Our own puppet characters

[mkelley]

Hey, here's an idea...what about a "collaborative puppetry video"? We could pick a theme or idea then any puppeteers on here who want to participate in it could tape a short (say 30 second) clip of their character(s) talking about the theme/topic. The clips could then be spliced together as people contribute and viewed on line.

I like the idea, Buck.

And I think it's a terrific idea to keep the guidelines somewhat restrictive (kind of like writing Haiku or a Shakespherean sonnet). 30 seconds -- no more, no less (so you're working within the time constraints of a commercial, for example). Then whatever you want to do with your puppets on that theme.

This could be quite a work of art considering the varying levels of talents and ideas that abound here -- I'm sure I'd participate. Would we FTP our AVI/MPEG/Quicktime to you? Do you want a standard format, or can you convert anything thrown your way?

I can see this as a building project as well -- as the theme evolves people may (or may not) want to make self-referential videos that advance the "plot", and people may want to contribute more than one.

But Buck, my experience with this kind of collaborative effort is that it does require leadership (and time): if you are willing to do that it would be really wonderful but might end up being more than you imagine. For one thing, you don't want to spend *too* much time deciding on a topic/theme (that alone could spawn endless discussions). If I were you, I'd either go ahead and just announce it, or at the very least solicit ideas for only a couple of days before you decide (and, yes, it's not a democracy, mon capitain).

Let us know how you'd like to proceed.

 

[Erine81981]

I was also thinking we could have the characters going around their neighborhood and film people talking to them about whats going on in the world or have them talk about it at a table w/ a human or actor (u get what I'm saying in when I mean actor) and other actors or Characters.

 

[mkelley]

I was also thinking we could have the characters going around their neighborhood and film people talking to them about whats going on in the world or have them talk about it at a table w/ a human or actor (u get what I'm saying in when I mean actor) and other actors or Characters.

I would think you could do anything you'd want to in your 30 seconds -- but it should attempt to stick to whatever theme and topic has been decided. You could have 100 characters and human actors doing a chorus line at Radio City Music Hall (and perhaps all sing about the topic/theme) -- or have a single puppet do a monologe surrounded by black. It's all up to you.

 

[pdbooch]

Hey, here's an idea...what about a "collaborative puppetry video"? We could pick a theme or idea then any puppeteers on here who want to participate in it could tape a short (say 30 second) clip of their character(s) talking about the theme/topic. The clips could then be spliced together as people contribute and viewed on line.

I recently got an FTP server set-up and I've been playing around with CGI scripting and PERL so I could configure a directory on it for the project and put together some sort of web interface.

I mean programmers and musicians do this sort of thing on the net....why not puppeteers?

What does everybody think?

Oh, I'd love to be involved. Let me know any details as they emerge.
This could be very fun. For real!
You should post this over at toughpigs.com too, I know there's some
puppet enthusiasts there.

 

[mkelley]

How about it, Buck?

So it seems to me the ball is in Buck's court right now. What about it, Buck? Care to give us a topic/theme and a place to FTP files to? (I'm guessing FTP since many email servers have problems with large files. On that subject, do you want to limit the actual file size sent to you? File format, specifications, etc?)

And in an attempt to be helpful, I'll throw out a suggested topic/theme: friendship. Sufficiently broad (and inoffensive) enough yet offering lots of possibilities for focused fun. Or something else of your choosing (but choose: I suspect this thing will take off and I'm sure there are many who would like to get started).

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Sorry not responding about this sooner everyone, I was out of town for most of the last week and my net access was kind of limited.

Foz - I was thinking we would distribute it for free over the `net, since it is sort of an experimental thing after all. If it starts using huge amounts of bandwidth I might set up a PayPal donate button or something to help cover costs, but only if really necessary.

Mkelley - I'm thinking it should be wide open too; whatever the puppeteer wants. But it should be kept to 30 seconds so people have to be innovative/creative and so bandwidth won't be a killer.

Files could just be uploaded to the FTP site I'll set-up. I'd prefer quicktime files, but I can convert almost anything as long as it's not using a really weird codec. The only limitation is NO WINDOWS MEDIA. It doesn't seem to be compatible with anything other than other useless Microsoft software. Uncompressed AVI files should be avoided too, if only because they tend to be huge.

