Friday, January 30, 2015

Hair Caption Contest Review

Hello all! So as promised, I will be reviewing one cap from every contributor to the Hair Caption Contest to talk about content, layouts, and other things that I liked about their work. I recommend checking them all out, not because my thoughts are representative of what a "perfect" cap is but rather for the opportunity for you to notice things that might improve your own captioning work.


Wes Mantooth
Starting strong with Wes Mantooth, whose series and single cap were phenomenal as always. I could go on to talk about the amazing layout, but I think I'd like to point out the little things Wes does to characterize the people in the cap. Little details like *TREMBLE* or *SQUEEL* are great little inclusions to let you know how the sissy in this case is feeling, and I also like the use of ellipses and repeated words like "But...but..." to show his nervousness. Combine that with great dominate dialogue from the femdom female Cara and you've got an excellent cap!

Ashleygirl 11
For a first time captioner, Ashley did a great job with quite a few things that I want to stress. First, she added a black border to the caption which really made the image pop and highlighted the black bra and dark hair of the model. It also helped show off the dialogue, which is prominent thanks to the overlay onto the image and the white coloring. I also liked the fact that Ashley chose to use a looping, "girly" text - often a subtle change like that can improve a boring block of text immensely. Finally, I love that she left a bit of a cliffhanger to the story with the implication that there are more feminine things in the room to enjoy. Overall, really enjoyable cap!

Udodelig
Udodelig was another new captioner who made a new series that could possibly be one of my favorite submissions. There is so much excellent stuff in these two caps - from a stylistic standpoint, the backgrounds match the images and the pink text is a nice holdover between the two. Additionally, Udodelig chose two similar images (BIG hair) that are still different enough to be contrasted. From a thematic standpoint, it's even better - I LOVE this idea of The Stylist and Curse 18 and how the duration of it affects the target. The contrast in the caps (due to a short spell and a really long spell) is enhanced because of this, but even individually they standout with strong ideas (specifically I adored the first cap's concluding paragraph and how the target repeatedly "chose" his feminine fate). All in all, wonderful stuff which I hope Udodelig continues in some fashion in the future.

Dolly Diklipz
Another classic Dolly cap using a wonderful image that fits her style perfectly. Stylistically, the red text vs. black background REALLY made this cap standout to me, especially when you see the lovely photo next to it. Also, Dolly did a good thing in terms of text wrapping - normally I like to (and advise most people to try) keep the text and image at the same height (if to the left or right of the image) or the same width (if below the image), but Dolly recognized that her cap was going to be too long so she formatted it so the text would fit below both the image and text. It keeps the shape of the cap nice by not making it jut out anywhere. And finally, I've got to give props to some unique ideas - really loved how he had to learn to do his own hair and makeup from scratch, plus the Facebook upload at the end really matched the image well. Great work Dolly!

C2Sanon
C2Sanon once again submitted a wonderful set of caps (I especially liked the series and the way the father was included in the end...lovely!) but I ended up choosing this one because I think it's great but could be even better. As a personal preference, I think I would have edited the image by cutting out the white space on the side, and then moving the text to the right of the image as opposed to below - I think it would have made the image standout more and make the text more readable next to the image. That small critique aside, I think the dialogue and ideas are amazing. No one really talked about wigs in detail, so the idea of two mothers putting them on their sissy sons is awesome (plus I think this hair really does look like a wig!). But the concluding line about the one son already being feminized is such a nice turn - such a lovely surprise ending to an excellent cap!

Donna
Donna makes her return with this lovely little slow progression. Talking about wanting to throw the products away, then slowly giving into them, and then by the third paragraph it's clear that he's addicted to it is great. The last two paragraphs are the best, however - first it talks about "naturally" starting to wear makeup (because he's two far gone into the transformation) and about leaving shampoo for other boys to shower. It simultaneously implies what a slut he's become as well as the possibility of more boys being transformed into beauties like him. Lovely work!

The Zoligomyst
Zoli had three amazing caps (no surprise there) but this one was my favorite by far. I love how the smaller image was cropped and text was placed on both sides of the image, thereby keeping the shape of the cap and making it easy to view the story and image simultaneously. The story is even better - playing off an old phrase that I had never heard of, Zoli tells a fabulous tale of two hairdressers that do their hair...and the arrogant male ends up with a big pink makeover complete with heavy permanent makeup and flashy jewelry. Now that makeover is for a commercial that I would enjoy watching :) Awesome job Zoli!

Darrell
I like to think of Darrell's cap like a ball rolling down a hill - it just slowly builds momentum and gains steam every second. The progression of this cap, telling how the man goes from braids to hair dye to makeup to modelling and implants, just flows so well together from start to finish. Please take a look at this if you want to learn how to build a cap that develops a slow transformation - this is a perfect example of it!

Ian
Ian also makes a return with three lovely caps, my favorite of which was this one. The concept of a guy finally getting to close to a girl he likes AND getting the opportunity to see her as a smoking hot blonde, only to realize that he becomes the blonde for the experiment is just awesome. In fact, I specifically added this image to the contest because I loved the contrast between the big blond hairstyle and the plain brown hairstyle of the two models, and in this cap it's perfect because now the boy look prettier than the girl he likes! Love it!

Musta
Okay...I admit it...this is probably my favorite image in the set, thus the reason both caps that used it in the entire contest are being talked about. But this cap also stands out on it's merits, which is awesome considering how equally fantastic Musta's other cap was. This cap earns special praise because it uses dialogue to make a perfect "chav" cap. Now I'm going to be honest - I'm from the US and don't fully understand exactly what a "chav" is. Yet this cap somehow made me appreciate exactly what a chav is protrayed as, in terms of the personality and big hair. The dialogue is wonderful, both in terms of the content and the coloration/style of each, specifically in the banter between the worried girlfriend and the slutty sissy chav and the last line, "Oi mate, you want a fucking blowjob?". Simply excellent and so unique - you should be really proud of this Musta!

Anzaleth
New entrant Anzaleth made a cap near and dear to my heart - a wonderful blond bimbo cap complete with fantasticly ditzy and slutty dialogue. Honestly, there's not really that much to say - just stare at that perfect image, read the amazing dialogue filled with giggles, moans, and abbreviated words, and appreciate this as the glorious bimbo cap that it is. I really hope Anzaleth continues making caps like this, because this ticks off all the right boxes for me!

Brittany7
Last but not least is Brittany, who took a unique approach to this cap. She saw the tattoo on the model's arm and turned this into a magic tattoo cap that causes the feminization and hair colorization! Really creative idea and is a great example of looking closely at an image to find a creative story to go along with it. Great job!




2 comments:

  1. *giggle* Glad you liked my caption, hun. It was fun to do.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the kind words and applause for all who participated!

    ReplyDelete