"Hide and Seek with Smaug" Hobbit Challenge Video

Secondary titles for this post: "Making a Movie in Seven Days, Alone, on a Shoestring Budget"; "A Really, Really Bad Idea."

Smaug costume: 3 days, $15. Most of the materials I already had on hand, with the exception of the gold fabric for the wings.

Bilbo's blue coat: 2 days, $5. Again, I already had most of the materials, and since I opted to use a blue fleece to make a mockup of the coat before making it in my real materials, I'm using the mockup for the movie for the sake of saving time. It still turned out quite nicely, I must say.

(This picture was taken before I kind of ruined the coat by trying to age it with grey Rit dye. It dyed the rabbit fur trim a light purple, and shrunk it so it misshaped the center front. I'll have to remove the fur along the front and replace it with a synthetic faux fur, like the fur on the sleeves.)

Backdrop: 1 night, $8. I magically happened upon a brocade that looks remarkably like piles and piles of gold. It's not perfect, but with these time constraints, I don't have the luxury of being picky. I'll probably end up setting up in the garage, because the lighting isn't as dim as the rest of the house, and my iPad camera is rubbish if the light isn't ideal.

Done! Finished editing, which went remarkably smoothly, did my terrible imitation of the soundtrack, and posted the video. It's not amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but it's fun, and done with sincerity (very hard to play the scene without turning it into comic relief, simply because it's so hard not to be aware of how cheesy everything comes across when you're in a dragon costume and imitating Benedict Cumberbatch's digitally enhanced already low voice and painstakingly animated motion capture performance. And yet, it was fun, and I'll look back on the experience fondly. If nothing else, I got a couple of nice costumes out of it.

The finished product? 

http://youtu.be/1wki6jfScgs

Incidentally, for those of you who might be interested in voting for my video once the contest voting starts, I shall post a link in a subsequent update. :) Of course, if you're too traumatized to do so, I won't hold it against you.

Future cosplay plans:

1- Thranduil, BotFA tent attire; because everyone's favorite Elvenking looks amazing even when he's lounging around drinking wine and rolling his eyes at Gandalf. I have evil plans that my younger brother might wear this cosplay to the One Last Party at the end of the month.

2- Bilbo Baggins, 1.0 (coat still in progress; wig came in the mail today and needs to be styled)

3- Bilbo Baggins, 2.0 (mockup coat finished; will be making it in blue cotton velvet and a linen/wool blend); posting a sketchy tutorial for anyone who's interested, because my pattern rocks. I'm all about accuracy, and this is pretty darned accurate. (Just saying.)