Masquerade Judging Process

I've judged before, only a couple of times and no big venues. I'm not sure what I'm 'doing worng' but it shouldn't take over 30 -40 minutes for a small - medium (no more than 15 entrants) show... should it? Jan Price

Andy Trembley
It shouldn't. A small panel (three judges) should be able to get through 15 entries pretty quickly.

Judging is a personal thing. We each bring our own skills, opinions, and biases to the table. It helps, though, to have a system the panel can work with.

That said, I don't like complex judging forms with lots of numbers and calculations. Judging is a very subjective process, and I'd rather not wrap it up in pseudo-statistical mumbo-jumbo. Ultimately, this is about the judges opinions, and too complex of a system gets in the way of that.

I'm a big fan of what some of us have named the "Adrian Butterfield Method." My variation goes kind of like this:

Requirements:

A polaroid so the judges have a shot with the entry number for each entrant. Divisions marked on the photos is helpful too.
A listing of the entries by name and number with space to take notes by each of them.
A list of common masquerade awards (useful if you have trouble coming up with award titles).
A listing of the rules.

Phase 1: sift out the rocks. In other words, sort the polaroids into three piles: the "No" pile, the "Maybe" pile and the "Yes" pile. This decision should be made on the merits of each entry, not how they compare with others. Disqualified entries go (obviously) in the "No" pile. Should take less than five minutes.

Phase 2: check the "yes" pile for any "Oh My God!" entries. If there is one, give it "Best in Show" and pull it out. Unless the masquerade is amazing, this should be quick. If you can't get a unanimous agreement quickly (whether it's because there are too many fantastic entries or no fantastic entries), don't award "Best in Show." Ideally, this is another five minute or less thing.

Phase 3: Sort the "yes" pile by class and go through it again, argue over which should take best presentation and overall best in each class. Again, if you're lucky, you will find entries that jump out at you. Again, pretty quick.

So, at this point, if the masquerade has fallen into a standard distribution and there are clear winners for show and class, no more than 15 minutes has likely passed (I know, it's a great theory, and there are masquerades where there are so many stunning entries it's hard to decide.). The last two steps are the ones that will take a bit longer, but not too much longer if there's reasonable agreement where merit lies in the remaining costumes.

Phase 4: Give the rest of the "yes" pile awards appropriate to the costume. I tend to stick to "Best ???" type awards for these folks.

Phase 5: If you want to give out more awards, check the "maybe" pile. If there are entries that have particular merit in a specific area/technique/whatever give them "Judges Choice for" or "Most ???" awards.

The only trick in these steps is to avoid giving out stupid awards. By that I don't mean awards with silly names (like "Best use of Sheet Metal" which I have awarded), but rather to avoid giving awards that don't make sense. If a horrific entry wins "Best in Class" or "Best Presentation in Class," don't give out "Best Horror" or "Most Scary" in the same class. Doesn't make sense.

Anyway, that's the way I prefer to work when judging. It's quick, works for just about any masquerade, and adapts well to nearly any size masquerade.

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