Hullo everyone! If you are in Cagayan de Oro for the weekend, it would be wonderful if you could drop by my sister-in-law Angela Soriano's RTW Summer Sample Sale tomorrow. She is a lovely designer whose clothes have just the right hint of sexy ;-). These were my picks from her last Holiday collection during Mindanao Fashion Week 2011 and which I was lucky enough to borrow for a shoot.
Now if only I could tele-transport myself so I can see her latest Summer RTW Collection....*sigh*. I can just live vicariously through you, so please drop by:
Need I say again, that took forever? :-) And to think, this part 2 post has just so little more that needs to be shown from the previous post. Posting regularly is a resolution for 2011. Yes, that would begin in January LOL.
Anyways, photo on the right won as Miss Photogenic. She was very comfortable in front of the camera and thus, a natural smile. On the pageant night itself, she made it to 2nd runner-up I believe.
The show was pegged to last for 2 hours, and I think it did. The organizers streamlined the program so it wouldn't reach the wee hours of the morning as is the norm! Their idea of doing the speeches of the officials of the city and province on video really made a difference in cutting down time, and you could actually understand the point of their speech :-).
Having the judges use computers that gave real-time tallying also allowed for presenting awards as the show went along, instead of the old practice where there would be a gazillion awards given in the end (yes, they cut down on the gazillion different awards too).
I have attended many of these local pageants, and have judged some. It was so great to see that the organizers of this one were brave enough to try something new around these parts. And I'm sure the audience did not mind.
The girls were well behaved backstage, and when the top 5 finalists were called, and the rest had to go backstage, everyone were good sports and kept their smiles.
Once again, I will leave you with Zoom Morales' photos on the final part of the pageant and the new beauty queens of Oroquieta City. :-) We pray next year we will be asked to style again. And this time, we can play around with more designs and versions if we have good lead time. But otherwise, rush sewing aside, it was a wonderful, wonderful time for the team and all our friends from the City of Good Life :-D.
And there I go again, taking quite some time to upload the photos :-) Such is me. I actually took a little break from work and life, and feeling much recharged and inspired. Tomorrow Deer and I will be going home and we can't to hold the begotten son in our arms again.
But enough talk! Let us tackle the coronation night of Ms. Oroquieta City Tourism 2010! The grand finale of everyones hard work. Councilwoman Alay had rounded up quite a team, and we were all focused on doing our jobs when the moment came. For Team 'Nao/Bummer&Bummer (STYLING/WARDROBE), we were joined by our Make-up Artist Angela Montalvan-Manuel (who does happen to be my lovely lil sister), Hairstylist Angel, Chief Seamstress Evelyn, SuperStylist Paula Calingin, and you have met Dirkee and Burpee from the previous shoot.
We have all known each other for a looooong time and it is always fun to be able to work together. For this project, the logistics we had to deal with seemed hectic on paper, but we eventually found out that the actual was a breeze. We had two dressing rooms and 13 girls. The girls were divided into two groups and cued their entrances/exits on each side of the stage. That was perfect for us cause we just divided into two groups as well. We set up the dressing rooms with the "kits" (accessories, bathing suits, hairpins, facial tissue and double-sided tape) before the girls arrived. These lovely "kits" are actually made from recycled boxes (Burpee's specialty) and the girls get to bring home everything inside, not to mention, the clothes and the shoes! :-)
The normal practice of pageants is that on the night itself, each candidate brings their make-up artist/PA to assist them in changing backstage for the whole duration of the show. Due to the size of the dressing rooms and the short time-frame of the actual show, we asked that they enjoy the show instead and entrust their girls to our team.
During our Technical Rehearsal the night before, there was much tension regarding this matter, as this was something that they were not used to. Resistance on their part was of course expected as once again, this was something new for them. The make-up artists have used the pageant circuit as their outlet for creativity all these years, which has resulted in hair-show worthy hair and make-up that showcases freedom of expression above all. The true beauty of their contestant was struggling to burst thru.
