Saturday night is costume contest time at Comic-Con.Let's try live-blogging this mofo while vaguely inebriated.
Logging in a bit belatedly. Line for free nachoes was huge -- they went instantly.
Most costumes so far are cute li'l kids as Huntress, Rayden/Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, other similar heroes. Sand-People choir was funny.
Good Boba Fett to start.
Bollywood-style Medusa -- nice concept.
Dr. Who costume not so good -- but working Dalek w/lights is cool.
Ghost Rider w/bike -- nice comedy. Hosts think bike is falling on him for real, and help him out. Giant villain then shows up, and GR ropes it in with chain.
White Witch of Narnia, played by young black girl. Music starts as "Ice Ice Baby," then changes to more legit hip-hop
Iron Man -- decent homemade suit. Points off for not using Black Sabbath song. Flexes iron butt. Wait...now Sabbath is kicking in. Guy in costume looks pissed momentarily, then starts doing air guitar. Crowd loves it.
Weird anime guy -- looks like young kid, but might be anorexic model.
"I'm bringing Lara back" -- Wow. It's like ten chicks in Lara Croft costumes. All hot. Each in different game outfit. Some more convinced of own hotness than others...those less ceratin shake ass. Now all are dancing to "Sexyback." Not all can dance, but damn, who cares?
"Jolly Holiday, Mary Poppins" : Nice Mary Poppins costume. Good idea for not-young woman. Nice curtseys and form. Crowd digs it.
Pinky and the Brain -- Nice giant mouse suits. Brain has a sign that reads "Huge, aren't we?" They start dancing to "tequila." Brain has new sign saying we're now hypnotized. Pinky has Pee-wee Herman moves.Brain's sign now says "Dance humans dance!"
General Grievous -- not bad for a suit with guy inside. Real Grievous is too thin to be human, but this guy's pretty good with the dual lightsaber twirl.
Elaborate video game skit -- nice costumes -- oh wait, looks like they're using the anime framework to do a Scooby-Doo parody. Amateratsu -- know the name? I don't recognize it offhand, but now they're playing a parody song involving that character and Scooby. Seems like it might be pretty funny if I knew the whole deal.
Narnia -- White Witch costume, as "I'm Too Sexy" plays. Joke gets old fast.
Anime fight, oh yeah, interrupted by Pyramid Head from Silent Hill! Love the P-He. Need action figures, stat.
Lucifer's Halo: Joseph Michael Linsner-esque Dawn and Satan -- good costumes, nice pseudo-pagan music. Actors could be more striking, though.
Bathroom break time.
OK, nothing missed. Cheesy dragon costume, then Harry Potter musical skit using Grease songs. Audience gets a surprising amount of Grease jokes -- must be disproportionate amount of women here watching, realtive to rest of Con.
Videogame battle, with Megaman, Devil May Cry Dante, Bloodrayne, more...stand off battles. Nicely scored with game music plus appropriate themes. Gun versus gun, blade on blade...oh shit, the last fight is a dance-off! But Mega-Man baddie wins by cheating when he shoots his foe. Now another dance-off. Dante actor is buff, and the fans like him when he dances to "My Milkshake."
Beetlejuice! Wow, it's the final version with carnival headgear and giant hammer hands! Whoa, and his headpiece carousel is motorized! This guy rocks it. Best so far.
Wolfman Jedi -- not bad, but looks more like fast-food mascot than Star Wars hero.
Sara Pezzini, Witchblade -- oh yeah. Obligatory hot chick in nearly-nude "costume." She'll get a prize.
Uhhhh...another anime guy, dancing to "I'm Too Sexy." I don't get it. Music keeps changing, and he dances a bunch, but the costume's still not good.
