Hi, I made a little film of my shadow puppet play, Lorelei, at the weekend, and I thought I'd share it here to see what you thought.   
http://inthedarkwoods.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/lorelei-film/

I haven't done a performance with other puppeteers before, or filmed a performance fully, so it was a bit of a learning curve, but loads of fun.  Loads of outtakes and bloopers too, but fun nonetheless.

Any feedback would be very much appreciated!

Cheers everyone,

Rachel
inthedarkwoods.wordpress.com

Nice, sad and weird- in that order. I did wonder why she was called Lorelei, but I guess I know now. Funny thing is: I would love to do a Lady Elaine puppet... Great stuff!

Nice shadows!

I'd love to know how you made the screen - it looks like a basic frame on some sort of stand? And you're working from below?

I like the lighting too. It gives the whole piece a sombre night-time feel.

Interesting! I'm always amazed at shadow puppetry.

Thanks guys!  Much appreciated. 

Weirdly I never really thought of it as a sad story - more of a cold and brutal one - maybe the music helps give it a bit of melancholy?

Na, the screen is very simple and incredibly low-tech.  I've taken some pics which will hopefully be clearer than me just describing it.  It's basically 2 batik frames, a meter square each, hinged together.  It starts off in separate pieces, looking like this:




And is then fastened together to become this:



I use hook & loop strips (i.e. Velcro but the cheaper version) for the joints. 


It can either fold and stand like this on a table top,



or it can be fixed at either side with tripods or stands to make one single 2 meter long screen.

For the smaller table top version, which I mostly use, I have an adjustable LED lamp that clips to the side of the frame, and I then just stand behind the light and work from there, rather than work from below.

I use good ol' hook and loop tape again on the screen fabric and frame and pull it tight top and bottom with bulldog clips



As I said, very low-tech, but it's lightweight and portable, and I can carry it around in a microphone stand bag:-)

Thanks again & all the very best,

Rachel
x
inthedarkwoods.wordpress.com

Impressive. I thought it was sad that she was in a cage and then her pretty little bird got eaten by that cat, leaving her friendless. Okay, it did become colder and more brutal after this- but in a nice way...