Work-in Progress

Making in Progress

Making in Progress

QR code burnt into the surface of the puppet
(I am going to put the QR code on the 'handle' so they are all uniform size)

For some reason the wooden bull was enlarged, so I will have to
double check measurements before I send them all the be laser cut. 

My original design for the library was too detailed and intricate.
The pattern could not cut out, it just burnt through the mdf.
I will have to keep designs simple, and gaps aprox 1-2mm no smaller. 

Original Library design

New design

I am going to create a blog to go along side this pop-up city scene, and on each puppet there will be a QR code which will link directly to information about that aspect of Birmingham.

Each QR code will be unique and link to a different page on the blog.

QR codes are read through a smart phone - Download the App (available for free on iphone, Android, Blackberry & Windows phones)

I am going to put the QR code on the 'handle' of the puppet so that the puppet can be used from either side (left or right) and to make it appear neater - etching the QR code on to the front of the puppet will look messy and un-even as each one would be a different size to fit the puppet.

The idea with this blog is that it could be interacted with by the users - they can leave comments on their experiences, share information about the city or the 'attraction'.

www.cityscenepuppet.blogspot.co.uk

Tutorial 12/03/2013

Having realised that the TV/Computer screen idea wasn't as effective as I hoped, I decided to go back to the idea of having a pop-up wooden theatre, however, I am turning the screen around and instead of having it as a shadow puppet, making it front facing with changeable backgrounds.

Tutorial 12.03.2012

- Commercial sellable product
- No longer shadow puppets - turn box around and have 'pop-up' theatre style
- Instead of screen for shadows - they will be changeable backgrounds (interactive?)
- Make the 'theatre' bigger - longer - table top size
- lots of channels/buildings
- Make it appeal to all genders/ages etc
- Video to go with product could be an advert?
- Materials? (Mountboard? Wood? Perspex?)
- Lights? Able to adapt these into the theatre so it becomes a lamp as well as interactive toy?
- Research into people/brands who make similar toys (e.g The White Company)
- Cost of materials? - Niche market/niche toy - costing of materials will give an idea of retail price.

Sketch of idea

Sketch of idea

Development

Sketch of idea for transportable/pop-up puppet theatre

More sketches to show idea

Attempt 1 - building channels on top of the wood
(difficult to get evenly spaced & glue will effect how smooth
the piece will glide between the spaces)

(Screen size A4)

Attempt 2 - creating 'channels' into the wood
I prefer this option-  I think it gives a much neater finish
- difficulty getting the right thickness of channel (minimum 3mm which is a little large for card)

Regular card much too thin (flops around in channel).
Mountboard fills the gap better but will probably have to be  double
thickness to support the height of some of the larger buildings/landmarks

Computer Screen/TV idea

Mock-up contraption to attach to computer screen - cloud scenery in background

Frame/Screen put in front of computer -computer turned to maximum brightness
(this is a cloud video but you could not tell! - maybe thinner paper would get better results - tracing paper?)
Shadow puppet really fuzzy unless pushed right up against screen - light not bright enough to give clear shadow outline

 

'Laser show' background on computer 

Video: (This has a cloud video projected behind it though you cannot tell, other than the brightness of the screen changing occassionally)

Further Research!

Birmingham Based TV Programmes which I could adapt into scenery for TV/Computer screen background idea:

Doctors:
(BBC programme, originally filmed in the Pebble Mill studio - Edgbaston, and then moved to Selly Oak.)

Boon: 

TV series 1-3 were set in Birmingham.

Crossroads:

Originally filmed in a motel in Birmingham called Cherry Tress, it then moved in 1985 to Penns Hall Hotel in Sutton Coldfield.  Other filming locations included Gas Street Canal Basin, Hagley Hall, and Birmingham City Centre.

Take Me High:

A 1973 British feature film, (starring Cliff Richard in his final film role) was set and filmed in Birmingham, it featured many landmarks from the city, including Gas Street Basin, Alpha Tower, the Council House (as a hotel), Spaghetti Junction, New Street, Corporation Street, Central Library and the Hall of Memory.

