No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on May 2, 2012

I could subsection this forever but today I want to discuss Masquerade costuming at conventions.

I agreed to take on the mantle the head judge for the Workmanship Masquerade at DragonCon, which is held Friday Night at the convention. I have participated in this contest for a number of years now and have been the head judge the past three years I think. So that put me in mind about costuming for a Masquerade which is different than hall costumes or an Anime convention costume call.

I started costuming back in the 1980s. I did mostly recreations of things with a few original costumes mixed in. I met a lot of people through costuming who are still friends of mine. I found myself helping out in pretty short order and learned from some of the best and worst how to run a green room and how to run a contest itself. Since then I have probably done just about everything that you can do for a Masquerade from just about every point of view. This is a subject that I am very well versed in.

Today I am going to talk from the point of view from a contestant and give some tips of things to think about before one signs up.

You will hear costumers talk about Rostler’s Rules of Costuming. A pretty good set of the rules as I know them can be found here. I suggest you give these a gander before reading the rest of this.

In no particular order here are some of the things I think about before decided to even do a costume or sketch.

What kind of audience is attending this function? Are they going to understand what I am trying to do? A media convention is a better place to do Battlestar Galactica sketch than a literary convention. You stand a better chance that the audience understands the source material. I have seen Anime sketches and costumes kill at media and, more specifically, anime conventions where the source material is know as appose to a literary/science convention where one leaves more than half the audience scratching their heads and most of the judges as well. Consider the more obscure for an audience that is versed in it.

Yeah, it looks kicking but can I wear it for the period of time required for a Masquerade? Usually one has to be in the Green Room about an hour before go time especially if you want to enter workmanship. The length of show itself is determined by the number of entries. You have a lot of entries, you are going to be in the costume longer than just a few entries. Can your skin take the make-up for the length of time you will be wearing it? (If you have extensive make-up make sure you have a touch up kit ready to go. Don’t assume that the Masquerade is going to have a bottle of spirit gum or powder to take care of a last minute oopsie. All though I will say that I met two of my BFFs because of a bottle of spirit gum I just happened to have in my kit backstage.) We always suggest that you try the full get-up before coming to the convention but we know that is not always possible. So I use the rule of thumb, can I stand to wear this for the next three to four hours?

Here is a pet peeve of mine that seems to rear its ugly head about once a show. Unless a microphone is provided or the stage is specifically miked for sound, don’t assume that you can be heard in the back of the room. What you can do in an empty room and in a full room are two different things. I can get to the back of a room full of people but I have trained my voice so I can do this and I trained it for years before I had this ability. Peter can too but we are exception to the rule. The only people I have seen that had a prayer were professionals either singers or actors and even then it was hit or miss.

I know that everyone doesn’t have access to a sound studio but there are so many options these days for sound recording and editing that getting a disk cut is pretty easy. However you have to make sure that your disk will play in the tech gawds equipment. Take that disk and try it in several different places like CD players, game systems that play CDs, places like that. Don’t assume that if it plays on your computer that it will be compatible with their system. Also don’t assume that the balance that you have on your computer is going to be the same. I have heard many a sketch go south because the audience couldn’t understand the dialogue because the music was too loud or the dialogue was so loud it was distorted against the music again making it hard for the audience to understand it.

Practice your sketch and assume the worse for stage conditions. Figure out what can go wrong and how you are going to deal with it. Believe me that if it can go wrong, it very well might. If you can video tape it from the audiences POV, you can learn a lot about whether your sketch works. Also see if you can find out what size of area you are going to be working in before the convention. If you have some idea of the dimensions and entrances and exits are, it can be tremendously helpful. Also what other resources you have. We have used the Stage ninjas to our advantage more than once and they are usually game for whatever we throw at them.

Here is how Peter and I view the sketch part of the contest: Short is better than long, funny is better than serious, short and funny is best. I am not saying that a serious costume can’t be presented. I have seen plenty of serious beautiful costumes win big. However the Masquerade is not the place to promote your room party, political beliefs, or social issues at length. (Believe me I saw all three done within one Masquerade and the poor Masquerade director had to spend the next day hearing how sucky the show was. She hadn’t done anything except allow these people to enter the contest. They screwed it up for her and there are other places/times to do that sort of thing.) Make your point and get off the stage. I have seen points drop rapidly for costumes that go on too long on the judges score card. Figure out what your point is, present it to the audience, and get off the stage.
So that’s part one of this ramble. Part two next week.

