I’m an independent filmmaker and puppeteer in Toronto, Canada who blogs about puppetry and film.
This is a very honest and raw documentary about renowned puppeteer Mak Wilson, who discusses his career, his struggle with depression and some of the not-so-fun aspects of working in the film and television...
One of the biggest challenges to creating a film or web series is cost; they tend to be expensive. Even when you’re frugal and keep things as simple as possible, unless you’re fortunate enough to have access to equipment, materials and a studio or location where you can shoot expenses can pile up quickly. This...
Paul recently did a great post on his blog about Jim Henson’s early commercial spots and how that could be a successful advertising model today. I think he’s absolutely right; his post reminds me of one I wrote a couple years ago called Using Puppets To Pay The Bills. The 30 second pre-roll ad is...
You may not know this about me, but I went to business school. Actually, I went to a special one-year program here in Toronto that incubates small businesses and trains them in entrepreneurship. While I was there, we frequently had business owners come in to do guest lectures. One of the lecturers was the owner...
If you’re an artist, it’s important to understand how to properly utilize your backlist (photo credit: Alex). I’ve been writing PuppetVision for years now. When you visit the site or read it in an RSS reader you see 8-10 of the most recent posts I’ve made here. That’s PuppetVision’s frontlist. You have to dig a...
Lucas Cruikshank is a 15 year-old YouTube mogul. My recent post about “Bad Puppetry” stirred up some interesting discussion and generated a lot of feedback. I’m still sorting through some of it, but one of the things that has been most surprising to me was how many puppeteers are actually hostile towards many of the...
The television industry is ill and the prognosis isn’t good. I originally intended to write about this last month, when The New York Times reported that profits of the major American networks were in sharp decline. The situation has been much the same here in Canada, with CBC making steep cuts because of a funding...
Chris Guillebeau is the author of The Art of Nonconformity, a blog about personal development, entrepreneurship and unconventional work. Last year Chris set himself the goal of becoming a full-time, self-employed writer and launched his blog. His “overnight success” took less than a year to achieve and he expects to have a (mostly) passive income...
Newly-minted millionaire Ventriloquist Terry Fator is being sued by his former manager. Terry Fator might be about to lose the nice guy image he cultivated on America’s Got Talent last year. He’s being sued by his ex-manager John Raymond, who alleges that Terry is trying to avoid paying him an (estimated) $20 million commission on...
For the puppeteers and puppet builders out there, here’s a great line to use the next time you get asked to do something for low/no money because “it’ll be great exposure”: “You know, you can die from exposure”. Thanks to Karen Larson for sharing this great...
M dot Strange turned his back on Hollywood deals and leverages the power of YouTube and the internet to make his films, his way. M dot Strange is a one-of-a-kind filmmaker who seems to be mastering the art of successful self-distribution. He got lots of offers to distribute his film We Are The Strange after...