#skeksi costume

[cat-cosplay]

“Is difficult being voice of reason in such crazed world.” -SkekSil

[lullaby-bliss]

I just realized I never posted the finished piece. I submitted it for an art exhibition and was selected! I am very excited about the exhibit and am super proud of my work.

[komickrazi]

Just in time for thanksgiving! My photos from my Skeksis Photoshoot are here!

SkekSil the Chamberlain Skeksis from the Dark Crystal Age of Resistance series.

Costume made and worn by me, photos by Brett Bauer Photography

[atopvisenyashill]

i do think some of my criticism of the dragons in particular is because i grew up absolutely spoiled by farscape, which made me cry over a puppet and a spaceship multiple times. i think puppetry work in general is really under appreciated in adult media but i honestly think jim henson’s creature shop would have had a fucking BLAST doing these dragons and i do think most of the henson creature work (both dark crystals, labyrinth, farscape, where the wild things are, etc) fits the aesthetic george goes for. i just think more fantasy and sci-fi should go for the unexpected like animation or puppets IT ALWAYS LOOKS MORE WHIMSICAL AND CREEPY

[skeksisaddict]

A side project I’ve been working on in the background. A cosplay of my OC SkekLala. I didn’t turn out the greatest but I’m still happy with it! Especially the mask! I loved sculpting the beak.

[lexi-the-twilight-dragon]

the more into cosplay I get, the more I curse the fact that my high school home ec sewing class got cancelled bc too few students applied

like I have IDEAS but no idea how to IMPLEMENT them

[krawdad]

Wait those camera steadycam rigs are like sideways heavy capacity luxo lamps

I can hook springs up to parallelograms

I might be on the verge of some kind of performance enhancing contraption

[ben-the-hyena]

It's just like The Dark Crystal : Age of Resistance did and why it looks stunning. 90% is puppetery and practical effects. 10% is completing with CGI when it's impossible to do it practically or to give more life to the characters, like giving the Skeksis a moving tongue when they speak. Both mediums should coexist and companies should stop pretending they can only pick one

When Guillermo del Toro had a practical effect fish-man suit in The Shape of Water but used cgi to make the eyes look more real.... he had the right idea.

[undeadartist]

GUESS WHAT IM BEING FOR HALLOWEEEN!!!

I'll be surprised if anyone knows this. I'm going to be a Skeksis from The Dark Crystal. I don't have the costume yet.

[thebibliomancer]

There needs to be more post-movie Dark Crystal content. I want to see a recap of the movie as an in-universe stage show, with Gelfling in costumes or clunky puppets standing in for the Garthim and Skeksis. I want the recap to be largely accurate but with parts clearly having been a bit too mythologized. Because you can’t just ask Jen and Kira for details, they’re busy having their otter naps.

I need this in-universe show to be a thing.

[theworldofthedarkcrystal]

additional highlights from dark crystal con:

* helena smee said the lamp Mira picks up was suprisingly heavy, but she does feel that it gave the motion more reality and groundedness, because Mira (Helena) reacts to the weight naturally

* kat smee and helena smee are sisters!

* kat smee said she was performing a musician podling during the skeksis dining scenes (in which helena was playing the collector), and it was an incredible sight because since all puppeteers were under the table, in real time no puppeteer could be seen, so she was looking down at the balcony at a bunch of skeksis feasting!  she said it was quite a sight

* helena smee talked about having fun puppeteering SkekLach The Collector because she is a more socially uninhibited skeksis and can make more fun movements

* kat smee said everyone was always excited for days they would puppeteer podlings, as these smaller puppets were easier on the body to puppeteer.  Dzenpo!!!

* brian meehl (dying mystic master 1982 OG) said he had to re-record the audio for the dying UrSu speech many times over many months because of the constant script re-writes.

* Steven Garlick (Jen) and Lisa Maxwell (Kira) spoke of three overall read-throughs that occurred while recording their voiceovers - 1, in their natural english accents, a 2nd, in affected American accents (they were both very young and at the start of their careers, so apparently the american accents weren’t the best), and 3rd, a take that was somewhere in-between - this last one was the take that was kept.  

* i mentioned to Tim Rose how much I like when SkekShod turns to tell SkekZok, “you should be emperor”, he turns, not the short way, which would have been away from the camera towards the SkekZok, but the long way, which is towards the camera towards the ritual master.  Tim Rose laughed and said “that would be because I couldn’t see where he was!!!”

these screenshots don’t do it justice - it’s a very funny dramatic turn.   possibly 270 degrees XD

* In a panel, when asked what additional stories he would like to tell in the Dark Crystal Universe, J M Lee said he would like to have a series about Tavra and Onica.   (here, here!)

