Submissions
Guidelines
So you want to contribute to The Unofficial Cats Don't
Dance Fansite? Excellent! Here's some guidelines.
About Content
As you may have noticed a lot of our fan art is
movie themed, but that is NOT a requirement. Themes have ranged from 'gaming' to
holidays, to just plain fun. Originality is a wonderful thing too, we prefer for
things NOT traced, redrawn or retold from Cats Don't Dance itself. A movie
poster parody is just one of the ideas you can use. Artists can also do a
favorite scene from films, soundtrack CD covers, or simply the characters in
costume. For the more ambitious, a one shot comics short (5 pgs max) would also
do nicely. For the writers, song parodies might work, poetry, or a complete short
stories. Not that I mind stories done by episodes, it's just been my experience that they rarely
get finished. In general, there's not much you can't do as long as it's
tasteful.
What qualifies as tasteful
I shall be blunt as I'd rather it be clear. No nipples, naughty bits, or
oversized packages showing. Period. No nudity, extreme violence or sex acts, if
it's R, it's out. I'm not really into scanty lingerie images either. It seems
silly to mention all this, but part of our goal is to keep the site family
friendly. Ultimately, it's in everyone's best interest since there's nothing
for parents or W.B. to get freaked over. This standard also applies to writers,
please be mindful of characters you are depicting. If there is foul language, we
will require that it be edited out. If anyone is still unsure,
PLEASE send me a story outline, written description or a pencil rough of what
you want to do and we'll talk about it at: catsdontdance@comcast.net
Character requirements
There must be at least 1 CDD main character prominently featured in your work.
This applies to art, fiction, and media. To review, the choices are Danny, Sawyer, Pudge, Woolie, Tillie, Francis,
Cranston, T.W., Max, Darla, L.B. Mammoth, Flanigan, and Farley Wink. If you
need visual references, you might check HERE
where there are model sheets, production sketches, and even a few maquette photos. If you
have self created characters or want to plug in a toon from W.B or another camp
(say Disney or Bluth) that's fine too. Consider this your opportunity to be a
casting coordinator. :)
But I don't use Photoshop…
That's okay… you don't have to. Artists are free to use whatever medium they
wish, be it pencil, paint or digital. Images don't have to be 'finished'
illustrations; sketches are fine too as long as you're getting the point across.
I put a lot of merit into idea, humor, and you don't have to use lens flare to
do that. :)
Accepted File Formats
I can take .jpgs, .gifs, .tiffs, .pngs, and even .bmps if necessary. A
maximum pixel height of 600 pixels at 72 dpi is our format since this is for web
use. The only exceptions to this might be comics if they are done in the
traditional page layout, or if I feel an image will suffer significant loss of
detail. If you don't have picture editing software and must send a larger file,
that is fine as long as it's not over 10 mgs. I should be able to optimize your
image to make it more web friendly.
For Flash users, if you have something online we'll be happy to link to it, or
if the .swf is 10 mgs or less ask about emailing it first.
Things to include within the image
Required is the WB copyright. I always put something like
CDD characters © W.B. on my pictures. If you have a mix of toons, it's probably
a good idea to just say characters © W.B., Disney, ...something to that effect.
Please note that if you don't do this I shall edit it in myself, doing my best
to maintain the quality of your image as it came to me. You can also put in the
movie copyright if you are doing a poster parody, but I have a 'blanket' clause to help
cover this so it's optional. Just don't copyright the animation house characters
to yourself since that's a big no-no!
Including your name or alias on an image is also optional, but since you went to
all this work, why not?
File Formats
Word doc. of docx. files, html and Wordpad ( .rtf ) should be okay. I work on a PC so
please don't use any format that is for MAC only or Open Office. Please
note on html files, I will edit the background color so it is consistent with
the works we have here on the site. To avoid any format issues, just copy and paste your story in an email and that will be fine too. If at all possible PLEASE spell check and
proofread your stories. The fiction editor does read through them, but hey, it
saves me a step or two.
Credits
The W.B copyright is required here too. If your work is a parody please
include the source, as a courtesy to the creator and as a help to the reader. Please
include your name or alias as the author.
Illustration and
text considerations?
If you have the inclination, illustrations are cool. However in
such cases I recommend that the file format is html, so you have the
page layout you want OR just tell me within your story at what point they should be placed and I'll do my best to follow your instuction.. As a guideline, 1-4 small ( 300 pixels high
or less) spot illustrations
are fine if the full size pics are to be placed on the page. If you have a larger image you'd like to use, I can make a clickable thumbnail for it and place that on the story page instead. The
character and content rules apply to illustrations too.
Please do not use specialty
type fonts. I stick to only the most commonly used ones like Times New Roman, Ariel, or Verdana at 12 pt. for ease of
readability. If you have special type formatting like italics to indicate particular sections of text, yes I will try to adhere to
it as much as possible.
Other info to include with your submissions
There are a few things to include in your submissions email that will help us out with the
mouse over messages, credits and links.
1. Your name or alias (optional) spelled
exactly as you want it posted.
2. The email address you want me to use (withheld if you
wish)...or as an option, your website URL as long as it is NON ADULT or has such materials on
it clearly segregated. I know it's something to moan over, but I have kids too
and they deserve some warning. We only add these links with contributions so you
can get all those rave reviews of your work. ;) This applies to both artists and
writers. If you don't wish to have email or url links, that's okay it's not
required.
3. Writers, we add a brief summary describing your work ( usually
2-3 sentences maximum), but if you wish to write it instead, please include it.
This summary will go in the description. box in the fiction list. Do keep it
brief, please.
4. Your age if you a minor. I only ask this for my own
information, specific ages are not posted anywhere on the site. I get many
contributions from young people, and feel there are different considerations
when dealing with them.
Submissions Schedule & Where to Send
Send all submissions to: catsdontdance@comcast.net
Schedule: To be honest, it's hard to round up material for updates. I prefer to gather a lot of material before making an update vs. posting things piece by piece. Below is the tentative schedule for the remainder of 2009 - 2010..
Dec 2009 | deadline - Dec. 15th | site updated Dec. 20 |
April/May 2010 | deadline- aprox April 15th | site update April 20-May 1 |
If you want to avoid
the wait to show your work directly to CDD fandom, I strongly recommend joining our Cats
Don't Dance II yahoo group. Group members receive first notification of site
updates, and are free to post CDD art and fiction at any time for more immediate
feedback and commentary.
Thanks for your interest, see ya in the moovies! Still
have questions? catsdontdance@comcast.net
S.Pleger