KIDabra International Annual Contest

KIDabra International Family Performer of the Year
Pro/AM Invitational Competition
Friday, August 13, 2010 at 7:00PM

2010 KIDabra International
Family Performer of the Year Competition

New and improved!

Imagine the prestige of being able to proclaim yourself The 2010 KIDabra International Performer of the Year! Who will win? A Children's Magician? A Ventriloquist? Puppeteer? A Hilarious Clown, a Children's Composer? Come see for yourself and witness some incredible talent. Root for your favorite or better yet compete for the title for yourself! Ken Scott will again host the Friday evening competition at KIDabra Conference.

The competition is open to members in good standing of KIDabra International who are registered for the conference. No contest entry fee will be charged. We do expect high quality entrants be they pro or amateur. We are looking for the whole package: Entertainment Value, Originality, Creativity, and Likeability.

2010 Prize Package for First Place includes:

• $777 Cash Prize from Jozo Bozo (A 50% Increase over last years prize money!)
• 2010 KIDabra International Family and KIDshow Performer of the Year Trophy/Plaque
• The KIDabra Journal Magazine Cover and feature article in an upcoming issue.
• A 2011 Free Registration to KIDabra Conference
• A spot on the 2011 Gala show
• And the right to use the win in your promo materials and marketing.

The People's Choice Award includes:

• 2010 People's Choice Award Plaque
• A 2011 Free Registration to KIDabra Conference
• A spot on the 2011 Gala show
• And the right to use the win in your promo materials and marketing.

Contest Guidelines:

Prospective contestants will submit an unedited live performance video of their proposed Contest routine(s) via YouTube for the judges to review. Submissions should have original content or clear permission for use of existing material, public domain works are naturally permissible. No open flames (Fire) allowed. If used, music should be royalty free, your original works or copyright fee paid. Please include complete routines of your performance from at least 3 minutes up to 10 minutes of your best. (Promo videos not acceptable.) Contest Chair Christopher Weed and his team of reviewers will make the decision to issue an invitation to compete. This submission along with current member status and conference registration must be accomplished before July 1, 2010. Submissions will absolutely not be accepted after this date. For 2010, we will only be accepting videos via YouTube because of the need for the Contest Committee to share and discuss your submission. Hard copy DVD's, videotapes, etc. will not be accepted. Please see the detailed instructions elsewhere on this webpage on how to submit your video for consideration. In addition, you should download, complete and submit the 2010 Contestant Application form. Plan on an act up to, but not to exceed 10 minutes. It should be interactive, using volunteers where applicable and fun.

If an invitation is issued you will compete as a part of our Preliminary Competition on Thursday morning at the KIDabra Conference. For 2010, we have further refined the format of the Preliminary Competition to make it a more dynamic, realistic performing environment. Contestants will perform privately before a live children's audience and the panel of judges. No KIDabra Conference attendees will be present at this Preliminary Competition---just a group of real local kids and the judges. From this Preliminary Competition will emerge our finalists to compete before the assembled members and invited public guests on Friday evening. The finals will result in winners of several prestigious awards: The 2010 KIDabra International Family Performer of the Year (decided by the Contest Committee; and the People's Choice Award (Decided by a vote of the audience). All decisions from prescreening and preliminaries through to the finals are final. Appropriate material suitable for entertaining children and families are required. The competition is not open to KIDabra staff who are speaking, performing or lecturing at KIDabra Conference 2010. All contestants will receive an optional private Critique Session with the judges at the conclusion of the Contest--Valuable feedback from experienced professional children's performers.

Prior year competition contestants may continue to compete until such a time as they win First Place.

That's the fine print, now get ready, let's have some fun! Make your plans and prepare today to put the spit and polish on. Good Luck and bring your best! Game On!

Contest Questions to Chris Weed at kidabracontest@gmail.com

 

 

You-Tube Uplink Instructions:

How to prepare and submit the video of your act for the Contest Committee's Review NOTE: We will only be accepting contest videos via YouTube this year, as it is the only practical way for all of the judges across many states, continents and time zones to view your video. YouTube is user-friendly, so even if you are not technically inclined, you should be able to accomplish these steps with minimal effort.

Step One: Make a Video of Your Routine for the Contest

Using your camcorder, make a live performance video 10 minutes or less of the routine you'd like to do in the contest. We want to see a live, unedited run-through of the routine without any parts of the routine edited out. We are not watching the video to critique your video editing skills; we simply want to see a run-through of your routine as if we were in the audience at your live show. There is no need to include any fancy titles, transitions, or other stuff to try to impress the judges. We want to see a solid kidshow routine (whether it's magic, juggling, ventriloquism, or any other suitable act for family and kidshow audiences) with kids having a great time.

