Narrator: In Williamsburg, Virginia, one extremely talented and detail-driven cosplayer, Andrew Blake, is happy to join the team.
[Shot of Andy’s upper chest and head. He is indoors. No background is visible except the wall. The camera is positioned below his head, probably sitting on a table. Various video clips and stills are shown of costumes as he talks about them.]
Andy: Hi there. My name is Andrew. I’m one of the new members of Viva La Cosplay, and I’ve got to admit, that was a surprise. When I first met the Viva La Cosplay people at Virginia Comic Con back in November, I thought, you know, hey, this is fun, this seems like something I would like to audition for, something that I could try. Then as I got more into the cosplay community, and I started seeing more of the things that they were doing, I was just blown away, and it was so far above and beyond anything that I was making, I thought, no, no, this is—this is crazy. I don’t do armor; I don’t do Worbla; I didn’t even at that point have a sewing machine. I made all of my costumes by hand. So I thought, not a chance in hell.
But Katie and Matt and several of the others were just really encouraging, and I wound up winning the costume contest at the November Comic Con with my Mad Hatter, and then I went back in February with a bunch of costumes I made for my friends, and the transforming Katniss dress won again, and so did the one that—the costume that I made for this awesome little guy named Jacob Walker, who’s an amazing little boy with a very, very rare form of dwarfism, and that was Tyrion Lannister. And now I’m working at the costume shop at Busch Gardens, and I’ve changed my major, and it’s—it’s kinda changed my life. I’ve met some incredible, talented, and supportive people. I’m learning so much. And I think that there may be something here.
I’ve still got so, so much to learn. I still have so far to go. But I made some great friends at Katsucon. I’ve made some great friends with the Viva La Cosplay people. I’ve made some amazing friends in a group of Game of Thrones cosplayers called the Throne Bros. I’m going to be working both with the people I met at Katsucon and with the Throne Bros again at Otakon and at Dragoncon and at next year’s Katsucon, and now I’ve just got all these cons on my slate, and it’s kind of exploding in a very, very cool way. I haven’t announced it on my Facebook page yet because I want to surprise the Throne Bros. At Awesome Con, when I was Viserys, I spent most of Friday hanging out with a really cool Daenerys, Ashley, and she and I are going to do brother and sister again at Otakon, again as Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen, and we’re going to do Dragoncon, and this time she’s going to be Margaery, and I’m going to be Loras Tyrell. Because one of my little niche specialties is hand embroidery that I did on Viserys and I did on the Mad Hatter and a couple other places, people think that I’m going to be doing Loras Tyrell’s flowered shirt embroidered piece—especially because I don’t do armor—but screw it, I’m going to try armor. I’m going to try the full Knight of Flowers. So this is going to be an interesting experience to follow, because I’m not just trying armor, I’m going to try casting it in aluminum, and it’s some pretty impressive armor. I am definitely in way, way, way over my head here, but that’s half the fun of cosplay. I haven’t had any clue what I’m doing with a lot of it. You just sort of figure it out as you go along, and when in doubt, there’s hot glue.
[Tight shot of Andy’s head. He is outdoors at night. Nothing but darkness is visible behind him.]
Andy: Yes, it’s the middle of the night. Yes, it’s raining. Yes, we were in a tornado watch earlier today. And I’ve got to get five garbage bags of aluminum cans out of my roommate’s car before she kills me, because I’ve been asking all the people at work and pretty much everybody I know to help me stockpile on aluminum cans so I have a couple hundred… or, you know, a couple thousand of them to make Loras’s armor.
[Shot of rain falling under a streetlight at night.]
Narrator: Safe from the storm inside, Andrew shows us another Game of Thrones costume he has already made.
[Tight shot of Andy’s cosplay version of Viserys’s gold “crown.” Andy appears to be holding the camera with one hand and the crown with his other. Below the crown is a table with a sewing machine and various sewing supplies.]
