Just Be Friends Cosplay PV (Behind the Scene)

Finally, the mystery uncovers =)

Megurine Luka: Kaika

Luka’s ex BF: Reiko

Photographers (alphabetically arranged) :
Adrian
Peggy
Maria
Shiroin

Video editing: Kaika


Special Thanks : Ying and Xrystal for lending us their gakurans and wig xD

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Reiko (my lovely ex-bf) and myself, along with our fabulous photographers and helpers shot this last year 12th - 13th September. We had so much fun and so much to share but for now, I’m handing this entry over to my bishie ex-boyfriend (Reiko). She’s gonna share a part of our journey with you guys! 

Happy reading!!! (Below text are all by reiko)

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If you are here reading this, I'm assuming that you have already watched the "Just Be Friends" cosplay video! :) If you haven't, please watch! xD (Link here)

Link to original video: Just Be Friends(niconicodouga) Just Be Friends(youtube)
 


... Otsukaresamadeshita~! Thank you for viewing^^!! I hope you enjoyed it!
Hopefully our cosplays were good enough to evoke some form of emotion in the viewers;;; Despite it being an up-tempo song, the lyrics and PV are very heartbreaking. Quoting what the song creator put in his description:

愛し合ってここまで歩いて来た二人。
Two lovers who have come thus far together.

そんなお互いが進む道がいつからか違(たが)ってしまっていた事に気づいた時。
Before they realised it, the path they both treaded together, had diverted.

あなたならどうしますか？

What would you do if it were you?

Liking someone doesn't mean you have to be together, and breaking up doesn't necessarily mean you each other. The song moved us so much that we wanted to, as cosplayers, do a tribute to it. Since we are at it, we thought we might as well go all the way to recreate the PV;;
I must say I am really lucky to be part of this project! It was towards the end of my stay in Singapore last September, when Kaika and I decided to go ahead with cosplaying "Just Be Friends"(hereon referred to as JBF).

It was a rush to co-ordinate the shoot because we only had one weekend left to shoot before I left the country! It so happened that Shiroin, who loves JBF as well, was stopping over in Singapore that weekend, so we asked Shiroin and Adrian to help in the shooting! Thanks for agreeing to assist on such short notice!!! Also, we tried to keep this project as secret as possible without involving too many people.

But as most cosplayers will know, not having any helpers for a shoot is just crazy x.x So I would like to hereby thank Maria and Peggy for helping us with the shoot, and for keeping it secret for so long too!!! :) But the one who worked the hardest and longest, sacrificing precious private time from her busy schedule, battling long nights of retouching, data losses and video-technical woes to make this cosplay video happen, is ☆Kaika☆!!!

I feel bad that I couldn't be of much help in the technical aspects, but at the same time I am sooo proud of her for not giving up in the face of adversity and hanging on till the end of the project!!

It was our first time at the studio, and the photogs helped a lot in coming up with ideas as to how we should use the studio space!
 

A peek into the rather cramped preparation room! 

Inflating balloons for the first set of pictures! 

We didn't expect to finish the whole packet of balloons, and it was pretty insane to have just 4 persons inflating 50+ balloons manually! *lung collapses* x.x We didn't have helium gas for the red balloon that had to be floating..

Shiroin climbing the dangerous ladders to get the red balloon up.
 

Tada~a~ah!
 

Can I say that it was hell trying to prep the balloons for the first take alone?! Some of the balloons started losing air and shrinking even before we started, and they just wouldn't stay put on the floor!

Kaika and I running after balloons. 

It amuses me that we've both got pictures of us in that same position LOL. We had thought of taping the balloons down to the floor, but that would mean time-loss preparing and cleaning them up, so we tried to gather them as much as possible and went ahead with the shooting.



Luka's and ex's feet were shown in the PV, but we couldn't tame the balloons enough to get that shot.



This may seem like an easy pose, but trust us, it wasn't XD.
We had to use alternative chairs too because we couldn't find similar ones to those in the PV, and it just so happened that the ones in the studio were springy :/


Kaika had a hard time trying to get into position because the seat sinks downwards, so we experimented by letting her seat on some things to lift her up. Then came the inhumane positioning of the hands, face and posture. We kept checking and adjusting her, even having to stretch her behind-arm to bring it to the front ala. Luka in the PV, just to get this single shot!

