More inspiration

I mentioned the show RuPaul's Drag Race in an earlier post, but I didn't quite stress how OBSESSED I am with this show. My life feels like a countdown until the next series or episode and I wouldn't have it any other way. If you're familiar with America's Next Top Model, then the format for Drag Race will be very familiar to you, albeit with Drag Queens rather than female models.

A good chunk of an episode will feature Queens getting ready in their makeup and costume, something which we'd always talked about filming for our piece, and afterwards we see them strutting their stuff on the runway to be judged.

This idea of transformation brings me back to the theme of hands. Even the most feminine and gorgeous Queen cannot escape the masculine trait of big hands, and one of the Queens I'm following the most right now, Courtney Act, posted a picture that sums this up very well.

"The problem with drag selfies is the clutching man hand in the foreground."

One thing I can draw from this is the idea that no matter how much we change or transform, there will always be an aspect of who we were beforehand, be in minuscule or large. 

First day of shooting begins.... tomorrow!

This blog's been painfully silent the last couple of weeks because, well... a couple of snags have been hit in the process!

Our initial plan of filming Drag Wars didn't work out due to money and time constraints so we were in a production limbo of sorts while we tried to find an alternative subject, but no more!

We may not have a real drag queen (yet, i'm holding out on a few names!) but we've got a couple of people who are willing to get dolled up for us and strut about, while we film of course. It's not 100% what I had in mind, but it's something (and we really need something) and it's pretty exciting!

We'll be using the studio tomorrow morning to shoot this segment, expect a post detailing our exploits!

Hands

Overall, the main theme for our doc as dictated by the brief is 'Hands'. When I think of hands in the context of Drag Queens, I think of the hands that transform a man into a woman, and also how the hands are the one masculine element that is normally recognizable (unless you are blessed with small hands of course).

What got the ball rolling was a student in our college who we were referred to by our lecturer for our doc class. He dresses in drag and will go out to clubs etc., so aside from hooking us up with contacts we plan to have a transformation segment of our film where we show him transforming from a cis gender male to his female drag persona.
Today we touched briefly on how this would be shot. It was unanimous that the studio would be best and we could dress it up to look like a dressing room and have Matt (our subject) perform his transformation in front of a mirror. It's a good way of using what's open to us and at this stage it seems relatively stress-free compared to tomorrows shoot in Lurgan.

One Day More...

Yes, one day more 'till we shoot the bulk of our film tomorrow at Drag Wars in Lurgan!! Very exciting, but also a very un-exciting and stomach-churning notion that it's happening tomorrow with the prospect of messing it up and not getting the opportunity to re-shoot...

Pessimism aside, new details of the event have been received!

Set List of Performers:

• Misty Falls (Our leading lady and previous winnder)
• Fefe Geisha (Another previous winner)
• Wee Hannah Crush (Hostess)
• Onya Becks
• Mez Moneypenny
• Alexis McQueen
• Sandy Kandy
• Ivy Rivers
• Penny Cillan

The Burn is right beside the Ashburn Hotel, 81 William St. in Lurgan. It's conveniently right by the train station so I have a good idea where it is.

I've been informed that none of the girls apart from Misty and the organizers know that myself and my team are filming but there should be no qualms about us filming. I've got the visual consent forms regardless, can't afford to take any risks at this stage.

Questions to ask the performers:

• Why did you start performing in drag?
• Would you say that your character in drag is a completely different person or an exaggerated aspect of yourself?
• Why do you think people enjoy watching drag performers?
• How do you think drag culture reflects the LGBT community?
• Would you dress up drag in your free time or is it strictly performance only?
• How do you deal with the inevitable nasty comments from people?
• A lot of people aren't aware that there's a thriving drag culture in Belfast and all over Northern Ireland, a place better known for it's political and religious trouble than it's entertainment. Do you think it's important to have this culture exist in a society that has been so divided?
• What's next?

Some of these will need to be reworded and/or condensed, so these will need to be run by Anya before we can go any further.

A little update

Our subject didn't get back to me until today about the pageant happening on Friday in Lurgan, so until now we've been toying with the idea of a backup plan of another Queen. That being said, I did get a response today so the ball is officially rolling!

Drag Wars is taking place in The Burn club in Lurgan and as far as I know we have access all areas. Unfortunately we can't film the girls getting ready as they're all doing their hair and makeup in different places before the show. Doors open at 7pm so I've asked Misty to see if we can go down earlier in the day so we can get a feel for the space and decide our set up etc. It's important that we don't get in the way of the performers and the judges of course, so getting that sorted is vital at this stage.

Tomorrow I shall go over arrangements with my team in regards to questions to ask the Queens. Consensus is that the girls are alright with being filmed and being asked questions as a lot of them have been filmed before in regards to promo/doc/film work, but this needs to be discussed further tomorrow just so we can adhere to ethics etc.

Apart from a few tiny details that need working out, everything is set to go!

More info yay!

The event is called 'Drag Wars', a charity event being held in 'The Burn' nightclub in Lurgan.

Will try and find some pictures of the performance space to get more of an idea of what's available to us. Still to hear back from our subject again, gotta arrange a coffee to meet face to face.

We have a Queen!

After much turmoil and rejection, we now have a subject! The lovely Miss Misty Falls has agreed to take part in our film and is willing to hook us up with the opportunity to film at a Drag competition in Lurgan. There's a lot that we need to consider aesthetically and technically.

• Camera set up
• Visual style
• Interview set up
• What we actually film
• Structure

One thing that's really exciting me about this opportunity is the back-stage inner-workings, something which I had an idea about at the beginning of this process.