Here is a great behind the scenes interview with members of the show Avenue Q. I am a fan of hearing people talk about the puppets they work with. A short but interesting clip. Enjoy.

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.

*WARNING: Contains Blood and Gore”

 Fellow Canadian puppet builder and puppeteer Matt Ficner has just posted his second video for his Creepy Puppet Project.  The video was made at local Ottawa, Ontario (CANADA) horror attraction called Saunders Farms.

I really like how Matt is breaking the “puppets are for kids” idea…er…should I say smashing and hacking the idea?  Althought I am not a big fan if horror movies, I do love Matt’s work and I found this video in particular very appealing.  Check it out, but be warned it contains lots of blood and gore.  It is definately not for children.

I came across this video a while back and I have had it saved in my favourites folder.  The video uses the song “Without Me” by Eminem and changes the lyrics while using puppets for many of the visuals.  The puppets are from The Puppet Studio and the fact that I like the instrumental to this song makes it quite catchy indeed.  Please be advised that the song is obviously politically one sided (as is often the case with politics).  But I posted this song for the puppetry not the politics.  I like the puppets and the instrumental.  I hope you do too.

I recently received an email from Chris Deline about a top five puppet video countdown.  It was posted about here.  I would like to add to that top five another video I stumbled across.  The song is called Heart It Races by the group Architecture In Helsinki from the album Places Like This.   First off I love the song, it is catchy and makes me want to listen to it over and over again. 

Secondly is that it uses some great “living” puppets instead of more traditional hand and rod puppets.  These puppets use the performer’s head mounted on a puppet body, and in this case it uses the performer’s live hands as well.

Overall it is a great video and well deserving of being acknowledged too.  Super job!

In my opinion Philip Hatter is an amazing young talent when it comes to puppets.  As the owner of Thistledown Puppets in Virginia, he has done a bunch of puppet videos for Youtube that has received some attention.  Most recently he has decided to make a little introduction video that has him talking a bit about his puppets and his studio.

I think this is a great idea.  It acts as a sort of demo reel, but with more of a personal touch.  After watching it, I feel like I know him personally.  This works really well in creating customer confidence.  I have long been planning to make my own demo reel and after watching this video I am convinced that I need to do it sooner than later.

Make sure that you check out some of the puppets that Philip has made and check out his new blog called Thistledown Puppets: Behind the Curtain.  Awesome job all around Philip!