I love Project Puppet’s contests.  I have been a judge and a participant in these contests and they are a ton of fun.  Well this years contest revolves around the theme of Hero and villains!  Very cool.  I wish I had the time to enter.  I have a great character, but I have very little time to build for myself anymore.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t!

Entries are due September 17th, 2010.  Check out the Puppet Contest website and see all of the rules here.

Enjoy!

Swazzle is casting NY/Tri-State Area hand and rod puppeteers for a live show that will premiere at FAO Schwarz on 5th Avenue beginning in September. The show will be promoting the “Juno Baby” brand, which is a series of children’s DVDs featuring a cast of puppets who teach the wonders of music. Performances will take place over four Saturdays in September, with 3 to 4 rehearsal days in late August/ early September. Applicants must be available for all performance and rehearsal days. The number of shows per day has yet to be decided.

Due to the short lead time, there will be no auditions, instead please send your resume and/or links to your reels to Artie Esposito at artie@swazzle.com.

(via Swazzle’s Puppet 101 Blog)

Well this looks great. Forget the fact that you can win $10,000, I am interested in the puppet videos. I was very entertained. The writing is funny and visually it is very well produced. The puppets have a simple but nice look and the puppeteering is not that bad. I do however have a very strong critcisim of one of the puppets/puppeteers. The blond “dopey” character known as Mulligan is very distracting. I apologize if I offend anyone by this, but the puppeteering is significantly poor, in my opinion. The puppeteer constantly over works the puppet and gives a shakey, unbelievability to the puppet. Note to producers, hire puppeteers carefully. I am impressed with the subtle puppeteering if the ninja however. The Captain’s voice is great as well.

Here is the first of the series of videos. I don’t know who is behind this viral video series, but I am sure all will be revealed soon enough.

Thanks to Shawn at Puppets and Stuff for the heads up.

Puppet Heap has released “Exit Row”, a new comedy web series that joins two air sickness bags, Ralph and Chuck, as they grapple with everything from love, betrayal, friendship, identity, in-flight etiquette, and life ad nauseum from the perspective of a seat back pocket.

Puppeteers James Godwin (Chapelle’s Show, The Muppets, Henson’s Stuffed and Unstrung) and Tim Lagasse (Chapelle’s Show, The Muppets, Sesame Street) lend their inimitable talents to the characters of Ralph and Chuck. Exit Row will premiere on Puppet Heap’s YouTube channel starting NOW, with new installments added each week. (Puppet Heap’s YouTube channel can be found by following the link HERE.)

“Exit Row” is a great example of just how simple AND great a “puppety” idea can be. Long live paper sack (bag) puppets!

Goodnight Harvey is the latest short film produced by IFYW, a collaboration of Josh Self, Orlando Rivera II, and Derek Iaea, and soon to be on the film festival circuit this summer. The film follows “Sam, a puppet skinner’s apprentice, who must confront the realities of his profession when a puppet named Harvey wakes up on the cutting table. With a customer anxious to get Harvey’s hide, Sam must choose whether to set him free, or finish the skinning that has already been started.”

Check out the trailer…

The May 1st premiere of the film at The Dark Room Theater in San Francisco was preceded by…can you guess…a live puppet show! You can check out pictures of the performance here.

For more information on IFYW or Goodnight Harvey, click on over to the IFYW blog or check them out on Vimeo.

I have been looking for this company, video and information for a long time.  I heard about them a good while back and lost all information about them.  Well, I tracked them down.  How awesome is GLOW?

I think pretty darn awesome.  This is an Austrian, theatre company that uses live actors, and blacklight puppetry to create an amazing visual feast.  Much like the famous ping pong puppet video, GLOW uses forced perspective to create a stage show that appears to be presented like a movie, with amazing “framing and shots”.  It looks fantastic. 
Check out the website and the video.  Enjoy.

This video is by Cedwan Hooks.  He was a part of a company started with a friend that I did a write up about called Pogo Puppet Productions.  Although their old YouTube channel is gone, he has his own channel and is still working on his puppet video skills.  Check it out.

Okay, I don’t know much about Bollywood, other than they are one of the biggest movie making industries in the world.  These videos appear to be in the Hindi language, but what is cool is the use of English in some of their dialogue.  If you speak Hindi, enjoy.  If you don’t, see if you can figure out what they are saying.  The puppets appear to be a latex rubber.  The hands seem strange to me for some reason, not sure.  Anyway, if you are interested, you can also check out parts 2, 3 and 4.  Enjoy.

If you’ve ever wanted to puppeteer, and you live in the San Fransisco Bay  (California, USA) area you can audition to puppeteer for Swazzle’s touring live show called “Water Color“.  Here is the posting below.  We’d love to hear from anyone who attends the audition.

Date: Monday, May 3, 2010
Location: TBD

Swazzle is seeking a puppeteer to perform the live puppet show Water Color at libraries in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 45-minute show will be presented during June and July as entertainment for the libraries’ summer reading programs.

Water Color is a large-scale puppet show featuring a cast of light-up hand puppets and shadow puppets. Applicants must display good manipulation and be able to perform a wide range of character voices.

The puppeteer will be required to transport the show to the venue; interact with the client and the public in a professional manner; and set up, perform and break down the show. There may be multiple performances per day.

The puppeteer will be paid a flat fee per show.

To schedule an audition please send an e-mail to puppetshows@swazzle.com and put “audition” in the subject line.

Check out these videos by Widget Inc. These guys are great and have found a new fan in me.

I just posted a video that Widget Inc. had created, and the more I looked into it, the bigger of a fan I became. I am really into the production quality of puppetry productions, even simple ones. Well check out a couple more videos created by Randell McNair. I really like this first video and the use of green screen, puppets and CGI. Very well done. You can see some behind the scenes pictures here.

And here is some fun improv with a great puppet character. Be sure to check out some more amazing videos on their YouTube page. Enjoy.