AUSSIECON IV - 68TH WORLD SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION - MASQUERADE - "2010: THE YEAR WE SAID, 'G'DAY!' "
WELL RED SCI-FI FAN!!
In spite of a stunningly busy year I finally realised a long held, completely eclectic ambition to be in the 2010 Aussiecon IV World Science Fiction Convention (Melbourne, Australia) Masquerade wearing a 2001: A Space Odyssey/2010:The Year We Made Contact type E.V.A spacesuit....
It very nearly didn't happen.
As much as I've enjoyed the many other challenging projects that I've taken on this year, they did ten percent my spare time to death. My 'Plan A' costume had to go on the back burner when I started to run out of effective costuming time. (My partner whacked me on the back of the head with a Paella pan to make me see sense - MUCH heavier than a frying pan. "Look Raoul, it's full of stars!") I reverted to upgrading my prototype spacesuit with extra features, including a wearable back pack Portable Life Support System/Thruster Pack in place of the hand carried air conditioner I had for the 3RRR FM Radiothon.
This was still a HUGE amount of work to get done in the couple of days I found myself left with in the run up to the Worldcon, but it was doable, as Plan A obviously wasn't..obvious to anyone but me.
For the parade performance, I wanted to underline the Australian location, which in part meant Ockering up the suit with flyswats, little koala bears, tinny holders, a coathanger wire aerial bent into the shape of a boomerang, Southern Cross flags and so on. A lot of that wouldn't show up on the VAST stage that the performance was set up on but I wanted it there anyway, if nothing else but for the Front Row audience and for the 'impression of detail' it would give for people sitting further out.
'Spot', the monolith (Named in the usual contrary Aussie fashion after the markings that it should rightly have as a great big domino)
was made out of three slabs of 50 mm thick styrofoam, pegged together with wooden dowelling and painted with black gesso. It came apart for transport and was locked together once I reached the venue with a strip of black duct tape around the entire edge.
I had two handles on the monolith's back so I could carry it in front of me onto the stage and still be hidden behind it until the time came to drop it flat before me so I could space-surf on it....and the backside also had big panels of holographic foil on it to hopefully reflect a bit of light up onto me and to help define the monolith's shape as it lay flat on the stage.
I tooled up a soundtrack with dialogue for the less than 45 second skit (I actually nailed it at 25 seconds...less is more in most stage costume performances) the morning of the Maquerade...so early that I was worried that the audience would hear magpies telling the world all about it as they woke up while I was recording the voiceover at home!
Anyway, the skit ran like this...
Me: "My God, it's full of Stars...." (I altered the pitch so it sounded more like Dave Bowman's Doppler shifted last transmission as he entered the Monolith's Stargate,,,)
Richard Strauss "Also Spake Zarathustra" music begins to play....
I walk out onto stage carrying Spot, its bulk hiding me from the audience.
Me: "It puzzled the Americans. It confused the Russians. But the Australians knew exactly what to do with it!" (Drops Spot flat onto stage, walks onto it and begins to surf to the tune of Bombora, by the Atlantics.)
Me: "2010: The Year We Said, G'day!!" (Said in best Aussie accent...)
It must have looked okay because in the immortal words of "Iron Chef" it "gained the people's ovation and fame forever," and the Best Master Costumer award, which will look nice alongside the "Best In Show" I picked up for the 1999 Worldcon, Aussiecon III, also held here in Melbourne.
There are of course, a lot of people who helped get me onto the stage in the first place and as I develop this photoset I'll get to them in due course.
Suffice to say in this first text that I couldn't have done it without my partner, Gail Adams, my supportive friends, the truly amazing veteran Worldcon volunteers who ran the masquerade, the Aussiecon committee/crew who put on the Worldcon in the first place, the audience for being such good sports about this nonsenses, and of course, the other contestants who made it a PARADE, and not just me swanning about on stage on my lonesome playing silly buggers!
Before this gets too "Oscary" ("I'd like to thank The Academy, my First Grade teacher, the population of Australia...") I should also mention 3RRR FM's own music maestro, Simon Winkler, and Neil Rogers, who suggested "Bomboro" when I sought their advice on iconic Aussie surfing songs.
Ta very much all round mateys....
Oh, and for the earlier build phase of this costume please check out the 3RRR 2010 Radiothon Photoset where I explain its genesis....
www.flickr.com/photos/83287853@N00/4897243223/#
PICTURES BY GAIL ADAMS
AUSSIECON IV - 68TH WORLD SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION - MASQUERADE - "2010: THE YEAR WE SAID, 'G'DAY!' "
WELL RED SCI-FI FAN!!
