June 2009 Tonner “On Film” Convention Competition Categories

 

Competition Chairperson: Meg Hunt (meghunt@verizon.net); contact Meg for questions or clarifications on the categories listed below.

Criteria for Judging:  Unless otherwise specified, judging will be based on originality, creativity, use of fabrics and trim, and the quality of the workmanship.  Read carefully for choice of dolls and number that can be entered in each numbered category.

 

Child and Teen Doll Categories:

 

# 1 – High School Musical:  Your favorite Tonner/Effanbee teenager or pre-teen is about to star in a high school or junior high musical.  Drawing inspiration from film musicals or high school theater, costume two of your favorite Tonner/Effanbee teenagers (Harry Potter or Hardy Boy Series, the new Dorothy, etc) or pre-teens (Marley-sized) as characters in your choice of a high school musical.  Include a 3 x 5 card that identifies the musical.

 

#2 - You Tube Star:  In the age of “You Tube” and Iphones, every kid or teen is ready to star in their own You Tube video or to be the center of a photograph emailed to friends and family – or to be posted on a facebook page.  It is the 21^st century version of dress-up, play-acting, fantasy, or simple communication.  Using any Tonner/Effanbee child or teenage doll (of any size), costume your doll (1 doll) for his OR her You Tube video or “Annie Liebowitz” type photograph.  Use your imagination. Be funny; be dramatic, be contemporary, eclectic, or historic.  Props are permissible, but must not be so complicated or numerous as to slow photography during registration.

 

Vignette: Combination Child, Teen and Adult Fashion Doll Category:

 

#3 – Families Are Like Fudge – Mostly Sweet With a Few Nuts (author unknown):    Or, if the family were a fruit, it would be an orange: circular separable segments held together. Or, “if you cannot get rid of the family skeleton,” as George Bernard Shaw said, “make it dance.”  Or, “Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.” (Anthony Brandt)  Without contestation, the most enduring theme in movie and television history is family.   Every facet of family life – good, bad, and indifferent – has been celebrated, dissected, and laughed or cried over.  Even when not the principle theme, family relationships often animate the story.  I Love Lucy, Lost in Space, the Adams Family, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Father of the Bride, Parenthood, Mildred Pierce, the Flintstones, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Desperate Housewives, American Beauty, The Ghost Whisperer. . you get the picture.  Pick a TV or movie family that inspires you, terrifies you, makes you laugh, or something else.  Costume your dolls to illustrate your choice, or use your imagination for a new plot line (sequel) inspired by your choice.  Display should include a 3 x 5 card identifying your source inspiration.

 

Choice of Dolls: Costume up to two (2) of your favorite Tonner (Tyler scale) child or teen dolls  – and/or up to two (2) of your favorite Tyler-scale Tonner/Effanbee male or female fashion dolls, including the superhero male dolls may be contemporary or appropriately period.  Special Judging Note: These entries will be displayed together as vignettes for a special award.  Then child/teen dolls will be judged individually against other teen dolls and the adult fashion dolls individually against the other adult fashion dolls. 

  

Fashion Doll Categories:

 

#4 – Gotta Dance:  From the early Broadway Melodies to Rent, and from Busby Berkeley to Bob Fosse, dance has been celebrated in the great musicals of Hollywood. Drawing inspiration from your favorite musical, costume your favorite pair (2) of Tonner/Effanbee fashion dolls (male/female, female/female, or male/male) for a dance from the musical.  You may recreate the original costumes from the movie or you may use the film as inspiration to create your own designs so long as it is in character for the film and the dance number chosen.  Please identify the musical, the dance number, and the dancers that were your inspiration on a 3 x 5 index card.  (The gender of your dolls does not have to mirror the gender paired in the movie).

 

#5 – Homage to Film Noir:  Gritty realism and skillful use of lighting to exploit the limits of black and white cinematography emerged in the 1940’s as an alternative to the escapist film fair that nourished America during the Great Depression.  Occasionally contemporary films (Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, Dead Again) have paid homage to the genre.  Whether you use contemporary couture or a 1940’s look, pay your own homage by costuming one (1) of your favorite Tonner/Effanbee female fashion dolls using a combination of only black and white fabric for a daywear ensemble.

 

#6 – Ellowyne Wilde in Sepia:  What black and white cinematography is to movies, sepia-toned photographs are to pictures.   The process of replacing metallic silver with a silver compound allowed a print photograph to last longer and could increase the range of visible shades in the print without reducing contrast. Named for an artist’s pigments, variation in the chemical compound can produce a sepia tone that is a red-brown tone, a purple-brown tone, or a gold tone.  Ellowyne loves the nostalgic beauty of sepia toned photographs and uses it to inspire a costume – as to mood and color.  Costume your favorite Ellowyne or Prudence in sepia.

