transformation is totally acceptable but you need to be able to easily show this aspect to the judges prior to the onstage presentation. On stage, the Costuming Contest is primarily presented in a fashion-show-like manner: sword play, dances, skits, juggling... any performance work is disallowed.
Dragon After Dark, however, WILL allow a minute or two for presentations that do not involve lewd, questionable, or distasteful actions, statements, or mannerisms. We must keep things in an R-rated format. Any boring presentations or those going over their time limit will be escorted off the stage and possibly have points deducted from their overall score.
What limitations are placed on presentations?
There are no presentations for the Costuming Contest per se. However, if you would like to perform a presentation for Dragon After Dark:
It must be kept between 1 - 2 minutes (we reserve the right to cut it shorter if it is for the betterment of the show. Also know that points will be subtracted from the final score for every 30 seconds a contestant goes over their time limit.) You may NOT have any substances on the stage that will detract from other contestant presentations that will follow yours (i.e. trash, confetti, whip cream, etc) No fire or smoke... ever Obviously, we cannot allow presentations that mimic live-sexual acts or anything similar. That's worth saying again... We cannot allow presentations that mimic live-sexual acts or anything similar Although the contest is "bare-as-you-dare," we still have to obey the law. If you have questions regarding these limitations, please feel free to contact us.
Registration
At DragonCon you can register for the Costuming Contest at one of our stations either in the Sheraton near con badge pick-up or at the Hyatt Regency level near Masquerade registration until 5p. Registration for Dragon After Dark is held at the Hyatt Regency 5 from 8:30 to 9:30p. We reserve to cut off registration early for either contest when we reach capacity. Please be advised that last year we actually reached capacity a few weeks prior to con.
You can also pre-register for the Friday Night Costuming Contest on this web page. Just grab your documentation and enter. You will receive an email confirmation of your entry shortly after pre-registration. Sorry, online pre-registration is not available for Dragon After Dark.
Should I pre-register for the Costuming Contest?
Pre-registration is strongly advised. DragonCon has set a limit on the number of entries for the Costuming Contest, so entry is first-come first-served. Besides, if you pre-register you won't have to stand in line during that last minute surge of registrations. We have been know to reach capacity prior to con.
I have pictures to support my documentation for the Costuming Contest. What do I do?
Please bring disposable copies of your pictures with you to DragonCon and turn them in at the pre-judging. The judges will retain them for the judging process and will dispose of them afterward.
Sorry, but the green room gets a little crazy near the end of the show so we cannot guarantee a safe return of your pics. Please make it easier on yourself and the judges by bringing disposable copies.
I did not receive an email confirmation of my pre-registration. What do I do?
Official confirmation is usually emailed to you within 24 hours or so. However, computers are not infallible. If it has been longer than a few days, first check to make sure your email spam filters did not trap your confirmation. Make sure you have added costuming@dragoncon.org to your approved senders list. If those actions do not work, please contact us.
I pre-registered online. Do I need to bring a hardcopy of my entry form with me?
Yes. We make every effort to ensure that your entry is present at the contest, but we are human and things can happen. Be prepared should that rare missing registration happen to be yours.
Costuming Contest Registration Form
Pre-registration will open July 1, 2012. Please check back with us then. Thank you.