Double checking the shots to take.

Another obstacle: Luka's flying hair scenes x.x Whether you get good shots for scenes like these really depends on luck!



Despite having the studio keeper help us with directing wind from a strong fan, which threatened to blow off Luka's fake lashes, we still needed help with bringing the hair up!




It was even more time-consuming when rose petals were introduced x.x

They get blown away very quickly and how they move can't be controlled x.x I daresay this is one shot we spent most time on, testing different ways of releasing the petals and gathering them up over and over again. Thank goodness Maria had come by this time to help us!!! Our savior! T_T




One scene I had the most fun doing was the part where tears rolled down the ex's cheek!

If anyone had been observing the shoot, this must have been the most LOL moment. I had to apply eyedrops so many times, it wasn't easy trying to keep myself from laughing! But yes, thanks to burst shots and superb skills, Shiroin managed to get a number of shots with the eyedrop solution trickling down x.x

We had planned for 4 hours in the studio, but ended up paying for 7 hours instead x.x We decided to have dinner before continuing with the Christmas lighting scenes. It was a pity Adrian had to leave us for another appointment, but thanks again for helping us with the studio shoot!!! :D We had dinner at our next location in our fullgear x.x It was one of the times I felt thankful that SG doesn't send the police after cosplayers who walk about in public (not as if our get-up was an eyesore to the public).



Luka's ex in girly clothes(insert pukage here) enjoying Shiina Ringo stuff on Shiroin's iphone.

Got a photo at this eatery to include in the flashbacks!! Did you manage to catch it? :D 

Last scene of Day Primo!!!

There is an escalator just behind us so we had to keep trying to get shots when there was no one coming up or going down XD I trampled Shiroin's luggage just to get more height for this shot... I'm soooo sorry dude T_T


Protecting mah girl, yo >D Don't ask why I even posed that way please =_= We swapped jackets because I thought the colour was closer to the PV this way. Day 2 started at my house, where we focused on the non-studio and flashback shots. We kinda exhausted Shiroin from Day 1 so we couldn't have him with us, but Maria and Peggy kindly came down to help us!



One of the photos we took of Luka strumming by the window side. Another photo was used in the PV, but Kaika looks angelic here so I'm posting it *________*



No fan to get the wind-in-hair effects? Let the hands do the work! Our next location was the beach, to shoot that beautiful scene of the two lovers cycling back from school.


Here we tried to be creative and take a few more shots which we could use as flashback photos. Unfortunately, most were left out of the final product XD

Kaika had to hop on to the back wheel even though it had no foothold D:

Another lovey-dovey scene for the couple. I personally like this out-take because Luka is arranging my hair and I feel LOVED ROFL. Lukaaaaa!!!! <3<3<3  Yes this shot was taken in the dark, with a lamp post to provide us with the light we needed. The reason it looks like daytime in the video? Photoshop :P Don't believe all that you see~ *wriggles eyebrows and does squinty eyes*

That kind of wraps up our photo-taking session, but we were far from the end of the project. There was a lot (still an understatement) of post-processing to be done, a bulk of which was single-handedly done by Kaika >.<> In the process of collating pictures and producing the video, we came to realise that there were shots which we forgot to take, thus the discrepancies in the cosplay video oTL We're really sorry about that;;; Thanks for patiently reading all the way up till the end!! Hope you like what we did!!!

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Much thankies to Reiko for doing up this entry. Yeap, the whole ride was a very crazy one, I still find it hard to believe we have finally come to the official premiering stage!

I'll be coming up with my own Post Editing journal and some Behind The Scenes video footage soon. So stay tuned yeah! If you liked our hardwork, please leave me a comment below nao!!!

OH BTW! Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Chinese New Year!!!!!!!!1

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Top 5 things Cosplayers hate about Photographers

So I've been nurturing the thoughts of this article for very long and I'm finally about to share them.

As the title explains, this article focus on the top 5 most annoying thing photographers do to cosplayers. The 'photographers' includes both event and non event photographers.

