xie_xie_xie (xie_xie_xie) wrote in qaf_challenges, @ 2009-04-10 17:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | clusterf#ck |
The Clusterfuck Challenge
Hello, and welcome to the next challenge here at qaf_challenges!
Although we, your loyal fandom servants xie_xie_xie , testdog65 , fansee and notreallyme10, have labored long and hard to make this as uncomplicated as possible, you'll only have to glance at it to know why we're calling it "The Clusterfuck Challenge."
Yes, it's complex. But we think it includes things that might inspire virtually everyone in fandom to create what we all want more of: Fic, drabbles, meta, icons, graphics, vids, picspams... you name it, we want it. And now we're gonna get it!
Now, on to the Clusterfuck.
This challenge is being run on InsaneJournal and LiveJournal out of the qaf_challenges community/asylum on each site. All works -- the entire challenge -- will be mirrored identically on both sites. You do not need to have a journal on either site to enter. This challenge will be for fan works about the show Queer as Folk (US), and all its characters. It is for canonical pairings, as well as works about the gang/friendship/ensemble. Each person will sign up to do whatever kind of fan work(s) they want to create, and choose the theme(s) they want to create it/them for. For example, you can sign up for a single work, such as a fic, for one theme, such as opposites, or you can sign up for several and rank them in order of preference, to allow us to spread things around if a lot of people sign up to do the same thing. Fan works are: 1. Full length fics Each fic must be inspired by or about the theme in a fairly obvious way. Minimum word count, 500 words. No maximum. You may post the beginning of a WIP as long as it's labeled as a WIP in the author's notes. 2. Drabble(s) Each drabble must be exactly 100 words and be inspired by or about the theme in a fairly obvious way. You can write a single drabble, a story told in multiple drabbles, or a group of drabbles that stand on their own, as long as they reflect the theme. 3. Icons 100x100 px images intended to be used as userpics on LiveJournal, InsaneJournal, etc. These icons must reflect the theme. You can submit as few as three and as many as 21 for each assigned theme. One of the dimensions of the image can be smaller than 100px as long as the icon is still suitable for use as a userpic on LJ or IJ. 4. Other graphics This category is for all other graphic arts: Banners, headers, doodles, cartoons, wallpapers, you name it, if it's a graphic and not an icon, it goes here. You can submit a maximum of five graphics of all the same, or different, kinds. All submissions must be about or reflect the theme. 5. Meta "Meta" is a fandom/academic term for literary and dramatic analysis and interpretation. This category is for you to analyze ideas and concepts from Queer as Folk, in the context of your theme. If your theme is one of the seasons, you may analyze the entire season, a single arc, episode, or scene, or a theme, idea, or concept from the season. This is a very expansive category, but the theme needs to be strongly integrated into the meta, not tacked on as an afterthought or just used as a jumping-off point. 6. Vids This category is for fan videos. As long as the vid reflects the theme in a clear way, and is at least 1 minute, 30 seconds long, there are no other restrictions. It can be a music vid, a clip collection, or any other form of video art that is clearly related to QAF and the assigned theme. 7. Picspams This category is for a selection of photos or screencaps with commentary. The commentary can be humorous. It can be meta. It can be squeeage. There doesn't have to be commentary for each photo, but there should be a substantive amount of commentary, not just the photos standing on their own. There must be at least 5 pictures in each picspam. They must be between 300 and 500 pixels wide. You can use non-show photos if you want to make a point similar to the "Barack Obama and Justin Taylor" picspam here, or kinwad's art history picspam here, but as with all the entries, these must be clearly related to the theme and to QAF. The Seasons Select one of the seasons -- One, Two, Three, Four or Five -- as your inspiration; be sure to tell us which you're doing when you sign up . Opposites Light and dark, winning and losing, happiness and sorrow, success and failure, push and pull, hello and goodbye... the list of opposites in Queer as Folk is pretty much endless. Full circle Some things end where they begin... and then begin again. Dwellings/Home The loft. Britin. Justin's black duffel, Mel and Lindsay moving to Toronto, Emmett's search for the perfect roomie, Michael's decision to live with Ben, Brian's scorn for the "Stepford" neighborhood... this theme is about dwellings, about home, about where and how everyone lives. Yearning Justin says it to his English teacher in episode 104: "Yearning is when you want something really badly... so badly it hurts." And his teacher told him he was right: "Yearning needs to hurt to be worthy of the word, otherwise it's just wanting." It's all about sex What's a clusterfuck without the fucking? Passion, skin on skin, the sexual connections between the characters, and yeah... this is the place for the porn, if that's what