With much fairness to these artists, on pageant night itself, they followed the new rules (and kept the hair to a minimum) and, we hope, sat down to enjoy the show.
And a big thank you! to my ever-reliable friend, Dos Quong, who got us these shoes in record time! Really :-) they arrived during technical rehearsal! And as the saying goes..if the shoe fits...then great.
And thus, here ends the production number. Swimsuit followed, but had no photos of that part as we were rushing a bit :-) I thought I'd be able to post everything tonight, but guess tomorrow is another blogging day. And this time I will try not to be gone too long.
I will leave you with the view from the audience taken by the very talented local Oroquietan photographer, Zoom Morales.
Finally! Time to sit down and blog about what Team 'Nao/Bummer&Bummer has been busy with the past month. We styled a pageant! :-) This was a first for the team, and with much thanks to the lovely Councilor Ruvy "Alay" Ala of Oroquieta City and the Tourism Council for this wonderful opportunity. It was a great corroboration to bring the local pageant scene back on track.
Last month, I and the team's Fashion Designer Dirkie Dabbay, along with our Accessories Designer Burpie Sarraga, went to Oroquieta to style and shoot for the Ms. Photogenic category and the teaser tarp that was going to be put up as an invite for the show. This whole thing was a cramming frenzy as we had around 3 days to buy materials and accessories, hop on a bus for the 5-6 hour trip to Oroquieta (with sewing machine in tow!), straight to a meeting with the girls and their makeup artists, back to the hotel, eat, then sew 12 bathing suits. YES.
By the time the last stitched was finished at around 6:30 am, the girls had showed up for their call time. I wish I could say everything went smoothly from there, but as all adventures go..it did not. First problem, 13 girls showed up. YES. Late contestants, accepted. The director solved that issue by borrowing of bathing suits during shoot or something of that nature. Next major problem, contestant number 2 was so tall that the bathing suit only came up to her upper torso!! I ran and sewed it again. SOLVED. When I got back, there was a case of a missing bathing suit. FRENZY moment. The team doing lots of math in our heads on how that was possible. Answer: someone took it when she shouldn't have, cause she was not suppose to have one. Find culprit, return suit to rightful owner. SOLVED.
And thus, all ladies and their PA's/makeup artists, the rest of the crew and the team and everyone else make their way to the "yacht" to take us on our on-location shoot. STORY STOPS FOR NOW (I slept the whole 2 hours). We are now at our destination, but not quite. It is low-tide so we must take a little "bangka" to the island. Lunch as we all wait for our turn.
And thus, behind the scenes of Ms. Oroquieta City Tourism 2010 photoshoot, at Parola Island in Plaridel, Misamis Occidental. It's called Parola because the lighthouse is there. But I didn't get to take a photo of that.
It was quite a challenge for all the photographers since the sun was high up when we started shooting, and note to self, bring a huge cloth as diffuser next time for these outdoor shoots. And a good reflector.
The other challenge we encountered was in getting the girls to pose for the camera. As they are beauty queens, it was important that grace and bearing be of the utmost importance. This was easier said than done, for these girls have been used to the local pageant circuit and the style that had been developed was a totally different ballgame.
Otherwise, they were all willing to learn and try :-) There was much frustration on the teams' part along the shoot, but nothing that a sense of humor couldn't solve. This was, after all, an experiment in changing the norm.
Definitely, in the event of a "next time", we know better what to prepare and expect in these shoots. And for sure, the girls must be given training on proper etiquette and behavior of a beauty queen.
When we finally ended the shoot, it was getting dark, and we had to walk far back to meet the "bangka" that was bringing us to the boat. Just let me tell you, walking on a sea floor of urchins is no fun!!!!! Specially, when you can't see anymore where you are stepping and the tide is coming in, and you are far from both the land and the boat. *shivers* And urchin stings are painful in a bone-chilling pain kindda way. Slept on the way home, had dinner, then prod meeting with the rest of the team, sleep, bus ride back.
:-) All in day's work. Will post the pageant night next.
