The mask show has been airing on NTV since 2020. This is an adaptation of the international format of The Masked Singer: movie stars, show business, sports take the stage – they all play in costumes where it is impossible to recognize them, and also try to hide their true voices. . The task of the jury members is to guess who is hiding under the mask.
The main characters of the program are not as stars as their costumes and image. According to White Media Executive Producer Yulia Sumacheva, costume work begins in parallel with the selection of participants for each new season. Ideas can be taken from foreign versions of the project and adapted to the Russian version, but there are more and more original masks.
The costumes in the mask show are intricate designs. Some even have a cooling system – several small fans, thanks to which additional air enters the mask. In principle of operation, these fans are similar to those used to cool laptop processors.
For example, in the Dragon suit, there is a mechanism responsible for the movement of the tail and wings. Donut has mechanical arms, Joker and Capricorn have glowing eyes.
“The Christmas edition had on-screen costumes built in, but no such costumes in the show’s third season. The built-in screens seemed inconvenient for the performers. Many complained of dizziness and disorientation in space. This is because the screen must be placed at a comfortable distance from the human eye and this may not always be possible given the size of the mask. If the screen is too close to the eyes, they quickly begin to tire and hurt. That’s why we’ve abandoned cameras and screens for now. The ventilators stay, which is important because they provide supplemental oxygen to the suit and the participant is not too hot in the suit,” explains Yulia Sumacheva.
How do you start working on a costume? The costume designer draws sketches based on comments from the creative producers, which are then shown to the participants. As a rule, they come to the show and choose one of the proposed ones, not having the slightest idea which characters they will portray. But there are exceptions: Some of the contestants in the third season, which is currently on television, have voiced their opinions beforehand.
It takes an average of three to five months to create a costume, from sketch to finishing touches. More than a hundred people participate in this process. Among them, in addition to artists and props, are experts who work with metal frames and electricians who bring light to costumes and make custom screens for them.
Different materials are used in costume production, from leather, brocade and velvet to latex and rubber. Searches go all the way to construction and antique shops.
Natural materials are often used as decor. In particular, the Peacock costume is decorated with real peacock feathers and feathers of other birds. “It’s the only way to convey all the beauty and charm of a peacock feather – otherwise it can’t be done,” the costume designers explain. In addition to pearls, approximately 300 seashells and starfish are used in the octopus costume.
To create all the costumes in the third season, it took more than 10 km of different fabrics, about 30 kg of plastic, about 30 kg of various stones and rhinestones, 40 liters of liquid silicone and more than 25 kg of metal for frame structures. .
Each season, the creators of the show try to make the costumes lighter and improve the production technology. In cases where it is not possible to lose weight, a special corset system is used to evenly distribute the mass. This is done to reduce stress on the participant’s back and neck. The costumes weighed an average of 7 to 15 kg, and the heaviest in customers’ memory was the Tumbler.
As for the cost of a set, it usually fluctuates around 1 million rubles, but there are those that cost more. It depends on the materials used, decor items and labor costs.
All tools go through a certain test drive before use. The members try them on endless times, rehearsing them on stage to see if they can breathe and move within. “There were times when a member went up on stage and realized that he wasn’t seeing anything. In the first season, we noticed that one of the masks showed the eyes of the artist. We urgently had to change the costume and sew an additional layer of fabric to hide the participant, ”recall the dressers.
Some of the costumes become final as the show progresses. If the participants lose weight, the costumes need to be constantly sewn. And they move – sometimes quite active. In the first season, the soloist of the Vintage group Anna Pletneva, who performed in the guise of a Parrot, constantly sat on the twine. The singer’s costume consisted of feathers, the feathers had to be constantly updated to strengthen them.
Costumes are not discarded at the end of the season. They are stored in special wardrobe chests and then used in New Year’s numbers. “We had the idea for a long time to make a costume exhibition, maybe even a museum of all the costumes from the Mask show. I will not reveal all the plans, but I will say that we have been thinking about it for a long time, ”Sumacheva, the general producer of White Media, shared the plans.