Things That Go Bump on the Net

Welcome to our virtual programming for Costume-Con 39, “Things That Go Bump on the Net.”  Here is our schedule for April 23-25, with Zoom attendance links in each class description. All times listed are PDT (Pacific Daylight Time).

Meet Costume-Con 40:
A question-and-answer panel with the Chair of Costume-Con 40.

Meet CC40: Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89610341585?pwd=bHcvU0ZnZlVLbXA5RTBNRkFucnBBdz09

International Costumer’s Guild Announcements: Kevin Roche

ICG Announcement Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84261288037?pwd=aU8zdklJKzlubmlHRU41Y3UxdFcyQT09

Miss Lizzy’s Artifacts:

Miss Lizzy’s Historical Fashion Show, now a SIG (Special Interest Group) under the ICG umbrella, was begun about 10 years ago when Lisa started acquiring authentic Victorian garments and fashion related items and became interested in the material culture, fashion and domestic life of the Victorian era. The time frame spans the early 19th century through the 1920’s and includes the Industrial Revolution, the invention and rise of photography, WWI, and Women’s Suffrage, among other historical arcs, and its mission is to “Hold history in your hands” to actually look at photos and garments with new eyes and appreciation. Item’s in Miss Lizzy’s Parlor collection include many authentic garments and undergarments, jewelry, accessories, beadwork, sewing notions, antique images, fashion magazines, and items of daily life such as letters, visiting cards, autograph and photograph albums, Victorian place settings and much more.

Lisa Ashton is a long-time costumer, quilter and beader.  In the year before the pandemic, 2019, her costumes included: “Things Could Be Worse: Calamity Wear” (with Leslie Johnston) at Philcon, “Mystic Legacy” with Alanna Whitestar at Balticon, “Midnight in Manhattan” (also known as “Zombie Jamboree”) with many of the Usual Suspects at CC38 in Danvers, MA, and “The Mountain Man-an 1825  Fur Trapper of the the American West”, in the Historical Masquerade at CC38.  She began quilting around the time she started costuming at SF cons, and a few years ago won Best In Show at her long-time County Fair in Maryland with her quilted Haunt T-shirt Coat.  She has traveled to the Czech Rep. multiple times to bring back beads to work with and to sell.  She loves coffee, and hand-sewing, flea markets and antique textile auctions, and performing at Haunts in the Halloween season. And cats. She loves cats.  

Miss Lizzy’s Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81609040722?pwd=NDB1TzFra2hETUsyUG14cXBtRDdKZz09

Creating Effective Documentation:
In our session we will be discussing documentation, with an eye to helping you up your game. Costuming documentation is different for each category of competition. It also alters depending on the type of design you are submitting, from replica, to taken from literature, to self-designed. While we usually prefer to work in the replica area when competing ourselves, we have seen and read other types of winning documentation and will try to cover all types.

Philip & Kathleen Gust are a costuming team with interests in historical, sci-fi and fantasy costuming, props, special effects, and prosthetic makeup. Phil has a fatal attraction to difficult fabrics. His favorite costume is King Theoden’s spectacular battle armor from the “Lord of the Rings” movies which they made in 2006. Kathe has been sewing since childhood, and began theatrical costuming for a university class. Her current favorite is the replica 1963 Cleopatra Ceremonial costume they made in 2014-15.

They both publish articles on a variety of costuming topics, and have taught prop making and special effects classes regionally and nationally. Phil and Kathe have been masquerade co-directors and judges.

Documentation Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83135405605?pwd=dnBOQ1NtVFVtcjJlMWV6czhZckFCZz09

Meet Evil Ted:
Our Maker Guest of Honor, Evil Ted Smith, will answer some questions about his career and walk people through an easy starter foam-crafting project. He will making a cybernetic eyepiece. If you would like to print the pattern at home to follow along, you can find it here

Evil Ted worked in the movie industry doing visual effects, prop, and model making for 28 years. He started building when he saw Star Wars at the young age of 14, and he wanted to recreate what he saw on screen, and thus made a Darth Vader helmet and costume out of paper maché and cardboard. After many years of working in Hollywood, Evil Ted decided it was time to take all the tips and tricks he learned over the years and make them available to the everyday builder as he wants to take the intimidation out of building. He is a firm believer that it’s passion over talent, and that anyone can learn to build. He loves cosplay and the community and loves supporting and assisting new builders in the learning process.

