Babbit

Not in the way you're probably thinking. Our cameras and encoder relied on the facility network to reach our production system, which was positioned in a different room. It makes it easier for us to do our thing without disturbing the panel, which wasn't always streaming Panel 1 anyway. In hindsight, 4 low latency NDI feeds might have been a big ask, and that's likely where the skips came into play. The cursing jar got pretty full by the end of the weekend. But rest assured, potential revisions for next year have existed since about 5 audio pops in.

I've been quite surprised at how many people think adapting and putting on an online event will spoil the OG event forever and ever, or worse, will replace it. We all miss it, and I can assure you none of us were giddy sitting in front of computers 8+ hours in a row (that tally is August 1 only, the total goes much higher), isolated from our friends and fellow staffers. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, as the old folks say. Otakon.Online was intended as a means for people to focus their energy on something else, even if it was for a short amount of time, and not lose sight of wh

Masquerade posts have been moved to /index.php?showtopic=18000">here.

Please take a second to research your facts before offering speculation. The Masquerade runs on a 4 hours time slot: 7 pm to 11 pm. This year the Masquerade ended at 10:15 pm, with a start at 7 pm on the dot. We were in no risk of running over our 4 hours slot, and were actually very surprised the show even ran that long. Time limits per skit were reduced for the smaller skits this year, and only one skit ran over their respective time limit. With that said, the 10:15 pm everyone is talking about was not a hard out-time. It was the time that our con chair, who was presenting Masquera

I agree that this is off-topic in regards to this thread. I invite anyone to join us on the Masquerade and Hall Costume Contest section for further discussion, but I briefly wanted to state a few things: I've expressed my reasoning a number of times over the idea of content-based screening, but there is one thing that can't be denied: the common misconception is that these "bad" skits are taking all the room away from the "good" skits. That's simply not the case. The only year between 2004 and now that we've had to turn away any skits is in 2006 by the slightest of margins. Please re

AMVs are a totally different boat, as they are not performances. Additionally, AMV creators who post their works online are doing so at their own risk and under their own will independent of the convention. Secondly, this isn't my definition, and there's no need to put words in my mouth. As previously stated, this is under the advice of our lawyer. Even it it's almost the same, it's exactly that, almost. A still photo is a different can of worms from video. We permit photography at the Masquerade. We don't permit flash photography as it's distracting and enough of it becomes a strobe

First of all, none of us take any pride in prohibiting people from seeing what they enjoy. Anything you've heard otherwise is a gross mischaracterization on that person's part, and definately nothing that has come out of my mouth the past several years. I am a fan of this stuff just like anyone else. The primary issue that keep us from allowing distribution is the copyrights placed on almost each and every character each participant portrays. These are someone else's creation, and some company's product, both of which own copyrights on that character. Distribution of video that depicts th

I'm pretty sure that Jonathan does not have a Myspace page, but I will pass along any feedback to him. Just in case anyone is curious, he does not have writers nor does he write anything in advance of the Masquerade. He does has material in mind whenever he does our show, but it is more or less Jonathan in the flesh on-stage... he is pretty much the same person on and off-stage, minus the wig.

We are unable to post videos of the Masquerade due to the same copyright issues that require us to not allow videotaping of the Masquerade. The cameras you saw at the event were used for image magnification purposes only.

Jonathan Hawk would be correct. He has been with us since 2004. It is little known that he has also been involved with a good bit of the pre-con planning over those 5 Masquerades. He has truely been an asset to us.

That would be Jonathan Hawk. He was been with us since 2004.

I'm moving this to the cosplay discussion area. While yes, it's about a skit at Otakon Masquerade, the contest forum is really meant for questions regarding the contest.

Alright, reg has been open for exactly 1 or so minutes. Sorry to the person who submitted at 11:58, that's still early in my book. Again, thanks everyone for your patience. Anyone who submits today should have a response by the end of the day on Monday. Please note that I won't send out "I have received your form" e-mails from this point onward, just confirmations. The ones I sent prior to registration were for courtesy's sake so people could still have a chance to get their skit in.