Music Videos

I also looked into other music-videos which use puppetry, to get ideas and thoughts as to how my video might look:

Paul Gittins - Shadow House 'Cirrus':

'Home - Nine Mile' - https://vimeo.com/51969785

Supergrass - 'Pumping on Your Stereo':

Lily Allen - 'Alfie':

Tutorial with David Curtis-Ring

05.03.2013

A really helpful tutorial today with David Curtis-Ring and Jo - lots of inspiration & new ideas to think and consider with my project.

Some points we discussed (too many ideas, loved them all!):

- Developing the idea of this interactive Birmingham skyline

- Like the idea of 'flat pack' - that it can be transported/taken anywhere almost as a toy

- Suggested the idea of being able to attach it to a TV/Computer monitor & use the screen as a light source - create a DVD/scenery to be played in the background and play with puppets in front. Being able to 'hide' modern technology behind this puppet screen, adapt the use of space to create a new focus in the room (like how people used to put a 'doily' on the TV!) 

- Idea of layering. (creating video, then puppet, then recording it to put back on the TV/Computer, to then play again on screen etc) - Play/project either weather or other different Birmingham exports (TV programme Doctors, Pepper-mill at One etc)

- OHP projections? - practice shadow on this

- Music Video. Look at mashing up different music samples from Birmingham 

- Video: Drop in different buildings into the screen depending on when they were built & the music of that era could be played in the background

- As well as 'static' building puppets, idea of having a few different 'floating' puppets eg helicopter (Birmingham link to military hospital)

-Any way to adapt it to mobile phone size?

- Work out what I want to film & how I will go about doing that (trial runs)

- Simple blog posts

- Less focus on the actual buildings for now (they seem to work!)

References mentioned:

1) Music Video ' Katachi' by Shugo Tokumaru:
This is a stop frame animation, but elements of this are smiler to the idea that looked into with the synchronised/kaleidoscope ballet dancers, and an effective way of putting it to music.

2) Lottie Reiniger - Hansel and Gretel

3) Peter Callesen - Paper engineer:

David Curtis-Ring

Brilliant presentation from David Curtis-Ring today who came to visit level 5s.

Some really fascinating & interesting work, and a lot of use of puppetry within it.

Some notes I took from this session:

Fashion/Costume/Set-designer:
- Foundation course at BCU, Bournville
- Studied Textiles at Goldsmiths
- Assisted Set Designers...developed from there...


- Recently worked with designer Craig Green in his Autumn/Winter 2013 collection to create wooden headpieces for the models to wear with his collection of clothing - there was a lot of press coverage at the time around these headpieces!
- Worked on music video (puppetry) - 'Bloodface' by Lisa Li-Lund
- Worked with puppeteer Billie Achilleos
- Worked with Jenna Foxton on music video for Sinead O'Connor
- Made 'Bling' peacock feathers for online advert for Converse

Be practical - get making & take ideas from there

"Filming in the dark really transforms the use of space"

Kepp a collection of images you like/inspire you as a reference - always a good starting point to look at when stuck on a new project.

http://www.davidcurtis-ring.com

Laser Cutter Trial

Laser cutter trail:

The Bull 'laser cut' (super sleek!)

Juneau tutorial

I had a Tutorial with Ben from Juneau Projects.

These are some points we discussed and I will take into consideration:

- Thought that pulling apart the scenery for people to be able to interact with it individually was a nice concept - like a 'flat pack' city

-  Look into using laser cutter

 
- Maybe try and get some aspects of the designs to move (e.g the 'Birmingham Wheel to Spin')

- Some designs do not need to be as complicated - more simplistic sometimes works better & will make puppets less delicate

- Still consider doing a video & putting it to music - link it back to my original idea of Birmingham's music/ballet culture

 
- A music video to look at - Chemical Brothers 'Star Guitar' - directed by Michel Gondry. For each instrument/rhythm that plays in the song, a certain object appears in the scenery - My city video may work well in a similar way:

Birmingham Skyline

I looked into breaking down the skyline of Birmingham into individual landmarks/buildings rather than 1 object.

