No Pictures Costume for Hong Kong Halloween

Hello,

I am presently doing a Internship in Hong Kong and was lucky enough to be part of Halloween party here! This is completely not my  typical instructables but I just wanted to share what I am living in this part of the world. Just for fun.

To understand this concept and the point  of my costume, you have to understand how Halloween is in Hong Kong. Using words will not cut it, pictures will show you what it is and how many people there is in streets of Hong Kong.

Here is the flickr photo set
http://bit.ly/brtmqC

You really have to live it to understand how crazy it is.

Hong Kong is the 4th most dense population on earth.6480/km2 (16,576/sq mi)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density


That is 6,480 people per square kilometer.

The US has 32/km2 (83/sq mi) and Canada is 3.4/km2 (8.7/sq mi).

I can guarantee you that halloween night is probably the most dense place ever.

That is only one part of the story, the place where all the fun begins is Lan Kwai Fong, it is the bar area where Gwailo goes. Gwailo means foreign devil or Ghost man describing white people in China.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gweilo

That part of town is on the island of HK. It is subway station is call Central.
This is where you see all the bars and hookers.




The story continues on next page...



(don't forget to check my blog where I talk about living in Hong Kong and other projects I am working on: www.JeromeDemers.com/blog)

Step 1: The Concept of the Costume

October 30, 2010, I go to Lan Kwai Fong with a group of yoyo player from HK. Arriving there, there is a HUGE line up of people walking to get the bar area. It takes a while to get there. The moment we are at the very beginning of the bars, there is like a freaking bus load of photograph taking zillions of pictures, there are everywhere!! We start walking up and saw some people getting stop every single step they took to get pictures taking with there costumes. You could see on there face that his was like " AH NOT AGAIN!"

That was funny. All night people where just taking pictures and pictures of strangers in costume. The funny part is, most of the costume where just a mask on there face and still, people where freaking out and taking pictures. I saw some great costumes but in general, it was all ordinary stuff. 99% of all the people did not have costume, just there for the show and taking pictures.


At the end of our trip, we sat and started talking and looking around and a idea strict me for a Halloween costume. A very simple costume.  I will be a sandwich man with two BIG sign of " NO PICTURES"

I also decided to try something new and had a message on my sign saying " NO PICTURES if you do, please send them here: [e-mail]"  people can send me there pictures by email.

You can go directly on
Step 8 to see me and other people in costumes
Step 9 to see the photograph

Step 2:

It started me going to office supply store and buying cardboard and all the stuff I think I needed. That was October 31, 2010.

I decided to walk there with my original costume idea which was extremely simple: white mask and white gloves.

It looks awesome!

So yeah I walk in the street and when to buy my stuff, it was fun :P

Step 3: Cutting Out Shapes for the Costume

This pretty straight forward, you cut stuff and glue them to a big white board.

I decided to use shapes from Microsoft Word to make the flash of the camera. I also made the camera lens and flash lens out of circles and rectangles words. I could type in the dimension of the circles and adjust easily to the proportions of my board.

Step 4: Lettering

I decided to hand cut every single letter from "NO PICTURES" and glued them to the board.

Step 5: Small Lettering

For the email me message, I decided not to cut all the letter and simply glue on the message. When I use the ruler, I use the red line that on the ruler to cut perfectly on center of the letters.

Step 6: Glueing Everything

To glue all the piece together, I use spray glue from 3M. I did marking on the white cardboard to help me when I place the freshly glued piece on it.

I then added something heavy on it for a few minutes.

Step 7: Fixing the Strap to Board

When I started making this, I knew that the most challenging part was going to be making straps to hold it on my shoulders.

It turn out to be very easy. The moment I was at this step, a coworker came in and I ask him. He simply gave me this 2 inch wide rubber strips!

I then test fit them to know the length I would need for this. 9 inch long is perfect for me. I then glued everything with the 3M adhesive spray.

When I was taking pictures and thinking everything was fine, the strap unglued from the board. I then added packaging tape to be sure they don't fall again.

Step 8: The Result

It took me 4 hours to complete the costume. I then headed to LKF to show my freshly made costume!

I was able to take good pictures, many many people took pictures of me!

Check out next step of me taking pictures of them!

Step 9: People Taking Pictures of Me

Here is a few shot of me taking pictures of photograph.

Step 10: The End!

Here is a picture of the only time you will see a MTR wagon empty in Hong Kong.

I had a lot of fun! It is so funny to wear a mask because NO one will ever know who you are, exceptionally in Hong Kong!!!

Step 11: Email Response

Here are the actual pictures of people sending them by email!

I only got 3 for the moment :P

Why it did not work that well. I presume because it is writting in ENGLISH!
yes, 1.3% of the HK population speak english.

The sentence " if you do, please send them here: [e-mail]" is to complex, it should be "email me pictures at [e-mail]"

or simply writing in Cantonese would of help a lot!