WIP Puppet with glove hand Posted by Jeronimus on Jan 30, 2011
Hey there, PuppetsAndStuff.com. It's been a while since I've logged in to post here, but my interest was suddenly piqued again. I'm currently studying at the RITS Film School in Brussels, and we're in the middle of a workshop on film with one of Belgium's most famous directors teaching. But it mainly consists of little assignments on filmmaking. The last assignment was in a large group of thirteen, where three people were assigned the task of crew and the other ten were supposed to be the actors, in this case, jury members in a fictious trial.
I found myself among the actors. Well, to be fair, my face itself is never visible on-screen, but maybe that's because I'm underneath a table, holding out a puppet over my head. Being a puppeteer with one of my own home-made puppets I made a few years back suddenly made me realize why I got interested in puppetry in the first place. At some point, people forgot that I was there beneath the table, and they stopped calling out my name, but instead gave instructions to the puppet's name. Even off-camera, some of my class-mates just kept talking to him as if he were real, and it's just awesome that, even if for just a little moment, you can suspend their disbelief.
Which is exactly why I decided to look at a pile of old "things-I've-never-finished" and, well, finish them. The character above was the one I used for the assignment. I'd originally given him the name Wilberforce (translating it to Wilfried in Dutch), but the character I was letting him play here didn't exactly fit that name so we changed it. Originally, I had a few funny ideas worked out for a setting that I could fit my puppets into. Wilberforce Waddams was intended to be an employee at a large office, with just one drawback: he doesn't have arms, so he can't actually do anything.
His best friend would be a frog by the name of Finklebert Froggenstein, who also worked at the office, and who would be more of a main character.
But then we come to the pile of unfinished things...
There was Mr. Ghalls-Powter, the boss of the company, a bit of an angry, grumpy tyrant, someone who's involved in loads of shady business. I had a pretty decent idea of what I wanted him to look like, but no idea of how to accomplish it well, so he turned out a bit scraggedy. (Apologies for the dark, unclear picture, I just took this in a hurry. It sort of matches the atmosphere though, I always wanted to put him in a dark office, with lots of smoke, a cigar in his mouth and behind a ridiculously high desk to look extra scary.)
I've messed around with this guy for a while in the past. I like him, but I can't get what I want to make out of him right and I keep putting it off. Might get to work on this later.
No, this is the one I've picked up work on! I just randomly drew a figure and proceeded to cut that out of a white towel, in order to create the above shape. It wasn't really made with any puppet character in mind, so for that moment, it was just a white ghostly figure. I looked at it several times, but I didn't want to mess up the nice, pristine, safe way it looked by making something terrible out of it. I tried to come up with something good, but it really remained unchanged.
So today, I glued in a mouthplate (a bit too big, but it'll do) and, in order to randomly create some character, I snapped a bowtie that I found lying around here around his neck. I'm not sure whether it works, and I still don't know what to make of him. I'm thinking I might turn him into a jokester on the office floor, or I might turn him into an international business colleague of mr. Ghalls-Powter, or I might just make a new character that is completely unrelated in every way. I could give him glasses, I could give him a monocle, I could have him put on a sweater and make him a homie. I could give him a nose, or I could not give him one.
Putting him on my hand and playing around with him in this state also still allows for a whole lot of different characters, but I can definitely make -something- out of it. That's what I get for not starting with a defined idea before making something, haha.
Does any of it spark any interesting ideas from you people? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Hope to stick around a bit longer this time and excercise my skills even further.
I found myself among the actors. Well, to be fair, my face itself is never visible on-screen, but maybe that's because I'm underneath a table, holding out a puppet over my head. Being a puppeteer with one of my own home-made puppets I made a few years back suddenly made me realize why I got interested in puppetry in the first place. At some point, people forgot that I was there beneath the table, and they stopped calling out my name, but instead gave instructions to the puppet's name. Even off-camera, some of my class-mates just kept talking to him as if he were real, and it's just awesome that, even if for just a little moment, you can suspend their disbelief.
Which is exactly why I decided to look at a pile of old "things-I've-never-finished" and, well, finish them. The character above was the one I used for the assignment. I'd originally given him the name Wilberforce (translating it to Wilfried in Dutch), but the character I was letting him play here didn't exactly fit that name so we changed it. Originally, I had a few funny ideas worked out for a setting that I could fit my puppets into. Wilberforce Waddams was intended to be an employee at a large office, with just one drawback: he doesn't have arms, so he can't actually do anything.
His best friend would be a frog by the name of Finklebert Froggenstein, who also worked at the office, and who would be more of a main character.
But then we come to the pile of unfinished things...
There was Mr. Ghalls-Powter, the boss of the company, a bit of an angry, grumpy tyrant, someone who's involved in loads of shady business. I had a pretty decent idea of what I wanted him to look like, but no idea of how to accomplish it well, so he turned out a bit scraggedy. (Apologies for the dark, unclear picture, I just took this in a hurry. It sort of matches the atmosphere though, I always wanted to put him in a dark office, with lots of smoke, a cigar in his mouth and behind a ridiculously high desk to look extra scary.)
I've messed around with this guy for a while in the past. I like him, but I can't get what I want to make out of him right and I keep putting it off. Might get to work on this later.
No, this is the one I've picked up work on! I just randomly drew a figure and proceeded to cut that out of a white towel, in order to create the above shape. It wasn't really made with any puppet character in mind, so for that moment, it was just a white ghostly figure. I looked at it several times, but I didn't want to mess up the nice, pristine, safe way it looked by making something terrible out of it. I tried to come up with something good, but it really remained unchanged.
So today, I glued in a mouthplate (a bit too big, but it'll do) and, in order to randomly create some character, I snapped a bowtie that I found lying around here around his neck. I'm not sure whether it works, and I still don't know what to make of him. I'm thinking I might turn him into a jokester on the office floor, or I might turn him into an international business colleague of mr. Ghalls-Powter, or I might just make a new character that is completely unrelated in every way. I could give him glasses, I could give him a monocle, I could have him put on a sweater and make him a homie. I could give him a nose, or I could not give him one.
Putting him on my hand and playing around with him in this state also still allows for a whole lot of different characters, but I can definitely make -something- out of it. That's what I get for not starting with a defined idea before making something, haha.
Does any of it spark any interesting ideas from you people? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Hope to stick around a bit longer this time and excercise my skills even further.
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