Bored To Death- Adventures in Background Acting!

Happy New Year!

I gave the blog a little retooling and decided to re-cap on one of the most fun and crazy events of the year- adventures in being an extra while wearing my costumes!

The HBO show, Bored to Death, check it out. We were in the finale of season two.

Behold the monarch! There's more, and even a glimpse of Batgirl after the jump.

Bored to Death

So, I've had a very interesting week. 

A few weeks ago, I answered a call to be a extra on HBO's Bored to Death. The filming was during this past week in Brooklyn. Luckily, we have a friend in Brooklyn who was good enough to let us crash, so we could be as close to the set as possible, since we were looking at 10+ hour work days (only 2 days).

So, any pals I made on the set that have any pics, please let me know! You can always forward your smartphone pics to me at: anigswes @ gmail.com

Probably the best part about this was that they wanted to pay comic fans, who owned their own costumes to wear said costume on the set of their fake comic convention. I, the hubby, and our friend all got to go, and we were all dressed by me!  Well, what I mean to say is, Batgirl, the Monarch and Sinestro jacket all got to be on camera. I changed a few things from those linked entries. My original Batgirl utility belt and gloves were kinda falling apart so I replaced them (no more stretch vinyl!) and The Monarch needed some work, especially because hubby gave the original gauntlets to the creators of the show. So, those original gauntlets are where? In a dumpster? In an intern's kitchen? In the toilet at Astrobase? One may never know! Anyway, so I'll have blog entries on a few of the replacement pieces soon.

Well, I'm not certain what I can say about the show, other than it stars, Jason Schwartzman, Ted Dansen and Zach Galifianakis. Other important names include the shows creator Jonathan Ames, and comic book artist Dean Haspiel. All this people I got to stand really close to, or walk near!

Yes, most of the working days were spent in the holding room. The first day was actually very uncomfortable because the temperature outside was more than 80 degrees, most everyone was wearing head to toe spandex or worse. Being on set was still exciting- there are more people than you can ever imagine working behind the camera. There was so much equipment, and the camera looked about as complex as an alien spaceship. Of course there was a lot of waiting around time, and the camera only seemed to roll for merely seconds at a stretch, I'm not certain how anything gets filmed to completion. 

It was a very strange group of people, we had not only comic fans, and cosplayers, but real actors, real comic book artists thrown into the mix, one was never quite sure who they were talking to! On top of that, so many people were so hidden by their costumes, that you would never know them out of it! (I'm talkin to you, Power Ranger!) So, what did us extras do besides wait around and vamp in our costumes for each others' amusement? We did a lot of pantomiming, and walking through shoots, or to other areas within a shot. Simple, right?

Overall, it was a crazy, exhausting, sweaty experience, am I'm glad that we did it. AND I'll be holding my breath hoping that my 3 garments got lots of exposure in the episode. 

I'll update again when it's going to air.

Even though we were banned to have cameras, I did manage to get a cool souvenir. 

Thanks John!

Well, life a superhero HBO extra is not as glamorous as you would think. I'm just like everyone else, and today happened to be laundry day......

New York Comic Con 2008 The Unveiling

The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend Visit New York Comic Con 2008

Little did I know what we (the Monarch and I) were in for at last year's comic con. Neither of us had ever been, but were very excited. We had a mission, to hopefully meet Doc Hammer and ask him to perform our marriage ceremony.

I can't really remember how the idea started, but we thought it would make for a fun wedding. Our day started well before the break of dawn and included a 2-hour train ride into the city. We traveled half-dressed, and I finished assembling us while we waited on the line to get in.

I was a little nervous, I didn't see that many costumes at first, and people were just staring. Then the photo-taking started. Must have been the first of what seemed like hundreds for what followed.

Dr. Girlfriend

Dr. Girlfriend

The Venture Brothers

Materials and Pieces:

Dress and pill box hat: lavender nylon spandex

Gloves and purse: white ponte

Boots: purchased

I started the hat in October 2007; I had very little millinery experience at the time. So with some research (thanks to my local library : )) and the help of a great millinery supply website (www.judithm.com) I was on my way. The first pillbox had frame I made was too big, so I had so start over. The hat was made entirely by hand over the course of the entire fall and winter when I got too bored or frustrated with the other aspects of other projects. Most of the information I used to make the hat came from vintagesewing.info which was just excellent for vintage pattern information, and I’m sure I will be using them again in future projects.