Another Silent Hill? "I accidentally set it to hard mode" LOL. Bathrooms are filthy. "Sorry Harry, you can't skip this part, it's a cutscene." Cop sings "Always look on the bright side of life." Monsters out now, including fat ghost nurse. Finally, Pyramid Head, but not as good as the previous one. Kinda funny, but the problem is they're taking an already outrageous joke (singing at the crucifixion), and making it milder, ultimately. Hardly so radical to critique Silent Hill.
Lone Wolf, sans Cub. Nice cart. Actor not so hot. Any point? Oh, now kid's onstage in Rayden hat. Makes some moves. Lights go out. Yawn.
Warcraft -- huge ovation from viewing room. Snake woman and skeleton girl complaining about being killed so much. Arguing with each other. Longhair with sword comes out. Women start pitching him on being a level boss. His cell rings, with Rick Astley ringtone. Large server disconnection notice goes up, raised by unseen extras. Funny.
The Gentleman Ghost -- beheaded ghost, with top hat suspended above his robes. Joke about being at a stupid convention full of stupid geeks. Boos. tries to shoot self in head, but has no head. Laughter. Not bad recovery.
Jem and the Holograms! Nice idea, and identity-swapping behind a screen. But this is a costume contest, and clotehs aren't great..oh wait, The Misfits! Hilarious '80s glam look worn by fat chicks. Using real Jem songs. Great cheap pop. A for conception, but clothing, not so much.
Full Metal Alchemist. Guy in boring blue outfit. Oh nice -- Captain Planet and the Planeteers! Cheap nostalgia, but the Captain Planet costumes are spot-on, and damn, they're doing the whole theme song! "The power is yours!" Al Gore before his times.
Fat chick dancing...wow, doing cartwheels! And spin-kicks! Not kididng, this chick is like, Rosie O'Donnell fat, but she can move. Good for her. I don;t want to see her belly, though. Gets a good pop for being shameless. Much respect.
Rebel dreams. Three Princess Leias as Dreamgirls. All three are hotter than Carrie in the first movie. Now Han Solo as James Thunder Early. Which one is Effie...none are fat? Re-recording of songs not so good...maybe should have used different singers. But good idea.
Macbeth words over dark. Oh, White Witch again, but uglier. And now she's gone.
Cats the musical. No wait...pussycat dolls. With Black Cat, Catwoman, more. Hott. Guaranteed prize here. Oh shizzle, now giant Tony the Tiger, Felix,and Cheshire Cat are out here. Great punchline, and good outfits too. Awful rapping they're lip-syncing, but outfits are good.
We have a winner. Robotech Mospeada suit -- the guy whose bike transformed into battle armor. Suit probably doesn't transform, but the most elaborate so far.
Trinity Blood -- girl dressed in Pope-type outfit. Curtsies. Fancy but boring.
Jawa with light-up eyes. Facing down something, buit what? Tusken Raider.. But jJwa has gun. Shoots, wins."Utinni!"
Sheng Long. Chinese dragon carried by two people, cheesily. One has blue jeans on.
Necromongers. Wow, who knew the Riddick movie inspired such things? Nice armor, but "Riddick" doesn't look like Vin Diesel in the least.
Pirate Captain. Fat woman. Way too late in the show for this. She got nothing.
Devastator. Transfromers Construction hybrid. Costume is more basic than it ought to be -- doesn't look like six robots in one -- but the guys robot-dance moves are smooth. Plus always good to hear 1985 movie theme song. Looks more like Lego thanj Transformer. Still more effort in this than fat pirate chick.
Venetian Masquerader. Chick w/purple hair in elaborate dress. Not bad, but...Suicide Girl in Renaissance attire? Who is this for?
Tinkerbell. NOT!!!!!! Oh, she just raised her wings. Decent gimmick, I suppose. But not very fairy-like overall.
