I am currently deep into production of my short prairie puppet film, Len & His Spitfire. I can happily say that my team and I have picked up some momentum and are gaining speed! I am learning a great deal as things progress, and am proud to be dedicating so much of my time & energy to a film that is a tribute to the memory of my grandfather. I’ve set extremely high standards for this project because the story means so much to me; & because I would want my grandfather to be proud of it and of me.
Testing was a huge importance at this point in the process. Unfortunately, I ran into trouble when I found out that the paper that I used successfully on my last project was no longer being supplied by anyone in town. Thus began a province wide hunt for a suitable replacement paper. Eventually I found a new type of paper, which was subpar in comparison to the previous paper, but it would have to do! With the new paper we ran into a lot of new and unexpected problems; from printer feed malfunctions due to the slightly heavier weight of the paper, to fine detail issues with the top layer getting easily seperated. However, the alternative of purchasing a bulk order of the original paper straight from the manufacturer would have cost $5000 (plus shipping!), which was out of the question! So we went with the new paper, which coincidentally stopped being sold halfway through the project, leading to yet another city-wide search for a suitable replacement.
Fishing Line Joint Tests
Getting back to testing, Sarah and I were taught a new way of making paper puppet joints, which required a lot of practice and testing to get the technique just right. Previously we had been using brads and rivets to create joints, with this new technique we used fishing line instead. Testing was of the utmost importance with this new technique due to the fact that it involved the use of fire. we came up with this simple equation to simplify the problem at hand: PAPER PUPPET + FIRE = LOTS OF TESTING REQUIRED!
The very first test puppet that was created gave a lot of useful results. The most important lesson learned was that the digital designs would have to be brightened up exponentially in order for the detail to translate to paper. Test puppets give you a chance to play around with the design that you envisioned, without the worry of ruining the actual puppet. Once you have confidence in your design and you’ve figured out the tweaks that need to be made based on the test puppet, you can begin to make your good copy.
Until next time, here is some test footage of test puppets. Enjoy!
Upon my return home from an exhaustingly fun weekend at the Yorkton Film Festival (Where Siberian Maneater and Coming Out: My Year Time Limit were nominated for Student Production, but lost to a fun film called Offlinecreated by some talented Winnipeg filmmakers, Ian Bawa and Markus Henkel), I was greeted by an official looking Saskatchewan Arts Board envelope. For my reaction to the news that it contained, watch the video below.
Once the shock wore off, I began my long journey through the process of Pre-Production for Len & His Spitfire. This included first off doing more indepth research into my Grandpa Len’s story, along with capturing and logging all of his photography. Using a combination of family members’ stories, Len’s pilot’s Logbook, and his photography as a bases for the storyarch I was able to then write a script. After the script went through a few rewrites (based on critical feedback from colleagues) I went through each scene and created lists of photographic content that would be needed.
Script, Scene breakdown, and digitized photographs.
The way I chose to visually tell the story depended highly on my grandfather’s photographs. After familiarizing myself in-depth with all the photos, I had a good idea of what I had to work with and was able to draw the storyboards. With some completed storyboards I was able to begin the long and intensive process of digital design; which entailed separating the foreground, midground and background objects. For example, a photograph of Len in front of his plane would entail that I cut Len out and reconstruct the part of the plane that would then be missing.
once I had a complete panel of puppets designed I used my fancy new wide-format printer and FINALLY put Karen Elliott, the project’s Cut-Out Fabricator, to work! Karen would cut out the puppets and hand them over to Sarah Huber, the project’s Puppetizing Fabricator, who would go to work figuring out how to make the puppet function the way I had envisioned (not an easy task!). It’s at this point that TESTING became a very important step in the process of creating a finished puppet. My next post will go into more detail about why and how of testing. As for now I will leave you with an introduction to the Pre-Production Team for Len & His Spitfire.
Noelle Duddridge is working as a Programming Coordinator for the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative; a non-profit artist-run centre which supports and assists independent visionary film and video production in Saskatchewan. She is currently wrapping up Pre-Production of her latest puppet film, Len & His Spitfire, and is searching out avenues of funding for the next stage of the process (Production).
Karen Elliott is currently working as a Television Programming Scheduler for Access Communications Cooperative. In her spare time she enjoys developing her puppet skills as a Cut-Out Fabricator and puppeteer by helping colleagues on their projects, such as Siberian Maneater, A Gentleman’s Quarrel, Waking Up, and most recently Len & His Spitfire. Karen has a diploma from SIAST in Media Arts Production as well as a Film Studies degree from the University of Regina.
Sarah Huber is a recent graduate of the University of Regina where she received her BFA in Film Production. While in school, Sarah had the opportunity to work with Chrystene Ells on her Artist in Residence project, This Big World. Working with Chrystene, Sarah discovered a passion for puppet filmmaking. She has since created 2 puppet films of her own. One of her films, Siberian Maneater, was nominated for best student production in the Yorkton Film Festival, 2013. She is currently working on her next puppet film entitled, The Gift, after receiving a grant from the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative for it.
Stay tuned to learn about puppet testing in my next post!
Noelle Duddridge 