Also, as a usual disclaimer. I have to disclaim that this article is merely a written collection of cosplayer's general sentiments . It is targeted at no one in particular. Although if you are a photographer and is guilty of a few of these charges then you might wanna start reflecting. The list goes backward with the biggest number being the most heinous sin.

 

1.  Posting Unglam shots without permissions

Alright, let me start with the least sinful one.

Taking unglamorous shoots of the cosplayer is bad enough but posting it online without permission is worse. It’s like throwing your dear friend into the pits of hell and flames.

Of course, the definition of ‘unglamorous’ itself is pretty intangible and it’s always hard to judge whether a picture is funny or ugly. Omake shots are almost always something stupid, out-of-character and sometimes  . . . pretty ugly. But nobody cares because the main point of those omake shots are to have fun!

But I guess the fun ends when the laugh’s on you (the Cosplayer). And his/her reputation is jeopardized by the publishing of an un-presentable photo. Thus risk granting him/her a place on the Cosfu shrine.

Once again, I come back to the intangibility of beauty. Because different people will look at different things, how are you going to know it the Cosplayer will get upset or not?. The safest bet , is to just seek your subject’s permission before posting it online. For as we all know, once it gets online, there’s no taking back.

 

2.  Taking photos without permission when the cosplayer is not ready yet

You guys must be SO TIRED of this issue so I’ll make this brief. I posted something of a similar topic a while ago and received many feedbacks on it.

Apparently, EYERYONE hates it ! It’s a unanimous vote. Photographers out there, please refrain from doing this unless you are a (close) personal friend of the Cosplayer.

Nobody like having lens snuffed 10cm from their face unless they are so short sighted and they can’t even tell.

 

3.  Insisting /forcing the cosplayer to do OOC poses

OOC = Out of Character

This point does not include mutually decided Omake shots. I’m talking about enthusiastic Photographers who go all “WOAHHH COME ON MORE SHOULDERS ! MORE BUTT! MORE SEX APPEAL !!!”

Yeah those creepy kinds.

Doing OOC poses are completely fine with me as you can see from my track record. I don’t give two hoots about a lady’s refined image.

Starry Gay Luneth~ *

But I do get upset when people insist/suggest I do something not funny, not spontaneous and not related to the character’s personality. Mostly those that needs you to show more of your body or be of a more ‘servicing’ nature. Thankfully for me, I haven’t encountered much of those (must be my deadly aura).

Having sex appeal in commercial photography is great and is highly sought after. But for Cosplay photography, creativity is usually meant to be applied to looking(costume crafting included) and behaving LIKE the character and trying your best to bring the character to life.

I believe most cosplayers do a certain character because there is a trait about the character they admire and would dearly like to emulate. If the pose the photographer insists the cosplayer do happens to conflict with that trait, I’m afraid the Cosplayer won’t feel too comfortable doing it.

Get the sexy back!!!

Imagine you are cosplaying the tough, independent and unfeminine Lighting from Final Fantasy 13 and the photographer wants you to wink at the camera or kneel seductively with half your boobs flashing at the camera lens. I don’t think I could handle that.

Have any of you encountered such an experience before? Share it with us in the comments below!

 

4.  Not taking the cosplayer’s ideas into considerations

I don’t encounter a lot of hentai jij photographers so I guess I can’t say it bothers me enough to place it at this spot. So it went to the 3rd point (above). So 4th (or rather 2nd) place goes to this.

Now this is one point that can really irk the hell out of me. Call me a control freak or whatever. But I like to look at each photo shoot as the making of a concept art. Cosplayers might want the photos from that shoot to carry a certain element in them that will differ it from the usual event shoots or other photos from previous Photo shoots. It’s like, sometimes we have a VISION of something that we want to create. And I believe I’m not the only cosplayer that feels this way.

 

I know of Cosplayers who would plan and even storyboard out what they want in the shoot so as to give the photographers an idea of what they would like to achieve. It might be a concept for a still image or a sequence of images telling a story. However the presentation differs, the yearn to make something fabulous stays.

And for a Cosplay Project to work, the support and cooperation of the photographer is crucial. In fact, a good photographer can make or break the cosplay.  And not all photographers are as obliging.

I probably can’t blame them of course, since photographers come from a different background and shoot with a different purpose, so they might find it hard to attune themselves to the needs of the cosplayer.