The gloves are made out of white garbardine, which was a poor choice of fabric because it frays and gets caught on everything, but now I know that. All of these costumes have been very valuable learning experiences, its just frustrating sometimes after putting in so much time on something like gloves, only to have the fabric giving out after one wearing, but that’s how I learn! I was also planning to make Dr. Girlfriends’s purse (again, lovely to have a place to carry things!) out of the same fabric from scratch, when I came across a purse at a garage sale that was the perfect shape and size. So I just covered that purse in the fabric. I was able to glue most of it, and was happy with the results.

The dress I originally had planned for this lavender cotton fabric I had in my possession for years. But her dress is very form fitting and the woven cotton was not hugging the way I desired, also it was a little too thin and cheap looking. So I went back to my old friend in the garment district for some nylon spandex. It was difficult to get the closure and the collar on this dress just right, again a lot of that difficulty stems from fitting on my own body, but I am happy with the end result. I put white pearl shank buttons on the outside of the dress, and gloves, while the dress is really held on with snap tape. The white boots came from….can you guess…..ebay of course. They were not exactly what I had in mind, but I decided that it was similar enough, and definitely something that Dr. Girlfriend herself would not mind wearing.

The Mighty Monarch

The Mighty Monarch

The Venture Brothers

Materials and Pieces:

Bodysuit and Cowl: Black knit polyester

Armor, Gauntlets, Crown and Boot Tops: Yellow spandex

Cowl face: Nude swimwear lining, pipe cleaners, fishing weights

Wings: Black, Orange and White cotton, plastic boning, and snap fasteners. Lots and lots of snap fasteners.

Gloves: Purchased

Booties: Purchased

When my fiancé Peat first showed me this cartoon, I was very confused, (why is that guy a giant butterfly, and why is his girlfriend a man, and are those two young boys retarded??) but after a few episodes I was hooked! Season 2 was even better and the eternal answer of what would be a great couples’ costume for Peat and I to wear was solved. Where we were going to wear this to was yet to be determined.

After plenty of sketching, pausing, scanning through the DVDs, decisions had been made, and soon I was bothering my poor monarch with fittings left and right. I believe I started monarch production early fall 2007, I started at the crown, and the cowl and worked my way down.

The crown has cardboard inside to make it stand up. The beard and eyebrows are pipe cleaners and attached to the nude swimwear lining, so we wouldn’t have to depend on attaching those accessories directly to his face. (I’m a sewer, and avoid big make-up jobs when I can)

The armor for the chest and shoulders is made out of the spandex and stiffened with some heavy interfacing. The symbol is vinyl and was attached with a heat press.

Again, with this costume for comfort and simplicity’s sake I made two pieces instead of a one piece bodysuit.

I purchased the yellow booties from a costume website and made thigh hi extensions out of the corresponding fabric. (There are a lot of pieces in this ensemble!) The gloves are just those black little stretchy gloves you can buy anywhere, because I forgot to make real ones, and ran out of time just before the con. The gauntlets are made out of the yellow spandex stretched over 6” lengths of ½” pvc pipe. I’m going to need to remake these too, because Peat gave them to Doc and Jackson 2008’s NYCC signing. (more on that in another post, I swear)

Those were difficult to make, because obviously I couldn’t put it in the machine after I got the piping in there. It was a pain, and the insides of them did not look so pretty, but the overall effect was what was needed. Peat was a disappointed they couldn’t actually shoot darts, but who knows, maybe the next pair. I have big plans for the next set, but I shall require some new hardware to achieve the new plans.

The wings were fun to make. First I started with a paper pattern so we could determine the exact size and shape. They are made out of cotton and stabilized with medium weight interfacing. I made the black binding in order to channel the plastic boning to help keep the shape. They are attached to the armor with a series of complicated snaps that I can barely remember the proper sequencing.

This was a truly a labor of love, and I had a blast making it. Little did I know the extent of what I had done, until we went to 2008 New York Comic Con.