Despite the extremely weird looks I got from people in the subway and the large amount of black makeup and lipstick I swallowed, this years Halloween costume was a complete success. I was the guy from the iPod commercial (you know: crazy background, black silhouette, and white iPod). Black turtleneck, black jeans, black socks, black shoes, black hairspray, black makeup and lipstick, and freaking black gloves! I had a painted background attached to my back so people wouldn't think I was trying to be the night sky. I had my dad's really old white iPod (they don't even make white iPods anymore) with the white earbuds. I went the full distance and even had anotheriPod (my iPod touch) connected to a mini speaker attached to my pants loop. Remember the X Mini Speaker? I got it specifically for this. It played actual 30 second clips from some of the iTunes commercials like "Flathead" and "Shut Up and Let Me Go." Is that not awesome?
Although it probably too late, here's detailed instructions on how to make your very own iPod ad costume for next year:
Materials:
- Black turtleneck shirt
- Black jeans or pants
- Black shoes
- Black socks
- Black face-paint/makeup and lipstick
- Poster board
- Paint and brushes
- Black straps
- Velcro
- White iPod or something white that resembles an iPod
Not necessary but something to consider:
- X Mini Speaker
- iPod with video playback (or not)
- Some kind of small clip you can open
Poster Board: Buy a poster board from an art supplies store along with paint and brushes if you don't have them already. The poster board should be a little taller then your head, a little wider then your body, and should reach your butt but not any farther. You can cut it if it's too large. Paint the board however you like, but if you want to be more authentic, search for an Apple image background on Google that you can copy. Let it dry for about an hour and then cut four slits toward the bottom of the board. Two slits should be above each shoulders and two should be below your armpits. Make sure it's center of your body and straight. Thread a black strap through the top right then look at it through the back. Take the strap and thread it through the top right slit (as seen from the back) and push it through the front. Thread this through the bottom right and out the back. Thread this one more time through the bottom right (as seen form the back, again). This should create something like a criss-cross. Cut one strap towards the bottom so that you have one going from top left to bottom right, and another one (this strap is cut) going from top right to bottom left. The cut straps should be uneven in length, one extremely short, and one much longer so it meets the shorter one. Staple on velcro at the end of each strap that is cut. To put on the poster, slide your head and left arm through the un-cut strap and then velcro each cut strap together over your left shoulder. Boy that was complicated! I hope that makes sense.
Music: Purchase an X Mini Speaker from Thinkgeek.com, you can get it to your house however fast you want. There's an easy way to do this (not as cool) and a hard way to do this:
Easy Way- Buy songs (or use songs you already have) from iTunes and put them into a new playlist. Load it onto your iPod, connect to Mini Speaker, done.
Hard Way- Yeah, I took the hard way, but with a much better result. I had previously had Quicktime files of six iPod+iTunes ads so I didn't have to buy any new songs. Get the videos here but you need Quicktime Pro to save them. Load all of the videos into iMovie HD, if you have Leopard, download it. iMovie 08 sucks. Drag the files into your timeline and then extract the audio (command-j). Delete the video part of each clip so you're left with only the audio. Leave a couple seconds in between each song. Save it then click Share>iPod. This will send your songs as a video to iTunes where you can import it into your iPod. The sucky thing about this is since iMovie saves it as a movie, you can't lock the screen and let it play. This will cut out the sound.
After you complete all this, find something small enough that will fit through the little ring on the X Mini Speaker that you can open and close. Clip this to your pants loop, stuff the rest of the cord in your pocket, and you're all done with the music!
Everything Else: Put on your makeup, attire, poster board, and music, and you now have an incredibly detailed 2009 Halloween costume which is the equivalent of buying a neon sign saying "I'm a dork" and calling it your costume. Don't be impressed with people dressed like this next year. It was my idea :)