* the costuming department worked in an odd space that had a disco ball.  eventually they figured out how to turn it on! (intel from the costuming panel)

* in a panel, Neil Sterenberg said he was very excited to say some of Rian’s speeches, because as a puppeteer mainly performing children’s cinema, he has never had an opportunity to say such dramatic speeches, and will never again have such an opportunity (his words), and it was great fun to plan how Rian was going to deliver those lines.

[caremitthefrog]

you can find this costume here btw 🫶

guys i just found the most amazing halloween costume. drum roll please!

[lullaby-bliss]

[talkin-tdc]

TDC Halloween AU

Ordon is the type of dad to strictly give out one piece per childling you can’t convince me otherwise

Laesid and Bellanji like to just leave the bowl out (Naia always steals it early into the night before anyone else can get it.)

Mayrin will just make the butler do it, or Seladon if she doesn’t make her take her sisters.

Skeksis usually can’t be bothered to give out candy, but when they do, they make the poddling do it and usually SkekAyuk likes to put in gross ingredients (make some candy spicey or cause burping, that sorta thing.)

Rian likes to gather all the kids who are either his friends or like to get a lot of candy and delegate them to maximize profits and all get the most candy for all of them. The older kids like Tolyn and Gurjin are sent to take them trick or treating to keep them in line, Tolyn does but Gurjin turns his eyes away or joins in.

Kylan has to remind everyone to play civil and most of the night breaks up other childling arguing over trading. He does it so much that often Tolyn has to ask for candy for his brother since Kylan is always too busy with making sure no one fights to get candy.

Juni’s house is the most popular on the block as they not only put up spooky decorations but give out full sized candy bars.

Brea likes to look up facts about the candy companies or candy in general and tell everyone as they’re getting it.

Tavra dislikes candy, but goes out to spend time with her sisters, always giving up her candy to Seladon who she knows loves candy even though she denies it.

The librarian tells stories to childling who come up to his door, often his house getting avoided as while they are spooky, they take up a lot of time.

Cadia lives across the street and does the same thing. Who’s ever trick or treaters leaves the door last wins. They try to one up each other, both having the best candy in the neighborhood and trying to get Rian to come to their door as he’s the town’s poster childling tricker treater. He never goes to either though since Ordon tells him not to and it’d be a time waster.

Deet reminds everyone not to give candy to any animals. Also brings treats of her own in case kids can’t eat candy they’re given due to health issues.

Deet’s dads don’t like giving out candy since it can exclude kids so they give out stuffed animals instead.

Rek’yr throws a party for all the adults at night. Most go to discuss the night’s events, kid’s costumes, decorations, though Mayrin and Ordon skip out to spend time with family while the rest of the adults go.

Maudra Argot is said to be a “wild child” at said parties.

Maudra Mera bakes cookies from scratch for trick or treaters.

SkekMal will take one childling per Halloween and childling are told not to go near the forest. It’s why big kids are forced to watch after the younger ones (even though some would rather be studying or going to the big party on the block).

That’s it! Give me some recs for anyone I missed ^^

[scientistservant]

I see you like Skeksis and I gotta info dump rq:

*inhales* Ok, so if you've never seen the original 1973 movie of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, I urge you to do so. Not because of the costumes, men with amazing singing voices, or any religious reasons but for one reason:

Barry Dennen. He was the original Pilate on the concept album, went on to originate the role onstage, reprised it for the movie.... And ya know, he was the voice of the Chamberlain SkekSil in The Dark Crystal. I think he passed before he could come back for the netflix series though.

Oh I love the Skeksis and their horribleness 😂 Been a member of a Skeksis/Dark Crystal discord server since the Netflix show came out - we have a lot of fun there!

Never seen or heard of Jesus Christ Superstar, but one of the stars being in the og Dark Crystal is pretty cool!

And yeah, he passed away in 2017 :(

But I bet he’d be proud of Simon Pegg for taking up the Chamberlain mantle!

