Serious Business Tournament

Serious Business Tournament
« on: Apr 18, 2009, 10:21 AM »
In a small-scale imitation of the real-world pitching process...

Serious Business Tournament

Artists will compete indirectly with one another through the use of One-Shot comics (think: Beyond Battles for artists, not characters).

Those interested will need to develop a pitch for a three-act comic.  Each act will be a separate round of the tournament, which will see half the participants removed following each round.  Only the two best artists will complete their pitched storyline in Round Three.

Private message pitches to myself, Wei, and Angie to keep your ideas private.  The three of us will then distribute the pitches to the rest of the staff for selection.

An 8 slot tourney completed over 3 rounds. Round One will consist of each artist beginning their story.  Following each round, the lower half of the participants will be eliminated, based on scores earned.  Round Two will see the surviving four artists continue their story, with only the top two remaining artists in Round Three to complete their story.  Any artist eliminated from the Tournament can continue his or her story through non-tournament comics.

Add that there goddamn WILL be a prize given to the winner, and a runner up prize to all participants who continue and totally finish their entries. You have my word on this one. - Jack

Details:

* Applications begin now, continue through 04/25
* Selection ends 04/26
* Round One beginning 04/27
* Each round will have two weeks drawing time.
* 4 page minimum
* Comic MUST follow the story pitch within the application.
* Not meeting requirements will result in automatic disqualification from Tourney for the Artist as well as the chance to be shamed by all of their peers.

Artists will be selected from Applicants by majority vote among the VOID Staff.

The Winner will have the Title of 'Serious Business Winner 2009' added to his/her profile on the Main Site.




Artists can state or revoke their intent to participate below, but we will need still need a pitch PM'd as well.
i.e.....Elio
DJ Neko: Thank you entervoid, you're like the abusive husband I keep coming back to. <3

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #1 on: Apr 18, 2009, 10:35 AM »
Unfortunately I have too much on my plate to do this at the moment, but I'm looking forward to seeing how people cope with having to tell an entire story beginning to end in 3 comics.
Kittens wearins mittens

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #2 on: Apr 18, 2009, 10:49 AM »
AND DON'T THINK I DON'T MEAN IT.
Be nice Jack.

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #3 on: Apr 18, 2009, 11:28 AM »
I'll try to get in, sure!

Starts the day before my birthday.... my present should be to get in ~hinthintnudgenudge~

haha.

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #4 on: Apr 18, 2009, 01:05 PM »
WHY SO FAST?!?!?!?!
Get ready- pop it, let's go.
Enter galactic, you and me,
Enter galactic, you and me.

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #5 on: Apr 18, 2009, 01:09 PM »
Because all you have to do is write up a short pitch! You don't need design sheets and shit for this.

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #6 on: Apr 18, 2009, 07:21 PM »
OH OH OOOOOH.... WHY COULDN'T THIS START AT THE END OF MAY!?!?

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #7 on: Apr 18, 2009, 07:42 PM »
Welp, I'm entering. I'll have a pitch in a few days. How elaborate do you want the pitch to be?

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #8 on: Apr 18, 2009, 07:46 PM »
Welp, I'm entering. I'll have a pitch in a few days. How elaborate do you want the pitch to be?

Keep it to a paragraph I would think. If you can give us a few sentences to convince us that you want to write the best thing ever, that'd be pretty sweet. Since I know I don't want to read novels and realistically, you are probably not given an hour to explain your pitch when you're looking for a job.
Kittens wearins mittens

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #9 on: Apr 18, 2009, 08:05 PM »
Actually the more thought out the better. While not required, design sheets and even sample pages would probably help your pitch (in this case at least, this is an imperfect simulation, after all). I'd say there's no max on the amount you should tell us, but keep in mind if you get too wordy we'll likely get bored which could potentially lead to you not getting picked. THINGS TO CONSIDER!
Be nice Jack.

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #10 on: Apr 18, 2009, 08:48 PM »
Well here's some info that may help on pitching, granted we're not a big company but it's generally the same

http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=221

"Your Pitch — This only applies if they take unsolicited material. A pitch should be able to be boiled down to a one sentence tagline, just like a movie. Something short, catchy, that gives a very basic but interesting idea of what the whole story is about. Obviously, you won't be able to capture every nuance but that's not the point. You want to sell the idea quickly. "A Ninja/Zombie Love Story" says a lot without going into details. If an editor likes how that sounds they'll read on. It's also a good idea to mention if your pitch has identifiable film comparisons like "Aliens meets "Love in the Time of Cholera" or "American Beauty meets The Lost Boys." And yes, I know yours is the most unique idea ever and cannot possibly be described in such trite, easily-packaged means. Except, it had better be able to be distilled or else an editor will have no idea why they should read the pitch, let alone publish the comic. Every story can be boiled down to essentials, no matter how complex the package is. An editor will need to sell it to their boss and to readers so you'd better get used to a tagline now. Again, the idea is to sound appealing as fast as possible so they'll keep reading. (More about the Pitch in the section helpfully titled: The Pitch)."

