video

The Piano Creatures video

Posted by hil

I’m excited to present the video of The Piano Creatures that accompanies the creatures when they are on static display! At the moment they are in my show Glimpses of a Seabird Flying Blind at the Pinnacles Gallery, Townsville, until 29 April. The creatures exist somewhere between sculptures and puppets, so the video captures some of the moments when they move and come alive.

I had brilliant colleagues making the video, and it was a real pleasure working with them! I offer them all many thanks for their skill, patience and enthusiasm, and such a great outcome!

Puppeteer: barb barnett
Video filming and production: Chris Hahn
Music composed by Alex Raupach
Performed, recorded and produced by Joe O’Connor (piano)

Cool animation: Of Monsters and Men’s Little Talks

Posted by hil

A lovely music video animation for the song Little Talks by the Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men.

Five sky-sailors discover a crystal meteor containing a lost mythical female creature. An epic journey through fantastical worlds ensues as the sailors struggle to return her to her people.

The animation was directed by WeWereMonkeys, who have an interesting article and photos of  how it was made.

The London Circuit’s sock puppet video

Posted by hil

 

Local Canberra band The London Circuit released this cool video clip for their single Walk last week, featuring cute sock puppets by Hannah McCann. She has some great photos of the making and filming. The band’s EP is expected to be released in early April.

Stories from the Ground

Posted by hil

This lovely shadow puppetry in Lior’s I’ll forget You is the work of Stephen Mushin, Anna Parry and Sarita Ryan from Stories from the Ground Puppet Collective, a micro-theatre shadow puppet troupe, and Starkraving Productions. Both are based in Melbourne. This year Stephen and the Anna have been touring with Lior’s Shadows and Light Tour, performing live. Spiltpin Limbs is an offshoot of Stories from the Ground, now ‘a major branch in its own right’. I’m not sure exactly how the two relate, except that they look closely allied.  This behind-the-scenes video is really cool, too.

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

Puppet take on online safety ad fearmongering

Posted by hil

This week’s episode of The Media Show with Erna and Meena looks at fearmongering in online safety ads (via @zephoria).  The show is made by After Ed who ‘create videos about the evolving education sector’. They have given more information on the statistics they worked from.

Making of Allen’s giant doll puppet

Posted by hil

Remember Allen’s giant doll marionette that was walking the streets of Brisbane a few months ago? The Oscar-winning visual effects director John Cox, whose Creature Workshop created the puppet, has given a cool behind the scenes look at how it was made. Also, there are a few videos of her on YouTube now, including the Allen’s advertisement.

Campaign Brief has a little more background, and I was not surprised to see direct reference to Royal de Luxe‘s giantess:

‘Lam and Ross took Inspiration from a Mexican Festival puppet and a 7m French puppet.  The French puppet is believed to have cost $2M to build, yet this project didn’t have that kind of budget. The Cox created walking doll is generations ahead of the overseas inspiration in terms of her very advanced mechanics and instant physical appeal.

The Mexican puppet must be Luca. (I have some more information on Luca, but for another post). I think the  ‘generations ahead’ aspect in the case of Royal de Luxe is rather meaningless, and a bit of chest puffing. The fibreglass/plastic look versus the wood/steampunk look is an aesthetic choice, appropriate in each case;  and the movement of RdL’s giantess does not appear mechanically inferior, especially when you see the Allen’s doll’s feet kind of clap on the ground at each step in one of the videos,  and she seems to tilt backwards too much at times.

The Nano Song: puppets explain nanotechnology!

Posted by hil

This cute Sesame Street style video won both the Critics’ Choice and People’s Choice awards in the ACS Nanotation NanoTube ‘What is Nano?’ competition for a video tutorial about nanotechnology. It was a ‘collaborative effort by a group of researchers from University of California, Berkeley including Patrick Bennett, David Carlton, Molly Felz, Nola Klemfuss, Glory Liu (singer), Ryan Miyakawa, Stacey Wallace, and Angelica Zen’.

Lull

Posted by hil

Andrew Bird – Lull (daytrotter version): cool music, interesting shadow puppetry and animation.

(via Loobylu Tumbles)