On the Con Report

Sorry it's been a while since I last posted but life had been incredibly busy, especially with Con season pretty much coming to a close with this weekend's Oz Comic-Con.

I'm currently having a small break at the con a little earlier then I would otherwise have liked, but that's due to combination of exhaustion and a cumbersome costume (Doctor Octopus for those that are interested), so I thought I'd steal this time to make a blog post on my phone.

Like Oz Comic-Con last year is plenty busy, despite some of the bigger names dropping out way to close to the con, and the larger floor space seems to have accommodated it well. That being said my costume's major drawback is the amount of room the tentacles take up so my trip to the floor didn't last that long, although thankfully long enough to meet the vendors I wanted too.

The costumes turn out is one again quite brilliant, with a good range of the cheap and creative to the expensive and elaborate; seeing kids coming in costume and having fun is enough to make this is curmudgeon's heart grow three sizes. The sheer variety of the genres here is incredibly good as well, and I'm happy to see more Trekkies out there in TNG uniforms showing that Abrams didn't fully destroy us with his shitty reboots!

I've still yet to meet, get signatures or take any photos with any of the celebrities here, but that we'll either be when I change costume (yes I bought a backup just in case this one becomes unfeasible) or all be done tomorrow.

So now it's just a matter of finding the rest of my Sinister Six so we can terrorize a little bug, but knowing how much spandex is going around I sincerely doubt they'll have their phones handy.

I Don’t Do It For ‘Them’...

Just finished working on constructing the boxes of the throwers of the Real Ghostbusters Proton Packs Jon and I are working on getting ready for Oz Comic-Con, and I’ve really been busting my arse planning and constructing these things essentially from scratch¹. I was about to call it a day and just make a post about being tired and my back being achy from slaving over a cutting board for 2 days, but I remembered a bit of a conversation I had with my mother.

I can’t recall specifics, but I mentioned that I can’t wait to finish my Volstagg costume and wear it out so I can finally cut my hair back a bit and probably shave the beard (or at least keep it a lot shorter). She essentially said “why don’t you?”, and I said because that’s what Volstagg looks like. So I went into a little speech about why I put so much effort in and how the public won’t notice or care. I can’t recall the full speech but the TL:DR version was pretty much, “I don’t do it for them, I do it for me!”

It had just finished this build and the thought did strike me, no one really truly knows or even cares about how much we put into these costumes except for the people that make them, and I mean collectively. As a Ghostbuster I’m always asked such things as “Where did you buy that (referring to the Proton Pack)?” and get stunned faces when I say I built it, or worst still the people who want to pull at things and generally show no regard to my property².

There is a good feeling of accomplishment whenever you finish something in a build, even if it’s totally completed. I was pretty proud of the technological terror I constructed, even though some parts of it was a nightmare to construct and plans had to be revised (I’m still noticing things that could be changed at some time in the future). I know that 99.999999999999999999% of the people I’ll ever meet will not know how much attention to detail I’ll have put into such things, but I’m also aware of all the errors and problems in the build³ which thankfully will also go unnoticed.

I suppose what I’m getting at is that for all the time and effort to do something like this, and with such regularity, you have to be invested in it more for pleasing yourself then to worry about pleasing others. Sure this doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the attention, or better still do this to bring pleasure to others, but if you not ultimately having fun whilst you’re doing it then it’s going to be a miserable experience. I’ve had some incredibly good times in costume, I’ve also had some horrible or disheartening experiences in costume, and I hate to admit it but I’ve been very close on several occasions to just throwing it all in and never suiting up again, but I try now to do it for myself because when I stop gaining pleasure from this then I will be giving it all up.

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1 – We’ve never been able to find thrower plans online, previous builders have been very secretive about them, so I essentially had to create blueprints from scratch using only the concept drawings from the production of the cartoon.
2 – Worst one was some little shit who yanked my thrower during a promotional hand-out at Perth, which nearly broke the hook and it never felt tightened again after that. Needless to say I wasn’t happy about that but I refrained from breaking the little fucker’s neck... regrettably.

3 – Any creator worth a damn knows the problems with his build, but essentially has to go forward to finish their project. It’s like movie nitpickers, they sometimes act like the filmmaker doesn’t know that they screwed something up without realising that generally they do know, and probably know more faults then they’ll ever spot, but they had to finish telling their story.

Jack off all trades...

As I was driving home today from doing to some prop shopping with Jon, I realised that I don’t think I’ve ever truly mastered anything in my life but I have accumulated a lot of different skills in my lifetime. This honestly has gotten me thinking of late because I’ve somehow acquired a reputation of being a somewhat competent prop builder, without any kind of boasting or publicity on my part, and it sometimes feels like I’m living a lie. I do enjoy building stuff but I am nowhere near capable of building some of the things I’ve seen others build, especially in the time and budgets people do things in, however I think my strength comes in final looks to a degree (give me some pre-build props or kits and I’ll make build it and hopefully make it look good). That being said I’m trying to learn a whole load of different things, but I think I’ll always be a student in these regards.

When I went back to uni it was never to get a degree, that was never my intention from the start; probably because deep down I know degrees and certificates are worth less than the paper they are printed on. This was probably a bad thing as all I wanted to do was learn new things and gain new skills for my mental tool belt. As such sometimes Uni became aggravating at times because most, if not all, the theory classes are essentially the same bullshit, or just become bogged down by doing things I’m completely useless at (3D modelling is the bane of my existence). That being said, I’ve learned more things lately outside of uni, especially as my interest as turn away from those studies to a degree, and I’m finding out how to do things in my own way and at my own pace. Still no matter how much I do some of this stuff I feel like such a hack, especially when I get so many people wanting me to help them out with things... which I of course try and do to the best of my ability.

That being said I’m happy to have this (admittedly self-taught) capability of self-learning, and sometimes enjoy tackling new projects which stretch my abilities and my scope. I supposed I’ve learnt a hell of a lot, especially in the last 10 years... probably then in all of high school at least, and it’s mostly self-taught. My mind has expanded a lot recently as well, and I suppose that does come with a desire to use this abilities. It’s probably why I find myself getting frustrated when I’m unable to do certain things, like not having a job that allows me to use do things I have experience in, or feeling stifled in situations where no one listens to me (which has happened way too many times in my life, especially when it turns out I was right). Damn it I keep trying to be positive in this post but the aggravations keep surfacing.

So the TL:DR version is I’ve got a lot of skills in my head, admittedly nothing as useful as plumbing or rocket surgery, and sometimes it can be a little bit frustrated not putting them to use. I admit I use this blog as a means of stretching the writing muscle, especially as I’ve been blocked for a couple of years or so (which is great during essay writing time.. yeah me!), I just need to get back into some more creative writing, or at least work on some of the scripts I should do on to at some point.

Nearly missed it!

I've been so zarking busy all day collecting parts with Jon for our new Real Ghostbustes build for Oz Comic-Con, I almost forgot about the blog. Okay so I've not really been making much content of late, but I've been a little bit under the weather and feeling very blarg. Hopefully I'll feel up to writing some more of my perspective on the condensed history of the WA Ghostbusters but it'll probably have to wait until I'm mentally capable of doing so... that being said I've still yet to attempt some sleep tonight! Shheesh, it might just be a small blog week!