Community Spotlight is a regular feature which highlights amazing fan projects in the Remedy community. This week it's Lindsey's photos that have gotten our attention. Some of you may already know her online as the lovely Kadajs-Kitsune.
In the Alan Wake community, it's no surprise that Alan himself is usually picked first by cosplayers of all genders. Despite the beard, women have recreated surprisingly accurate representations with make up and paint, sharing their tips online for others. Men have had a slightly easier time finding clothes, but everyone can probably agree that tweed jackets require a tiny mortgage and your first born child before you can get a near-accurate design. Barry Wheeler is probably the next picked character, with his bright fairy lights and equally bright jacket making for an easy game of "Where's Wally" in convention photos. On occasion there's been a few Alices, some wearing the pastel colours in American Nightmare's Sunrise video, others rocking the jeans and boots from the original game. But so far I haven't seen a Sarah Breaker... until now.
With careful attention to detail, Lindsey recreates Sarah Breaker's style and attitude in her photographs. When Remedy searched for inspiration for Alan Wake, they explored a number of places including Oregon (which landmark, Crater Lake, inspired Cauldron Lake) and Washington, in her own photographs, she explores the same states. Each photo has that distinctive vibe of the original game. Bathed in the natural sunlight it gives a perfect recreation of the events following Wake's departure.
Her cosplay also brings out things about the character's costume that I hadn't noticed before, such as Sarah's tie clip, Sarah's brown boots and the position of the badges on the jacket. These faithful additions are combined with character-related props such as a handgun, the novelisation of Alan Wake, and missing posters. Each piece has been carefully selected with a clear sense of understanding of the character and precise mirroring. Her attitude adds to the cosplay, making her the perfect Sarah Breaker!
We recently spoke to Lindsey about her cosplay, her inspirations and how she joined the community. Check out our interview below!
TSS: Tell us a little about yourself!
Lindsey: I grew up in a small town in Oregon and I've always been very close to my family, who are artists and writers themselves, and they encouraged me to look past my insecurities and work hard towards whatever I'm passionate about.
Which is a bit difficult considering I can never decide on just one thing to focus my efforts.
In addition to cosplay, I also enjoy writing, art, and photography.
To this day I still don't know what my dream career would be, but the journey makes it all worthwhile!
Where did you get your passion for cosplay?
Interestingly, I've always been surrounded by the cosplay culture, having friends who made costumes themselves and having gone to a few geek conventions, but I used to be too shy to try it for myself.
But, after having this surge of creativity and building up my courage in 2010, having played and being inspired by Alan Wake, I finally decided to try cosplay for the first time in 2011.
The costume I put together was not the greatest, I didn't put a lot of effort in preparation plans or shopping. And, worst of all, I was still very shy - and it showed in a number of the photos I had taken.
Thankfully, I had the sense of humor to laugh off the first attempt and just try again the following year; the costume was better planned, and I went the extra mile in assembling props to boost up my confidence and got in the mindset that it was all for fun and just play with various poses and facial expressions.
The results were unlike anything I had expected, it was a step up from the previous year and I realised that I could only get better with more effort and more practice as time goes on.
Cosplay allowed me the opportunity to not take myself so seriously, and it helped me with my self-esteem and body insecurities.
On top of that, I've met a lot of new friends through cosplay and it's always a surprise to discover who they are and what they do outside of cosplay.
Cosplay is also a way for me to pay tribute to the people who created these characters; I've put together costumes and modeled for photos for games like Deadly Premonition, Resident Evil, and L.A. Noire and I post photos on social media to give thanks to the creators for making the games that have enriched my life and make me happy. Sometimes they respond to the photos and I'm always so ecstatic and humbled by their reactions.
It's kind of funny how it started out as a hobby and it has since become a yearly tradition for me to make costumes and model my favorite fictional characters to the best of my ability. I never would have seen this coming, at all, but it's so much fun and so rewarding that now I can't imagine not doing these projects.
How and when did you become an Alan Wake fan?
I have to be honest when I say that I was having a bit of an identity crisis when I first got into Alan Wake.