I'll splice together the videos as they come in and post the "in progress" work as it develops. That way, other puppeteers can view it and contribute additional segments (even "rebuttals" to previous segments) and the work can be really collaborative and organic; able to take on a life of it's own.

We could do one month as test (I'll just pick a theme or someone can suggest one we all like), then have users vote in a web poll for the next month's theme. Web comics artist Scott McCloud does something similar with his Morning Improv.

I'd also like to do something along the lines of Nothing So Strange, one of the more interesting film projects on the `net. It's an "open source" movie; anyone can download the source files from the film and edit them together anyway they like. Maybe we could do something like that. Have a linear, edited version put together as segments come in AND have the source files available so people can edit their own movies from all the footage too. Note sure how to make that work, but it's something to think about.

I've been having problems with my web hosting company - they upgraded my hosting package but upgraded me to the wrong hosting package so the server my site is on doesn't support CGI scripts, which I need for some other things. So now I am waiting for them to move the site (again) to a new server. Once that happens, I'll republish my site and configure the new FTP server and maybe we can get started?

 

[pdbooch]

I don't know what we all think of this, but it might be another option.
I don't think they're all up to speed yet, but it could be worth looking
in to.
http://www.lowdeftv.com/

I'm cool with quicktime and all, I'm just worried about how large my
final file might be. I've been doing a non-video freelance graphics layout
project recently and my attempts at uploading to the printer were
very unsuccesful. Hopefully once in comes down to it, that won't be
a problem.

I forget who it was that suggested "Friendship" as the theme for the first
but I'd be down with that. I was already thinking of possibilities with it...

Just my 2 cents.
Patrick

 

[mkelley]

Patrick,

There are lots of different possibilities out there, but I really like Buck taking the ball and running with it (and it helps that he's, like, the #1 puppet answer guy around here -- hope I don't offend others). I think we should get started and as other possibilities develop don't hesitate to use those resources as well.

You raise a good point I hadn't mentioned before (doh!): not only should we limit the length, but also the resolution of the video. We don't want (nor need) to send Buck full D1 files that are both too big as well as too much for him to deal with. Given the nature of the web I would suggest 320 x 240 -- exactly this size, no larger or smaller. This is a good tradeoff between being able to see some details and not hogging the bandwidth, and I think it's one everyone can live with. At 30 seconds it shouldn't be that big a file.

And that's two votes for friendship -- it would be nice if we could finalize the theme ASAP so people can start working on this, Buck. Even if it takes you a few weeks to get your FTP worked out that will give people time to start gearing up (I know it will take me at least a couple of weeks to prepare something) and then the uploading can begin!

(If I hear a third vote for friendship I think we should roll with it...)

 

[Puppetplanet]

wish I could participate but I have no idea how to make my own video. =(

 

[mkelley]

wish I could participate but I have no idea how to make my own video. =(

Michelle,

It's *easy* -- almost anyone can do it nowadays.

First of all, you *must* either have a video camera or know someone with one. You probably know ten people with one. Get your show all ready and get someone to come over and videotape it. Here's some hints about doing just that:

http://home.earthlink.net/~lbrodie/extra/camramnp.html (and on page two it talks about setting up a video monitor).

Now you have it on video -- how to get it into the computer? Lots of ways to defur this feline, from very expensive to less than $50. What you want to do is digitize the video using a video capture device. Pinnacle ne' Dazzle offers such a device for less than $50 (quality not as good but acceptable) and you can buy things all the way up to $1K+. However, even for quite good video you can get away with spending less than $100, particularly if you have firewire already in your computer (if not, another $30 or so for a firewire card).

I can provide details, but if you just want to contribute once to get your feet wet send me a videotape and I'll digitize it and upload it for you (we were going to swap some tapes somewhere along the line anyway, right?). But just to give everyone an idea, here's a cheap and effective way to get started:

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage_n.asp?Product_ID=1427&Langue_ID=7

(Note: this is a USB solution. I'm not the biggest fan in the world of going USB for video, but for this purpose it should be just fine).