Here's what's involved in our competition...

In the flash animation file below is a short animated clip, without sound, of the new character we'd like to introduce to Catholica Australia. As you'll see he's basically a pretty laconic out back character leaning on a fence in the middle of a pretty drought-ridden paddock. He's actually taken from a much longer experimental animation I produced last year when I was learning the capabilities of these flash animation technologies.

Our competition has two aspects to it. Firstly we want someone to come up with a name for our character. The prize for doing that is six bottles of Australian wine from the Jesuit cellars at SevenHill and a CD compilation of some of Amanda McKenna's best music tracks. The competition is open to all members of Catholica (if you're not already a member you'd better sign up fast — and that doesn't cost anything other than agreeing to support the general ethos of Catholica Australia).

Secondly we are looking for a writer, satirist or humourist who would like to provide the words each week that our character will say. (We will do all the animating and voice production — the writer will only have to email in the words.) We envisage our character might be commenting on the news, giving a short homily either directed at the shepherds or the sheepflock, or it might be something else that the writer thinks up that will be attractive to our readers.

The animated segment to base your entry on...

Here is the small animated segment we are inviting you to base your entries on...

Further background information that might assist...

To assist you in developing ideas here is the original full experimental animation from which the character has been drawn. (Please note: animation is a time-consuming and expensive business. It would not be possible for us to produce an animation as lengthy or complex as this on a weekly basis. We believe it might be possible to animate a two or three sentence pithy commentary weekly that might have high entertainment value to our readers. Also note: in this original experimental animation the character was named "Tom". This present competition seeks to re-christen him with a new identity.)

Please note: this animation is a large download (1.6Mb) and really only suitably viewed via broadband connections.

Read "the small print" below and email your entries to:

catholicacompetition@catholica.com.au

to reach us before midday, Sunday, 29th October 2006.

THE SMALL PRINT: The competition is open to all members of Catholica except the editor and board members who will be judging the competition. The competition is open for two weeks commencing midday on Sunday, 15th October 2006, and closes at midday on Sunday, 29th October 2006. The winners will be announced in the daily e-Bulletin of Wednesday, 1 November 2006. The prize of six bottles of SevenHill wine and the compilation CD of Amanda McKenna's music will definitely be awarded. (We are happy to freight the winning prize anywhere in the world.) We reserve the right not to award a prize for the scriptwriter but instead might invite a number of entries to "try out" by producing a number of scripts with a view to awarding an on-going contract at some later time. The decision of the judges will be final. The judges will be the board members of Catholica Australia. Their decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding their decision. Entries should be emailed to catholicacompetition@catholica.com.au to reach us before midday on Sunday, 29th October 2006. In the event of a number of entrants submitting the same winning name, the prize will be awarded to the first entry received nominating that name. Your entry needs to provide your name, the name you are submitting for the character, and a sample script no longer than three sentences in length (plus a headline or title if necessary) if you are entering that part of the competition. Each entry should submit only one name for the character and one script. You may enter the competition though as many times as you'd like. We will require verifiable real names and email addresses for this competition but we are happy to keep that information private and only publish a pseudonym when the winners are announced. The existing commentators for Catholica are eligible to enter the competition unless they are board members of Catholica Australia and hence judges of this competition. If you have any queries about this competition pleased direct them to the editor and publisher, Brian Coyne: editor@catholica.com.au.

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