Check out this little puppetry gem.  I for one was blown away with it.

This movie short was put out by Director Peter Haynes of New Zealand based Haynesfilm Ltd.

The project was conceived back in the summer of 2005, and the team for Haynesfilm were feeling the crunch of the 48hours film competition they were in.  Eight hours into it, 3am and they still didn’t have anything resembling a storyline or idea.

These film competitions often have a few elements that each short must include, here are theirs.

Character: Bodil DeRezney, Animal Lover
Genre: Action.

Director Peter Haynes remembered the moth eaten old puppet Monkey he had as a child. In a fit of 8am scribblings on a sheet of refill, ‘Jungle Fever’ was born.

It went on to win Audience favourite in its heat, reach the regional finals in Auckland, and then go onto the National finals after being selected as a wildcard winner by Peter Jackson himself.   JF2: Primal Fury’” is a continuation of the story of DK bond, Fighter, Lover, Monkey.

‘JF2: Primal Fury’ was filmed on a Panasonic HVX in 720 mode, using a redrock M2 lens adaptor with Nikon Lenses. It will screen in 12 episodes on Juice TV in New Zealand beginning 7th April. It is totally self funded.

So many times people worry about making a puppet “as professional” as possible. Here is an example of how wonderful film making can make a simple puppet look great. This is a topic that I will be exploring further. For now, enjoy the trailer.

I don’t know about you, but I am a personal fan of all of the hard work that The Cheap Show creator Michael Paraskevas has done with this puppet series.  I think there is much that can be learned for his “keep it simple” approach.  I for one am planning on using some of his logic to creating more of my own video projects.

 Well, The Cheap Show has just updated their website and we are honuored to see that Michael has linked directly to Puppet Buzz.   Thanks so much Michael and keep up the great work!

This is another late post, but here is a picture from the film shoot in Toronto, Canada of Mike Myers’ new film called The Love Guru.

Thanks to movie magic man, Ron Stefaniuk with referral by puppet master Frank Meschkuleit (Fraggle Rock, Follow That Bird), puppeteer Michael Ziegfeld was given the opportunity to assist on the shoot for gag props, FX and puppets for the film. 

Ziegfeld said, “This was my first opportunity to work on anything on such a large scale and budget from life size elephant and ostrich puppets, to creating ‘body flossing’  in the mouth and out the a**, and a yoga moment-gone-wrong when it actually looks like Mike has pushed his head up his own a**!”.

It sounds like another funny Mike Myers film.  I look forward to seeing this one when it comes out in theatres.  Who says puppetry is just for kids.

My apologies for this late post.   I have been interested in toy theatre and I regret not being able to attend this workshop. 

I hope that interested people can still enjoy the workshop (even if they are late in joining).

THE TORONTO SCHOOL OF PUPPETRY

Invites you to participate in the

Toy Theatre Course

Saturday afternoons, February 2, 9, 16 & 23

12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

At Puppetmongers’ Studio 1110 Dundas Street East (at Logan )

COSTS: $200, plus $50 materials fee = $250

In this weekend course you will design and build your own miniature theatre, sets, puppets and props.

Come and discover how to stage vast productions on a shoe-string budget!

Come and find out why this antique form of puppetry is currently undergoing such a theatrical revival in Europe and the USA.

For more information please visit http://www.puppetmongers.com/schoolcourses_toytheatre.html