Hello and thank you for your interest in the Young Puppeteer Film Contest 2023. Here’s some ideas and links to get you started.
Megan and John Regan of CactusHead Puppets
Making your own puppetry videos:
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Your camera’s view is your stage – Find where the edge of the view begins and try popping in and out of frame.
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Tape out your cone of view.
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If your camera is on a tripod you can use masking tape on the floor to mark out where on the floor is in the shot and where it isn’t Experiment with camera angle.
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Having your camera low looking up at a puppet can make it seem large and important, while having the camera up high looking down will create a totally different feel.
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Set up a monitor screen – When performing on camera it can help to set up a screen that shows you what the camera sees. If you are using a camera and a laptop you can just turn the laptop around to see what you are doing.
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Play with distance – Depending on how far something is from the camera it can seem bigger or smaller.
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If your puppet is a classic hand and mouth puppet:
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Try to open the puppets mouth on every syllable, this makes it seem like the puppet is projecting the words.
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Try to open your mouth with the thumb instead of the top fingers.
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Anything Can be a puppet!
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There is an entire field of puppetry called Object Puppetry that is all about bringing everyday objects to life through manipulation.
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Most of all, enjoy yourself. Experiment and try wild things. Most of them won’t go the way you expect, and that’s the exciting part.