If you are not familiar with how to upload a video into your computer, you can easily get some help from your local electronics store like Best Buy, from Google, or practically any neighborhood teenager. To make a video, you'll need to have a device that can capture digital movies-this could be a camcorder or digital camera. You copy the movies to your computer, and then you can either upload them as-is or edit them with software such as iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. For more detailed information, see How to Make a You-Tube Video

Step Two: Join YouTube

To become a member of YouTube, go to www.youtube.com and choose "Create Account" in the upper right corner (or, if you have an account already, just sign in), choose a username and password, and enter your information. Then click the "Sign Up" button and you're done. This is free of charge.

Step Three: Upload Your Video

Once you've finished editing your video, made sure it's less than 10 minutes, smaller than 2GB in size, and in an acceptable format, you're ready to upload it. YouTube accepts video files from most digital cameras and camcorders in the .AVI, .MOV, .WMV, and .MPG file formats. For more information on acceptable YouTube file formats, see You-Tube Formats

Here are step-by-step instructions for uploading:

• Click the "Upload" button in the upper-right-hand corner of any YouTube page.
• Click the "Browse" button to browse for the video file you'd like to upload to our site. Select the file you want to upload.
• Click the 'Upload Video' button to start the uploading process.
• As the video file is uploading, enter as much information about your video as possible in the relevant fields (including Title, Description, Tags, and Category). Make sure you clearly state your name in these fields so that the Contest Committee knows who you are. If you have any other notes to share with the Committee, enter them in these fields.
• Click the 'Save changes' button to save the updates you've made to the video file.

It can take from a couple minutes to an hour for your video to upload to YouTube. If you're receiving an error with your Upload, you might want to make sure you're attempting to upload a file that's recognized by YouTube.

Please note: your video must meet the uploading requirements: no larger than 2GB and no more than 10 minutes in length. If your video does not meet these requirements you will need to re-edit the video file on your computer then upload the new file to our site.

Step Four: Make Your Video Private

Because you don't want the whole world to see your video, and only the Committee, immediately after uploading, follow these steps to make your video private.

• Click the Account link located (at the top-right of any page).
• Then click the Uploaded Videos link. Choose the video you want to edit and click the "Edit" button below the video thumbnail.
• Under the "Broadcasting and Sharing Options" section (on the left-hand side of the page towards the bottom) you'll see "Privacy" options. Click the little black arrow / triangle to expand and see all your privacy options.
• You'll see the option to make the video public or private.

If you make your video private then only people you designate can view the video.

• Click and select the "Private" option.
• Save the changes you made to your video's settings by clicking the "Save Changes" button. Your video will now be set to private.
• Your video is now Private and may not be seen by anyone except those people to whom you give permission.

Step Five: Share Your Private Video with the Contest Committee

Once you've set the video to private you'll be able to send the video's private address to the KIDabra Contest Committee. Once the Committee receives the private address, they'll be able to sign into their YouTube account and watch the video. Here's how to find and send that information to the Committee:

• Sign into your YouTube account and click the Account link located (at the top-right of any page ).
• Then click the Uploaded Videos link. Click and choose the video you want to send to the committee. Then, click the "Edit" button.
• Under the "Broadcasting and Sharing Options" section (on the left-hand side of the page towards the bottom) you'll see "Privacy" options. Click the little black arrow / triangle to expand and see all your privacy options (if its not already open and you cannot see your privacy options).
• If the video is set to private, there will be a URL section below the "Private" option. This is the special private link that you will send to the Committee so that they can watch your private video. The Contest's YouTube username is KIDabraContest and the Contest's email is KIDabraContest@gmail.com
• All the Contest Committee members will then log in and view the video. You will be contacted by the date specified in the Contest timeline with the Committee's decision.

We sincerely appreciate your efforts in submitting your act for consideration. Please contact Contest Chair Christopher Weed KIDabraContest@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

 

Please Print out Application

2010 Contest Application (pdf File)

Above Information in Word Docs

2010 Contest Information (Word.doc)

2010 YouTube Video Instructions (Word.doc)

Questions? Contact Chris Weed : 602-324-7100 Mail DVD Contest Submissions to: Chris Weed, Invitational Chairman 4113 W. Saint Charles Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85041 Email: ChrisWeed@aol.com