I decided to draw these into Illustrator so that they could be enlarged to any size suitable & in the hope that I'd be able to use the laser cutter for a sleek smart finish (as small shadow puppets they need to have perfect crisp edges to come through the screen with best results, rather than being hand-cut.)  

For some landmarks I imported the picture into illustrator and drew around the basic shape - for others I just copied the shape as close as possible.  Unfortunately the 'trace' tool in Illustrator was not suitable - the images were too detailed & intricate.

These are my first testers:

Council House, The Bull, The Birmingham Wheel (hand cut)

Illustrator drawing - Bt Tower

Illustrator drawing - Birmingham Wheel

Illustrator drawing - Selfridges

Starting point again!

Again....back to the brief.  I looked at Birmingham as a whole - and the idea of creating a rolling landscape which could have ballerina/musician shadow puppets in a similar style to the video created by Stephen Mushin for Lior - I'll Forget You (feat. Sia)

I cut out the Birmingham landscape to create a basic shadow puppet to see how effective this would look and wether the idea might develop...

Trial 1
Landscape of Birmingham (cut from width of A2 paper)

Trial 1
Birmingham landscape projected as shadow puppet
- the size of the shadow is too large & the further away the light from the screen, the bigger the shadow is projected.

Trial 2
As trial 1 was too large - I cut out the landscape on a much smaller scale
- cut out of A4 paper 

Trial 2
Projected as a shadow puppet - results are much more effective when the puppet is smaller

Mock-up frame & screen for testing!

After a tutorial with Jo, I had some very positive feedback from these scenery shadow puppets & the idea that I could break these down into individual components and create a moving interactive landscape...finally getting somewhere?!  

Back to the drawing board

I wasn't please with how the instrument idea was turning out so I went back to the very start and explored a few different options.  Still going along the music/ballet theme, I was inspired by the music video 'OK' by Shitdisco (prevoious post) and thought about trying to create my own Birmingham style pop-up puppetry book.

Ozzy Osbourne

Trying to create a moving mouth similar to 'OK' video

Roy Wood

Trying to create a moving mouth that would 'sing' in the book

I have a pop-up book by paper engineer Matthew Reinhart, which has some amazing pop-up scenes -  one page in particular, the dancers seem to 'spin' when you open/close the pages - I thought this would adapt well using a Ballerina (Birmingham Royal Ballet). 

Matthew Reinhart pop-up book

Trying to create 'spinning' pop-up ballerinas.

It soon became clear that unfortunately this idea was also not going to work - I was going to struggle to  get good enough picture quality for a lot of the page ideas - in particular the singers (Ozzy Osbourne/Beverley Knight etc not at hand for photoshoot in the scoop!) And there is some very clever engineering which goes into books created by Matthew Reinhart - I did not feel that I would be able to adapt this to my idea with good quality results.  

Birmingham Research

I looked into the famous exports of Birmingham, in particular music.

The Broad Street Walk of Stars is an installation on Broad Street, Birmingham and honours those who have made a significant contribution in the categories of music, television, radio, theatre, sport business & literacy.

The criteria for nomination is that the living star(s) must have made a recognisable impact in their specialist category and performed at one of Birmingham’s major venues, or be originally from the area of Birmingham and the Midlands.

I came across a lot of popular names including:
Ozzy Osborne
Jasper Carrott
Duran Duran
Denise Lewis
Ocean Colour Scene
Led Zepplin
Toyah Wilcox
Birmingham Royal Ballet
David Bintley

After showing the practice videos in my tutorial, I looked into what we discussed - the videos seemed very 'flat' in response to the music being played - I could look at breaking down parts of musical instruments and the idea that the individual parts would come together with the music as it developed or as it gets louder/quieter
 or
another idea that the ballerina could transform with the music - like a kaleidoscope/synchronised dancers!

'Breaking down' the parts of the instruments - 

I wasn't really pleased with how this instrument idea was turning out and decided not to take this any further.  

Here I took 1 ballerina pose and repeated it several times  - I then positioned them at several different anchor points to see the different patterns they would create.  I like how these patterns have formed, but unsure as how to develop this further, or how to create them as moving puppets.