Andy: This is another example of what I mean by “hot glue is everything.” This is my crown for the Viserys Targaryen, when he has the gold poured over his head. I made a duct tape head, and then I put a pair of pantyhose on it, a lot of Neosporin because I didn’t have Vasoline, and then I just started hot gluing and hot gluing and hot gluing and hot gluing and then spray painted it. And so now…
[Shot of Andy displaying how the crown fits on his head.]
Andy: …it goes on my head, and I am crowned with molten gold.
[Shot of the upper half of Andy’s Viserys costume (doublet and shirt) on what appears to be a homemade mannequin. A clothing rack and various storage pieces are in the background. The room is somewhat messy. Andy is holding the camera and moves it around the costume as he talks.]
Andy: Viserys is my showpiece for Otakon, so I am obsessive with that one. I colored the dragonscale leather with nail polish to get it exactly right. It’s all hand-sewn. I used a spray paint technique to get the color shift suede. But I want to up its game. I want to increase the crown look, so I’m taking chalk right now, and I’m marking where I want to increase the gold drips—down from the crown on the head, across the back, across the shoulders. I’m going to be obliterating all of that nail polish work. Well, some of it still might show, so it’s a good thing I did it. I’m going to take a lighter to it in some places and burn it, char it. I want gold down the front. I’m going to get some drips on the side. And I’m going to be using sandpaper and some other techniques to really age it, because unlike the wedding outfit, Viserys used this piece when he was going with the Dothraki, because this is something he wore to go reclaim his kingdom. It’s got the Targaryen emblem. I hand-embroidered that. Ah, hello, many, many, many dragon stitches up close. It’s not a practical outfit for riding, so it’s going to be worn at the seat, it’s going to be—I’m going to use the chalk and some setting spray to give it some sweat stains—the salt deposits that sweat gets—near the arms, the base of the spine. I have let the hem be a little bit ragged, I’ve pulled out out a couple of threads here and there, because when it comes to this costume, this is the one I’m entering in the contest. This is the one where the detail is going to be that obsessive.
Viva La Cosplay 2x01 transcript
Narrator: In Williamsburg, Virginia, one extremely talented and detail-driven cosplayer, Andrew Blake, is happy to join the team.
[Shot of Andy’s upper chest and head. He is indoors. No background is visible except the wall. The camera is positioned below his head, probably sitting on a table. Various video clips and stills are shown of costumes as he talks about them.]
Andy: Hi there. My name is Andrew. I’m one of the new members of Viva La Cosplay, and I’ve got to admit, that was a surprise. When I first met the Viva La Cosplay people at Virginia Comic Con back in November, I thought, you know, hey, this is fun, this seems like something I would like to audition for, something that I could try. Then as I got more into the cosplay community, and I started seeing more of the things that they were doing, I was just blown away, and it was so far above and beyond anything that I was making, I thought, no, no, this is—this is crazy. I don’t do armor; I don’t do Worbla; I didn’t even at that point have a sewing machine. I made all of my costumes by hand. So I thought, not a chance in hell.
But Katie and Matt and several of the others were just really encouraging, and I wound up winning the costume contest at the November Comic Con with my Mad Hatter, and then I went back in February with a bunch of costumes I made for my friends, and the transforming Katniss dress won again, and so did the one that—the costume that I made for this awesome little guy named Jacob Walker, who’s an amazing little boy with a very, very rare form of dwarfism, and that was Tyrion Lannister. And now I’m working at the costume shop at Busch Gardens, and I’ve changed my major, and it’s—it’s kinda changed my life. I’ve met some incredible, talented, and supportive people. I’m learning so much. And I think that there may be something here.