 

#7 – A Lady Loves:  In “I Love Melvin,” Debbie Reynolds plays an aspiring actress and cover girl wanna be, with Donald O’Connor as a young man who inflates his job at a magazine to get her attention with promises of a “cover.”  In the production number, “A Lady Loves,” Debbie fantasizes her response to inquiries from the “gentlemen of the press” about a lady’s most feminine desires.  While the movie only contained a glamour sequence, That’s Entertainment, Part III reveals an alternative sequence was filmed.  Together, they capture the duality of the 1950’s woman.  Glamour girl or home-maker: pick one (1) and costume your favorite Tonner/Effanbee female fashion doll.  For inspiration, the song is available as an mp3 download at (http://www.amazon.com/Lady-Loves-I-Love-Melvin/dp/B0012F8TL4/ref=sr_1_31?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1235455876&sr=1-31) or the lyrics are attached at the bottom of this page.

 

#8 – “The Devil Wears Prada”:   Whether in the movies, on television, or through photography, film has celebrated fashion, sometimes changing overnight what women want in their fashion look.  Just such an ability to influence taste inspired “Think Pink” in Funny Face.  You are the fashion editor celebrated in such movies as Funny Face and The Devil Wears Prada.  Your next issue will reach the newsstands in June, in which you will preview your “new look” for the summer season.  Costume your favorite Tonner/Effanbee female fashion doll (1) as the cover girl for the issue.

 

# 9 – Super Agent Man:  Super spys, super heroes, and super villains – whether based on science fiction, murder mysteries, spy thrillers, or comic books, populate our favorite television shows and movies. Costume your favorite (1) Tonner male or female fashion doll for the genre, either as a new super character or an existing favorite.  Use your imagination. Identify your inspiration on a 3 x 5 index card.

 

General Category:

 

#10  - Crafts/Embroidery: Are you skilled in crafts, including quilting, embroidery, millinery, shoe-making, furniture making, set or interior design, and any other homespun art or artistic product? Please submit your craft themed to “In Film” in this competition category. Item must have been made by the entrant and will be judged on creativity, design, and quality of workmanship. Please note that typically, this category is not for dolls or doll outfits; which are better suited toward the design categories; judges may choose to move doll and doll outfits from this category to any of the other competition categories that may be more appropriate. 

#11  - Photography: Let us enjoy your photography talents. Please submit an 8 x 10 

photograph in a stand up frame.  The image must be inspired by an actual television 

show or movie or represent a theme from an actual television show or movie.  

The image may include dolls – or it may not. If dolls are included, the costumes need 

not have been made by the photographer/entrant.  Photograph must be accompanied 

by a 3 x 5 card identifying the TV show or movie that inspired you.  

Criteria for Judging:  Composition, lighting, use of color (or not), imagination in 

interpreting the theme.

 

A LADY LOVES

From the film "I Love Melvin" (1953)

(Josef Myrow / Mack Gordon)

Debbie Reynolds & Male Chorus – 1953

 

Male Chorus:

We are the gentlemen of the press, yes we are, yes we are, yes indeed, indeed, we are

Our editors sent us to you

To interview you

But you . . .you are America’s pride and joy

You’re the prettiest, prettiest glamour girl we find

Yes you are, yes you are, yes indeed indeed you are

 

The facts that we want must be positively feminine

We don’t wanna know when you have tea if you put cream or lemon in

 

Lady: 

Well the facts I give are geuinine, intimately, feminine. .

 

A lady loves expensive clothes

pretty jewels, and furs, and french chapeaus

She loves her lingerie in black

It suits her zodiac

 

Loves a penthouse where she'll be content to stay

finds little gifts on her breakfast tray

but now and then pack and sail away

for a simple Riviera holiday.

 

A lady loves beaucoup l'amour

but first of all she loves to be secure

and she adores the subtle phrase

that it's the man who pays

 

Yet there is one vital thought she will place above

all the things I mention of

that most of all a lady loves to love

 

(musical bridge)

 

Male Chorus:

A lady loves her phobias

She has complexities she will insist

 

Lady:

It gives her things to talk about with her psychiatrist

 

Male Chorus:

Incidentally whenever she drops her glove

Gentlemen know what she's thinking of

 

Lady:

That most of all a lady loves to love

 

Male Chorus:

And what is more a lady loves to live

 

Lady:

And what is more lady lives to love

 

A lady loves the simple things

She loves her dreams tied up with apron strings.

There are no yachts in all her plans

Just little pots and pans

 

In the doorway she’ll wait for his warm caress

And he’ll be handsome – well – or less

But he will notice her brand new dress

Saying ‘you look nice, oh, never mind the price’

 

A lady loves that average guy who just adores her homemade apple pie

The apple pie he knows that she bought in a bakery

When with her goodnight kiss, he will be endowed

She’ll have him high on a cloud above

But most of all, a lady loves to love

 

Male Chorus:

What is more, a lady loves to live

 

Lady: 

What is more, a lady lives to love.