And some might not even want to try because they either don’t want to change their style or they deem themselves better than the cosplayers who supposedly, knows nothing. Yeah, sometimes it’s all just an ego fight and it is annoying. Not so much of being belittled, I can deal with that, but more of coming away from a shoot without any really good pictures to show.

I’ve always felt it is difficult to bridge the vision a cosplayer has with that of a photographer. I guess one of the best Cosplay is not created by just the cosplayer but also the photographer who captured the legacy. For a good Cosplay to work or rather, for any human photography to work, both the subject and the photographer has to have some sort of chemistry. And the chemistry should show in the photos. But of course that’s just my take, what do you think?

 

 
5.  Not giving raws/high res photos promptly

This is so blatantly important I don't even know how anyone could NOT understand it. Yet, many photographers just don't. Or rather,  their photographer's pride don't allow them to.

Yes I can understand from their perspective. After all, photographers are also artists themselves. It makes full sense for any self/craft respecting artist to want to be responsible for the work they present to the world. After all, it’s their reputation at stake here.

GIMME MY HIGH RES FAST!!!!!!!!

   

But at the same time, we can’t neglect the cosplayer's perspective.

Cosplayers cosplays because they like the series and want to pay tribute to their fandom (well at least most of them). A lot of effort is spent on researching, sewing and crafting. It’s a crazy process. And to finally wear the whole ensemble out for the event or photo shoot they have been dreaming of for the longest time really means a lot to Cosplayers.

Exaggerating as it sounds, but yes, we cosplayers do have dreams and yearns. Everyone has that one dream costume we've always wanted to do since young and it probably the reason we started cosplay. We have that dream group  we worked hard to pull together. And we have that dream photoshoot we spent countless hours scouting and preparing.

It’s a long and crazy journey. And most of us (Cosplayers) don’t mind the relentless work and sweat because we know, it’s worth it. We push ourselves to the limit for the love of the fandom, for the love of the craft and for the growth a new challenge gives.

And the photographers are the perfect closure to all these hard work and dreams. They help create the end product that willjustify all the money and sweat toiled in. The photos proof of the project's existence.

Try telling someone you cosplayed so and so characters and their immediate reaction would be to request for pictures. Get what I mean?

If you don't have a decent photo of the costume, its hard to justify anything to anyone. Not even yourself! So imagine how big a frustration/disappointment it is when all these hardwork pushes to a climax and you had to wait forever to see the end product. It’s worse then waiting for the next episode of anime to come out because you don’t know when you will get it!

As for the need of high res. Well, we all live in the age of 1024 x 780 screen and vivid LCDs. So why not? High res also allows better print results. A good example would be the recent call for cosplay photos contribution by Danny Choo for the new book; OTACOOL 2. High res is needed and if you don't have any, high chance your space in the book will be filled up by someone else.   

 

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I’m ending my entry here. While thinking up this whole entry I’ve actually gathered more than 5 items but I reckon I’ll just keep this entry simple. But I intend to do up another similar article which speaks from the Photographer’s POV so… keep a look out for them!

As per usual, discussion entries on this blog are meant to be entertaining and reflective. Minimal maliciousness. Take it with a pinch of salt and put down that cleaver you have on your hand now.

Here’s a pic to remind you how “kawaii” I am. Don’t kill me. 

 

 

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COSPLAY @ eduCommunity

Have I mentioned before that Cosplay competitions and events seem to be popping up everywhere these days?

Yeap, I have a new Competition to pimp to you guys. Check out this contest held by our very own POPULAR Bookstore!

 

 

 

Have you ever dreamt that you were the Great General in Ancient Wars? Are you so passionate about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that at times, you wished you were one of the cool characters like Zhao Yun?

Well, now you can live your dream - with the Popular EduCommunity @ www.epopular.com.sg!

Participate in the EduCommunity’s CosPlay Contest and get dressed up as Liu Bei, Cao Cao or Zhou Yu! Come as a “Dynasty Warrior’s” Zhu Ge Liang or a “Generals Order’s” Ma Chao,. Either way, you are sure to have great fun!

So, submit your entries via a Digital Video (DV) or jpeg image today and stand a chance to win attractive prizes. Don’t hesitate, dive right into the world of the Three Kingdoms Now!!

