Building a Better Hand Puppet - Tips and Techniques
Summary:
The internet is filled with patterns & pictures of fleecy friends, but if you want to build your own characters, you need an approach that that gives you strong results & makes your puppet expressive.
Description:
Puppets are not sculptures, they need to move! Building a puppet that moves well, stays light, and won’t break is the real key. We will look at the function of each part of the puppet, and then explore some tried and true ways that I have been building puppets for decades. Greg Ballora will emphasize taking a drawing and creating an easy blueprint that leads to success! For more than 30 years, Greg has been a Los Angeles-based puppet builder & performer. He has puppeteered with the Muppets, Henson’s Puppet Up, & was the Puppet Captain on Disney’s Crash & Bernstein. Greg has also been a Puppet Master for the Disneyland Resort, building puppets, training puppeteers, teaching students & creating parade choreography for puppets & large floats. Greg has taught puppet construction & performance at UCLA, Pepperdine University, Penn State & Cal Arts.
Do you want to create production-quality videos and live streams for your puppet characters? We're here to help!
Description:
Have you ever wanted to stream puppetry content live, or build yourself a humble (or not-so-humble) home studio setup? The folks from the Gen Con Puppetry Program are here to help you figure out cameras, lighting, monitors, workflows, streaming software, you name it for your puppet productions! Bring questions, we've got answers!
Come learn about what it takes to make and produce marionettes for the stage. Whether it's touring shows or theatrical productions, come for the process, stay for the marionettes!
Join the lead puppeteers from Team America World Police to look behind the scenes of films & TV shows where marionettes are the actors! We’ll dive into the 5 W’s and how’s of marionette productions.
Description:
Marionettes are one of the oldest forms of puppetry throughout the world, and for many, they are the first style of puppet we encounter as children. How are marionettes constructed? Are they manipulated differently for film than they are for theatre? Why are marionettes used instead of other styles of puppets? What are the special concerns when working with marionettes on camera? In this discussion, get answers to all these questions and many more. Plus you'll get to see some really cool behind-the-scenes photos! Join puppeteers Greg Ballora and Kristin Charney to take a peek behind the scenes of many productions, both big and small, that have used marionettes. Greg and Kristin create marionettes for filmed media in their Los Angeles-based workshop, and can't wait to share their expertise with you!
Pro puppet builders will discuss the various types of arm-rod construction with methods and benefits of each. (That's the stick that the puppeteer holds to control the hands) Ask questions!
Description:
Wake up, bring your coffee, and start thinking about what kind of arm controls you want.
Puppet building pros with seriously great credits will talk about various puppet building techniques, such as the wedge method, flat patterning, sculpting, and more!
The Camera sees everything! Or does it? Let’s take a look at the rigging and building that makes it look like a simple puppet can do it all!
Description:
How do you get a puppet to shoot a basket, ride a bull, play violin or eat a plate of spaghetti? Knowing your camera angles, having a great team, & a clear vision are a good start, but you also may need specialty puppets or props built to solve the problem. Lets look at some of the solutions that we have come up with for TV shows like Crash & Bernstein & commercials for Nike & Eyeglass World. For more than 30 years, Greg & Kristin have been Los Angeles-based puppet builders & performers. They've puppeteered with the Muppets, Henson’s Puppet Up, & Greg was the Puppet Captain on Disney’s Crash & Bernstein. On film, they were lead marionettists for Team America: World Police & part of the core Doc Ock performance crew on Spiderman II.
Pro puppet builders will discuss the various types of mouth-plate construction with methods and benefits of each. (That's the bit that the puppeteer holds onto inside a puppet.) Come ask questions!
Get the puppetry party started in this welcome back seminar for the Gen Con Puppetry Program, 2023! Learn what we're doing this year, plus make your own easy-peasy puppet to take with you!