Argh, I fall asleep for 5 hours and boom. I was literally on my way home last night from work when I found out the announcement was made. Being 2:30 am EDT, there wasn't anyone to fix it at that point. So I made it a point to contact everyone until it was fixed. Anyone who submitted forms all the way up to 6 am got a response within minutes, but after that fatigue kicked in, so the next rounds didn't go out until about 11:30. To clarify, anyone who submitted anything before noon will have to submit it again. This includes partipant information.

Simply put, no. I can't even think of a way that might possibly work. Having ran HCC for two years, it is a totally different beast when it comes to the manner in which you handle participant data. The process will go along the lines of: 1. Fill out a form (we'll call Form A) describing your skit, submit 2. Said form will give you a confirmation number (we'll call confirmation number) 3. Go to another form (we'll call Form to add a cast member, within 24 hours of completing Form A, using the confirmation number and contact e-mail address you gave in Form A to link back to your skit

All this is covered in your confirmation e-mail when you register for the masquerade, but I'll go ahead an state it here. You will be permitted to store large and/or unwieldy props at the 1st Mariner Arena between your rehearsal and actual performance at the Masquerade. Staff will instruct you on where you can place your props after you complete your rehearsal session, which will ultimately depend on the size of your prop and the space available. Since these areas will be accessible to all Masquerade participants, usage is ultimately at your own risk.

Please don't read too much into this. You must have one of the said badges to participate in the Masquerade. Participation does not occur until Saturday, August 8, and the only thing that happens before that is registration, which isn't the same thing. Therefore, you do not need a badge until August 8 at your chosen rehearsal time (the first official element of participation in the Masquerade). If the wording was "to register in the Masquerade," it would imply what you're concerned about, but since it doesn't, it isn't an issue. It doesn't hurt to play it safe, but do rest assur

That is considered a skit as well. Everyone who is considering performing at the Masquerade is highly encouraged to read the Masquerade rules and regulations. You'll find out more about what is and isn't allowed.

Well, the last question is really up to the programming powers that be more than it is myself. So I really can't answer that particular one, but I can deal with the primary topic. The Masquerade is really not the place for bands. In the context of the rules and regulations, it's really not set up to do bands. If you read through them in depth, you'll notice that you're limited to two microphones. That's it. No extra hookups into the audio board; no extra provided equipment. The other thing you'll also notice in the rules and regulations is that there's no exhibition category defined.

That's actually the only way we can do it. Without a cue, we don't know when to start, so everyone is required to put some sort of indication of when to roll their sound when they register. Everyone's definition of the "start" of their skit is different, so we can't make an assumption on the basis of that.

Alright, just to sum up what's been echoed. Unless you lining up 15 people in a single row, a la Riverdance, more than likely you're going to be ok. This stage is huge compared to what you may be used to, which is why we're comfortable with 15 people on stage at a single time. As for exact dimensions, bear in mind that these may change very slightly since we share the stage with other events this year, but here's how it works: Stage Depth is 40 feet Stage Width at the front of the stage is 56 feet Stage Width at the back of the stage is 40 feet Entrances and exits ar

Rehearsal is held on Saturday only. The exact window during the day won't be known until a couple weeks before the convention.

Moved to general cosplay section. The Masquerade and Cosplay contests section is for contest specific questions and discussion only.

Program-wise, you want to look for a program that can handle multiple tracks of audio... that way you can mix sounds, like voices over music. The de-facto, professional program of this type is Pro Tools, but it's also extremely expensive. I recently helped a friend with her soundtrack using Nero SoundTrax, which is part of the Nero Burning Rom CD/DVD burning suite. It too is also not free, but you can find it for really cheap from time to time. There's plenty of other options, but the key is to have something that can do multiple tracks... so you can lay sounds on top of each other. Anoth

The question to ask in this case is "does my skit have anything to do with anime, manga, anime-style video games, east-asian culture, etc.?" If your costumes fit that bill, then yes. If your skit's subject matter falls within those themes, then yes. If your skit has a bunch of American comic book characters re-enacting a scene from one of those books, then no. Nothing keeps you from having non-theme characters in your skit as long as the gut of your skit is answering to that theme. It has to be somewhere... whether it be in the costumes, the skit, or both.