World Cosplay Summit 2016 – Part 2: The Documents
Next to the costumes, preparations and skit, we needed to fill out some forms.
We had about 4 different sheets we needed to fill out.
1. Construction report
2./3. Performance Sheet
4. Costumes
5. Participation agreement
All sheets needed to be sent in 1 month prior of the championship with the finished video file, audio file and original pictures of the characters you are going to Cosplay.
The construction report is a power point presentation which you use during the craftsmanship judging in order to present your costume. You are supposed to talk 5 minutes per person about your costume and to use the presentation as support. You can show your finished work in comparison to the original artwork, the materials and the technique you used. It had 3 main sections; Costume, wig and prop. We kept it in the order we wanted to present our costumes and decided to change after each section. The rehearsed a lot, because we were afraid not to finish everything in the time frame. Our report was about 24 pages.
In this sheet you write everything about your props inside; Height, length, wide and weight and a picture. This is necessary, because there are limitations. The staff will check the measurements and weight (incl. the weight of your costume) at the craftsmanship judging day. In this sheet you also fill out where the props should be set at the stage and how your stage setting is at the start of the ski and what will be left after the skit.
3. The performance sheet->The rider
This was the easiest sheet. In this sheet we just wrote down which costumes we are going to wear at which event.
They told us that no changes are possible, because the Cosplayers are going to be announced with their costumes at most of the events.
Actually someone changed his costume without notice before a courtesy visit and it caused a lot of trouble. It happened in front of the Major where a lot of cameras recorded this mistake. Furthermore the press people all wrote down the wrong character name. I guess it was kind of embarrassing for the Cosplayer.
Afterwards they told us, if we need to change a costume, we have to tell the staff beforehand. I guess they accept changes if you notify them in order to prevent embarrassing moments like this.
5. Participation agreement
In this sheet you just sign and agree with the rules of the World Cosplay Summit and the usage of your pictures for promotion purposes.
A lot of teams had troubles to finish these sheets in time, because they weren’t finished with their championship costumes or skit or weren’t prepared for that. A lot of pictures and information’s in detail were required. If you missed to take pictures and gather the information’s, 2 weeks are a very short timeframe. Some of them couldn’t take pictures or write everything down because without finished costumes gathering all these material is nearly impossible.
The most crucial part was the costume construction report.
If you don’t have pictures of a certain technique, because you are not done, you cannot show it to the judges.
Difficult also seemed to the light rider. I am quite used to it because I write light riders every 2 weeks. But I guess for people who have no idea about light setting and effects it can cause trouble.
I prepared everything beforehand and could finish it in 2-3 evenings. I made it in Japanese and English so it was easier for the staff to read our sheets and light rider.
I guess if you are prepared it is quite easy to fill out all these sheets. The preparation itself took hours and hours… I think it was quite tough to finish everything in 2 weeks.