Well, what am I to say... I am a geek. I think I read LotR like... 2 dozend times? Bit freaky, maybe... 
I don't know why anybody should think there was romantic love between Frodo and Sam. Okay, in grade five there might be giggles if someone says: "I love you" but adults should know better. When I read about them thinking of making Sam female (a few years prior to the film entering the theatres) I nearly freaked. I was a bit taken aback that they replaced Glorfindel with Arwen in the Scenes prior to the ford.

Well, I think Legolas looks were alright. After all: he is very young, for an elf. But shooting 2 arrows at the same time? Ballistically that sounds pretty unbelievable. Even Fantasy needs some logic. He is lightning fast, that would have been better. And he just doesn't come around like an elf. Not like Gimli being a dwarf. He should have been more aloof, etheral, not... well... sexy. (The women were sighing in the theatre any time he had a closeup. I didn't get that, but maybe I am just a bit strange...). Maybe Orlando Bloom wasn't up for the job (good thing they didn't let him play Aragorn, anyway! He really aplied for that role, if I got that right- it's been a while) or Jackson did have a different view of an elf than I do and kept him like that. To make a long story short: I agree totally on Legolas.

Well... sweet hobbit- dreams! 

Lizzie, I just thought I'd let you know about an update for the Melbourne summit. The international guest has been announced, more info here:
http://www.nationalpuppetrysummit.com/simplot-masterclass.html

I haven't heard of the guy, but that's not saying much since I find it hard to keep up with international puppetry news. I'll be posting the announcement on my site tomorrow, but thought I'd add it here so you'd not miss it.

Thanks Na! It's going to cost my an absolute fortune in flights and accommodation alone to attend so I hope he is worth it!

Well, I'm guessing that the cost of the masterclass is going to be separate from the other events (depending on if it's one reg. fee or lots of little ones). I recommend waiting until the full program is released before committing to anything, because then you can judge which events are absolutely a must, and which you can do without. That is, unless you are super-duper excited to do the big masterclass.

The other reason why you should wait is because sometimes they have early-bird discounts or discounts based on UNIMA membership. It could be cheaper to buy an UNIMA membership and then pay for the summit, you never know. But like I said, best to wait and see than speculate...

Thanks for that. I shall watch the site Na.

Me too! July seems so close now

I was going to post this in the 'Script Writing' thread but since there's no actual dialogue, it seems kind of redundant there. I am beginning to perform (with a mirror and with friends!) and am interested in your feedback. Na, I'm being brave and posting for all to see as you suggested!

There are a couple of photos from a skit I did at home for mates with Mr Lupvet and (if it works) a link to a video I made of Ninereeds the Dragon. The video in particular is of poor quality. It was not my intent to actually perform but simply see if my least expressive puppet was capable of expression and to see how he moved. I have learned I am absolutely no good at moving his mouth quickly (the song didn't help!) and am hopeless at timing his movements. But I'm interested in your thoughts P&Sians - particularly on whether my design could be improved to allow greater movement etc. Oh, and in the interest of courtesy - language warning on the video. If I'm breaching any rules Shawn, please remove the link - I wouldn't want to offend. It just seemed right for Ninereeds. 






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https://youtu.be/jsHZ5pt3nUE

Nimreeds rocks!!!!! id say that it was a great vid and you did very well moving his mouth in time with such a tricky song to sing along to, the whole lip synching thing comes with practice and as for the possibility of making the puppets mouth easier to move, i cant say what you need to change without knowing how it feels myself, but usually i make the hing of the mouth as free moving to start off with, as when  all the other layers are added (foam, fabric, etc...) things can get a little bogged down and those extra layers can really inhibit the movement, but that also comes with experimentation and finding out what works best, but at the same time finding out the balance between being strongly made and easy to use!!

Great fun!  It looks to me like your mouth actually has pretty good movement. The only suggestion I might have is to work on softening up the other parts of the body.  If the belly of this guy and his legs where a bit squishy it would add natural movement to the puppet.  That being said with the method you used for the scales (which look really awesome!) you may not be able to get much more movement.

P.S.  No I wouldn't take down your link.   I do thank you for warning folks.  Some members prefer not to view content with rough language.  I try to not censor what folks say or post about as long as they are respectful of others.

The one thing I do have to censor or remove is nudity.  My hosting company has a strict policy about that. I can't even allow links to such things.  I really doubt that is going to be an issue here though.