Crime of The Century
The blog has been a bit on the quiet side simply because I've been too busy to update. Shame! But here's one of the reasons though, last weekend was the Desucon Eurocosplay preliminaries that I took part in. The reason to my quietness (and busyness) is mostly that a) I ended up having two jobs b) I was trying to get some convention work done and c) because of these I wasn't sure if I could actually finish my contest entry on time. Luckily (somehow) I managed, with enough time for good night sleeps before the event. I even did a little tour to Animecon NL the previous weekend! Here's just a little something to get my thoughts out on the competition it self.
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| Roxie rocks the stage - Photo by Sami Räbinä |
By now I think I've made it pretty clear that skits are my weaker aspect, so with Roxie's silver piece the skit kinda presented it self with the costume. Don't get me wrong because I love love love well made skits and excellent acting and would love to deliver polished and believable acts myself (JPopcon & Animecon, I will get to you later), I'm just a bit inexperienced plus I'm not a very bodily person in general. One of the main reasons why I signed up for the contest was to get more stage experience.
I still haven't seen any videos so I have no idea how my little number actually looked like, but I'm grateful for the positive feedback I've gotten so far. Obviously I got critique from the judges and tips for improvement but the main thing is I don't feel like I failed horribly. After having had my three minutes on stage I felt content and that was the best feeling in the world at that moment. I took a risk with a skit that was basically a simple lipcync, needed a lot of presence and character that I wasn't completely sure I could deliver. Before it was my turn I was rather nervous but not a nerve wreck which was a very welcome feeling. (I remember feeling the same with our WCS skit both in prelims and in finals) Considering my meager skit history, this is pretty much a complete U-turn from what I'm used to. (Hey, maybe that's why I've been kinda scared of skits before huh?)
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| Waiting around for a quick shoot after the show Photo by AG cosplay & Photography |
Even if I was personally really exited about Roxie, the costume itself felt a little risky for the competition as well. Now I do know perfectly well that small simple costumes can shine, if you make them neatly enough. But the mindset always depends on which side of table you are too, because when you are the one with something to lose or gain you start nitpicking and second guessing your work. Is this good enough or maybe it should be bigger or have more parts... Because when it comes down to it Roxie's costume is a leotard, simple pumps and a pair of finger-less gloves. Even the wig doesn't require a vast skill set even if the curling took two tries to get right. With this in mind I did my best to make all the pieces as well as I could. I was hoping all the sparkle could be seen in the audience. (The photo above makes me so happy with all the glittering!)
One of the qualities of the silver piece is that it should reflect the color of the lights and help in creating the mood for a certain moment, so I took that in to account when sending in my light requests. The idea was to get a cold blue-ish light for the parts where Roxie's either in jail (beginning&end) or having her indulgence moment, and warm tones for the dream sequence. Since I haven't seen the skit myself I don't know how it worked, but I'm at least hoping it translated on some level.
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| Excuse me Sir, do you have a moment to talk about, well, me? Photo by Mikael Peltomaa |
Now the contest it self was a great experience! My turn was pretty late, which is kind of a pity since it meant I could only see couple of the last skits after my own, but it also meant that my judging & rehearsals were fairly late. Since we didn't have a separate check in -time I didn't have to wake up too early and could get ready in peace. We were allowed backstage at 1 o'clock so I assembled my prop right away, like most of the other contestants. That was also the 'oh you're in the competition too?' moment because I think most of the people, likewise, hadn't really made it known they'd be participating. After the make up Roxie is fairly easy and fast to put on so I then had a little time to go say hi to couple of friends before strolling back to wait for my turn in judging. The judging it self went by pretty fast and I didn't actually get to tell everything I wanted but hey that's how it usually goes anyway doesn't it. It made me personally happy that we had a lot of entries and hanging back stage with everyone else the level of the competition seemed really high! I honestly couldn't have guessed the result to any direction at that point so A+ for this year! A huuuge congrats for Megurinemagnet for taking the third and Siiri Tikkanen the second place ^ ^ And an extra shout out for the girl who's costume got destroyed right before the event but still pulled through with out cancelling, you are my personal hero of this contest.
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| Photo by Sami Räbinä |
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| Photo by Sami Räbinä |
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| This guy knew his moves! Photo by Sami Räbinä |
The winner announcement was actually exciting 'cause it was so hard to try and guess who would place! When they were listing the criteria for the first place I was sure it was definitely not me because of the 'taking the stage' comment but after hearing my name... I have to say it is one of the lines that I will cherish because well, it was a positive comment on something I've been most insecure about in this hobby. I'll take this cell block tango to London and promise to represent Finland to my best ability!
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| Photo by Mikael Peltomaa |
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