Sandman. Neil Gaiman version, not WWE wrestler. But using Metallica song. The Endless are kinda funny, but outfits are basic. If they did a cartoon, these guys would be OK for voice actors...and now they're singing "Mr. Sandman," dancing in line. Can we be more obvious? "Peachy keen"?
final contestant, #51, isssss...an Anime chick with huge hair that looks like shrimp antennae. And two more...four more...huge headdresses on all...dunno who they bare. Benny Hill music now playing. To what end? They're not moving. A-Team theme? Now a highway repair crew are taking them out. I don;t get it.
Seriously, no pics are needed here. All the images of costumes Janine got during the week are better than these contestants. Some years are great for Masquerade, but not this one so much.
See more Comic-Con coverage by LYT here.
July 29, 2007 18:42
Oh man, I was at the Masquerade Ball, and captured some pretty awesome video of the Warcraft crew. I put it on YouTube.
July 30, 2007 10:46
The Ball this year was the BEST one yet!
July 30, 2007 12:10
Er... it is Dawn and Death... not Satan... also... I am curious... what kind of experience do you have in costuming? Just curious what kind of big authority can write such review... maybe you should try and enter next year so that you will have about 6k people judging just how striking you can be in the incredible costume I am sure you are fully capable of creating...
July 30, 2007 13:50
Dude, you are a tool. Captain of the tool brigade in fact. Have you ever made a costume with your bare hands and gotten up on a stage in front of hundreds upon hundreds of people? Probably not. It's hard work. It's also hard to have the cajones to get up in front of all those people to show off. My hat is off to all the brave people who got off their duffs and did something creative.
And don't even get me started on the whole "Fat chick" thing. Fat or thin, these women are doing something they love to do. Just because someone is overweight, it doesn't mean they aren't allowed to enjoy themselves.
In closing, I'd like to see you try at next year's masquerade. That way people can write a snarky review about you.
July 30, 2007 16:04
Firstly, thank you for your...um, honest review of the Masquerade. I am sure that we contestants who presented our efforts for several rooms of audience appreciate your candid drunken statements.
Or, in our case, "the actors could be more striking, though".
....huh?
Seriously...describe 'striking'. What was it that was so un-striking about us? Was it apparent that we were warm and uncomfortable after having spent since 2:30 getting into our costumes? Was the panic attack I'd experienced backstage only minutes before going on apparent in my expression, and cutting off my ability to portray the character as well as I should have been able to?
I'd not mind knowing what you thought of us, and the rest of the contestants, when you've had a fair bit less alcohol and could perhaps provide more constructive and perhaps helpful reviews of our performances and costumes. The feedback you've provided in your stupor is only the type of thing that keeps people from entering again. And if people don't enter, you don't HAVE a Masquerade to begin with.
Even better, I would like to see you enter into the competition next year. You seem to be very aware of what the audience apparently needs and wants to see...if you don't think the contestants are providing that, by all means enter and help us do so.
By the way, the pirate captain entrant that you totally thrashed during your review? She had a malfunction in a part of her outfit when she was onstage, and was supposed to have wings that did not want to work when called upon. It happens sometimes..you get onstage and something goes awry. The wings suddenly don't open, armor comes apart and falls off (this happened to me the first time I brought my costume onstage in Atlanta for the Dawn Look-Alike Contest, as a matter of fact), audio doesn't work, or a seam rips in a bad place. It has no bearing on the amount of work the person(s) did on their entry.
We'll try to remember that if your costume breaks onstage next year. In spite of your review, we might actually loan you something to repair it.
July 30, 2007 16:16
If we wish to use the logic that a person cannot critique something unless they themselves have done it...
then no-one gets to criticize this blog post unless and until they are award-winning bloggers.
Not that I'd ever take that view.