I’ve still got so, so much to learn. I still have so far to go. But I made some great friends at Katsucon. I’ve made some great friends with the Viva La Cosplay people. I’ve made some amazing friends in a group of Game of Thrones cosplayers called the Throne Bros. I’m going to be working both with the people I met at Katsucon and with the Throne Bros again at Otakon and at Dragoncon and at next year’s Katsucon, and now I’ve just got all these cons on my slate, and it’s kind of exploding in a very, very cool way. I haven’t announced it on my Facebook page yet because I want to surprise the Throne Bros. At Awesome Con, when I was Viserys, I spent most of Friday hanging out with a really cool Daenerys, Ashley, and she and I are going to do brother and sister again at Otakon, again as Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen, and we’re going to do Dragoncon, and this time she’s going to be Margaery, and I’m going to be Loras Tyrell. Because one of my little niche specialties is hand embroidery that I did on Viserys and I did on the Mad Hatter and a couple other places, people think that I’m going to be doing Loras Tyrell’s flowered shirt embroidered piece—especially because I don’t do armor—but screw it, I’m going to try armor. I’m going to try the full Knight of Flowers. So this is going to be an interesting experience to follow, because I’m not just trying armor, I’m going to try casting it in aluminum, and it’s some pretty impressive armor. I am definitely in way, way, way over my head here, but that’s half the fun of cosplay. I haven’t had any clue what I’m doing with a lot of it. You just sort of figure it out as you go along, and when in doubt, there’s hot glue.
[Tight shot of Andy’s head. He is outdoors at night. Nothing but darkness is visible behind him.]
Andy: Yes, it’s the middle of the night. Yes, it’s raining. Yes, we were in a tornado watch earlier today. And I’ve got to get five garbage bags of aluminum cans out of my roommate’s car before she kills me, because I’ve been asking all the people at work and pretty much everybody I know to help me stockpile on aluminum cans so I have a couple hundred… or, you know, a couple thousand of them to make Loras’s armor.
[Shot of rain falling under a streetlight at night.]
Narrator: Safe from the storm inside, Andrew shows us another Game of Thrones costume he has already made.
[Tight shot of Andy’s cosplay version of Viserys’s gold “crown.” Andy appears to be holding the camera with one hand and the crown with his other. Below the crown is a table with a sewing machine and various sewing supplies.]
Andy: This is another example of what I mean by “hot glue is everything.” This is my crown for the Viserys Targaryen, when he has the gold poured over his head. I made a duct tape head, and then I put a pair of pantyhose on it, a lot of Neosporin because I didn’t have Vasoline, and then I just started hot gluing and hot gluing and hot gluing and hot gluing and then spray painted it. And so now…
[Shot of Andy displaying how the crown fits on his head.]
Andy: …it goes on my head, and I am crowned with molten gold.
[Shot of the upper half of Andy’s Viserys costume (doublet and shirt) on what appears to be a homemade mannequin. A clothing rack and various storage pieces are in the background. The room is somewhat messy. Andy is holding the camera and moves it around the costume as he talks.]
Andy: Viserys is my showpiece for Otakon, so I am obsessive with that one. I colored the dragonscale leather with nail polish to get it exactly right. It’s all hand-sewn. I used a spray paint technique to get the color shift suede. But I want to up its game. I want to increase the crown look, so I’m taking chalk right now, and I’m marking where I want to increase the gold drips—down from the crown on the head, across the back, across the shoulders. I’m going to be obliterating all of that nail polish work. Well, some of it still might show, so it’s a good thing I did it. I’m going to take a lighter to it in some places and burn it, char it. I want gold down the front. I’m going to get some drips on the side. And I’m going to be using sandpaper and some other techniques to really age it, because unlike the wedding outfit, Viserys used this piece when he was going with the Dothraki, because this is something he wore to go reclaim his kingdom. It’s got the Targaryen emblem. I hand-embroidered that. Ah, hello, many, many, many dragon stitches up close. It’s not a practical outfit for riding, so it’s going to be worn at the seat, it’s going to be—I’m going to use the chalk and some setting spray to give it some sweat stains—the salt deposits that sweat gets—near the arms, the base of the spine. I have let the hem be a little bit ragged, I’ve pulled out out a couple of threads here and there, because when it comes to this costume, this is the one I’m entering in the contest. This is the one where the detail is going to be that obsessive.