1. Sock Puppet. I chose this sock puppet as one of my final three puppets as I really like the simplicity of it and yet how effective the character can be. Not only this, but I feel that because it was one of the first puppets I made on the module, it shows a starting point as from this point the puppets began to need more skill and attention. 2. Hand Puppet. I particularly liked this puppet as I feel that I learnt a lot from the process of making it. Because it started out as the small foam puppet, I chose to model over the foam using polymer clay which gave it a smoother, more realistic finish and this also allowed the paint to dry with a better finish. Not only this, but I was able to see through this puppet how a character could develop - it started life as a happy elderly woman and ended as a Scrooge-like elderly man in his pyjamas. I also enjoyed making the the clothes out of such a simple shape and material and seeing how this added to the character. 3. Large Foam Puppet (Maud).
I seem to have become quite attached to Maud in particular. Out of all of the puppets I've made over the past few months, I feel that I definitely invested the most time into making her. The process of carving her foam head was by far my favourite out of the different techniques that we have tried and I really like the finish that using paper-mache has given her surface.
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Anti AssociationI found the 'anti-association' exercise one of the most challenging. The first thing we did was sit in pairs in opposite directions but so that our ears were side by side. We then had to whisper a word in our partners ear, they could only reply with something that was totally unrelated. This then repeated itself until someone made a mistake. I found that the more I thought about what I was trying to say, the harder the exercise became and the more difficult it was to think of a totally unrelated word. Because of this I found myself trying to think of a word to say before it was even my turn however, I found that this put even more pressure on the situation and made me panic and again, unable to think of anything to say. The idea was to keep as calm as possible, and more than anything else, try not to over think. Just say the first thing that came into your mind. Glove Puppet PerformancesThe glove puppet performances help us learn how to manipulate and perform with these types of puppets. The sketches were mainly improvised so we didn't worry too much about what was going on so we could therefore focus on how we were using the puppet and what we were doing wrong and how we could improve it. We looked at elements of the performances such as how we were making our puppets talk. We saw how you should try and only move the bottom jaw of the puppet when making it talk so that it looks more life like and natural. As well as this, by making the mouth movements more exaggerated it became easier to speak with the puppet. Other tips included making sure that your arm was up straight when the glove puppet was on your hand so you know exactly where you are making it look and rather than looking at the audience, make sure that you are looking at you puppet at all times so that it almost becomes an extension of you and your aware of everything that you are making that puppet do. Hand SlapsThe hand slapping game had two parts. In pairs you both played your hands out in front of you. Taking it in turns, you'd try and slap the other persons hands without breaking eye contact. If they flinched and you hadn't slapped them, they lose. If you were to miss when trying to slap them, you'd lose. The second part of this game is almost the same only this time you'd have your hands by your sides instead of out in front of you. This exercise was all about reading the other person and trying to anticipate their move before they slapped you. Newspaper Improvisation and AccentsIn small group, we took it in turns to read a chosen article out from a newspaper. The other people in our groups would then instruct us on how to read the article out. For example, the could ask us to read it in different accents, talk louder or softer, fast or slower. Some people took to this very well, whilst others like myself struggled with it. I found it hard to read aloud anyway but when you have people asking you to change your voice whilst your reading it I found it quite hard to concentrate on doing both. Not only this, but I am also not very good at putting on accents however it was fairly amusing to both myself and the other people in my group when I tried. MimingFor this miming exercise, we were in groups of four people. One by one, we took it in turns to stand facing away from the rest of the group whilst they got into a position that could potentially tell a story. Once they were held in a 'freeze frame' the person standing away from the group was allowed to turn around and look at the freeze frame, but only for a second. They then had to close their eyes and answer questions about what was happening and what they saw from the people who were originally in the freeze frame. Intriguingly, sometimes the person with their eyes shut picked up on the smaller details of the pose but couldn't remember how many people were in it or what more than possibly one or two people were doing in the pose. They'd focus on giving this a back story then, if asked about the others, they'd have to think of a way to bring it in with what they were saying. When being asked about the pose, I found that you had to improvise quickly, without giving it too much thought otherwise you'd just complicate it for yourself as well as everyone else. CharadesCharades took place in teams. One member of the team would be given a film title from Matt and they would then have to act it out, without using any sound, to their team within a set amount of time. If their team couldn't guess it before the time was up, their opposition could have a turn to guess, if they guessed correctly, they would win the point from that round. We saw that the nearer you got to the end of your time, the bigger the gestures that were being made got as the player would try to simplify their actions as much as possible. There were a few examples of films where the 'actor' had never seen the film and had no idea how to give any clues so they would be left to act the film title out word by word and hope for the best. Clumps (Pictionary)Clumps is fairly similar to Pictionary. In pairs, we'd take it in turns to get a word given to us by Matt from a list. You'd then have to draw the word you were given and only allowed to move onto the next word once your partner had guessed correctly. This became an extremely competitive game very quickly. It tested our non verbal communication skills and it was also interesting to see how different people interpreted different words. We saw that by keeping the drawings as simple as possible, it made it quicker to not only give your partner more clues, but it also often made it much simpler to guess. Animating Found ObjectsEach person within our puppetry group bought in a small object. These ranged from sets of keys, to a tiny clog and an air freshener. Putting each of these objects on a table in the middle of the room, we each picked a single object at a time to experiment with. We discovered how we could 'animate' these objects to make them move, whether that would be flying through the air or jumping on the ground and what sort of noises would suit these otherwise inanimate objects. At first there was a sense of embarrassment throughout the group, with some members being more willing than others to make what they thought a toilet roll should sound like. However, after a while, things seems to drop into place, how we were moving the objects seemed to suit them more and more and whilst everyone was making strange noises to represent their objects, it became much less embarrassing. This was an interesting exercise as we really learnt how much we could do with an object that has no facial features, no limbs or for that matter, isn't even seen as a proper character. Swapping ChairsThis activity required a lot of concentration as well as communication between the people playing. Everyone in the room was sat on a chair, apart from one person who would have to stand up. The standing person would have to aim to sit down on the one remaining chair however, the people who were sitting down had to try and to avoid this from happening by moving seats to sit in the spare chair. This meant that at any one time, there was always a spare chair some where in the room. The sitting people could only move one at a time and the standing person could end up running around the room aiming for the spare chair. For the sitting people, it was all a matter of communication, mainly through the use of eye contact to make sure that if they were to move, they would be the one to reach the seat first. This was such a fast moving exercise you really had to concentrate on what was happening and work with the people around you.