July 30, 2007 17:20
Whoa, people. Getting a little sensitive here? The Masquerade is not done for costume designers. It’s done for the thousands of people in the audience. Geeks, who get the jokes! You don’t think these people are doing this with a bit of tongue-in-cheek and subtlety? Most which seems to have gone over your head. And Dude, a fat chick is a fat chick, maybe LYT was a little insensitive if he was writing for the LA Times but he’s a fanboy just like you and I and it did describe exactly what was happening without using overlong terms that won’t hurt anyone’s feelings. Were you also offended by the hot chick comments? I’ve love watching the Masquerade, and to me it seems like LYT did too and I enjoyed the way he did, obviously it was live, stream of conscious blogging. He picked what he thought were winners and losers, so he cares more about it than someone just making fun of it. And he’s right about the costumes – it seems that more time is spent on the “show” part and presentation than the actual costumes. I did see better detail in the costume on the floor of the con than on stage but stage is not supposed to be about the details but how the person in the last row perceives it. So take a deep breath and remember the spectacle and the humanity of the Masquerade because that’s what I got out of it while reading LYT’s report.
July 30, 2007 19:00
I did see better detail in the costume on the floor of the con than on stage but stage is not supposed to be about the details but how the person in the last row perceives it.
Yes and no. Bear in mind that there is a workmanship judge that sees the costumes up close and personal. Most people don't leave the room, however, to say, go to where the photo stage is and look closer at things because they want to stick around and see all of the other entries. There is just that assumption that it's built for a wide audience and not built for close-up perusal. Maybe in some cases it's not, but in more cases than one might think, it IS.
Besides, this year was the first year of the $1000 prize for audience reaction, so a lot of the presentations were likely geared with that in mind. Kind of like when the Star Wars award came out there was a bunch of SW entries, this year there was a lot of attempts to grab the audience by showmanship, with varying levels of craft in the costumes.
For me, it's not so much a matter of feeling offended, nor is it a matter of "Well, you haven't done this, so you don't know", though I can't say that knowing those realities wouldn't hurt you.. There's always going to be the guy who can't say anything nice, and well, that's your opinion and you're entitled to it. But if we've done something wrong up here, you have two choices:
1) Tell us what we can do to improve things. There are some of us that do this both for ourselves, and for the audience. So if we're doing right? Good. If we're doing wrong? Help us out and let us know that we can do better next time.
2) Get up on stage yourself and make things better. Whether it's by entering a costume, working backstage, or otherwise assisting.
Essentially, be part of the solution.
I am going to avoid the "award winning blogger" statement, mostly because until today I had no idea who LYT was, and from what I've read, I've yet to see anything in here that jumps at me as special. Then again, everyone has their little pond where they are the big fish.
July 30, 2007 19:11
Award.winning.blogger.
Is it just me or it really sounds like an oxymoron?
In any case... nah... I don't buy it... sorry, respect is still important to me and there is a reason why people get offended.
If this was trying to be funny? Sorry... seen better... nothing personal dude... but you are not a comedian. Nor you have credentials to critique costume-making which, unlike blogging, is a recognized and quite ancient art. It's sad but I guess that, just like the real world, even con crowd will have people I really can't relate to...
No hard feelings, I just hope you get a clue someday.
July 30, 2007 21:37
talking is always easier than doing. especially talking shit. personally i couldn't give a rats ass about the contest, but my husband spent quite a bit of time on his costume, and put a lot of effort into making it to the show.. as did other contestants, i'm sure.
now how would you feel if i said you were a mediocre writer?
let's respect each other hobbies and try not to lack imagination?
cheers
~i
July 30, 2007 23:20
I am not sure what the actors not being striking comment was about. I think it was the choreogrphy and the small space of the stage used . . . maybe. It also might have been Darieum dark costume that allowed it to blend into the background.
Personally, I thought Dany was absolutely gorgeous so I doubt the comment meant a lack of that type of striking.
BTW I saw the kid in the Jedi bannana outfit in the pavillion. I have been telling stories about him all day. He dances like a possessed fiend! Very entertaining.
July 31, 2007 20:02
Hi! I am Jen and my husband and I were Pinky and the Brain in this years masquerade (and last years Kang from the Simpsons). Thanks to all of the awesome audience for the chant. It really was incredible to hear!!! My personal opinion ,based on the past 6 years we have been competing, is that this year really rocked! What you might not know is that I would guess by show of hands in the Greenroom, about half of this years contestants were brand new and never competed before (including the Beetlejuice and White Witch throne room). The contestants did their level best to perform the best they could, but keep in mind there were many nervous tummies in all of those new folks! I thought they did a great job. I personally picked #51 as the best costumes and they were so gorgeous up close. Many many hours in those outfits!
August 2, 2007 11:27
Well, there's sure a lot of debate up above about who has a right to comment, etc. I've never written a blog so I won't criticise this one. I've built 20+ costumes but never an award winning one so I can't say that I'm speaking as an award-winning anything. ( I've been a member of one, but not made one. ) What I am, first and foremost, is a member of the audience, same as Luke. Whenever I make a costume or co-op with someone else to be a part of their vision, I always try to keep in mind that it may or may not go over with the crowd. I have to understand that no matter how you feel on stage, it looks completely different to the audience. ( I'll blame a history of bad sound, lighting and camera work on that in many cases. Honestly, how hard is it to follow the cues we give in advance but each year they drop the audio before we're done and it leaves us thinking "Whaaaaattt?!" ) I'll admit I disagree with some of the harsh things Luke said and I actually disagree with some of the complimentary things said as well. ( The 3 Leias hotter than Carrie Fisher back in the day? ) I guess we all have our own opinions. Luke's opinion is appreciated by me because it lets me learn what goes over with the crowd and what doesn't. If we all hit the stage thinking that it's perfect and we got it 100% right on the first try, we are deceiving ourselves and not preparing ourselves to learn from trial and error. Thanks for the honest feedback Luke, it is appreciated. While we're learning about costumes and presentation on stage, I hope you're learning about blogging. Award-winning or not, it's helpful to remember that your blog is read by people who you're writing about and if you don't care how they feel, then maybe it's time for you to learn and grow as well. Keep up the good work on Con coverage! Thanks.
August 2, 2007 20:11
Everyone, good or bad is entitled to an opinion. I think it is hard to understand how much work goes into all of this until you actually do it. Case in point; I've been to a ton of cons, watched the costume contest from the position that since my friends do it, I "know" what's up. This year was the first year I made a full fledged costume. I wore my costume on the floor just for fun, but by a weird chance my friend was short a performer for his skit and asked if I could help. He had worked for MONTHS on all of the costumes and didn't want to not be able to enter. We did the Chronicles skit...and you're right I look NOTHING like Riddick. I shave my head, I work out, but a buff black guy I'm not...but I did it anyway and tried my best to make it work because my friend was counting on me. I don't take any of the statements here personally, I might have thought the same thing from the audience, but before you do unleash your opinion on people who for one worked their asses off and two have already been judged think about what might be behind some of what you see as faults. Kudos to EVERYONE in costume! Please keep up the blog!
August 3, 2007 17:18
and now they're singing "Mr. Sandman," dancing in line. Can we be more obvious?
Well last time I checked, we were doing a skit for the Comic-Con Masquerade and seeing as the idea for using the "Mr. Sandman" song came DIRECTLY from one issue of the comic, I don't see why making the obvious choice was a bad one. I apologize now that we didn't take the simple costumes from the book and turn them into ball gowns, but we were trying to portray characters, hence why we entered the RE-CREATION category.
When you grow the balls to get up on stage, maybe people wouldn't think you're the idiot. So cower behind your monitor making your snarky comments... the rest of us our proud of what we did.
June 17, 2008 16:57
I know I'm late on this, but WHO ARE YOU to judge these people? You can't even identify the anime characters on stage, but that's the least of your self-centered problems. Don't bother writing a blog for 2008. This one wasn't even worth reading. I want my time back! Lastly have some GOD D@MN respect for cosplayers. We put a lot of work into our costumes. (written by a muli-award winning cosplayer)