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......

The Mighty Monarch Jacket

  Monarch-wear for everyday!

Wizard's 18th Annual Costume Contest

In case you haven't gotten this month's issue of Wizard, this is what you are missing:
Wizard says:
"Every year the call goes out for the best homemade Halloween outfits comic fans can muster. Here's this year's top entries."

Woot! Check out the teeny tiny picture of me as Queen Etherea (don't forget to check out the other entry of how I made it, more photos too). While it's difficult to compete with War Machine (winner- or any costume that is held together with more bolts than thread) it is nice to be included!
See you next year Wizard- I've got some big ideas in the works!!

Queen Etherea

Oh Queen Etherea. I wracked my brain for months trying to sort through all the possibilities of how to pull this off. Why you may ask?

Well, she appears to be naked under this diaphanous dress. Now, I decided that I would not be walking around nude except for this dress- so what to wear underneath that was not noticeable? Thong? Stick on underwear? Tape the dress to my body? Leotard? Bodysuit? Bodysuit is what I settled on.

I looked into dancer foundations, but I didn't feel right about being the "spandex speaker" at the NCA Con and showing up with a store bought bodysuit- so I decided to make it.

I had to decide what exactly to make the bodysuit out of, powermesh? spandex? etc, etc. I resolved that I needed as opaque spandex as I could get- the color I went with was a little darker than my actual skin tone, but I thought the tanning-bed color would be better than ghost-white.

I was also very concerned about too many seam-lines giving away that I was wearing the bodysuit- my mission with this costume was: to make people do a double take; to make them doubt for a second that I was not wearing anything beneath the dress.

Dr. Girlfriend Mall Outfit

Yes, yes, I think everyone knows by now that I heart Dr. Girlfriend- or at least I heart dressing up as Dr. Girlfriend- and so do a lot of other gals out there. There is nothing wrong with that, but while planning to attend SDCC I did not want to be wearing the same costume as many other ladies. So, here was my plan; I knew I wanted to save the Queen Etherea costume for Masquerade, but I figured it would be easier to keep my hair and make-up the same that day- the answer, another Dr. Girlfriend outfit! (she's got plenty)

So, here is the outfit from Season 2, episode 2:

Hot right? I especially love the giant polka dots! Hubby was skeptical that I would be able to find that exact polkadot  print- and I agreed- that's why I was going to make it!

The Action Man

The Action Man: The Venture Brothers
Materials:
Top and Pants: charcoal poly/spandex moleskin
Turtleneck: dark grey acrylic/wool yarn
Gloves: Red Cotton/poly Interlock
Holsters, Belt and Kneepads: White spandex and Red cotton/poly Interlock
Helmet: purchased and covered with white cotton/spandex twill
Boot covers: black poly/spandex, fusible fleece, and velcro
Red lenses: purchased
Guns: purchased

My dear husband decided only a few short weeks before, that he would like to be The Action Man, for New York Comic Con. We just moved in the beginning of January, so he questioned if I would be able to finish all three outfits for the Con, taking place in early February. I just assured him that all would be finished, but he just needed to decide who he wanted to be, preferably someone simple. After unpacking his black army helmet, the decision was made.