There is no spring without Snufkin

Snufkin starts his journey usually before the first snow fall. One year was different. Moomintroll wished that his best friend would wait until the Moomin family had fallen asleep for the winter months. Snufkin respected the wish. His road had vanished under thick snow drifts, but he didn't feel sorry. He didn't look back. Traveler only sees the adventures lying ahead.

"Sleep well and do not worry. At the first day of Spring, I am here with you again."

We had a small photoshoot last weekend and the weather was warm (-7°C)! I could actually stand there without my nose falling off or my fingers turning into icicles. Couldn't say the same while we were wearing the troopers.

There will be a new photoshoot later this spring, maybe even a new video. I do not promise anything though, since Hiron suffers from serious cosplay frenzy (points at the convention list) and I have my studies.

-yoki out

Mayday! Snow in the shoe!

Sasori and Deidara icicles

Three shoots in one bang

We have planned a photoshoot for holidays with our favorite duo up to date; Sasori and Deidara. We still aren't quite sure, which day it’s going to take part though. Even if we don’t shoot outside, the weather dictates the matter. We need sunny or at least bright weather to have a clean looking footage. With our second interview clip we were behind the planned schedule and our camera didn't like it. The “interview part” looks dark and unclean, because we had to work with artificial lights.


Next to following weather forecasts we have made scripts for three different sets; Akatsuki interviews, Sasori-Deidara moments and Christmas special. However, the Akatsuki interviews needs to be tweaked a little. Our memory was bit off with some details on Sasori's and Deidara's plots. I have also been combing and tuning our wigs after they went through a lot with us, rolling down the stairs for example. I can’t do much with Sasori’s wig; I will need Yoki’s head for it, but Deidara’s ponytail I have tried to upgrade. Emphasis on the word “tried”.


The wrapping around the ponytail can’t really even exist. Thank you for giving me a headache with your design, Kishimoto. This far I have tried three different methods with the wrapping and finally I think I have a solution. I need to cut the ribbon and wrap the short pieces separately around the ponytail. To get as close as possible to the reference picture, I couldn’t think of anything else. I even tried to use hilt wrapping instructions as references, but quickly came to a decision that it wasn’t helpful at all. Honestly, I didn’t know there were so many individual parts involved in it!


By the way, have I ever mentioned that I have a soft spot for cheap fabrics? I ended up buying the perfect fabric for Akatsuki pants… and for Deidara's belly shirt. The old ones are starting to rip apart and the color doesn’t appeal anymore. With this rate we might end up redoing these guys in whole. The progress this far surely suggests so.

Welcome for holidays, Yoki! You might end up wearing new pair of pants! No worries, only 3,90/meter.

Wet socks, apples and variable shoot script

I thought that I’d open up how Joxter and Muddler photoshoot was planned and how everything turned up. We actually filmed all the material the same time with the photos I posted over a week ago. But because we had just uploaded a video on Youtube, we decided to publish Joxter and Muddler later.

For me the day started at 7.15 AM. After some breakfast I prepared base for the make-up and started with the eyes. I only did upper eye lid and without mascara, because I was going to put on the contact lenses at the destination. The nose I left also to be done later. There would have been nothing left after few sneezes. Then I smashed my hair under a wig cap (or the crotch part of tights) and slide my newly styled wig on. I don’t know was it the damp weather, lazy styling with only hair spray or my habit of getting sleepy in cars, but when we started to shoot there where zero flipped ends on the wig.

When I had packed my two cameras, medicine for my lovely flu and make-ups I headed to Yoki’s. When I got there I first put together the denial signs we were going to use as props. I was bit surprised that Yoki hadn’t done it. When I got in I ordered Yoki to do her base make-up and at that time she revealed that she had some problems with the wake up call. In other words the alarm never set off. Eila followed our routine with patience, which was nice, because it caught to me too. It was a blessing that we had gone trough everything the previous day. The costumes were on hangers and in good condition. We packed the car while Yoki was preparing herself and took off little past nine. Pretty well, we had scheduled the departure for nine.

After two turns I asked about our shoot script fromYoki and I think she answered with some mild curse word. It had never been printed. Eila was ready to turn the car around, but we decided to trust our memories. We had gone trough it few times, so it wasn’t a challenge for Yoki to write it down on a back of a trivial invitation we found from the car.

At ten we arrived at our destination. We unpacked the car and started to finish the make-ups. Yoki put on her contact lenses first and had to take them off right away. For some reason they weren’t comfortable to wear, so Yoki decided that she would go without them. Mine were alright, they didn’t bother me. We need to see if there are scrathes on the lenses if Yoki plans to wear them again.

My costume is really quick to put on, so I went outside before hand to map out the places where we could shoot. When Yoki was ready we changed the script the first time. The landlord of the neighbour farm was driving around with his tractor, so we had no choice than to first shoot the takes which could be muted. Then we moved on to the next bulk of takes, in which we needed the aid of Eila. Particularly on take, where the camera turns to follow Joxter and Muddler. It’s on purpose identical with one take on the Snufkin video. The order of the takes changed a bit and we were able to shoot some that we had planned for later.

Drunken style Moomin.

During the last take it started to rain so we headed to our headquarters as fast as we could with my size too small shoes and Yoki’s… toes. While Yoki took over the lunch part I headed back out with slightly different gear and shot one take I could handle on my own. When I went back in Yoki stood there with a coffee pot, which she had found leaking. I was devastated, but made a swift recovery with an idea called “a cup in a pot”. This idea might get some air time if we ever add bloopers. But in short, it’s what it sounds like and I got my cup of coffee.

When we were eating lunch we ended up deleting one take from the script. It would have required much work compared of the importance of it. Actually the whole thing worked better with out it. We only had left two different situations and about six takes. Eila also got her chance in front of the camera! After the filming part was wrapped we moved on to photos. And after that I took photos from Yoki for her graduation thank-you cards. They surely are different from the assumed.

Before we took off the costumes we went to say hello to the neighbors. They hadn’t seen us even if we shooted only twenty meters away from their house. They were pleased that we paid them a visit and really exited about the costumes and the over all concept of performing. Here you can see the difference in attitudes towards cosplay between generations. Adults, well, older adults seem to be more open and appraising than you could think of. But then again they are not usually familiar with the scene good and bad included. They view cosplay as crafting and creativity of a person. The neighbours laughed at us, but that was because we looked funny, not because they wanted to downgrade us.

When we took our costumes off it was time to investigate how much damage was taken. There where slight pain on my toes. It was manageable, not as bad as after Tracon. Some make-up had worn out from my nose, because I forgot about it many times when I felt like sneezing. About my wig I already mentioned, so nothing more about that. Yoki’s whiskers had endured the shoot well. Thank you Mastix, you are great! The next time I need to focus on applying it, though. Yoki let out some bad words when she had to rip the scalp off, which I had glued on her hair. The biggest damage or the part that had suffered from the shoot the most has to be Yoki’s shoes/socks! They were black not only from the bottom put also from the top and soaking wet!

The only thing left was to pack and head back. We went to Yoki’s place for the editing and got it finished before the day ended. I think I got home at 11 PM. In all the day had went as expected. The shoot took little over five hours and editing about three with breaks. Oh, and Yoki got a flu. I don’t know was it because of me all the soggy wet socks. That can be counted in the casualties still.

Joxter and Muddler photos