Doodles doodles doodles..

No, no pictures of doodles today...

But I have been drawing a ton more lately.  It was my first passion. It's what lead me to puppetry.  If I wasn't doing puppet movies I'd be drawing comic books and strips.  

This morning, while flipping through over a decades worth of old sketchbooks I've decided to do that in my down time...  A comic.  I have a few strips I've drawn of the past 5 years, and so on.  So I'm just going to expand on it.  No time, no schedule, no rush.  Just doing it to do it.

As I finish a strip I'll post it, and post some of my old ones I already have done soon too, and once I finish a full comic I'll post it too.

Anyway...  Here's an oldie, and a look at something in Elmwood's future...

Prince Album of The Week - Girl 6

Animal Behavior!! It's almost done!

So we (Elmwood) finished shooting "Animal Behavior" last summer on probably the hottest two days of the year.

We were sweaty, the puppets were sweaty, and everyone was smiling...

It was "done"

Now we're in post-production.  We are currently dubbing the series.  Normally we do all the voices live, but we were short on puppeteers.  This is one time I'm glad we didn't do it live.  The voices we're putting the the puppets are really pulling the show together.  I'm loving it...

We probably have two or three more weeks to go before it's done, then music and sound effects.

Look for the first episode soon though!

In the meantime did you know our star - TUGGER - has a Facebook page?  You should be his friend!

Good People Still Exist

I held a door for an elderly woman yesterday...
She said; "There still are some gentlemen left out there."
I replied; "We try." with a smile and she laughed...

Yesterday, somewhere in my journeys I lost my wallet.  This morning I backtracked to no avail.
I was pretty sure I left it at the grocery store, but they didn't have it.
So I called my bank and cancelled my cards, and lamented on losing a picture of my brother, and the loss of a tiny ceramic frog I've kept in every wallet I have had since I was 13.

Ten minutes ago a stranger knocked on my door.
He had my wallet.  He found it in the grocery store parking lot.  He checked my ID and knew the area so GPS'ed it to make sure and came over.

AND THE CASH WAS STILL IN IT.

I offered him the cash, he refused.  I offered him a coffee, he refused...

I gave him a DVD of Elmwood stuff and he said; "Puppets?  For adults!  This is awesome!"

Good people are out there.
If we do good, it will come back to us.

Lollipop

So I got anew machine and I'm going through tons of footage and editing some down for special features in Elmwood movies, and then some just for fun... Here's some just for fun stuff...  

 So I'm home this morning, waiting for the weather... Wallet gone, damn... Listening to some Iggy Pop, Brick By Brick. So overall It's gonna be a good day

28 Seconds To Waking Up - The Director's Cut

28 Seconds To Waking Up

Prince Album of The Week - The Gold Expirence

The Monkees - Porpoise Song

Prince Album of The Week - Exodus

Guns N' Roses: Ritz 1988

Happy Birthday Axl!
Here's an "oldie" for ya

Prince Album of The Week - Come

And Now for "Puppet News"

A couple things have popped up in my radar in the past few days on the puppetry on film front.
First is the announcement that WETA is going to be bringing the awesome "Thunderbirds" back on to television soon.
Gerry Anderson's "SuperMarionation" style of puppetry is instantly recognizable around the world and has been hugely influential on puppeteers, film makers, and special effects wizards since the 1960's.
SO what's the word from WETA and the 'net?
CGI

Really?  CGI?  No one bothered with the "Thunderbirds" movie a few years ago for a reason...  The puppets were half the charm...  And the movie was just simply a piece of shit (but that's my small opinion).  "Team America" has gained a huge following for a reason.  It's funny, and it's a tribute to Gerry Anderson's work.  Taking the puppets out of "Thunderbirds" is like mixing Bugs Bunny with Michael Jordan or Brendan Fraiser, and that would never happen!

Oh...  Wait...  Nevermind....

The other thing is "Star Wars"
Yes I am cool with Disney in charge.  I am excited about a follow up trilogy.  And I love the idea of stand alone flicks in the world of "Star Wars"
So I see today that the first stand alone flick may be a Yoda story.
Yoda worked best in "Empire Strikes Back", when he was a puppet.  But he also worked worst in "The Phantom Menace", when he was a puppet.  So there are two sides to that coin.
I hope hope hope that Lucasfilm/Disney doesn't ignore the importance of the puppet.  I hope it looks at the five films Yoda is in and steps back and says "Let's do a mix of both".  Yoda is such a subtle character and so unique as a puppet and relate-able.   And the things that can be done with that cannot be replaced with a CGI version.  But it can be enhanced.

Odds are though it'll be all CGI.  So odds are I'll just wait for Netflicks for a Yoda movie, or a Thunderbirds show... 

But if there's puppets I'll be first in line.

Here's links to more on both:

Yoda

Thunderbirds

G@mrz Episode 2: Mel

Here is is! The second episode of the Elmwood Productions series "G@mrz"!

Bonus Prince Album of the Week - 1-800-New-Funk