[loveforskekgra]

Thoughts on ‘UniVerse a dark crystal odyssey’ (LONG POST AHEAD):

The dancers were talented. Let’s get that first- they were good dancers and clearly had put a lot of work into what they were doing so that, at least, I appreciate. I think they were let down by the repetitive and meandering choreography and strange costume and soundtrack choices. Given better material to work with I’m sure they could shine. The soundtrack was weird and droning (and at times downright harsh and unpleasant, ow my ears) and lacking any beat or rhythm so I wonder how the dancers were managing to keep in time. Costumes, incredibly unimpressive, literally just printed morph suits and occasionally a black hoodie and track pants (yes, really.)

Little to no references to the dark crystal at all. Aughra’s eye was a recurring image but it was just sort of floating there projected onto the mesh screen in front of and behind the dancers, not really doing much. There were some symbols and a single image of a Skeksis that I recognised from the ‘world of the dark crystal’ book. There was a scene I think (?) they were referencing the image of the mystics walking to the castle from the movie and a headdress that vaguely resembles a Skeksis. Other than that, there’s nothing of the dark crystal to be found.

The ‘message’ of the show was all over the place and felt very unclear. Wayne McGregor certainly had something to say, but I’m not sure I understand what it is, and I don’t really think he does either. Strange slam poetry (?) sections in between some of the dance parts where the topic shifted all over the place from the environment to race to gender politics, and none of it was really explored properly or handled well. He sort of like mentioned each thing then instantly went on to something else without really expanding on what he was previously saying. The imagery on the projections was very on the nose (the segment with a picture of what appeared to be a drawing of a dead bird that then gets covered with black goop- presumably meant to represent an oil spill- springs to mind) and seemed uninspired. At times it felt like they’d just taken pictures of videos or unrelated things to project onto the mesh screen to distract you while the dancers were backstage changing their costumes. And they continued to be distracting while the dancers were onstage. I missed whole segments of dance because I was busy looking at the projections wondering what exactly I was looking at or why there was a goldfish there.

Nothing of the environmental and political themes he was trying to touch on were anything that hadn’t been said a million times before (in much clearer and easier to understand ways). There was nothing that really struck me as being particularly thought provoking or new. The themes of oppression, overuse of natural resources and the importance of nature and caring for each other are all already present in the original dark crystal story- a proper adaptation would’ve touched on these themes, and in a way that is understandable and accessible. There was no need for all the strange modern dance trappings.

It felt at times like it was trying too hard to be artsy and highbrow and modern, almost as if there was the intention of looking down on the source material (and audience!!). It felt obnoxious and boring in its attempts to be abstract and artsy. The hour and ten minutes of the performance dragged. I was incredibly, incredibly bored and thinking how much i would rather be at home watching my dark crystal dvd and eating popcorn with my friend.

Ultimately, I think what makes me sad is that I feel Wayne McGregor has entirely missed what it is that makes people like the dark crystal. I don’t believe he is a fan and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s never actually seen the dark crystal. The removal of anything that gives the movie its charm and memorability is a huge shame. We love the characters and creatures and whimsical fantasy world of the movie! It’s our love of them that really drives the films message of caring for the planet and each other- if we didn’t love them and identify with them then we wouldn’t care what happened to Thra, and then be able to learn from the story and be able to view what’s happening in our world with Thra in mind. The movie presented the message in a way that was clear, easy to understand and accessible for its audience (notably, children. Despite the darker tone and large amount of adults in the fandom, it’s a childrens movie. An exceptionally good one). There were quite a lot of people that I saw who had brought their kids with them. We got about 1/3 of the way through before I noticed people with kids leaving. Imagine the disappointment of being a kid going to see what you think is going to be a fun fantasy romp with charming gelflings and scary Skeksis, only to be met with some strange modern dance with an awful soundtrack. Wayne McGregor has succeeded in completely alienating the source material’s primary audience.

And finally, I feel the advertising was deceptive- on purpose. I really do think that the dark crystal name was just put onto an unrelated modern dance piece in order to get fans of the movie to see it. There was notably little in the way of promotional material or photos- besides one video that shows precisely nothing- after the show was first announced and the summary that we were given for it was extremely vague. The ‘in association with Jim Hensons puppet company’ gave the idea that there were going to be puppets and it was all very much made out to be something that it absolutely isn’t. It feels like it was all a ploy to trick people into going to see something that they otherwise would’ve never even had an interest in. It’s not the dark crystal. It’s nothing to do with it. I think they should remove the name from the title to be honest. And it makes me worry for potential dark crystal projects in the future. Are we just fated for more failures and disappointments?

If I had to choose one word to describe this performance it would definitely be ‘disappointment’. If I were to choose two more they would be ‘confusing’ and ‘strange’.