PuppetVision Blog
23 Mar 2012
I Am Big Bird Documentary
No comments - Archived in Feature Films, Puppeteers

Following the huge success of last year’s Kevin Clash documentary Being Elmo comes the news that Sesame Street’s Caroll Spinney will be profiled in a documentary currently in production called I Am Big Bird. The filmmakers promise that the film will make extensive use of Caroll’s personal archive of photos, films and videos and include lots of never before seen material. No release date has been announced yet, but it looks like this will be a fascinating look at the life and work of one of the world’s most beloved puppeteers.

More information about the film and nice gallery of production photos can be found at www.iambigbird.com.

documentariesMuppetsSesame Street
22 Mar 2012
Bigfoot and Gray on the Run
No comments - Archived in Pilots & Experiments

This is a short pitch reel for a proposed series called Bigfoot and Gray on the Run. Developed by animator Chris Savino (a a producer and director on Disney’s XD’s Kick Buttowski series), the show is built around a (partially shaved) Bigfoot and an alien who try to blend in with human society while on the run from a secret government agency. It was originally envisioned as an animated series and was optioned by a cartoon channel at one point, but it eventually morphed in to a live action show.

The alien puppet in the video was performed by Robin Walsh. Chris has a great production blog with archives that go all the way back to 2008(!) and feature lots of behind-the-scenes info that’s worth checking out if you’d like to learn more about the project’s development.

Special thanks to Rondal at Strange Kids Club for sending this in!

crowdfundinghand and rod puppets
19 Mar 2012
Nerdist wants you nerding out about puppets
No comments - Archived in Web Series

For most of the past year YouTube has been busy reorganizing itself around themed “channels” and one of the first to launch is Nerdist, which – as you might expect – is place for just about everything people like to get nerdy about, including lots of puppetry. YouTube has managed to attract a lot of talent to the project, including the Jim Henson Company, who have been producing a pre-launch Nerdist web series called Puppet For President for the past several months and helped produced this launch video that has been going viral today.

Nerdist will “officially” launch April 2nd will a full slate of two dozen shows and will feature lots of puppetry, including a re-lease of the Henson Alternative series S.U.D.S., new “mini episodes” of Farscape, and a new series that you just know that you’re going to want to watch called Neil Patrick Harris Dreaming in Puppets.

(Monday Morning Inspiration will return next week)

14 Mar 2012
More Diet Coke Marionettes
No comments - Archived in Commercials

Diet Coke is continuing its “marionette” ad campaign (see previous post) with a series of new shorts on YouTube created by fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. The ads feature Gaultier – who was recently named Creative Director of the Diet Coke brand for 2012 – as a a journalist (above), a therapist and a private detective as he helps solve the fashion emergencies of the Diet Coke Puppets. It’s the continuation of a nice, multi-year campaign featuring puppets by Puppet Heap that originated in the UK.

Via Sons of Punch.

Puppet Heap
13 Mar 2012
Red Band: Israel’s Raunchy Puppet Rockers
No comments - Archived in TV Shows

Red Band is the name of a popular Israeli rock band that’s made up entirely of puppets. They’re sort of like the Electric Mayhem crossed with Gorillaz.

The group was formed by three Israeli American students - Ari Feffer, Micha Duman and Ami Wiesel – at Tel Aviv University who started hanging out together to play music and then, later, to build and perform puppets. After busking for awhile on the streets of Tel Aviv they were eventually discovered by television producers, which led to the creation of a self-titled R-rated “mockumentary” series that guest starred some of the biggest names in Israeli music (the video embedded above features lead vocals by Ninet, a popular Israeli singer).

Now they’re not only stars in their native Israel, but touring internationally too. You can learn more about them by listening to this feature on band from Public Radio International’s The World:

Hat tip to Nancy Staub for discovering this!

hand and rod puppetsIsraeli puppetry
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