It began by heading down to breakfast in search of other WOW contestants. At first I didn't find them, but I did find an amazing breakfast spread of everything from full English, to milkshakes, croissants, fruit, cereal, toast.....tried not to make a pig of myself. I have two more mornings to enjoy the bits I didn't try today! Slowly but surely, unmistakably designer types started appearing...well, they are very varied in nationality, age, gender etc, but you could just tell by various tell tale signs...who was looking out for others like me, who was greeting old friends, some people had badges. Some people looked plain wacky...and that's coming from me! There's a real community of people who enter every year, but they are very welcoming to newcomers too. So I spoke to many people over second and third breakfast courses (well, I have been roughing it in hostels!), and continued to chat as we got in coaches to whisk us away to the Roxy Cinema (apparently owned by Peter Jackson) for a day of Weta Workshops (film effects specialists) talks, tours and demonstrations. One lady got transformed into a dwarf (she only volunteered to have prosthetic elf ears applied, but got coerced into a full beard, eyebrows, nose, wig and face paint!) they had displays of Lord of the rings and Hobbit costume, as well as various unpleasant things like hobbit feet, and most excitingly of course armour made of scales... We got to hear about the digital work that Weta Workshops does on films, and how there is a shift in that direction as it's quicker than making everything in real life when directors are being demanding and time is of the essence. They showed us things from lots of other films too, but LOTR is a special one for me :-)
Many people had been to see the preview show yesterday evening, but I wasn't here in time for that...but after hearing so many wonderful things I just couldn't wait until tomorrow so went tonight as well! You could easily watch it twice, as there's so much information that you're just not able to remember everything. Which is kind of interesting, I wonder if the judges will favour the entries that are most memorable to the masses...or are they looking or something different having seen year on year of shows. I was a little worried mine wouldn't hold its own out there with so many distractions, but I was pleased with how it was performed in. There are often several garments on stage at any one time, as well as a great troope of backing dancers, so there's lots to look at. They tend to circuit round the stage so that at some point during their time on stage they stand on each of the five walkways into the audience, and perform their little sequence of movement in that direction. Naturally I couldn't stop watching mine...let's hope other people felt the same. I didn't want him to leave the stage!
Strangely enough there was room in my head all the while to contemplate what I could make for next year...having seen what kind of trends appear more often, it perhaps informs what might make for a more unique entry. Although I think pretty much everything is covered, it's so varied. Perhaps the best thing is to not compare, but just keep my ideas going and see what occurs!
Can't wait to see it again!
Oh, did I say I'm invited to the British embassy for morning tea tomorrow? Swanky!!!:-)
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