Evil Ted’s Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81737420201?pwd=NEZRbU5SYmZIWUp5NmQrRWViVjhqZz09

Electronics for Costume and Cosplay:
Lights, smoke, movement and other electronic effects are all possible using modern electronics. Find out what tools and techniques are available to get started with the basics and also for customizable electronic effects. This presentation and show and tell will cover a range of materials from beginner to advanced options.

Sahrye Cohen is a costumer, maker, and cosplayer who specializes in projects that combine traditional techniques, like sewing, with electronics, microcontrollers, laser cutting, and 3D printing. She is a co-author of the book, Make It, Wear It: Wearable Electronics for Makers, Crafters and Cosplayers. Sahrye teaches workshops in cosplay and electronics at DragonCon, Maker Media, Maker Faires, Costume College, and at many other conventions and makerspaces. Her couture Fashion Tech with Amped Atelier can be seen on the runways in San Francisco, CA, Calgary, Canada, and Shenzhen, China.

Electronics Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81804238609?pwd=cFBEWnpjV1owTkZGRGxRMEZ4a2Y2QT09

Sound For Presentation:
Getting the right audio for your costume presentation is important, but often it’s done as an afterthought. We’ll go over selecting exciting music to go with your presentation, audio editing tricks to fit your music to your presentation, recording and mixing your voiceover, and how to format your audio to make the stage techs happy.

Stephen Nelson is a long-time masquerade videographer, podcast producer, and emergency audio engineer for masquerade entries. His podcast SF3, about science fiction audiobooks, can be found at https://sf3podcast.com.

Sound for Presentation Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86589556471?pwd=d0tBR3Nhc0hJMHdZK1Rudk0vVU9rUT09

Imaging Your Costume:
Whether just documenting your creative process, or creating a virtual masquerade entry, there are lots of different tricks to getting good images of your costume.  We will discuss issues associated only with still images, only with video, and with both.  We will also discuss some of the tools and equipment that can make the process easier and get you just what you’re looking for to show off your latest cosplay.

Christine Doyle has been costuming since she was a pumpkin in kindergarten.  After a hiatus around college and med school and residency, she started again at the turn of the century.  She has been Judges Clerk (Chicon7, Loncon3), Judge (Baycon, Con-Volution),  MC Prompter (Renovation), Stage Manager (Dublin 2019), and Masquerade Co-Director (Worldcon 75, Helsinki) – but she’s only been across the stage as a contestant once, at Costume-Con 37, as Mama Imelda from Coco.  She is most often seen with a camera of some type in her hands, whether at Renaissance Faire, SciFi Conventions, or Costuming events.

Imaging Your Costume Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81724676267?pwd=ZW1ZRjhlMUFtcnBreStHeVVUb2VCQT09

Stage Presentation:
How you show your work on stage can dramatically change its effect on the audience. It can be daunting for a participant who is not an actor, yet offers different pitfalls for one who is an actor!

We’ll first review some very basics of stage layout and blocking (designing your stage movement), with notes on a few surprising differences between the masquerade stage and theater. We’ll then continue to some simple and effective ways to focus audience attention where you want, how to show off all of your costume with minimum likelihood of injury or embarrassment, how to add a bit of razzle-dazzle without killing yourself or your friends, and, most importantly, how to “sell the story” of your costume in the brief time you are on stage.

Kevin Roche was born September 15, 1960, in San Francisco, California. He started costuming when he was 8, about the same time he started reading science fiction and fantasy, and attended his first Con while still in high school. His love of costume led to him helping found the International Costumers Guild, and he was recognized with the ICG Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. Kevin met his husband Andrew Trembley at Costume-Con 16 in 1998, and they quickly became famous for their convention parties. He’s worked in materials science at IBM Research in San Jose since 1983, and combined his automation experience with his mixology expertise to build the award-winning robot bartender ThinBot. His most famous costume to date may be the Tiki Dalek. 

