Hi folks,
About 3 weeks ago I completed this music video for a band called Thrash or Die.
The puppets were created by Mass. Art graduate Jill Domings.  They were designed specifically to look like the band members.
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https://youtu.be/EBSODmImPpM

In the video we also have a lot of "poser", or victim puppets... which the band does horrible things to.  These were basically
just generic off the shelf "Mellisa and Doug" puppets, that were modified with wigs and facial hair and dressed up.
We had assistance from The Puppet Network in Ft. Lauderdale FL, who gave us access to their warehouse and workshop for filming locations.
I directed the video, was the main puppeteer, and did the digital backgrounds and special FX.
Let me know what ya think!

- Dan

 

Welcome Dan! Okay, heavy metal isn't really my glas of beer, but this is awesome!!! Grand! Loved it! I am so in love with the singer puppet!

Thanks so much Rikka    Actually, we wanted this video to be accessible and funny even to those who don't like metal, so I'm glad we accomplished that. By the way, the singer's puppet's name is Ralph (and so is the actual singer).  I won't say what his stage name with the band is, because I'm afraid it will get me instantly banned form the message board ;-) suffice to say it's not PG rated.

Anyway, the video is pimarily based on these 2 guys... Ralph, the actual singer, and Kevin, a big fan and friend of the band
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https://youtu.be/lnQuTEQgWX0
(Kevin is the guy who gets comically beat up a lot in the video)

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff........... I'm not a big fan of heavy metal music however I dig the video.

Thanks Billy.  I'd be willing to bet that's most people's reaction here.  Judging by the lack of puppet based metal videos (this is probably one of the only ones), I'd be willing to bet that vast majority of puppet makers aren't heavy metal fans. 

Though the band Mastodon did a puppet video.. so I think at least some metal bands are puppet fans.

I would like to add that just because I'm not a heavy metal fan or a fan of other type music does not mean that I don't have the utmost respect to the artist that perform it. I do think it is cool that puppets were chosen to express this style of music.

Thank you again, Bill... though it did take a little convincing, at least from the singer, to do a puppet video... luckily everyone else in the band were huge Muppets fans... so it all worked out   As I quickly learned though, if you're gonna do a heavy metal puppet video.. Half measures just don't cut it.. you have to take the humor and visuals as far as you can, just to match the energy and exaggeration of the music.

I don't know how Ralph is going to take this, but: being a puppet suits him!
I am a very visual person, music doesn't get to me as much as it seems to get to most people around me. Same with you, Billy? So maybe a lot of the "puppets guys" (girls included, of course) just aren't that much into music, it is not that they don't accept heavy metal. But that is just a theory.
Of course: The Electric Mayhem is one of my favorite bands. The other is Enigma, I have their first album on when I work on puppets...

Hey Rikka, I think Ralph would totally agree with you on that   His puppet suits him to a T.

I like your theory about the music and puppet-peeps... I have a similar one...  I think puppet making and puppeteering is more or less a "gentle", intellectual artform.  Metal, and especially thrash-metal is a very blunt, in-your-face, attitude driven, blue-collar art form.  So maybe combining the 2 mindsets wasn't necessarily a natural fit, and why very few, if any, people have attempted a puppet project quite like this.  But overall I think we struck a pretty good balance.. it helps that the "vo-killist" is kinda cartoonish and exaggerated himself, plus the song is pretty goofy, so it was easy to come up with puppet gags for it.

I will have to discuss this with my husband- he really digs metal!