With the con less than 5 months away, I thought some of you would get a kick out of seeing some of our Hall Cosplay winners from last year.
http://www.waxwolf.com/kumoricon/2004/set1/For the past 2 years, here is how we have done Hall Cosplay. Instead of just awarding 2 or 3 overall prizes, certain members of Staff and Volunteers roam the hallways and events and look for cool costumes. We didn't just look for the most amazing, perfect costumes, we looked for all kinds of things. Sometimes we would see someone who seemed to be a beginner at making costumes, but we could see that they put a lot of work into a certain part. Like maybe the WHOLE costume wasn't the best, but they made a really cool hat or staff. Or maybe the costume was OK, but the person really looked like the character. Or maybe someone who didn't have a perfect body made a really good costume choice in picking an outfit that really suits his or her bodytype.
We also looked for people having fun in costume and making things fun for other people. Sometimes little unplanned 'mini-events' just kind of happen. The best example of that I can think of is at Kumoricon 2003, we had a few minutes left over at the end of the cosplay rehearsal and I happened to hook my computer to the sound system, and one of the Final Fantasy Guys got on stage and started singing along with Amish Paradise by Weird Al. Then about 4 girls also dressed in costumes from the same game came up on stage (I was with them for a bit and we made up a simple "background singer-like" dance). They then continued the dance on their own and pretended to sing all the AAAAAHs and stuff. The door was open to the main room and many people wandered in to a very unusual sight! After that, an impromptu Final Fantasy photo shoot was held.
I can't imagine being able to have something on that scale just "Happen," but then I also wouldn't have expected half the game room to join in with the Karaoke Revolution singers after "Friends in Low Places" was put on for a joke! (It was between the Cosplay and the Dance in the gameroom-- we were under the stairs-- Kumoricon 2004). Seeing 30+ cosplayers and congers arm and arm swaying back and forth and singing along with Garth Books at the top of our lungs (and seeing how many people left the lines for the other games to join in) was a moment that you just can't plan!
Anyway, those two really long paragraphs really come down to that contributing to the overall con atmosphere in a positive way also was awarded.
The past two years, ribbons have been the prizes. Oh, and we also awarded costumes that had been commissioned or cleverly pieced together by creative shopping. If you paid someone to make your costume, we still awarded the model and asked them to forward the award to the maker of the costume.
As far as I know, there are no details on this year's hall event yet, but we'll keep you up to date. It's my personal hope that it will be very similar to last year's event (but for those that were there, this year not involving the Info Desk at ALL-- they already had plenty to do).
Enjoy the pictures, all of them are thumbnails that open to a larger version. If you have any feedback or ideas, feel free to post them! I'm sure whomever is in charge would love to hear them.
Note:
Some of the winner's pictures are missing because the pictures were taken with someone else's camera and the pictures were never forwarded to me. I still have the full list of winners, so if the person who used his or her own camera to take pictures still has them, those pictures can easily be added.