Kevin loves to pull people together to have a great time experiencing something new, and has lent his stage, costume and teamwork skills to many parts of the community, including a year as Emperor 34 of San Jose. Among the Conventions he’s staffed:

• Chair of Costume-Con 26, April 25-28, 2008, for many years the second largest Costume-Con ever held
• • Co-Head of Hospitality, World Fantasy Convention 2009, October 29-November 1, San Jose, California (with Andrew)
  • Assistant Registrar, Westercon 64, July 1-4, 2011, San Jose, California (Kevin’s registration webapp was used by about 5 other Conventions)

• Masquerade Director, Renovation (Worldcon 69), August 17-21, 2011, Reno, Nevada

• Co-Chair, Westercon 66, July 4-7, 2013, Sacramento, California (with Andrew). An infamous hoax bid party that turned into a real Westercon.

• Masquerade Master of Ceremonies, Sasquan (Worldcon 73), August 19-23, 2015, Spokane, Washington

• • Co-Host,1941 Retrospective Hugo Awards, MidAmeriCon II (Worldcon 74), August 17-21, 2016 (with Mariss Pelot)

• Chair, Worldcon 76 in San Jose, August 16-20, 2018

• Masquerade Director, Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon (Worldcon 77), August 15-19, 2019.

Stage Presentation Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87396153704?pwd=T2htOWJBSGQ2TE45Q1NaS1ZoaTBudz09

International Costumers Guild Lifetime Achievement Award:
A YouTube link will be posted to the Costume-Con 39 website and social media pages at 6pm PST on April 24th.

Meet Costume-Con 42 Bid For Denver:
A question-and-answer panel with the Bid Chairs of Costume-Con 42.

ICG Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84857751379?pwd=TE1NR1pjS3N5ekh2VFpvVllHb0prZz09

International Costumers Guild Meeting:
Annual meeting, hosted by President Kevin Roche.

The 2021 ICG Annual Meeting is scheduled via Zoom meeting in the ICG Zoom space for Noon (PDT) on Sunday, April 25, 2021

Note: This meeting is limited to ICG members; pre-registration by Friday April 23 is required to allow membership validation.

ICG Members may register via this link
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYodeqgrzwpE9BJEMZS23B7lyiGJ7FNCDRn

Note to members: the polling technology of Zoom limits us to a single vote (per poll) per logged-in member. Households or groups that want to log in collectively but need to cast multiple votes may either

• assign proxies via https://forms.gle/9SjcFKPWTMT64YJ18
• register alternate email addresses and log in secondary devices, with video/audio turned off, to be able to interact with the polls.
• submit a paper proxy. If you truly wish to use a paper form, here is a PDF that can be filled out on the screen before printing or filled out, saved, and emailed, but if you’re doing that you may as well use the online proxy version. https://drive.google.com/file/d/11u4XkYJ8ohJwEt0urGy4A6rvoszTN3vl/view?usp=sharing

Paper proxies need to be sent to the person voting for you and to the treasurer via email at treasurer@costume.org or postal mail. Please contact the treasurer for the postal mail address.

Jackbox Games:
Jackbox Games are multi-player party games, most often played at a variety of social events.  Every year since 2014, they have released a new collection of games, grouped together as a Party Pack.  Most of the games are designed for 6-8 players, but can have unlimited audience members play along.  All are designed for a single controller; everyone plays using their mobile device. 

During the pandemic, some of us have become quite experienced at playing via remote meetings tech.   And we’ve been working on some customized prompts focused on costuming, cosplay, and all of the associated things.  We will be playing QuipLash 3 and Drawful 2.  This will be live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube.  Direct links will be posted later.

If you’re interested in being one of the players, please send an e-mail to info@costume-con39.org

More information can be found at jackboxgames.com and
https://www.jackboxgames.com/what-is-jackbox/