A little behind the scenes glimpse at my new project!

In the last post I talked about my puppet effects production in which I would write little stories about our fun and amazing animals here at the Beekman.  I was going to write a childrens book about it, but decided, with my past experience in video production, plays and effects, that I'd instead create a cool and fast paced puppet show series. 

I'm about 2/3 of the way finished with the first story and it's story board. 

A storyboard is used in TV and mostly film production to visually layout  the scenes that will be in the final video or film.   It includes a sketch or picture of the anticipated shot and then the dialogue or action written under it.  Walt Disney used storyboards all the time when he was writing. 
This is what the story board for this project, looks like (at least one section)...

You can see that it's broken up into different scenes. 

Here are a few random closeups that include our real life characters:

 Shay the goat, Jolene the cat,

and of course, a glimpse at Pokey.

(I didn't put them in order because I don't want to give away the story.

I just wanted to show a few examples.)

(Intro shot of barn.)

(Shay the goat watching Jolene run by.)

(Jolene dangerously jumps and is clinging for dear life to a feeder ledge.)

(Jolene gets in trouble with Pokey.)

(Jolene smiling.)

Now this will all be performed with puppets and effects, so I started designing and building those aspects as well. Here is a half completed Pokey puppet that will be used for closeup shots.

She's obviously not done yet.  I still have to fine tune her shape.  (The puppet looks a little more "mule" like to me right now.) We'll add fur later too.

(Ears up...)

(and the all important - ears down.)

(Eyes open...)

(and eyes shut or blinking.)

There are levers built inside of the puppet head for controling the facial features.

(This foam is what she was created from.)

So I'm having a blast!

My mother, Marcia, who can be seen in the Halloween post on this blog, is a seamstress and a puppeteer who is going to be working to help me with this as well.

The final product will be a preview video on our site, an actual DVD which will be able to be purchased on our site, a coloring book based on the story AND hand made puppets and stuffed animals based on Jolene, Pokey, and Shay. 

As future stories are made about different characters in our barn, then those puppets will be made too.  Our approach to this production is to make as enjoyable for kids as it is for grownups.  That's how Disney made his films and we'd like to emulate that philosophy.

Very exciting and a lot of fun to make and I hope you'll enjoy it when it's done. Our anticipated completion date and release on the website will be mid March. 

Busy, busy times now.  The babies are on the way in less than a month, the crew is still filming, and now we're working on this project as well. 

Hope you enjoyed this entry and stay tuned!

Jase

Great holidays! So what's next?

What a “winter whirlwind”!  The Christmas season of 2010 sure was a blast.  Between all the “get-togethers” and festivities and the holiday orders… let’s just say we’ve been, as you probably were too, very busy.  But, finally, the shipments have been shipped, the gifts have been opened and the rush of the holiday is over, as we venture into the white, quiet, calm and cozy doldrums of winter. 

But, wait a minute… what is that marked on the calendar?  Could it be more impending excitement embedded in this peaceful time of the year? 

Yes.   There is a circled date on the page of the next month.  It is February 9^th. 

You may have an idea as to why that day is important.  It is vitally important to us in that it marks a new flurry of activity here at the Beekman.  And it is… Baby Goat Season! 

That is the day it all begins when our first two expectant goat mothers give birth.  Of course, Mother Nature could decide not to abide by the calendar, but it does give us a target date to make sure to “ready the barn” and prepare our Beekman winter wonderland for countless little hooved ones. 

To give you an idea of the magnitude of this upcoming birthing and milk season, John last year was milking 60 goats.  This year, he’s going to try 110!  His father, Harold, and I will be greatly assisting him much more as a result, which brings me to another bit of important information relating to you.  Since we are inevitably going to be so preoccupied with the animals needs, we have reluctantly decided to slow down on production of our standard items in the farmerjohnandjason store for a bit.  We simply won’t have the time we did throughout the fall.  Not for a little while, anyway. 

This is, after all, the section of year when the days start for us at 2:00am and, much later that evening, end at 9:00 pm!  Oh, we’ll have some time for sleeping and eating in between, but the point is our schedules will be radically different.   Just not much time for sculpting, painting or crocheting.

So, what will farmerjohnandjason.com offer in the next few months through this nursery season?

Well, we’ve been talking with Shirley, John’s sister, who said she’d like to create some new products for the store.  Also, our blogging will continue.  We'll also have updates on the babies.  And, something else will be arriving soon too – involving entertainment for families!  See, each of us here at the Beekman are all excited about the interest in the show from parents and kids, all over the country.  The animals of course seem to appeal greatly to the youngest viewers.  Therefore, I decided to begin developing an entertainment project based on our famous Beekman animals specifically for families.  It will involve specially designed puppets, effects and stories about our animals and will amount to a DVD that will be able to be purchased on our farmerjohnandjason.com website.  It’s still in progress, so I don’t have many details to share yet, but I’ll keep you posted as it develops and reveal its release date in the near future.  

So some exciting change is in the cool, arctic wind.  We’ll keep you “in the know” to any new and additional ideas we may get.  In the meantime, I truly hope everyone had a magical Holiday and you can enjoy the winter as much as you can, for as brief of a time that it is here.  It’ll fly by and before you know it, the springtime flowers and buds will be blooming again!

Till then, bundle up and stay warm!