Royal de Luxe’s giants celebrate reunion in Berlin

Posted by hil

deepseadiver

(photo credit: Verieihnix, thank you)

Celebrations are taking place in Berlin this weekend for the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the re-unification of Germany. At the centre of the celebrations is a 4-day performance by Royal de Luxe‘s giant street theatre puppets, featuring their little giantess, and her giant uncle, the deep-sea diver.

Earlier this year in June the diver debuted in Nantes in La géante du Titanic et le scaphandrier, but in Berlin the back story, already one of separation and reunion, has been redrawn as an allegory for the divisions of Germany:

Berlin was once a swamp inhabited by giants.  One day, land and sea monsters tore the city in two and the Big Giant and Little Giantess were separated. The Little Giantess fell into a long sleep. When she awakes, she finds a large old mailbag containing letters between East and West Berlin, and sets out to deliver them.  After each searching the streets of the city, the two giants are reunited and symbolically return tens of thousands of letters once intercepted by former East Germany’s Stasi secret police to people watching their procession through the city.

Photos and videos are starting to appear at Flickr and YouTube, and many others will follow, but here are some links to items that have grabbed my attention so far:

I’ve posted a lot about Royal de Luxe and their influence on the genre of giant puppets over the last few years and you can search here to go to those posts.

Peter and the Wolf stopmotion animation

Posted by hil

peter

Suzie Templeton’s animated short of Peter and the Wolf has, among other things, the most gorgeous and engaging Indian Runner duck. My pet ducks are Runners, and I just love them. Be warned, though, Peter’s one doesn’t make it…

The other three parts follow at YouTube. The film won an Academy Award in 2008 for Best Animated Short Film and is based on the 1936 composition of Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev. I found a little bit info about the puppets at Pollystaffle.

(Via Espaço das Marionet@s)

Wow! King Kong for stage!

Posted by hil

kingkong

Photo credit: Simon Schluter, The Age

This spectacular 7-metre-tall animatronic puppet of King Kong is being built by the Creature Technology Company in Melbourne, the company that produced the amazing arena show Walking with Dinosaurs Live, which is currently touring the UK after extensive performances in the US.

The puppet is being built for King Kong on Stage, a stage adaptation for New York’s Radio City Music Hall in 2011.

According to an article in The Age,

The partially built King Kong is now a high-tech assemblage of steel, fibreglass, airbags and Lycra-encased polystyrene. When modelling is finished by late next year, he will be controlled by 70 cigarette pack-sized motors. His face alone will conceal 40 of the motors to communicate his emotions as he is transported from Skull Island to Manhattan, where he finds love with a young blonde and a precarious position on top of the Empire State Building.

King Kong Live on Stage will use up to five models of King Kong with each operated by three puppeteers using remote technology called a ”voodoo rig” from backstage.

Interestingly, in the light of the suspension of the puppetry course at the Victorian College of the Arts, Creative Technology has 32 full-time staff and 14 VCA graduates working in its puppet fabrication department, and expects to employ 60 people on the King Kong project by next year. They see the VCA puppetry course as a vital in training the type of skilled people they will be looking to employ in the future.

‘Melbourne is in the running to become the world centre for animatronic design and puppetry but it won’t happen if they remove the puppetry course,” said Mr Barcham (CTC general manager). ”Those people [making the decision] wouldn’t even know there’s a new genre of entertainment coming out of Melbourne.”

Previously:

Puppets for Canberra Youth Theatre’s TANK

Posted by hil

I had a really enjoyable build recently, making a swag of zany puppets and props for Canberra Youth Theatre‘s production TANK, which is playing now at Canberra’s spring flower extravagaza, Floriade.  TANK is a rather Pythonesque look at our relationship to water, written by Adam Hadley, directed by Pip Buining, and designed by Imogen Keen. It’s told in six 6-minute stories, played to an audience of six per story. Performances are free and run at Floriade on 12,13, 19, 20, 26 and 27 September 2009. Later, on 23 – 28 November, it will play in Garema Place in Canberra CBD, at 11am and 12noon.

Here are some of the puppets and props; check my Flickr portfolio set for others.

The meercat and the meercat hat:

Meercat puppet

Meercat puppet and hat

Yiying Lu in the meercat hat!

Yiying Lu in the meer cat hat :)

I got rather fond of the hat…

Meercat hat

The pirate captain (finger puppet):

Pirate captain

The rat (rod puppet):

Rat puppet

Kevin, the polar bear (worn on shoulders):

Polar bear

Hans and Donaldine, or the other way around… (glove puppets):

Hans and Donaldine

The shark (worn on shoulders):

Shark puppet

The amoebas (glove puppets):

Amoeba puppets

The eggbeater time machine! Love this great design idea!

Time machine

Two rockets:

Rockets

The multiple eyes of Veruna, the water goddess. In motion.

Veruna's eyes

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.

Remembering Paris

Posted by hil

Counting

I was in Paris a year ago and it’s fun to look back at my photos and see what I was doing each day.  One of the things I liked best was watching everyday life. I don’t know what those big iron bollard-type things on either side of old Parisian outer doors are called, but I imagine they protect the stonework from getting side-swiped by vehicles going in and out. They are often decorative, and these ones looked rather like bee hives. As I approached I inadvertently interrupted this elderly lady counting the ridges on the bollard on the other side with her walking stick. When I was past, I looked back and she was counting them on the other side in what seemed like a little ritual!

A few doors down there was a gate rather than a door and  I could see through into a manicured courtyard, a palatial-looking home for these two cats. (Click photo to see it bigger at Flickr). The tabby came up to me and said hello through the bars of the gate.

Cats in Paris

I loved old doors on the street like this one, so huge and solid, and with so many layers of peeling paint. Can you see a face?

Old door

Old door

Maybe I’ll post some more over the next few weeks? I didn’t post much while I was travelling.

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

Visual musing on rrsCloud

Posted by hil

Visual musing on rssCloud

I spent a little time this morning playing with the idea of rssCloud being represented by a merging of the rss icon with a Chinese cloud.

Paper Hand Intervention: photos and puppet workshops

Posted by hil

livingsea2

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.