Costumes: When should I wear mine?

[Tiny]

Hi All,

Why don't we have a day at the cons that we all can wear our favorite costumes? I love showing off my costumes so the most possible people see and say wow ahh. I think we need to do some thing semi official.

To see the results you will need to vote, so please Vote.

[Dragontologist]

As much as I too would like to show my costumes off to the most people, it's not feasable on a saturday.  It's always the busiest day, but unfortionately most people are SO busy that they don't have time to wear costumes unless they happen to need it in a game that day.  I voted Friday.

--Andy

[Jenny]

The issue with me, though, is that Sunday's tend to be a hangover day, and W-Th-F are all work days.

[Avie]

I'm only supposed to dress up on one day? shoot.  *checks handbook* Oops.

[CassieMcCullin]

I'm with Avie - all days! 

But if you wanted to encourage costuming on one specific day, Saturday is a good day for it. Speaking from years of anime-con-going cosplay experience, Saturday is always the biggest day for people to dress up, pretty much because of what Jenny mentioned. Even though it's a really busy day, people still have more time to get into costume, more time to wear it, and there are more people to show it off to Also, Saturday tends to be the costume contest day (hint hint ;-)) and it gives competitors more time to get into elaborate costumes.

As for being too busy on Saturday to wear a costume, why not do something easy to get into that doesn't get in the way of what you're doing? I think your Ray costume is good for that - hop in the jumpsuit, strap on a backpack, and in 10 minutes you're good to go.

[Avie]

Did I just hear C. offer to organize and judge the costume contest?

What a great idea! What resources do you need to make it happen?

:-D

[CassieMcCullin]

Actually, you did hear me volunteer I've been jonesing for a good costume contest since Diane mentioned a possible cosplay like 2 years ago.

Depends on the type of contest. If it's "show up here at X time and be judged", a small room and another judge. Prize support is good. Uh... an attractive male dressed as a pirate in tight leather pants. Ok, don't really need that A frequent judging category is "hall contest" or, basically, con-attendee voting. Basically you get a picture of everyone who signs up, number them, and stick it on a bulletin board, and attendees can fill out a little ballot for their favorite.  Of course, their vote usually has nothing to do with who has the best costume and more with who hams it up the most, which is why it's a category and not the whole contest So for that, I'd need either a polaroid camera or a photo printer (Polaroids, I think, are a bit easier, but if no one has the camera already I'll just drag my photo printer along to the con.)

Perhaps after the contest, a costume party? (No, I'm not volunteering to organise that one ;p But I'll help.)

[Avie]

For a simpler first-year venture, what about snapping photos and we could post on the forum afterward.  Voting commences, then voting ends, then prizes get mailed. 

Thoughts?

[Barbara]

After running TWO costume contests at ShoreCon I still have all the rules I wrote up and forms and NO I AM NOT VOLUNTEERING.

But the idea of taking photos and posting them would be neat.

Barbara
'my favorite word is NO!'

[CassieMcCullin]

For a simpler first-year venture, what about snapping photos and we could post on the forum afterward.  Voting commences, then voting ends, then prizes get mailed. 

Thoughts?

Messy, and often photos don't do a costume justice. Though I would like to see a section in the photos for participants

[Denn]

I voted Friday. I agree with Andy that Saturday is a VERY busy day, what with tournaments ending, finales of games, etc etc. Friday isn't so bad because a lot more people are there because they can actually take like a couple extra hours off of work to get to the con earlier instead of sacrificing a couple days of work (which eliminates opening day of course) and no one is going to be so hectic to try and fit every last event they can together (i.e. Saturday). Fridays would be a very good choice.

[Frigemall]

I think if we do this, maybe there can be different categories, like sexiest costume, best costume, or maybe most imaginative. It would be great if we did this for Lugosicon, it being Halloween and all.

[CassieMcCullin]

I think if we do this, maybe there can be different categories, like sexiest costume, best costume, or maybe most imaginative. It would be great if we did this for Lugosicon, it being Halloween and all.

Not enough people for Lugosicon. Not enough notice, either. At least, I won't run it for that. Dreamation is better. But yeah, the ones I've seen/been in have categories like overall best, most creative use of materials, things like that. The number of catgeories (and places in each category) increase as more people participate. Also, judges tend to have personal awards - like "Best Use of Potato" (someone did a Labyrinth costume... )

[Tiny]

I like the Idea of using the forums to let the users pick the winner of the costume contest But at the same time I have to agree with Cassi that photos don't always do a costume Justice.

What if we had a happy medium, photos taken at the con, Senior staff/ a costume team/ or our guests pick the top 5 costumes (there Will be a prize for the qualifiers) . Top 5 costume gets a 5 pic spread that gets voted on by the forum users to pick the the grand prize winner.

for the first time that we are running the costume contest I say we keep it simple, with the ability to open it up if the turn out deems it.  If there are 10 people that qualify for each of 3 possible categories. If we do get 3 categories we post fewer options on the forums.

Categories could be
1, Best Male costume
2, Best Female costume
3, Best Child costume (under 13 or 14 years of age)

As we can see from Barbs Post running a costume contest at a con that never had one is not an easy task. Trust her, Keeping it simple until it grows is the rite choice.

[CassieMcCullin]

What if we had a happy medium, photos taken at the con, Senior staff/ a costume team/ or our guests pick the top 5 costumes (there Will be a prize for the qualifiers) . Top 5 costume gets a 5 pic spread that gets voted on by the forum users to pick the the grand prize winner.

Here's the main problem with forum voting: do you see the poll at the top of this thread? Do see how there is jack in the way of votes compared to how many people are registered in the forums? If 50 people answer the poll, maybe it's worth it to vote over forums. Maybe.

I really don't see what's so difficult about just doing it at the con. Everything forum-wise so far is more complicated than two or three people sitting at a table and a bulletin board. You want to keep it simple, leave it at that.