Closing date is now extended to 31 March 2010 - get together with your friends and send in your entries to contest@epopular.com.sg

 

Stand to Win:

Exclusive gift packages with New Balance gear, AsiaPac products and Strategy Entertainment Gamecards and posters

• First Prize: Package worth $200
• Second Prize: Package worth $150
• Third Prize: Package worth $100
• 4th - 10th Prizes: A package worth $50 for each winner

In addition, the Top 3 winners will be invited by Strategy Entertainment to be part of their Version 4 development process, and the Top 10 will be invited to a Deck Forming Clinic.

 

Confused? Lemme summarize, basically you ….

STEP 1: Cosplay as any Romance of the 3 Kingdom Characters STEP 2: Take a photo or Video of yourself STEP 3: Send your photo/video to contest@epopular.com.sg STEP 4: Remember to include your necessary contact details (Name, contact number, email, character you are cosplaying etc)

 

Go to their webpage for more details =)

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OTACOOL 2 front cover preview!

Apologies for the low res!

Thanks to a tip off from inuran! The front cover is out! Congrats to Yoshimi for being on it ^_^!

See anymore familiar faces xD?

 

Yeap, the ever famous Kaname as Cloud and Saya as….Lighting O_O. In case any of you don’t know, Saya is famous for her Miku…gotta say she looks really different as lighting .

Anyway, read more here:
http://www.kotous.com/news/otacool2-worldwide-cosplayers-24-awesome-cosplayers/ 

Oh yes, submission are STILL GOING ON. Hurry and submit now!!!

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Anime Tour to Japan!

Not sure about your side but over here in Singapore, once in a while, we’ll see some advertisement on TV selling some holiday tour packages to audience with the unique selling point of having a local Television celebrity for company (as their tour guides).

And…… I can’t believe our Anime/Manga kingdom is now gonna have our own version of that. Don’t get what I mean? Watch the video below.

 

 

EMBARK ON THE ULTIMATE TOKYO ANIME TOUR!

For 6 Days, 4 Nights, experience Cool Japan as the tour brings you and your friends around Tokyo in the comfort of your very own private coach!  Your Moe Meido-chan tour guide Yoshimi will be bringing you around key attractions in Tokyo, covering place like the 2010 Tokyo Anime Fair, Studio Ghibli, Nakano Broadway, Lucky Star Shrine and more!  Visit the Otaku heaven Akihabara together with celebrity blogger Danny Choo, as he shows you his version of Akiba.

Prices start from SGD$1,999 for the full tour (Return Flight from Singapore to Tokyo Included) and SGD$1,499 for the land tour (Flight to Tokyo not included).  The “everything included” tour includes meals, accommodation and transport (Coach Bus).

Special Installment Plans Available! Pay only SGD$500* as deposit and the rest as installments!  Ask for this special installment plan when you book your tickets!

* Subject to terms and conditions.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL ITENERARY

 

Yeap. CTC Holiday (a travel and tour operator) have finally decided to give its business a new edge over its competitors by coming up with this new gimmick.

Pretty cool idea if you ask me =)

Especially loving their installment payment scheme. I guess that’s in mind of the adolescent age group that makes up majority of the demographics.

Some how I find it really amazing and queer how fast this fandom is developing into a massive money sucking industry locally. A cou[ple of years ago, we were still whining about the lack of happenings in Singapore and now they start popping up one after another!

I guess that means even better stuffs for fans to look forward to in the near future huh =)?

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Soy’B 2010 Photos Spammage 2 !

Soy’b is over and I’m starting to feel the withdrawal symptoms. And I’m full of regrets for not enjoying the event as much as I ought to during it.

I have the bad habit of not doing that =(

And I applied for the Media pass! I went as a BLOGGER ahahaha!!! Gotta love fan based events. They are always much more flexible than those big scale commercial events. not to mention they are also more in touch with the fandom and knows what’s pushing the community. But everytime someone noticed my pass they’d LOL. Why??? LOLS

As I mentioned in my previous post, as I was joining the Karaoke Competition,  a lot of time was taken up because of it. Plus the fact that I took 2 million years to change into my Haruhi costume, by the time I came out from the toilet, it was already 3pm + ARGH! As usual, the urge to cover as much Cosplayers was there. And I didn’t feel like I could spend leisure time interacting as much as I wanted to.

