ASSEMBLY X OPERA BEYOND CONCEPT COMPETITION

Overview

Teams may submit their Entry for an immersive concept competition organised by Finnish National Opera and Ballet (FNOB) and Assembly Organizing (Assembly). The open competition calls for teams with concept ideas to collaborate in FNOB’s circus themed main-stage premiere in 2022. This production will be enriched with immersive and interactive elements. FNOB and Assembly will judge all eligible Entries and select finalists. The finalists participate in demo workshops and mentoring sessions and present their final demo and concept pitch at Assembly Event 2021. The winning concept(s) is (are) selected after the concept pitch session. 

The teams participating in the competition need to agree to the terms below.

Time period

The Submission period ends on July 31st, 2021 at 23:59 (EET) and the Teams are notified on the outcome. Selected teams are invited to participate in demo workshops and mentoring sessions during Autumn 2021 (remotely) and in pitching session at Assembly Event in Autumn 2021 (October 22nd – 24th, to be organised live or remotely in Helsinki, Finland). 

The actual production process of the main-stage show will take place in 2021-2022. Should a team(s) be invited to collaborate in the actual process, the collaboration will take place live or remotely in Helsinki during 2021-2022. 

The Organizers reserve the right to make changes in this schedule, if necessary.

Entry Eligibility

An Entry will be eligible if it is: 

a. completed in its entirety in accordance with the applicable instructions (e.g. admission criteria), 

b. submitted during the Submission period, 

c. in English language, 

d. the applicants original work (the team must have permission and rights to all Third Party content, which can be granted to FNOB), and 

e. the concept can’t be a pre-existing, published, or publicly exhibited unless a distinction can be made by amendments and tailoring to fit the brief.

Entry Ownership

As between Team, FNOB and Assembly, the Team shall own all rights to and interests in all Entry content submitted by Team. FNOB and Assembly take no responsibility and assumes no liability for any Entry content submitted by Team or any third party.

Prizes

Each Team selected and confirmed to be among the finalist teams will be granted a prize of 2.000 €. After the pitching session at Assembly Autumn 2021, the Winning Team will be awarded with a prize of 5.000 €. Should there be more than one Winning Team, the prize will be shared between them pro rata. 

Please note that both prizes will be paid as a lump sum to only one bank account per team, and that the Teams accepting the prizes will be responsible for all applicable taxes related to them. The prizes are subject to the Finnish tax legislation in force from time to time.

If applicable, FNOB will negotiate separately with the Winning Team(s) for the use of the concept in the premiere production of the main stage performance. The contract for the implementation and development will be made separately and the compensation for the use of the concept and fee for the team will be agreed accordingly between FNOB and the Team(s). 

The production budget and the Team’s fee will be based on the budget breakdown the Team has proposed in their concept pitch (small scale solutions between 5.000–30.000 €, bigger scale solutions between 30.000–200.000 €, both including the Team’s salary); however, FNOB reserves the right to propose and make changes in the final production budget.

Should there be no suitable concept idea to implement in the main stage production of 2022, FNOB can also choose not to enter into collaboration with any of the Teams. In this case, the prize of the Winning Team(s) will be limited to the 5.000 € prize. 

Team obligations

When submitting an application, the Team agrees for their application to be evaluated by the organizers and a panel of specialists selected by FNOB.

The Teams selected to be among the finalists shall provide a written confirmation of their participation in workshops and mentoring, upon which a prize of 2.000 € will be paid to the Finalist Teams. The written confirmation needs to include contact and bank information of the Team Member that will take care of the possible distribution of the prize between the team members. The Teams have the responsibility to agree on the share of prizes between its members.

The workshops and mentoring sessions for the Finalist Teams take place remotely (on various online platforms) during Autumn 2021, preparing the Teams for the pitching session. In the final concept pitch, Teams will need to include an indicative technical rider and budget breakdown for the realization of the Concept.

After the pitching session, the contract between the Winning Team(s) and FNOB for the commission and/or rights to use the concept in the main stage production of 2022 will be negotiated separately. 

If no contract is negotiated, the Winning Team(s) will in any case keep their share of the 5000 € prize.

Admission Criteria

All Entries will be judged by jury selected by FNOB and Assembly. Eligible Entries will be judged based on the following criteria:

1. Concept criteria

• Immersion (Would the audience be captivated and enthralled?)
• Creativity (Novelty in the field of arts.)
• Innovation (Does it utilise a technology or a media in an interesting way?)
• Use of technology (Does the technology add value to the art piece or the audience experience?)
• Feasibility (Can it be done? Taking into consideration: size, method, cost, time, technology.)

• Reliability (How prone to technical problems is the piece, or can we rely on it to run smoothly night after night as part of the show?)
• Budget (We’re looking for immersive solutions in both small and big scale. The production budget for small scale solutions can be between 5000–30.000 € and for bigger scale solutions between 30.000–200.000 €. The production budget should include the team’s salary.)  

2. Team criteria

• Experience (Do they have appropriate experience for the project?)
• Appropriate expertise (Is the team’s experience appropriate to the particular concept?)

Principal Production

The contract between the Winning Team(s) and FNOB for the commission and/or rights to use the concept in the main stage production of 2022 will be negotiated separately in collaboration with the Winning Team(s) and FNOB during autumn 2021. FNOB may acquire all or part of the rights to use the winning concept, but in cases of e.g. IPR related to technology earlier developed by the Winning team are negotiable.

FNOB retains rights to final artistic decisions in the project. Should there be no suitable concept idea to implement in the main stage production of 2022, FNOB can also choose not to enter into collaboration with any of the Teams.