2016 recap

News / 4 January 2017

2016 marked a turning point for Black Owl Studio. Few new costumes made, but we had many events, shootings, contests and the starting of our business. A look back on a busy year…

First convention as exhibitors

After an initial invitation as exhibitors at the Geek Unchained convention in Illzach, we had the opportunity to present our work in several events in Alsace:

• 16 & 17 april 2016: Geek Unchained in Illzach
• 29 may 2016: Cosplay’in Wesserling in Husseren-Wesserling
• 14 october 2016: « One night at Hogwards » in Mulhouse
• 26 & 27 november 2016: SF-Connexion in Turckheim

Contests…

2016 is the year of competitions!
After participating in the BlizzCon’s cosplay contest in Los Angeles at the end of 2015, we decided to try again at the Fantasy Basel in May. A huge success since we won no less than 3 prizes! A second place “Armor” category for Mael and his Black Knight costume, while my Warsong Commander costume won the 1st places “Cosplay of the Day” and “Festival Winner”.
Prizes that allowed us to leave with 2 beautiful trophies created by the
Talented Swiss cosplayer, Folkenstal, a brand new Bernina sewing machine and invitations for the Numerik Games convention in Yverdon-les-Bains (Switzerland) in September 🙂

No way we would stop during such a good run! At the Japan Expo in July, with Maël and also Joris in his Guardian of Kings costume, we participated in the French selections of the European Cosplay Gathering. No price in the end, but a great experience during this exhausting but rewarding day.

Thanks to the award at the Fantasy Basel, we were invited to the Numerik Games festival and its cosplay contest in early September. A first place in the contest for Maël and me and a 1,500 CHF check, but what we will remember above all is the good atmosphere behind the scenes, the warm welcome from our Swiss cosplayers friends and the great moments we had in their company.

In October is a consecration, since my Warsong Commander costume took 1st place in the Comic Con Paris‘s cosplay contest, allowing me to represent France at the Crown Championships of Cosplay at C2E2 in Chicago in April 2017.

Warcraft’s movie world premiere in Paris

http://cospro-agency.com/fr/2016/05/18/fr-warcraft-movie-world-premiere/
Thanks to Cospro, we were invited to the world premiere of Warcraft at the Grand Rex in Paris. It was the opportunity to meet some cosplayers again and meet new ones, to see the Grand Rex’s backstage and even watch the movie in full costume, amid fans of the World of Warcraft universe. To be frank, I was so touched by the atmosphere at this event that when I got back home I started reading World of Warcraft novels 😛

New costumes

As I said earlier, few costumes were made this year. Nevertheless, 2 costumes still came out of our workshop: the Queen of Hearts and Alice Liddell from the game Alice: Madness Returns.
A big challenge on the Queen of Hearts’ dress and her articulated hands. Also, Alice’s Hobby Horse would prove to be one of our worst nightmares.

We finished the costumes in a complete rush, but I was still able to wear the Queen of Hearts’ costume, accompanied by my little sister, Anne, in the Alice costume at Japan Expo 2016.

Starting our own business

October marks the date of our entry into Hopla, the “business incubator”. This is a crucial step for us to get into cosplay professionally.

In concrete terms, this “incubator” provides us with the structure to start our activity without having to undertake all of the administrative steps to create a business immediately (No business number, accounting, training sessions, and so on). Our stay in an incubator, which will last a year, is therefore a testing period, which will hopefully lead to the real creation of our own company in next autumn.

You have already seen the results of our entry into Hopla with the start of our online shop in December, on which we already let you buy some of our works. It should be expanding substantially in the coming year.

Conventions, meetings and photoshoots

In total this year, we went to 10 conventions and events:

• 16 & 17 April 2016: Geek Unchained in Illzach
• 7 May 2016: Fantasy Basel in Bâle (Switzerland)
• 8 May 2016: Digital Game & Manga Show in Strasbourg
• 24 May 2016: Warcraft movie premiere in Paris’s Grand Rex
• 29 May 2016: Cosplay’in Wesserling
• 9 & 10 July 2016: Japan Expo in Paris
• 2 – 4 September 2016: Numerik Games in Yverdon-les-Bains (Switzerland)
• 14 October 2016: “One Night in Hogwarts” in Mulhouse
• 22 October 2016: Comic Con Paris
• 26 & 27 November 2016: SF-Connexion in Turckheim

We shared times with old and new faces : The swiss cosplay family, among which Bloodiller, Tarkus, Tinkerer Works, Akens, Nasdath, Cide, Syf, Stylouz and the others, Kamui, Yaya Han, Folkenstal, Papa Cosplay, Saezal Delilah, Swansel, Leeloo Kris and Aldarion, the 68th Imperial, Edes, Raza, Arlek1, Koni, Milou, Nad, Popette and many many others!

We also joined the Geek Unchained association and with them organized a Hearthstone Fireside Gathering (For which we made an awesome trophy!).

Photoshoots

Let’s go for 2017!

You might have understood that this year has been quite full, and we hope that the next will be as well. We already have some ideas and projects for the new year…

New costumes in the works:

Dark Souls’ Black Night for Joris, StarLord for Mael (which we hope to have finished for the Guardians of Galaxy II) and Ana Amari from Overwatch for me.

And a great trip to Chicago in April for our participation in the C2E2 Crown Championships of Cosplay.

New resolutions !

• More videos
• Streams
• New things on the website: an agenda and a portfolio section that gathers all our works & achievements.
• Buying a 3D printer

And what would YOU like to see at Black owl Studio in 2017? Be it improvements, novelties, Costumes…? Tell us everything 😉