puppets

Big Man Walking arrives!

Posted by hil

bigmanwalking

(photo credit: The Guardian)

Check out the Guardian’s interactive of the arrival of Big Man Walking!  He’s a giant puppet created in Scotland by a large team headed up by artistic director, Symon Macintyre. In coming weeks he will be walking through Bute, Kirkcaldy, Buckie, Invergordon, and Inverclyde where communities will celebrate in accordance with the myth of the giant.

Inspired by Royal de Luxe, Big Man Walking is 8 metres tall, and has a ‘unique internal structure like a bell tower’ that allows the puppeteers to pull wheels within him that make the arms and legs work. Webcams in his head will allow people to see online what he sees on his walks, and people will be able to text him. There are some cool making photos at Big Man Walking, which has been abuzz with preparations for some months. It’s also the place to go for information and the latest pictures and news.

Behind the scenes: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Posted by hil

Here are two behind-the-scenes video clips from the makers of the Fantastic Mr Fox movie, showing more of the puppet making, among other things.  In the first, Roald Dahl’s wife Felicity thinks he would have loved it.

Previously: Fantastic Mr Fox trailer

Paper Hand Intervention: photos and puppet workshops

Posted by hil

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Paper Hand Intervention‘s beautiful giant puppets often attract my attention at Flickr, and their commitment to community and  green activism. The puppets are usually very colourful, but somehow this superb set of black and white photos by jetschmidt of their most recent show, The Living Sea of Memory , makes the figures more evocative. The violinist is perhaps my favourite.

Paper Hand Intervention is organizing the Second Annual Handmade Parade, taking place on 17 October, and by serendipity I came across Melinama‘s post about participating in their workshops, which includes some great photos and tips about making big puppets with the simplest of materials. After her follow up post about further work on her puppet, I’m looking forward to seeing how it all comes together. Melinama also has some cool masks there, too.

Puppets in Melbourne interviews Ronnie Burkett

Posted by hil

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Naomi at Puppets in Melbourne recorded a great interview with the amazing and ever-gracious Canadian master puppeteer Ronnie Burkett a couple of days ago.  There are many nice insights, things such as his pilgrimages to other puppeteers like Norman Hetherington (Mr Squiggle) and the NIDA archive of Peter Scriven‘s work (the Tintookies); that knowledge about scaling in making and costuming puppets is a skill that takes a long time to learn;  that his experiments with paper mache recipes continue, superseding Papier Mache Rediscovered by many years.

Ronnie and his Theatre of Marionettes is touring Australia at the moment with his new show Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy. Don’t miss him – he is at The Arts Centre, Melbourne, until 20 September, then at the Sydney Opera House from 1 -17 October.

Previously:

Temp tattoos make cool animal hand puppets

Posted by hil

animal-hands-by-hector-serrano

What a great idea! Spanish designer Héctor Serrano has designed these beautiful temporary tattoos that make hands into monster and animal puppets. You can buy them through the gifts company Worldwide. (via Dezeen – funny range of comments there!)

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Save the VCA and its puppetry course

Posted by hil

Those of you interested in the arts in Australia will likely know that the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne was earlier in the year merged with Melbourne University. The college gave practical training in the arts, and included a post graduate puppetry course, the only school of its type in the Southern Hemisphere. The puppetry course has been suspended, many staff have lost their jobs, and the practical elements of courses are being cut back. You can read up on the back ground of the merger at Save the VCA.

Today organisers are hoping for a big turnout to protest these changes. Here are the details:

Friday 21st of August,10am

MEET
VCA Campus at 10am.
234 St Kilda Rd, Southbank
Featuring live performances and speeches from prominent industry figures, featuring Julia Zemiro (Rockwiz).

MARCH
Show your support and march down Swanston St, along Collins St to Parliament. Final speeches, featuring John Micheal Howson (Shout).

When I first started making puppets in about 1995, I had the great fortune to be taken on and coached by Company Skylark and their new artistic director, Peter J. Wilson. Peter is not only a brilliant puppeteer; he also had a vision for setting up professional puppetry training to support development of  a vibrant puppetry artform in Australia. He went on to achieve this in setting up the puppetry course at the VCA.  I admired that, and feel sadness over the loss of the course somewhat personally, too, for that reason.

Over the last seven or so years the puppetry course has produced innovative work and graduates, supporting that wider idea of puppetry as artform, where it belongs. And of course this has benefited both the arts and wider community. Ironically, while merger discussions revolve around budgets and money, and draw in the question of funding for the arts in general, the puppetry course itself had managed to bring in outside money consistently since its inception with the patronage of the Cattermole family.

Shadow puppets for Jigsaw’s Wendy

Posted by hil

peterpan

These are some of the shadow puppets I made recently for Jigsaw Theatre Company’s production of Wendy, a new musical re-imagining of J M Barrie’s Peter Pan. These and others can be seen in more detail in my portfolio set. The play had a public season at the Street Theatre and performances in schools, and received a good review in the Canberra Times.

One of the Peter Pan puppets is above. There were two crocodiles. This big one needed a handle as well as the jaw rod.

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This is John flying and some set elements for the flying sequence.

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Unfortunately I didn’t get photos of the puppets in action,  because they look so much more attractive and bright on screen. The only screen shot I have is this blurry one of the Marauders Rock mermaid scene, taken without proper lighting behind. I like the water in particular.

mermaid shadow puppet scene

Another change

Posted by hil

Unima Australia is the Australian branch of Union Internationale de la Marionnette, an 80 year old international organisation bringing together people from around the world to contribute to the development of the art of puppetry, so kind of like the closest thing we puppet makers and puppeteers have to a union. For the last six years or so I’ve looked after the Unima Oz website, but last weekend I handed the job over to Naomi Guss. There are plans afoot to reinvent the site, which is a Good Thing, and I wish Naomi and Sean Manners, and the rest of the committee all the best with it.

Naomi recently blogged her visit to the National Puppetry Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. It makes interesting reading for those of us who were not able to go.

Fantastic Mr. Fox trailer

Posted by hil

The trailer for Fantastic Mr Fox. Hmmm.  I wish the animals didn’t have such people-like figures.

Previously: Fantastic Mr. Fox movie: first glimpse of puppets.