Need help with background scenery for puppets in a car Posted by baer77 on Feb 02, 2010
Hi everyone!  I'm new here and let me say how happy I am that I found this amazing forum!  You are all so ridiculously talented!!!  I am GREEN when it comes to puppets!  I have no experience whatsoever but I am attempting to film a puppet show!  It's kind of a music video.  Anyway, in one scene, two puppets are in a car, a cab driver in the front and a passenger in the back.  It will probably be shot from the side, so you can see both.  Does anyone have any ideas of what I could do so it looks like the car is moving?  Like maybe have something moving in the background buy what?  I doesn't have to look totally perfect.  If it looked a little chessy or obviously fake, that's ok, maybe funnier even.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated and I look forward from learning from all you experts!
Re: Need help with background scenery for puppets in a car Posted by Monkey on Feb 03, 2010
How about a rolling picture. you use two spinles on each end of the set and roll one while the other comes unrolled, passing a picture of moving trees and houses behind the car. If  I can find my diagram for this I will post it here so it will be more clear.- Steve
Re: Need help with background scenery for puppets in a car Posted by dacostasr on Feb 03, 2010
Welcome to the Forum.  Get someone to drive you around with your video camera pointing out the side window...I saw a tutorial online for green screening where someone did that and then green screeened himself running in front of it.  It looked pretty good...and funny.

Dennis
Re: Need help with background scenery for puppets in a car Posted by Abdolos on Feb 03, 2010
Paint some trees and houses on separate pieces of cardboard.  Maybe add some sticks to handle them.  Get "puppeteers" to hold them up and run by behind your stationary car.  Have them run around behind the camera so they can make another pass.  It doesn't get any simpler than that. 
Oh, don't forget sound effects!  The sound of a motor running and objects whooshing by are an important part of the illusion of movement you're going for.
Re: Need help with background scenery for puppets in a car Posted by Billy D. Fuller on Feb 03, 2010
It would be neat if you could incorporate Shadow puppetry into the back drop scenery. It would be a lot of work but would show two types of puppetry being used.

Billy D.
Re: Need help with background scenery for puppets in a car Posted by miguel on Feb 03, 2010
  hey,    to P&S

Ask to Titere. She is really good in drawing and background!
Re: Need help with background scenery for puppets in a car Posted by baer77 on Feb 03, 2010
WoW!  Thanks everyone, these are all great ideas!  I am thinking I like the idea of filming outside a car window.  I actually thought about this before!  I think it would look funny.  My only concern is, how in the world do you green screen???
Re: Need help with background scenery for puppets in a car Posted by Chris Arveson on Feb 04, 2010
Posted by: baer77 on Feb 03, 2010
My only concern is, how in the world do you green screen???

Ann, this YouTube video is a great start for understanding green screen work. Start with this, and continue in his series. I think that most of the video editing software packages include chromakey, which is what green screen is all about.

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https://youtu.be/http://www.youtube.com/v/w6brdwY-dvU&hl=en_US&fs=1
Re: Need help with background scenery for puppets in a car Posted by baer77 on Feb 04, 2010
Thanks Chris!  Very informative!  I'm pretty sure I have the software b/c I have a MAC and I think it came with some pretty good video editing software already!  I am so excited!  I got lots of supplies last night at Dollar Tree of all places!
Re: Need help with background scenery for puppets in a car Posted by Shawn on Feb 04, 2010
Dollar Tree is always a good source for puppet making.  Maybe we should have a Dollar Tree puppet making challenge.
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