I’ve spent a little time preparing the site for the upcoming changes; I’ve collapsed the NPF Diary into the blog page, moving all of the categories and posts onto the blog and have redirected the NPF Diary page to the blog itself. Hopefully there won’t be any trouble with old links, as it seems the blog software is automatically redirecting links to the correct place.

I’ve also removed the ‘Courses’ menu link, since that has been redirecting to the SOP site for a while now, and will be unecessary in the future once the Learn Online stuff has been moved.

I have to make more of an effort not to keep changing things  On the other hand, it’s nice to see things collapsing down a bit and getting more streamlined. Sometimes, in the process of adding new content, you can forget that this is also a website that needs to be easily navigable. 

I am endeavouring to catch up on actual building, which gets time consuming. I stopped doing the videos for the moppets a week or so ago out of frustratingly not being able to save an entire recording on BlogTV. I tried again a few days ago, and of course, the same thing happened. Not willing to give up this time, I tried again and managed to get two videos done. 

I did finally get my new shadow puppet screen working (not wanting to wait until it’s actually finished before getting my next video done… really, then you’d have to wait several more weeks, if not months, by the time I get to it), because it doesn’t stand very well on its own. When I post the pics of it, you’ll understand more about why I’ve had such trouble, but luckily I managed a very low-tech fix and it works like magic. (A while ago on Twitter I complained about ‘good idea, bad execution’, which referred to the design of the screen. The idea is good, but needs a very specific stand in order to make the whole thing work. Change the execution even slightly, and the resulting difference is huge)

Even better is that I’ve been playing with a different way of lighting the shadow puppet, and have managed to invent a very amazingly cool effect using filtered colours on the lighting beam combined with the natural colour of the puppet itself. It was really just a way to try and fix some striations in the beam of light, being caused by some scratches on the lens; funny how things work out. When I watched the playback of the test video, I was amazed at how cool it looked.

As usual, I had to stop just as I was ready to make a proper video, due to dead battery. Then of course, I had to take the screen down - mainly for fear that gravity would cause it to topple and severely cause damage to the house - so I’m now waiting for another opportunity to try again.

Anyway, I’m hoping to keep pushing on with these things and move backwards… yeah, backwards not forwards. Cause I keep starting new things and forgetting the old ones. 

Right now I’m waiting impatiently for a HTML file to be sent to me for the new PIM web design. I’ve spent the majority of today going through emails - a huge backlog still awaits - but have been trying to prepare the next lot of videos from SOP, and got somewhat distracted when a big amount of polymer clay arrived at my house.

I’ve never really worked with polymer clay before, but have been teaching myself how to make all sorts of things (thank Youtube), including some ‘canes’ for oranges. It took me about 4 hours to make my cane, perhaps because it’s my first one. I have to admit though, it’s nice working with a different medium for once. Instead of cutting, sewing or gluing, it’s good to do some kneading, mushing and rolling. And there’s nothing like stopping everything you’re doing because you have a craving to try something new. … Granted, this is all part of my master plan for a puppet that I’ve been working on, and coincidentally (in buying a birthday present for my sister made from polymer clay) realised that the stuff would be ideal for some unusual facial features.

Er yeah, you’re going to have to wait a bit to see what I mean, but hopefully if I get it right, it won’t be too weird.

Anyway, I’m also hoping to have some exciting news for tomorrow or Monday, so you may get 6 posts this week instead of 5. 

But don’t be surprised if I start working on the new PIM design in the meantime. 

I feel a bit lucky right now. You always hear about important bloggers and the like receiving special previews of TV shows, because they can greatly influence the number of people who watch the show when it’s revealed to the public. It just so happens that I have recently experienced a little of that.

The online world is a strange place, where you can meet (practically) neighbours without ever actually meeting them. And so it was when me and Henry from Puppets and Stuff met. He’s in the Dandenongs, about an hour drive from me; despite being there numerous times, I’d never known any puppetry to be there. What’s great is that it’s another person who’s local to me (in a sea of American puppeteers online) and that he has decided to share his work with me.

See, Henry is also known as Tall Ted (Bret is his real name, just to confuse things! Henry is just his P&S handle), a roving performer in a teddy bear costume. He and some fellow artisans have gotten together to make a TV pilot for a children’s show, which combines puppetry, craft, song, storytime and other such things. And I just finished watching a special DVD preview 

Of course, I’m not watching it because I have a huge sway with the local programming on TV; I’m watching it because Henry’s been talking about the pilot on P&S and was happy to send me a copy for fun. But it does make me feel special! (The show, as I understand it, will probably appear on Aussie TV on Channel 31 - our community TV station - if they can convince the programmers to show it)

Although the show has a certain unpolished feel to it, you can definitely tell it was done with love. The puppets are really well made, and the whole thing (while maybe not having the budget of you know, Sesame Street) has the overall feel of someone doing what they love and hoping to share it with the world, and in particular, children.

The good news is that I don’t have to tease you with tantalising hints of this pilot. Henry has put some of it online; the opening credits, which includes puppetry, Tall Ted, and an easily-stuck-in-your-head song . For anyone interested, the Tall Ted site also has some downloadable activities for kids, and info about hiring him for shows and the like. (Er, be warned, the site has some rather annoying moving bubbles as a background, which may not be pleasing to visually impaired people)… So yeah, watch some Aussie puppetry below:

A few nights ago I was flipping channels and happened upon the end of a segment on David Letterman’s show (yeah, we get it here but I can’t stand him or the show). I just caught him saying thanks to a very strange looking Nathan Lane (who I like). It seemed to be a Halloween thing. But because Nathan Lane was there, I got curious and in a few seconds heard The Addams Family. Well, the two and two clicked and it was clear the TV show has been turned into a musical. (One doesn’t have to hear Letterman say it: the mere fact that Lane is in a show usually suggests to me it’s going to be a musical)

Normally I wouldn’t care much or write about it, but it turns out this is yet another in the recent upsurge of staged musicals of well-known films (or TV shows in this case) using puppetry. Let’s see: The Lion King, Shrek the Musical, Finding Nemo, and yes, now, The Addams Family.

Naturally, by the time it gets to Australia another ten will have appeared in the US (neither Shrek nor FN have come here yet), so I went hunting for a bit of video. (I actually managed to track down the Letterman clip, but no puppets! )

If you’re curious, the puppetry is done by Basil Twist. So far, I’m not sure I’d like the musical (I’m not sure the Addams would really spend so much time singing so, well, joyfully. Also, as much as I like Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia, she’s just a little too ‘warm’ for my liking. If that’s possible, she’s more of Morticia in Frasier than in the clips I’ve seen), but I’m definitely curious about the puppetry in it. A squid, Cousin Itt, a venus fly trap, a giant iguana… sounds like fun!

So the closest I can get is this possible puppet (the iguana?) from a Vanity Fair pic: http://www.theaddamsfamilymusical.com/news.php?vanityfair=1 (sorry about the link, I couldn’t figure out if there was an embed option somewhere) and the clip from DL: