SyFy's Heroes of Cosplay

[stormtrooperguy]

The first year I went to Dragon*Con, I was working on my costumes up until leaving for the airport. I draw the line on working at the hotel.

Last Star Wars Celebration one of my friends painted his clone armor at the con. I don't think I've ever been to a convention where at least one of my friends didn't spend part of their con in the room finishing up.

I think the latest cluster of episodes was better than the first; They put more emphasis on the costumes at least, and have started to have more guys involved.

I do get something out of watching it... for every hour of lame content there are a few minutes where I say "ooh, that's a clever idea" or "I should try that"

 

[mistymills]

Wow. The worst I ever did was having to stop on the way to the con to buy a wig after I got jelly stuck in mine on the way there.

 

[Room8]

I also have to give these folks a lot of respect for walking through conventions with their costumes. It's hard enough for me (sans costume) to walk through a PACKED Comic Con experience (inside the convention and outside); just think about how difficult it is for these people to wear costumes, sometimes with helmets/headgear that limit visibility, as well as the additional heat of wearing layers of clothing and/or armor while you are trying to walk through the endless crowds that is SDCC.

 

[p51]

Although it does happen I'm sure, and it seems you know first hand Art but that is horrible time management.

I agree. I've bene doing historical re-enacting for the majority of my life and I have everything I need done weeks before an event (yes, including any new stuff I've made for the event itself). I'd never dream of cutting anything that close.

Welcome to life!

No offense, but that isn't everyone's life. I know plenty of people (most of them, in fact) who have everything ready to go well in advance. It's called discipline.

Seriously, there are even some memes about this floating around. We know when the cons roll around EVERY SINGLE YEAR, but what happens? You wait until 2 weeks before and then it is a frantic rush...

While I accept that you're right about that (just as there are people who can't be on time for anything), I just don't get it. It would never occur to me to be that far behind for an event I had that much prep time and money invested in. Heck, I've had stuff ready for events (both re-enactment and con related) years in advance. In fact, I have a costume all ready to go for an event next spring.

 

[Art Andrews]

No offense, but that isn't everyone's life.

I know plenty of people (most of them, in fact) who have everything ready to go well in advance. It's called discipline. While I accept that you're right about that (just as there are people who can't be on time for anything), I just don't get it. It would never occur to me to be that far behind for an event I had that much prep time and money invested in. Heck, I've had stuff ready for events (both re-enactment and con related) years in advance. In fact, I have a costume all ready to go for an event next spring.

Congrats on having excellent time management and discipline. All I can tell you is that you are the exception and not the rule.

 

[p51]

Congrats on having excellent time management and discipline. All I can tell you is that you are the exception and not the rule.

I'll take your word for it in regard to the people you know. Frankly, I know plenty of con costume folks and none of them wait to the very last minute.

 

[charades]

Good point. How common IS it for folks like this to show up with their stuff half way done and spending every minute right before judging time up in the room still working on it? I wouldn't go to a con unless I could pack the complete getup in a suitcase or box and just put it on when I'm ready at the event...

Oh I've definitely worked all-nighters before a con, and sometimes still brought a sewing machine with me and continued sewing in the hotel room and missed Friday of a con. And I wasn't even competing! I was spray painting my Iron Man armor in the little park outside my hotel a couple years ago. I'm not that crazy anymore. If it's not done, I just won't bring it and finish it later and wear it another time. I've pretty much accepted that fact for my Pacific Rim project. But it sucks to be sewing while all your friends are drinking and partying around you in the hotel room.

I still enjoy the show. Just take it with a grain of salt, and only watch it streaming or downloaded so I can fast forward the "coming up next" and "previously" clips that happen before and after commercials. I even do that when I watch Face Off, and discovered that it pretty much only has about 20 minutes of real content as well. It's not like the "Heroes" have any say in the final editing. As we all know from reality tv, editing can have a huge impact on how a person is portrayed. Crabcat/Team LA and Jesse were still fun to watch. And if they do another season, it would be great to see what Miguel and Carl can come up with together as a team.

 

[joshvanrad]

I'll take your word for it in regard to the people you know. Frankly, I know plenty of con costume folks and none of them wait to the very last minute.

Like you, I had my costume complete and ready for con. However, I spent a good part of my "sleeping time" helping my friend complete their costume the night before con. I lost out on like 24 hours of sleep over the course of the week before con because they were not prepared.

They exist. Literally all of my friends fall into the "working on stuff the night before con" group.

 

[mistymills]

I've had friends work on things fairly last minute, and I have done last minute things the night before (usually when inspiration strikes late in the game and it becomes a sort of rush job), but most of us tend to get stuff done ahead of time or go with something we have done.

 

[OldSkoolEffects]

If working up to and past the deadline makes you a bad costumer/prop-maker, I'll gladly take that label along with pretty much most the professionals out there that make stuff for films. I personally feel less creative with less pressure, and firmly believe that it's the pressure that makes happy mistakes happen in the creative process. There's a such thing as over-planning.

 

[Il Princerino]

I finished sewing my halloween costume right before we took the kids trick r treating, and I didn't even finish my Thor suit for a recent con.Granted this is not what I do for a living, but stuff gets in the way sometimes.

 

[AJTaliesen]

Suddenly I feel like maybe I'm a bit of a freak...Sitting here a month and a half before Dragoncon with everything finished and thinking "nah...not gonna start another costume. I don't want to feel rushed."

Probably from too many years of doing theater. Not being done on time haunts my dreams. Hell...the fact that there's one thing in my life that I know is way ahead of schedule is worth the price of admission for me.

 

[tain669]

Ok. When do we talk about Sharknado 2..?

 

[Laspector]

I guess it depends on the kind of person you are. Personally I can't stand to be rushed, that's when I freak out. I'm one of those people who have never been late for anything in their life. If I have to be there at 8 o'clock,--you can bet your bottom dollar I will be there at 7:40. If it takes an hour to drive somewhere--I'm leaving an hour and a half early. If I have to build something that takes a week to build-- I'm starting on it two weeks ago. I am the exact opposite of a procrastonater. I work my butt off at the beginning so I have time to relax at the end.

 

[RevChumley]

I call it Slacking through efficiency. Get it done right and early means no stress and more time to slack.

 

[mdb]

Probably from too many years of doing theater. Not being done on time haunts my dreams. Hell...the fact that there's one thing in my life that I know is way ahead of schedule is worth the price of admission for me.

I was professionally trained and I've never been in a show or watched a show that didn't have last minute changes. Heck I remember doing a tech, dress and preview on one day. Yes it was a nightmare and I hated it but that's musical theatre especially.

I wind up working last minute because, like now, I'll start a project anticipating it will be X amount of work hours and it does indeed take X hours. But then my health bottoms out and I have to work within x-40 hours with no help. Or I wind up helping others. I have just sold my dear maleficent gown because well better one person have it and wear it than me try to get a commission made and failing, winding up unable to put on my own socks, and having two people not have a costume. But I really have no idea if I'll get my costume done because I have immediate as well as long term health issues and frankly I get to decide if I stress myself out or not. Each show may be my last to be able to wear a costume (I was literally wheeled out of the last convention in a wheelchair.)

Then again I do also work from raw materials, and when I do my historic stuff it is researched out the wazoo and I wind up with novel research that I want to share but am worried about (seriously the academic world is bloodthirsty and when you have a PhD or a research grant on the line then you get a bit ruthless). And then I unpick and redo due to this research.

Anyway. I have projects I get through quickly, some I have worked on for over a decade and have no intention of rushing for an event and then there are projects I want to wear right now because I really may not have a chance again.

And I run the cosplay contest and run it perfectly to time, even when other factors interfere. I am always early and am always early for flights, appointments, anything that affects others I'll be ready as far in advance as possible. It's not just a matter of personality.

 

[Wakeem]

I watched the last few episodes. I don't think this is a good show or a bad show. It's "reality" TV 101. Get people together and have some kind of trouble or conflict at the end. Or have so called "people in the know" judge other people. The last episode was telling in that Yaya had the problem with the costume but the main loud guy announcer wasn't there the first time around. So I guess that was staged.

I tend not to watch reality TV as it's all the same except for what activity the contestants are doing. For cosplay it's probably not needed. I like seeing the costumes and the energy put into the stuff. Who wins is when I usually turn away. They could make a show with just the costumes and skits and that would be enough to me.

 

[NormanF]

The only reality show I really enjoy is actually a cartoon: Total Drama Island.

 

[The Mad Professor]

The only reality show I really enjoy is actually a cartoon: Total Drama Island.

Not even Drawn Together?

I think we are all forgetting what channel this show is on. It's SyFy. It's a "reality" show. It's all about the drama. Actual build documentation is beyond secondary to them, it is practically non-existent. If this was on Discovery or The Science channel then we (might) actually get some good documentation of a build. This show is never going to be Mythbuster-esque in scientific expainations of builds. It's just not going to happen.

That being said, I have decided that from now on, when I watch this show, I am just going to let myself be completely and totally swept away in the psuedo-drama.
--"My box didn't arrive!" OH NO, WHATEVER WILL SHE DO?!!:confused
--"My batteries died!" OH MY GOD!! HOW WILL HE COMPETE?!:eek
--"If only I had more time!" DEAR LORD, I SIMPLY CANNOT WAIT FOR THE COMMERCIAL TO BE OVER TO FIND OUT HOW THIS PLAYS OUT!! PLEASE HURRY!!!opcorn
--"I really need a win!" OH YES YOU DO SWEETIE, (sniff) YOU HAVE STRUGGLED SO!! YOUR TRIALS ARE EPIC!!:cry

IT"S A MADHOUSE I TELL YOU-- A MADHOUSE!!!!!!:lol

I read that and the first thing I thought of was this:

"Healer's down!"
"Need a rez!"
"Out of mana!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

 

[Moonwildflower]

Moonwildflower how did you end up on the show?
Did your people contact their people? Or Vice Versa?

Hope this isn't necro-posting, but I just saw this....

The entire process began back in November 2013. My brother was pushed by his gf to try out for the show. He was selected and interviewed. Then, he tried to get me to go on the show with him as a 'brother/sister' group. I have to admit, I wasn't the most excited about the idea.

However, I did end up doing an interview and filled out most of the paperwork.

But, when the first con came around, they told me that the paperwork to allow me on camera hadn't gone through yet .

I couldn't let my brother go to the con alone in the mannequin. (He could barely walk in it and needed someone to apply the makeup and put stuff on him.) So, I bit the bullet and bought my own airline ticket, hoping my paperwork would be %100 by the con......

Nope. So much nope.

The first thing a producer said to me upon flying from Texas to Florida with money I borrowed from my mom was "How does it feel that we picked your brother over you?"

And that's how my brother ended up on the show and I as his helper. :/


(Honestly though, after seeing the bs the 'heroes' had to deal with, I'm so glad I wasn't selected. Even being the helper, that was the most stressfull con of my life)