In a year haunted by zoom calls, wifi issues and working-from-home fatigue, this father has created the perfect Halloween costume to channel his Covid frustrations.
Crafty father-of-two Greg Dietzenbach, 42, from Marion, Iowa, designed and built a ‘killer zoom meeting’ costume for his 12-year-old daughter, Ada.
The homemade ‘Zoom and Gloom’ meeting costume is a replica of a zoom meeting screen, however, the meeting participants are killers and monsters.
Crafty father-of-two Greg Dietzenbach, 42, from Marion, Iowa, made a ‘Zoom and Gloom’ call Halloween costume for his 12-year-old daughter, Ada (pictured as ‘The Masked Murderer’)
A video of the interactive costume shows the virtual meeting with nine participants on the call, including the ‘next victim’ – whoever answers the front door.
There are seven monsters on the zoom call including ‘Frank’ as Frankenstein, ‘Drac’ as Dracula, Wolf Man, Mummy the Invisible Man, Creature (Black Lagoon), Wolf Man, and Blair the witch.
They were all created by manipulating photos of Greg’s daughter dressed up in costumes.
His daughter, Ada, is ‘The Masked Murderer’ in the center of the grid, wearing a blue surgical face mask.
The top slot is reserved for the ‘Next Victim’, made using a built-in iPad with a front-facing camera that features the unsuspecting homeowner.
There are seven monsters on the zoom meeting including ‘Frank’ as Frankenstein, ‘Drac’ as Dracula, Wolf Man, Mummy the Invisible Man, Creature (Black Lagoon), Wolf Man, and Blair the witch (pictured)
The characters were all created by manipulating photos of Greg’s daughter Ada dressed up in costumes. He said the best part of this costume creation was the photo shoot they did together
Greg, who works as a creative director, makes unique costumes for his son and daughter every year for Halloween.
He describes making his children’s Halloween costumes as a ‘labour of love’.
Greg said: ‘My kids challenge me every year to make a unique costume.
‘I’ve become known for my homemade costumes with family and friends and people tell me they look forward to seeing them every year but I really do it for my kids.’
He transformed the photos of his daughter into monsters using an iPad drawing app called Procreate and recreated the Zoom interface in Adobe Illustrator
In 2018, he made a ‘transforming sock robot’ for his son that he joked almost broke his brain.
‘My son wanted to be a Transformer for Halloween but we added a twist,’ he said.
‘Instead of a robot turning into a semi truck, fighter jet, or a car we thought it would be funnier to turn into a lame, useless object like a lone sock.’
This year, because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, he wasn’t sure if his children would be able to trick-or-treat this year so he said he wanted to make the costume ‘a lot simpler’.
They came up with the Zoom call idea as he said this year, his children have become ‘Zoom experts’ due to online schooling and keeping in touch with family and friends.
Greg explained that he was able to build the costume with the use of a large format printer that he has in his workplace.
Greg, who works as a creative director, makes unique costumes for his son and daughter every year for Halloween. Two years ago he made a ‘transforming sock robot’ for his son that he joked almost broke his brain
He recreated the Zoom interface in Adobe Illustrator and added subtle Halloween jokes like 666 Participants, instead of ‘End Meeting for All’ it says ‘End Life’, and instead of ‘Share Screen’ the button reads ‘Share Scream.’
He transformed photos of his daughter into monsters using an iPad drawing app called Procreate, which took him about 1.5 hours to do each monster.
‘The best part of this costume creation was the photo shoot I had with my daughter,’ he said.
‘We were laughing the whole time as we tried to make all the monster faces. All of the costumes were found by raiding the kids’ dress-up box and closets.
‘Instead of a robot turning into a semi truck, fighter jet, or a car we thought it would be funnier to turn into a lame, useless object like a lone sock’
‘If I couldn’t find something I just drew it, like Drac’s necklace and Frank’s bolts.
‘Part of the fun of making these costumes is all the creative solutions I discover while building them.
‘I embrace the challenge every year and the Oct 31st deadline is always a good motivator.’
The Halloween enthusiast has created several unique costumes through the years which he posts on his blog.
‘Halloween was one of my favorite holidays when I was a kid and I’m happy to share my love of Halloween with them,’ said Greg.
‘It’s a holiday about imagination and creativity so as a creative person I’m naturally drawn to it.’