"The Pitch

The pitch may be the hardest thing you as a writer will ever have to get down on paper. Each pitch has its own set of problems and every editor has some quirk or other about what it is they're looking for in one. If you ask, most editors will say "I know a good pitch when I read one" and it's true. It's nearly impossible to give any hard and fast rules for things like style, structure, or genre when it comes to what kind of pitch will get accepted. Some obvious tips: pitch ideas to editors who already edit books in the style you're looking to do. That doesn't mean they'll accept yours but it'll definitely up the odds.

As with any other piece of writing proper spelling, grammar and punctuation are a must. It shows you care. Not to mention that you're literate. A pitch or query is often your way of introducing yourself and you'll definitely want to make the best impression possible. Proof anything you're going to send three times and get at least one other person to review it as well, preferably someone you trust to catch errors.

With a pitch you're trying to sell your idea so you'll need to lay out the gist in the first line. Break it down into details afterwards but make sure you grab the readers' attention at the start. Most initial pitches are only 1-3 pages in length; they get fleshed out later if you get to work with an editor on it. But it won't get that far if you don't show them something compelling to begin with. Make them take notice in whatever way you can. Show them something they haven't seen before. And if they have, show them how you can do it better.

Don't fret if you find pitch writing frustrating. A lot of seasoned, published, award-winning authors absolutely loathe the pitch writing process. They'd much rather call up an editor and say, "I have this awesome idea, it's ... "and then the editor says, "Cool, let's do it!" than write up draft after draft trying to sell it. But they all have to do it, and you will too."

So no, please don't do novels guys. If you want to go the extra mile and give us concept art and such, sweet.
« Last Edit: Apr 18, 2009, 08:51 PM by angieness »
Kittens wearins mittens

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #11 on: Apr 18, 2009, 09:16 PM »
TROOF!
Be nice Jack.

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #12 on: Apr 18, 2009, 10:00 PM »
OH OH OOOOOH.... WHY COULDN'T THIS START AT THE END OF MAY!?!?

BECAUSE WE'LL HAVE SOMETHING ELSE
DJ Neko: Thank you entervoid, you're like the abusive husband I keep coming back to. <3

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #13 on: Apr 18, 2009, 11:15 PM »
OH OH OOOOOH.... WHY COULDN'T THIS START AT THE END OF MAY!?!?

BECAUSE WE'LL HAVE SOMETHING ELSE

...

OK, I'LL WAIT FOR THAT ONE.

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #14 on: Apr 19, 2009, 05:55 AM »
this is really cool.
i'd really like to join, but i know i won't have the time. looking real forward to the results this will bring about though!

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #15 on: Apr 20, 2009, 09:59 AM »
oooh  okay okay, alright alright

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #16 on: Apr 20, 2009, 03:24 PM »
I hope people are working on pitches, we've got slots open still
DJ Neko: Thank you entervoid, you're like the abusive husband I keep coming back to. <3

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #17 on: Apr 20, 2009, 05:03 PM »
I hope so! I've only heard from 2 people.
Kittens wearins mittens

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #18 on: Apr 20, 2009, 08:02 PM »
I really want to work on my story concepts...and my drawing in general.
I'll decide if I can actually enter this later this week.

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #19 on: Apr 20, 2009, 08:36 PM »
I really want to work on my story concepts...and my drawing in general.
I'll decide if I can actually enter this later this week.

We might want to clarify whether people who have never done comics on Void can participate or not since this isn't involving a preexisting character.
Kittens wearins mittens

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #20 on: Apr 20, 2009, 08:45 PM »
I really want to work on my story concepts...and my drawing in general.
I'll decide if I can actually enter this later this week.

We might want to clarify whether people who have never done comics on Void can participate or not since this isn't involving a preexisting character.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooh burn

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #21 on: Apr 20, 2009, 08:51 PM »
If it helps at all, if I do make a pitch, I'll include comic pages and concept art to show I actually can draw comics, but it's totally understandable if you don't want people without characters in this. 

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #22 on: Apr 22, 2009, 04:56 PM »
If it helps at all, if I do make a pitch, I'll include comic pages and concept art to show I actually can draw comics, but it's totally understandable if you don't want people without characters in this. 

I say go for it, we'll consider it
DJ Neko: Thank you entervoid, you're like the abusive husband I keep coming back to. <3

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #23 on: Apr 23, 2009, 05:04 AM »
Deadline pushed by one week.

If we don't get more applicants for this, we're gonna have to cancel.  We've never had to cancel anything before, I'd really hate to have to start now.
DJ Neko: Thank you entervoid, you're like the abusive husband I keep coming back to. <3

Re: Serious Business Tournament
« Reply #24 on: Apr 23, 2009, 07:40 AM »
I really hope the delay is because everyone thought of something so amazing they're taking their time
Kittens wearins mittens

 

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