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Costuming for the Masses
Jan. 18th, 2005 08:53 amThere has been a lengthy and at times rather heated discussion in a group I belong to about costuming, Masquerade, and judges. It has been very civil considering the heat of the topic. When I started out in costuming for convention, I hadn’t a clue what I was doing but I got a couple of wins for either the costume or the skit and the beginnings of my reputation. Then I got involved in a cross state extravaganza for an Atlanta Fantasy Fair of the X-men vs. the Hellfire Club. That was my first big costume and we won quite handily. A couple of years later we did the New Mutants vs. the Hellions, which we also won big on. After that I found myself drifting from making costumes to working the Masquerade from runner to tech to judge to Masquerade Director to stage manager and anything else that you can do. I dropped out entirely from that part of conventions partial due to the fact that I was stage-managing full time and my job took precedent. Then Peter and I got together and I found myself costuming again, which I found that I still really enjoy doing.
Most of my costumes at Conventions recently have been more for the audience than the win. My husband and/or Ariel will come up with some loony idea that will then be executed by my husband and me usually with Ariel as either "the" warm body or one of my warm bodies to dress. The exception was the Labyrinth costume I did at Shoreleave this past summer. That one was for me and I had to do it within my window of opportunity (i.e.: my daughter will only be Toby size so long). I didn’t care if I won an award (OK, I did care a little considering I did all the costumes by myself but I digress). I did want get a certain reaction from the audience, which I did get in spades. I found out later that we got the tech crew too. Backstage had to calm down one of the spot operators who thought I had tossed Caroline 10 feet into the air.
Most of what we do is based on skit mentality. We have a joke we want to impart to the audience and then we get off stage. The KISS of costuming is our rule. (Keep It Simple Stupid).We did a costume called “Shlepper the Leaper.” I did the costume in about 4 hours including dyeing the bandages to wrap Ariel up with. The makeup was done in about 40 minutes and I forgot my brushes and had to fingertip the whole thing. I rigged two F/X on her face so she could “peel” skin off with bloody results and an eyeball trick. The MC introduced Schlepper and gave about 2 lines about how hard life was for a leaper but that they did have moments of happiness. He told Ariel to “Do the Dance of Joy” (Buffy Reference) and Ariel perks up and dances to “Can’t Touch This” with pieces of skin coming off her face and popping an eyeball out on “look into my eye.” The audience split between shrieking and laughing all through out. That’s what I want to do. I want to affect the audience and give them something to react to. The one time I thought I had failed, we found out later that we had scared/shocked the audience into not reacting at all.
The problem of playing to the judges is that, with few exceptions, you don’t know until the last minute who is judging. Sometimes the judges get it and sometimes they don’t. It really depends on their background. Celebrity judges are fun but don’t ask them to recognize your costume from a TV show they have never heard of other than auditioning for a part and not getting it. Documentation can be your good friend but only if the judges get the documents in time for them to look at before judging. I have to admit I am not a good documenter but plan to work on that for my more obscure costumes.
For a while a lot of people felt I was getting shut out of Workmanship because the workmanship judges didn’t “get” the amount of work and design goes into making puppets/puppet costumes which can be just as much a pain and a time sink as beading or boning a corset. For a while I considered dropping out of Workmanship but others convinced me to continue to enter. I did get a Workmanship award for Labyrinth that pleased me since a lot of work and skill went into those costumes. I think sometimes Furries get the short end of the costuming stick unless it is a furry convention because those that make the costumes know how much work goes into them. The rest of see it as “Oh a Mascot Costume.” I know workmanship can be very hard to judge and I have respect for those who do it. Workmanship is where documentation can pay dividends since these judges will look carefully at the reference documents and your costume.
I am grateful for my costuming opportunities.
Most of my costumes at Conventions recently have been more for the audience than the win. My husband and/or Ariel will come up with some loony idea that will then be executed by my husband and me usually with Ariel as either "the" warm body or one of my warm bodies to dress. The exception was the Labyrinth costume I did at Shoreleave this past summer. That one was for me and I had to do it within my window of opportunity (i.e.: my daughter will only be Toby size so long). I didn’t care if I won an award (OK, I did care a little considering I did all the costumes by myself but I digress). I did want get a certain reaction from the audience, which I did get in spades. I found out later that we got the tech crew too. Backstage had to calm down one of the spot operators who thought I had tossed Caroline 10 feet into the air.
Most of what we do is based on skit mentality. We have a joke we want to impart to the audience and then we get off stage. The KISS of costuming is our rule. (Keep It Simple Stupid).We did a costume called “Shlepper the Leaper.” I did the costume in about 4 hours including dyeing the bandages to wrap Ariel up with. The makeup was done in about 40 minutes and I forgot my brushes and had to fingertip the whole thing. I rigged two F/X on her face so she could “peel” skin off with bloody results and an eyeball trick. The MC introduced Schlepper and gave about 2 lines about how hard life was for a leaper but that they did have moments of happiness. He told Ariel to “Do the Dance of Joy” (Buffy Reference) and Ariel perks up and dances to “Can’t Touch This” with pieces of skin coming off her face and popping an eyeball out on “look into my eye.” The audience split between shrieking and laughing all through out. That’s what I want to do. I want to affect the audience and give them something to react to. The one time I thought I had failed, we found out later that we had scared/shocked the audience into not reacting at all.
The problem of playing to the judges is that, with few exceptions, you don’t know until the last minute who is judging. Sometimes the judges get it and sometimes they don’t. It really depends on their background. Celebrity judges are fun but don’t ask them to recognize your costume from a TV show they have never heard of other than auditioning for a part and not getting it. Documentation can be your good friend but only if the judges get the documents in time for them to look at before judging. I have to admit I am not a good documenter but plan to work on that for my more obscure costumes.
For a while a lot of people felt I was getting shut out of Workmanship because the workmanship judges didn’t “get” the amount of work and design goes into making puppets/puppet costumes which can be just as much a pain and a time sink as beading or boning a corset. For a while I considered dropping out of Workmanship but others convinced me to continue to enter. I did get a Workmanship award for Labyrinth that pleased me since a lot of work and skill went into those costumes. I think sometimes Furries get the short end of the costuming stick unless it is a furry convention because those that make the costumes know how much work goes into them. The rest of see it as “Oh a Mascot Costume.” I know workmanship can be very hard to judge and I have respect for those who do it. Workmanship is where documentation can pay dividends since these judges will look carefully at the reference documents and your costume.
I am grateful for my costuming opportunities.