New Year Resolution, learn to Henshin within 30mins . Okay 30minutes is too fast…erm 45mins? 1hour? Okay, I realise there really is no point in me setting this resolution because I suck at keeping them. Sigh.

Oh, if you wanna see any videos of my performance then I’m sad to say, I have none. I’m not in the habit of recording my own stuffs, and by far, nobody has upped it on Youtube yet. So I believe my screechs must have killed too much braincells and nobody wanted to film XD.

OH! Speaking of the competition, omg. The sound system was really quite …. bad. But I guess with all my experience in local Cosplay Event I should have known. Much Thanks to our bishie Tamaki (Dusty) the Emcee for passing me a new mic on stage.

And I missed all the stage stuffs! I so wanted to see what crack the emcees and contestants were up to =( . Thank goodness for youtube!

This is so CRACK MATERIAL HAHAHAH!!!!!!! I suspect they were all drunk! And the Kakashi pole dance is like OMFGBWAHAHA!

Oh man, they make me wanna join the group competition next year!

 

Now on to the photos!

  

Zone 00.
Anyone care to enlighten me on their character names?

One Piece!

I believe the character is Zoro? dunkillmeifi’mwronggg. The Cosplayer had a little boy tagging around him haha,, babysitting? 

BLEACH Arrancar and unknown >.<’’’

Lovely job on the puppy eye effect. And god does those white face paint looks horrifyingly UNCOMFORTABLE! After the photo the first thing I told him was “oh my, the white paint looks damn uncomfy!” and the cosplayer was like “ *rolls eyes in exasperation* OMG YEASSHU!,!!!! Look at my fingers”.

Cosplay is all about suffering

Wish I had more time to interact with them but oh wells…

.Hack ?

Are they from gintama?

The Mayo gun is so cute lah T_T!! And when the cosplayer tried to pick it up, it fell and she was like “Omg~ My mayoooo~~~"

Very moe =X

Pretty Luka!
Vocaloid is so not dying hehehe.

The event even had this mini lecture room converted into a studio!!!! A free studio for Cosplayers! Oh mannnn I really hope they bring it back next year so I can try it out!

I peeped in and had wanted to try it out but…feel too embarrassed. For one, I’m a cosfu*k that day, for the second, I’m not suppsoed to be a Cosplayer. I’m supposed to be a Paparazzi blogger. So yeah. Case closed.

 

Lovely Sandplay of the Dragon cosplay by Inuran and Gerald! The massive lace and netting and embroidery *_*

 

 

This one must camwhore de.

Didn’;t managed to get pictures of the full team though. They were too busy yaoi-ing among themselves

See?

And then a miku came in to  ‘observe’ them

And then Sheryl Nome.

Even their ‘little sister’ Rin, joined in the ‘observing’ gang

Kaito & Gakupoid: O_o?!

Gakupoid: OIIE! You girls are in the way!!!!!!!!

 

Masked rider!

I love mascots =X

He had just taken off his headgear when i went up and requested for a photo. And he very gamely, put it on again for me. Thankss!!!

I had initially thought he was from Digimon. but the globe looked suspiciously familiar to somethign else. So after the first photo, I went up and asked exactly what chaarcter he was doing.

And he said he was doing FIREFOX !!! OMG MOZILLA SHOULD PAY HIM  MAN!!! I think I got a bit too excited and scared him when I hit his globe with my delirious hand =_=. Much apologies for the lack of manners =(

I then suggested he should bend over and hug the globe Mozilla style instead. Which he did! OMG! Damn gamely!

Kudos for wearing furly overalls on such a stuffy weather

With himi mui

With the mostest adorable rishu! who didn’t looked very adorable that day. not with black lips and spikes lol. What was she doing that day…anyone know?

 

Rozen maiden?

CCS sakura !!!!

To end the entry off abruptly, here’s a pic of me doing the long hair version of Haruhi. Taken at the end of the day in the ladies. I had actually brought my wig but didn’t felt like wearing it because I forgot my lashes=_=.

I’m running late for my appointment because of this post so I’m going off! BYE!!!

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