Back in 2009, I was going to college for psychology classes (go figure), thinking that the best course of action would be to work my way up to becoming a psychologist. But, I was very young and inexperienced college-wise, being fresh out of high school. The stress from my studies got to me, so I decided to take a year off to rest and re-think my priorities.
Then, there was a loss in the family and I became increasingly more ill, I closed myself off from the world for awhile at that time.
I took a lot of comfort in playing video games, and in 2010, I was introduced to Alan Wake.
I think I found out about the game by chance; I was recommended a game called Deadly Premonition (another wonderful game inspired by Twin Peaks) by a friend, and I was doing a search online for similar games in style. I had heard that Alan Wake was a bit of an underground game, at first, but it was well-received for its atmosphere and story - so, I gave it a try.
I remember how much I loved finding all those manuscript pages in the dark, shadowy forests of Bright Falls. I tried so hard to be thorough in looking behind every tree and every bush for those pages because I wanted to know more about the story; despite being chased by those creepy loggers with the disjointed voices, ooh now THAT was intense!
There's just a certain charm in Alan Wake that compelled me to keep exploring, stay immersed.
And after I finished the game, I was left wanting more.
I read the novel by Rick Burroughs, I read the digital comics included with the Steam version of the game, and I played American Nightmare. (Though I haven't watched the mini series yet, but soon!)
That's when I knew I was a fan.
What made you want to cosplay as Sarah Breaker?
Honestly, Sarah wasn't my first choice in my cosplay plans for Alan Wake.
I had initially hoped to build my costume for Alan, but I realized a few things:
1.) The bone structure in my face didn't suit Alan, nor did I have the experience to use makeup to get that scruffy writer look.
2.) No one else had tried to cosplay as Sarah.
I was really surprised that no one, judging from my search online, had worked on her yet. She's such an awesome character and she was a great addition to Alan and Barry's team.
I decided right then that her outfit would be my next challenge.
How did you create her outfit?
I'm really not that great of a seamstress when it comes to making clothes, I always shop around in shops, on Ebay, on Amazon, for the articles of clothing that I want for a costume. Then, I make modifications to them, like adding patches, or maybe trimming down or hemming cuffs.
For Sarah's outfit in particular, I was very fortunate to already have a lot of the pieces I needed from previous costumes I put together - keeping and reusing cosplays is very handy and cost effective!
I have a sheriff's shirt from a previous costume I put together; it's a beige shirt that I modified by adding two brown shoulder straps and stitched on two sheriff badges. Though, a lot of these details are hidden by Sarah's green jacket - that was the more frustrating aspect of the project because I spent so much time looking for a jacket that was the right shade of green, and had all the proper buttons and pockets in place.
I finally bought a good jacket and sewed on two sheriff badges on the shoulders.
In addition, I bought a pair of black jeans and a black tie, and I wore a pair of brown ankle boots that I already had in my closet.
Luckily, this costume was much more simple in terms of layers - it's not as complex as body armor, and I was so relieved that I didn't have to cut or style a wig. That is my natural red hair tied up in a bun!
What tips would you give someone who wants to cosplay the character?
Sarah's uniform is fairly simple because it's such a casual look, see what you have on hand first to save yourself time and effort later.
Also, if you're going to cosplay as a cop in public, be prepared for stares. You'll get lots of them.
And be sure to behave in a respectable manner, there's still quite a few misconceptions about cosplayers and our costumes can make people very nervous because they're not the norm.
How did you go about searching for locations for your photoshoot?
My local anime convention was frequenting Washington for quite awhile, I fell in love with the scenery and have continued to go there for cosplay photos ever since!
Usually, I spend a day just walking around and seeing what I can find; what parks and fields are available. And I always check to see how many people frequent possible photoshoot spots to make sure it won't disrupt any festivities or businesses.
(I'm stressing this now more than ever because there was an incident where I was in some woods and almost got hit in the head during someone's game of frisbee. Yikes!)
I was very fortunate to have access to a number of parks, some train tracks, and I even got a few at some nice historical spots.
It's really a matter of luck and using my imagination to think of how to get some of the best photos.
A huge thank you to the lovely Lindsey for the interview! Check out more of her cosplays and artwork on her deviantArt page, HERE.
