File puptcrit/puptcrit.1001, message 203


From: Alan Cook <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:34:24 GMT
Subject: [Puptcrit] Is "Avatar" a puppet show?


Puppeteers see our puppets "from the outside, looking in."

Many TV puppeteers made and make use of TV monitors to see what the audience sees. It is a means of self-direction. 

Before & during the 1920s, Ellen van Volkenberg (Chicago Little Theatre)  sat out front to DIRECT puppeteers working marionettes. She saw what the puppeteers could not see---the audience Point Of View.

Working short-strung marionettes is easier because the performer sees more of what the audience sees. But put longer strings on marionettes (example: 11 ft strings or 17 ft strings, and the puppeteer sees mostly the top of the puppet's head, so previous experience can be helpful, and again you need a director (or video monitor) to tell the performer what the audience sees.

Now with technology, remote control gets increasingly complex. Disneyland last year tried out remote control of Beaker and another Muppet character at the park, two puppets talking with actual Park visitors. But the puppet voices and animation originated in BURBANK CA in Los Angeles County, maybe 50 miles from Anaheim, Orange County, California. This is harnessing techniques used for a landrover on lunar surfaces, for remote puppetry.
The result was still PUPPETRY.

The experiment looked great on ABC-TV News (ABC is owned by the Disney Co.).


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