Here is the teaser for the new muppet movie due out at Thanksgiving.

Enjoy!!

I got a chance the other night to see the documentary BEING ELMO: A Puppeteer’s Journey. The documentary is about the story of puppeteer Kevin Clash(puppeteer of Elmo) It is a fantastic story about Kevin following his dream and the drive he had to get it. Fantastic movie and a must see for everyone.

I would like to give some fun details about the film that will entice all the puppet people. Of course there is lots of Elmo, but there are some amazing muppet stuff rarely seen as well.

:::: SPOILER WARNING::::

There is a fantastic clip from the show Big Blue Marble. Where Kermit Love invites Kevin Clash(age 17) into his puppet studio and shows him all of the fantastic puppets he is making and educates Kevin on how to make his puppets better as well.

There are also several behind the scene shots of Sesame Street.

You also get to see the inside of Sesame Street Muppet Workshop. So, fun to watch. Drawers of eyes, half done puppets, and plenty of puppet eye candy everywhere.

So, after the showing at the Independant Film Festival in Boston. They had a Q & A with the Director Constance A. Marks, Director of Photography James J. Miller, Muppeteer Kevin Clash, and Elmo.

Lonelyreviewers.com Posted some fantastic footage of the Q&A session. Be sure to watch for the Barry White impression by Elmo. By the way you can see me very clearly in my green shirt at 3:20 in the clip below. The second clip has Kevin talking about both the Dinosaurs TV show and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

After the Q & A I got a chance to meet Kevin and talk for a minute. He was happy to see that some of the local puppet community had come out to support the film. If this film comes to a theater near you. Please check it out. You will NOT be dissapointed.

This animatronic looks so smooth and life like.  This really makes me excited for the future of animatronics. Check it out.

Say you had the best looking puppets ever and an amazing group of puppeteers. Now you may think that would be an instant success. Well you would be wrong, because you would still be missing the third and most important element, story.  The element of story seems to be often overlooked among upcoming puppeteers.

Puppeteers are story tellers!!!  The only difference between puppeteers and other story tellers  is that we choose to do so with puppets as a tool to assist in telling our story.

So,  don’t you want to learn how to tell better stories? Sure you do.

I just finished the book “Invisible Ink ” by Brian McDonald.  The book is an extremely fast read and will change the way you look at books and movies forever. Brian has a fantastic approach to breaking down stories in a clear and concise manner.  The best part though,  is that this book will give you all the tools you need to craft amazing stories of your own.

So, if you care about being a better story teller check out this book. He also has a fantastic blog to check out with great info as well.

I saw that Kanja had posted a bunch of new stuff on the puppet buzz blog. So, I decided it was a great time to jump back in myself.

I love good theater and good puppet theater even more.  Monkey Boys Production is currently showing their production of the Little Prince at the  Bristol Riverside Theater.   The show is currently up and will be on stage until Febuary 13th.   Everyone should go see this brilliant use of puppetry and you can buy tickets here.

I got a sneak preview of this show when it was still in development at the O’neill Puppetry Conference this last summer.

Scott Hitz was the Artist in Residence at the puppetry conference and during the 9 days of the conference he worked extensively on the production of  The Little Prince.   The production combines modern technology, brilliant puppetry, and great direction to make in my opinion an amazing show.

But, you don’t have to take my word for it. Check out the video preview here.

I love Wallace and Grommit. They have a unique and fantastic style.

This video is a great making of video of how they made their most recent short film “A Matter of Loaf and Death”

Lots of great stuff here.

Click on the link above to check it out.

Swazzle Studios has just released a whole bunch of videos demonstrating how to use their Audrey Two puppet.

They have videos for each of the four plants that are used throughout the play. Videos include how to get the plants set-up, how to puppeteer, how to eat the actors, and a lot of very funny moments.

A lot can be learned from these videos.  Also,  pay close attention to all the details on each plant.

The best part is you can rent the plants in the video for your very own Audrey Two production.

See all the videos here  <————–

also check out the website www.audreytwo.com

This is a photo of my Halloween costume from this year. I’ve had the idea forever. I’m so happy to have finally done it.  So, what do you think of the costume?

I look forward to sharing my knowledge of puppet stuff, ideas, materials, etc.. with all of you in future posts. Till then go and eat some candy.