puppets

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)

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

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

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!)

animal-hands-by-hector-serrano6

animal-hands-by-hector-serrano5

animal-hands-by-hector-serrano4

animal-hands-by-hector-serrano3

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.

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.

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.

Teeny tiny puppets

Posted by hil

marionettestudio

There’s something very meta about dmmalva’s tiny puppet studio and the vogue for Blythe dolls to accesorise with teeny tiny puppets. I like this one.

Update: I found this needle felted finger puppet monster with puppet today :)

Previously: Matchstick puppets!