So you might have been wondering why this blog has been so quiet lately...and that's because the very LAST SHOOT for LoliGirls is THIS Friday, July 31st. That's right, the Lolita Fashion Show has finally arrived!!

The LoliGirls crew has been busily preparing for our last and biggest shoot. We've had two productions meetings in the past two weeks and we're finally organized and ready. It's been a bit difficult getting answers from the CTcon folks (although it's perfectly understandable, they have a lot on their plate!), but with the help of a very very wonderful person we've got the stage dimensions and film crew passes.

The Fashion Show will run from 5:30PM-6:30PM and will have two breaks. During one of the breaks we will show a very special 8-minute LoliGirls presentation. Behind-the-scenes shenanigans, photos and a new trailer will be displayed.

So please stop by and check out the event, it's going to be EPIC!

Sunday was our LAST shoot for LoliGirls before the Fashion Show! It was an exciting, and kind of a sad day. I'm going to miss all the fun shoots! I've really enjoyed filming the LoliGirls...and I'm sure they had lots of fun as well. I'd like to say a special thanks to my dedicated crew who've done an amazing job helping behind the scenes and, most importantly, dealing with me when I'm stressed!

So the day's shoot started at Julia's sister's house in West Hartford. All of the models for the show arrived at noon for Julia's meeting. All the details for the big day were discussed, included what type of loli each girl would model (I will be modeling sailor evidently!). After that Julia took each girl/guy's measurements. Once that was done we were supposed to jet over to Blue Back Square, but Julia informed me that the Fashion Show needed a short commercial to be played during opening ceremonies at CTcon. So we all brainstormed and quickly storyboarded a few ideas. I won't display the commercial here until after the show...I'd like it to be a surprise for the con:)

After that shoot we headed over to Blue Back. It was reaching 3 PM by this point and the air had warmed to a sweltering 85 degrees. The girls huddled under parasols, but I can only imagine how hot they were under all those layers!

I was hoping that filming in Blue Back would get us some good reaction shots from the public. I wanted positive and negative comments to use during a certain point in the interviews when the girls spoke about people taunting them in public. But...everyone was super polite! One group of tweens ran up to the LoliGirls and started asking them about their outfits and complimenting their shoes! All the vox pop interviews we collected were positive and encouraging. Although I was a little disappointed that we didn't get any critical comments, it was refreshing to speak with folks who were supportive of lolitas:)

Yesterday was another hot one! Even though there were thunderheads looming for a good portion of the day, the rain held off and we had a great shoot at a local vintage shop. The shop owner was super nice to open up the shop for us and was very helpful. We used 2 Panasonic (100b and DVC30) miniDV cameras to shoot the girls browsing in the shop and capture audio with a directional shotgun mic.

After we finished up at the Curiosity Shop the whole crew returned to my loft where the girls displayed some clothes from their wardrobes. We shot the girls with the 2 Panasonics and captured audio with a boom. The girls discussed the basic components of the lolita fashion and how one dress could be made into several different looks. After that the girls put on several outfits and put on a mini fashion show, which was very entertaining to say the least! Check out pictures from the Curiosity shoot here and on our flickr page!

The Curiosity Shop was our second shoot of the week, I'm sure you already had a look at the photos from Tuesday's shoot at the tea shop. Tuesday's shoot was one of the most important so far. After we filmed the girls having tea we returned to my loft and where the crew had arranged and interview set-up. All three girls perched on stools and were grilled with questions for several hours. The interview went a lot smoother after the switch to turn on the air conditioning was located! This interview will be used as the main source of information for the documentary.