I wanted to improve my small foam puppet to a better standard. I didn't like the finish that had been created by painting straight onto the foam and I felt that I had rushed it to a point where I knew I could create a more aesthetically pleasing puppet. To begin to start this improvement, I used 'Polymer' clay and shaped it around the existing foam head. by doing this, I knew I could reshape some of the feature such as the eyes and the nose to make them look more suitable whilst keeping others that I felt suited the character such as the mouth and the cheek bones. As I was sculpting this, I decided that it felt like more of a male character rather than a female as I had originally thought so it became a grumpy, old man. I painted his skin using acrylics as I had before however, the finish that I was getting here was much smoother and nicer to work with than simply the bare foam. I used variations of colour to help exaggerate features such as his sunken cheeks and large nose. I also gave him large, grey eye brows to help him look fairly old. I made his bed clothes from a tea towel, this reminded me of a shirt my Grandad used to wear so i thought that it would be rather fitting. I also gave this character a night cap as it reminded me of the character scrooge and various other traditional stores and char actions where they are often pictured wearing something similar. I added small buttons and a little pocket on his left hand side to make it look more authentic.
To create my net based puppet I began by slotting two oval pieces of card together so it looked like a cross section of a head. Then, I cut thin strips of cardboard (making sure the the corrugated lines ran against the direction of the strip) and wrapped them around the oval shapes, securing them with masking tape. We were to try and add the necessary contours and to get the general shape of the 'head' symmetrical . I found this difficult; the face I decided to try and create was fairly complicated and had a very large nose to it was hard to get the cardboard to bend and then stay in the ways I needed it to. Another problem I encountered was that I couldn't layer up the strips of cardboard too much or it would begin to distort the shape. The way I tried to solve this was by cutting strips that were overlapping each other and then re-attaching them with masking tape so the contour was smoother. Sometimes, I found that entire strips could be removed as others took their places. Towards the end of this first stage, I began to get quite confused as to what piece was attached where and how I could regain the shape of the head that I originally wanted. Eventually, I was happy with what I had and started on the next stage. The second stage of this puppet was to create a net for it. To do this, I used sugar paper which I then wrapped around the 'head' that was made out of the cardboard from earlier. Using scissors to make darts and cut away the unwanted pieces of paper, I began to form the net for one half of the face, with the idea being that I could use the same net for both the left and right hand sides of the head so they would then become symmetrical. Again, I used masking tape to secure the paper in place as I cut and changed it so that the net would be as accurate as possible. Having created the net, I then drew around it onto a foam sheet and cut this out, making sure the the two pieces were using opposite sides of the net so that they would fit together and I wouldn't have two nets of the same side of the face. The next challenge was to put the nets back together to create the original shape of the face only this time using the foam sheet material. It was at this point, having stuck one side of the face together that I realised that I had lost some of the face contours entirely and the nose was no longer in existence. However, I decided to put the other piece of the net together, stick both of them together and see how I could adapt this to make it work. I decided that I could adapt this net and use it even if it wasn't what I had originally planned. The shape reminded me of something insect like, for example the shape of the head of an ant. Using PVA glue, I glued together the seams between the foam sheets of the inside of the puppets head, whilst this got quite messy, and took a long while to dry, it made it easier to see where I needed to cut the mouth out from when I had removed all of the masking tape and it wasn't falling apart quite so easily.
Jan Svankmejer's film 'Alice' uses a combination of real time film and stop motion animation. The puppets used within the film look nightmare-ish, particularly due to the combinations of different parts they each have from a number of different objects. The way that they have been captured also adds to this as the slightly jerky appearnce of stop motion animation give the film a weird dream-like quality. However, I also like the way that Svankmejer has combined real time film with the stop motion animation as it makes you question what is and isn't real within the film.
Originating in Indonesia, Wayang Kulit puppetry is an ancient form of shadow puppetry. The puppets are usually 2d, traditionally made from thin sheets of wood (however, they have also traditionally been made from rawhide), they have intricate designed carved into them which become even more noticeable when being used with the lit background.
They are used in-between a screen (typically a thing cloth) and a lighting source (i.e. a lamp) which casts a shadow forward to the audience. Wayang Kulit puppets are used to tell religious tales (depending on the region usually Hindu or Islamic stories) showing good and evil, and are usually there as some sort of educational purpose and have a moral to the story. |
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January 2017
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