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