I am grateful to all the things I have learned from costuming.

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Posted By Kathleen David on May 1, 2012

So here is a picture of Fig in her Ennui pose to make up for it.

(for the VI: This is my black and white cat stretched out on the sofa. At her head you can see the backside of Caroline’s stuff moose. She has a blue pillow behind her that she is using for support. On the pillow is Caroline’s copy of the graphic novel of “the Last Unicorn”. Her front right paw is across her face.)

Maybe it is the rain, which I am not complaining about because we really need it, but I have been staring at a blank screen for a while now. I did my usual tricks of poking around the internet to see if something causes me to come up with a topic. Nada.

I have two projects in the hopper right now that I am hoping to have done by the end of the week. First one is replacement ATC dolls for the ones that I got half the envelope back but no dolls from the post office. Looks like it got caught in something. Then I am doing a dolly round-robin so I need to get my blank doll ready to rock and roll. And onto either dolls or puppets.

Part of it is that I have too many ideas and but at the same time my mind is a blank. I think I need to just sit down and sort out my ideas. I do want to stretch myself as an artist but I also need to get stuff done rather than just think about it.

Short version not feeling very crafty today.

I am grateful for distractions that turn into useful ideas.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 27, 2012

OK I am going for a spoiler free review here and I ask that the comments be kept spoiler free until after May 4th when the movie is released

Yesterday Caroline and I traveled into the city to the Ziegfeld to see the Marvel preview of The Avengers. We got cool 3-D glasses to watch the film. Caroline got Hulk and I got the Iron Man pair. The only one I didn’t see was the Black Widow glasses. They are pretty neat.

The Iron Man and Hulk 3-D glasses that they gave out last night at the movie.
(For the VI: These are two pairs of 3-D glasses sitting on a white background. The top pair is based on Iron Man’s color scheme. The lens part is gold and the earpieces are red. The lens are shaped like the lens in Iron Man’s helmet. Below that are the Hulk 3-D glasses which are green. The lens are shaped so when you wear them, you look like you have a Hulk-like scowl.)

The movie itself was very entertaining from being to end. Oh and stay through until the end for some bonus material as it were. There is an assumption that the viewer at least has some passing familiarity of the characters from their individual movies and the commercials used to promote those films. We actually watched our way through them all in pretty much order to get ready for this film. However by the end of the film, if you don’t know who these characters are, you are well educated into them.

Whedon is a known and unknown factor in this. I know his previous work on various things but this was a little different than the projects he has done before. I think he is going to be able to silences some of his bashers who said that he couldn’t direct in other people’s sandboxes. He does both a fine job with the script, although there were lines that made my brain flash back a little to other projects of his, and an excellent job in direction.

The cast is solid. I was throw at first seeing Cobie Smulder’s on the screen and I don’t think that they ever said her character name so in my head I thought that Robin Scherbatsky from How I met Your Mother was using her reporter job as a cover for the fact that she is really a Shield Agent. All kidding aside, she did great. The only change was that Ed Norton was replaced with Mark Ruffalo as Banner/Hulk but I really didn’t mind it that much. We went from TV Hulk to more the Hulk and Banner I know and love. But overall if you have seen the other films, you have seen these actors play these roles before and if you loved them in those, then you are going to love them in this but if you had problems with the casting well they are still there and acting like they did in the films.

Is it a perfect film? Far from it but the flaws are charming rather than annoying. I was seeing it through the eyes of an older Marvel Fan and Caroline from the younger point of view. I had to only explain one or two things to her but it was nothing serious and more comparing to the comics. And this Hulk is my current favorite version of the Modern (ie: Motion Capture) Hulk. Whedon writes a lot like Peter so to me the Hulk “sounded” right as did Banner.

So it is a wonderful comic book film in the tradition of the films that went before it. The PG-13 rating is all for cartoon violence and both adults and children in harms way. Nothing dire happens really to anyone besides military types and our heroes and the villains. It is loud during the fights. Enough things blowing up to rival a Michael Bay film.

So Avengers, go see it and enjoy. It is a great start to the pre-summer movie season.

I am grateful that Caroline and I got to see the Avengers.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 26, 2012

This week Peter is in Canada and I am a temporary single parent of a nine year old who is probably going to be a lawyer when she grows up or may be a large animal veterinarian.

My hat is off to all the single parents of the world. Being the only one around with the responsibility for another human life is a daunting task but one I embrace with both hands. Plus Caroline is a really good hugger.

It is amazing to me how much my life changed almost 10 years ago. I went from being a step-mom to being a mom the minute they put her on my chest. My whole world shifted in an instant. Before that even though I was pregnant, a child was still sort of academic but that changes when one gets to hold that child after some of the most uncomfortable time in my life but it was all worth it.

Caroline’s birth also changed how others perceived me. I think a number of Peter’s friends didn’t really accept me until that point. They were concerned that I might be someone who was only attracted to Peter because of his status. But having a child together cemented that we were committed to each other. In the eyes of my neighbors I changed from step-mom of the David kids to a mother. I joined a club that I didn’t know really existed until that point.

Now I walk Caroline to the bus stop and talk to the other parents about all kinds of things. I participate in things at her school including the PTA and volunteering at her school’s library. The kids know me at that school by one of two, if not both, names. To some I am Mrs. David but to a lot of the children I am known as Caroline’s Mom and get called such. I really don’t mind the title at all.

Parenting is not easy. I seconded guess myself on a lot of things but I try to stick to my guns when I have drawn a line in the sand. I worry about her health and eating habits. I worry about how she is treated in school. We recently had an incident of her being told that she is not fashionable which lead to a whole “thing” about how I don’t let her express her fashion sense. I try to make sure that she get exercise and play time. I kiss the boo-boos and clip her nails. I worry about how she is going to do in the world but Caroline has proven that she is of pretty sturdy stuff. They labeled her a weirdo and she embraced her inner-weirdo. She knows that things are a little different in her life than in other kids lives. We do have the self-doubts but she tends to work through them.

But I do enjoy being Caroline’s mom. She gives me perspective and a glimpse into things I had forgotten that I did/enjoyed as a kid. She trusts me to be there for her and take care of her and I don’t want to let her down. I love her so much and I want to be the best parent I can be for her.

I am grateful that I am Caroline’s Mom.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 25, 2012

This topic came to mind to me when I was talking to someone about conventions since they were thinking about attending one since they are a fan and they found out that an actor that they admire is going to be at the convention. They asked my advice on going to a convention and what they might encounter. They had some odd ideas about conventions due to the TV portrait of conventions and fans.

I have been going to conventions since the late 70s/early 80s. I have volunteered for conventions in various departments. I have work on con committees for various sized conventions. I have been on both sides of the table as a fan and later as a pro. I have been to a lot of conventions and not all of them in the US. I have also been to a lot of different kinds of conventions as well. I know a lot of the ins and outs of conventions.

Interestingly enough the first thing I had to assure my friend was that they didn’t need a costume to go to the convention. We can thank the news media for that one. I explained that some people did dress up but a majority didn’t. Although by looking at DragonCon, one would think that a majority did dress up if you just walked through the hotel atriums. I explained it was like a Ren Faire in that if you wanted to wear garb it was perfectly OK but you didn’t HAVE to wear garb.

The two things I learned the hard way are wear comfortable shoes and drink lots of water. I am much better about the water drinking than I was when I was younger. I wonder how much of con crud is just dehydration on top of fatigue. Comfortable shoes are a must if you are going to be standing a majority of the day or doing a lot of walking to get from point A to point B.

Also as I have gotten older, I find sleep a bigger necessity than I did in my youth. The 24 hour convention does exist but I no longer participate in the whole 24 hours.

Recently there has been what is called the 5-2-1 rule: 5 hours of sleep, two meals (not just junk food) and one shower per day. I prefer to call it the 5-2-1 strong suggestion. It does help to make sure the brain is working on the last day of the convention as well as the first.

My husband came up with his Fan/Pro bill of rights last year as his take on what should be expect by both pros and fans. Fan/Pro Bill of Rights which can be boiled down to
The Prime Directive
Fans and Pros have the right to be treated by each other with the same courtesy that they themselves would expect to be treated.* Fans and Pros who act like jerks abrogate the right to complain when they themselves are treated like jerks.

*The expectations of masochists notwithstanding.

Which is pretty much how I see it.

So do y’all have any questions about conventions?

Next week I will be writing about why conventions are cool to attend including a number of stories from my own experiences.

I am grateful for all the conventions I have attended over the years.

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