In spite of a stunningly busy year I finally realised a long held, completely eclectic ambition to be in the 2010 Aussiecon IV World Science Fiction Convention (Melbourne, Australia) Masquerade wearing a 2001: A Space Odyssey/2010:The Year We Made Contact type E.V.A spacesuit....
It very nearly didn't happen.
As much as I've enjoyed the many other challenging projects that I've taken on this year, they did ten percent my spare time to death. My 'Plan A' costume had to go on the back burner when I started to run out of effective costuming time. (My partner whacked me on the back of the head with a Paella pan to make me see sense - MUCH heavier than a frying pan. "Look Raoul, it's full of stars!") I reverted to upgrading my prototype spacesuit with extra features, including a wearable back pack Portable Life Support System/Thruster Pack in place of the hand carried air conditioner I had for the 3RRR FM Radiothon.
This was still a HUGE amount of work to get done in the couple of days I found myself left with in the run up to the Worldcon, but it was doable, as Plan A obviously wasn't..obvious to anyone but me.
For the parade performance, I wanted to underline the Australian location, which in part meant Ockering up the suit with flyswats, little koala bears, tinny holders, a coathanger wire aerial bent into the shape of a boomerang, Southern Cross flags and so on. A lot of that wouldn't show up on the VAST stage that the performance was set up on but I wanted it there anyway, if nothing else but for the Front Row audience and for the 'impression of detail' it would give for people sitting further out.
'Spot', the monolith (Named in the usual contrary Aussie fashion after the markings that it should rightly have as a great big domino)
was made out of three slabs of 50 mm thick styrofoam, pegged together with wooden dowelling and painted with black gesso. It came apart for transport and was locked together once I reached the venue with a strip of black duct tape around the entire edge.
I had two handles on the monolith's back so I could carry it in front of me onto the stage and still be hidden behind it until the time came to drop it flat before me so I could space-surf on it....and the backside also had big panels of holographic foil on it to hopefully reflect a bit of light up onto me and to help define the monolith's shape as it lay flat on the stage.
I tooled up a soundtrack with dialogue for the less than 45 second skit (I actually nailed it at 25 seconds...less is more in most stage costume performances) the morning of the Maquerade...so early that I was worried that the audience would hear magpies telling the world all about it as they woke up while I was recording the voiceover at home!
Anyway, the skit ran like this...
Me: "My God, it's full of Stars...." (I altered the pitch so it sounded more like Dave Bowman's Doppler shifted last transmission as he entered the Monolith's Stargate,,,)
Richard Strauss "Also Spake Zarathustra" music begins to play....
I walk out onto stage carrying Spot, its bulk hiding me from the audience.
Me: "It puzzled the Americans. It confused the Russians. But the Australians knew exactly what to do with it!" (Drops Spot flat onto stage, walks onto it and begins to surf to the tune of Bombora, by the Atlantics.)
Me: "2010: The Year We Said, G'day!!" (Said in best Aussie accent...)
It must have looked okay because in the immortal words of "Iron Chef" it "gained the people's ovation and fame forever," and the Best Master Costumer award, which will look nice alongside the "Best In Show" I picked up for the 1999 Worldcon, Aussiecon III, also held here in Melbourne.
There are of course, a lot of people who helped get me onto the stage in the first place and as I develop this photoset I'll get to them in due course.
Suffice to say in this first text that I couldn't have done it without my partner, Gail Adams, my supportive friends, the truly amazing veteran Worldcon volunteers who ran the masquerade, the Aussiecon committee/crew who put on the Worldcon in the first place, the audience for being such good sports about this nonsenses, and of course, the other contestants who made it a PARADE, and not just me swanning about on stage on my lonesome playing silly buggers!
Before this gets too "Oscary" ("I'd like to thank The Academy, my First Grade teacher, the population of Australia...") I should also mention 3RRR FM's own music maestro, Simon Winkler, and Neil Rogers, who suggested "Bomboro" when I sought their advice on iconic Aussie surfing songs.
Ta very much all round mateys....
Oh, and for the earlier build phase of this costume please check out the 3RRR 2010 Radiothon Photoset where I explain its genesis....
www.flickr.com/photos/83287853@N00/4897243223/#
PICTURES BY GAIL ADAMS