you want to create. After all... this IS QAF. Complications "It's complicated," Justin says in 504. And it is. These are some complicated people, and life threw in quite a few complications of its own. Colors Orange is, of course, the new blue. But that's not the only way colors wove their way through every frame of Queer as Folk. Clothes, lighting, decor, Justin's art... it's a fucking rainbow. Team Entries There is also a "Team" entry, for people who would like to do a group project. This is for groups of any two or more people who want to sign up for an entire theme. You can pick your own theme, or choose one of the ones we created for this challenge. Both/all of you have to work together to produce a minimum of FOUR of the SEVEN types of fan work; how many and which ones you create is up to the team, but they all have to be related to each other in some way, as well as to the theme. It won't be necessary for each team member to specifically work on each of the four works, however, the team must work together in insuring that their collective submission is interrelated and consistent with their chosen theme. In order to insure that overall challenge submissions cover a wide variety of themes and types of fan works, the challenge coordinators will be using the preferences you sign up with to come up with assignments for each participant. This will help prevent a situation such as 75 percent of the challenge entries consisting of Season 3 icons, for example. But we won't assign you anything you didn't sign up for, if you sign up for only one thing, that's what you'll get, and we'll contact you by email before making the assignments if we're in any doubt about what you want to do. For all sign-ups other than teams: 1. Please read through the themes, and then post, in order of preference, which ones you'd be interested in doing, along with the chosen type of fan work (drabble, vid, icons, etc.) you want to work with for that theme. 2. List as many as you want. 3. You can request themes and works in any combination. For instance, you can ask for drabbles in every category. You can request fic, drabbles, and vids in the same category. Just ask for any and everything you'd want to do, then rank them in order of your preference. And this isn't a gift exchange; this is for you, so no pity fucks! Ask for any and everything you want! 3. Indicate how many you're actually willing to do of the ones in which you're interested. In other words, you might give eight that you're interested in doing, but you only want to have a total of two assigned to you out of those eight. 4. Conditional preferences: If you are signing up for more than one type of fan work (e.g. drabbles, fiction and icons) please add a note indicating how many of each you would like to do (e.g. 4 drabbles, 1 full-length fiction, and 1 set of icons). Please be as specific as possible. We do not charge per word when you respond. Your submission would look like this: 1. Theme: Season OnePost it as a comment to this entry. For team sign-ups: The entire set of four works is submitted by the team as one entry, with all items tied together by the selected theme. Your sign up will simply look like this: Members of team: <lj user="username">, <lj user="username">, <lj user="username">, <lj user="username">One member of the team must post it as a comment to this post. That team member will be the contact person for the team. (Note: you can sign up for the regular part of the challenge and be on a team as well.) For both kinds of submission, if your email address is not displayed publicly in your profile, you must include it in your sign-up comment or email it to us at cfchallenge09@gmail. com. Please don't forget to give it to us! We will be emailing you your assignment(s), and may need to check with you while we're working out the assignment roster. The Deadlines Sign-ups will run from Friday, April 10 to Wednesday, April 22. Assignments will be made by Wednesday, April 29, via email. They will be posted anonymously that evening. Although the last two challenges had amnesty periods, there will be no amnesty for this challenge. If you realize you won't be able to meet the deadline, email us immediately at cfchallenge09@gmail.com; there may be someone who wanted your assignment who we can offer it to. For that reason, please try as hard as you possibly can to get your submission in on time and not drop out! Five days after the initial posting, which will be Thursday, June 19, the creators of the works will be revealed. At that time you may cross post them elsewhere, claim them, and reply to comments. Prior to that, the works need to stay anonymous. The Fine Print There are a number of other rules, including kinds of headers, beta requirements, author/creator info, and other details that would make this post even longer and more complicated than it already is. Those will be posted separately and a link to them will be emailed to you when your assignment is made. They are more or less the same as previous challenges, with some tweaks to reflect the inclusion of so many different kinds of creative work. To get an idea of what those are like, you can read the regular challenge rules in the profile of this community/asylum. Questions? Questions? Please post them here! We know this is a little complicated, |