Video Using Your Phone If you have ever been in a videography class or even watched video training on Youtube then you’ve probably heard the old adage “the best camera is the one that’s with you”. In today’s world of smartphones, that adage is more real than it has ever been. Mobile phone cameras have gotten progressively better over time and as they’ve become more reliable, they have become the ultimate tools for recording videos on the go. Most new devices full HD, and with

You will find that the way your lighting and sound are set up can sometimes make or break a performance. Here are some tips that will get you going in the right direction from the start. I only wish that I had someone savvy in these areas when I first started out. Hopefully you have access to some professionals of whom you can pick their brains. About the Sound Chances are that you will rarely, if ever, find yourself in a situation where just using your voice and a portable C

The Performance So, now it’s performance time and you have everything organized and under control. Yes? No? Well, I hope this blog post will help you answer that question with certainty. I always suggest that, along with having a detailed program together (which I will get into later) that you never do a performance before having a minimum of five to six practices with a full-on professional quality run through. The last two practice performances should be exactly like you wo

Make It Original, Make It Yours Developing Set puppet characters can be a fun way to get and keep team members involved. For them to know that the character they do is their character and no one else can do it gives them a sense of pride and responsibility to the team. I always suggest that every team member create a character; whether they use it or not. This will really come in handy when the team does return engagements and uses a set character because audiences will know

Gestures Less than 20 percent of communication is done with words. Body language plays an important role in how we naturally communicate. The same holds true for puppets when they are communicating. Some puppets, such as vent puppets and animatronics are designed to have multiple functioning parts for the purpose of gesturing, but most of my training primarily works on the premise that the puppeteer will be using a foam style puppet. Unless you spend for the extra quality or

You Thought You Learned It All? You are probably asking why this is popping up now and why I didn’t add it to the earlier post on Puppetry Basics or; the reason is because if you master the basics, you have the foundation for starting a good puppet team. Plus, if you haven’t mastered the basics, this portion will only confuse the puppeteer. Start with cooking Raman and then move up to General Tso’s. Back to Basics Not really, this is going to show you some advanced modificati

Now that you have the basics of your team on paper and you have your team in place, we need to discuss a few things that will make or break this newly birthed team. Practice It is vital that you have a weekly practice time. This is the only way to effectively work on programs, keep well trained on the fundamentals, work out the muscles that will be used on a regular basis, and develop that team mentality. How and when you run your practices is also important. It will be easy

Believable Actions and Interactions Again, I stress, if it is intentional and fits into the script as a viable action, then it is not wrong, but if done out of character or unintentionally, it is not professional and needs to be worked on. This is the last of the five basics, but ties all of the others into one cohesive professional performance. Actions need to look real. If they seem out of place for the situation or it looks as if the puppeteer is just trying to move for th

Keeping Steady Keeping your puppet at a steady height while on stage is important to the believability that the puppet is real and there is a floor under him/her/it. It is totally unnatural for a puppet to move up and down while on stage; unless he or she is doing squats or playing on a remote lift. It is, however, acceptable to move from side to side on occasion. This is another technique that will give a realistic feel while helping the arm to get circulation in it. When ar

Getting On Stage The second most important basic to get under your belt in order to look professional and create that suspension of disbelief that your audience wants to give to your performance in how your puppet enters and exits the stage/scene. The Entrance There are some really bad ways to bring a puppet on stage, trust me I have seen them all and been guilty of quite a few over the years. The bad thing is they are all common mistakes made all of the time. Note: Before go