Jane Lynch - Directing Puppets
JANE LYNCH - SIMPLE CITY CAMPAIGN
Puppeteers: Connor Asher, Steven Widerman
We are honored to have worked with Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning actress Jane Lynch and STORY on a series of spots for Jane’s directing reel.
Creventive Puppet Company was hired to design, build and perform the puppets for STORY’s Simple City Campaign commercials for Simple Mobile directed by Jane Lynch.
The Creventive puppets worked on set alongside human actors, beautifully brought to life by SAG-AFTRA puppeteers: Connor Asher and Steven Widerman.
WATCH THE SPOTS NOW:
COMING SOON
Fozzie Bear Puppet Refurb Project
Before I begin,
NO! I do not accept replica requests/commissions. Don’t ask.
A close friend of mine reached out asked if it were possible to refurbish a puppet from their personal collection for private use.
Normally I would NEVER do this since it’s a copyrighted character however the idea of a refurbishment project intrigued me as both a puppet builder and Muppet fan especially since I wasn’t building it from scratch nor was charging for it.
I decided to take the project on as a favor for my friend and challenge to myself to tackle between projects. (Once again, I did not get paid for this project)
It was a major challenge but I learned a lot of great techniques and would like to share some of the lessons I learned during this build.
So let’s dive in!
The Process
I received the puppet in a pretty beat up condition. The first step was looking at the puppet from both an internal and external perspective to see the amount of work that needed to be accomplished.
My friend wanted me to try to keep as much of the original’s materials as possible since it was an unpaid project.
I then began dissecting the puppet into pieces to see what the internal structure was made out of.
All of the foam was disintegrating/toasting, mouth plate was built out of card board, nose was built with styrofoam. One of the major issues with some of those materials is that they’re inferior, don’t last long and don’t handle performing well.
After, I began recreating the patterns using some of the original’s along with creating new patterns to make the shapes more accurate to the actual puppet.
One of the most challenging parts of this build was reference images. The actual character changed so much over the years, I decided to try my best to be as true to the character as possible.
Capturing subtle details can be a very difficult and time consuming process on certain characters but I’m always up for a challenge.
After putting together all the new foam, mouth plate and neck sleeve, I began draping the head, neck and body to get new covering patterns.
I then traced those patterns onto remnants of the original faux fur that I got from dissecting the original puppet. (Which was a challenge within itself - so if I needed extra fur, I didn’t have it) and luckily had just enough to cover the head, body and neck. I decided to reuse the original’s ears, arms and necktie to save time and costs.
After everything was sewn together, I treated the fur with heat to give it more texture.
After this, it was time to problem solve the features. Figuring out the eyes, nose and ear placement took quite a bit of time.
In the end, I ended up designing and creating about 9 prototype noses to get the size and shape correct. Some of the noses were foam patterned and fleeced and some I designed in 3D, printed them and covered in Nylon Fleece. The end result was 3D printed and covered.
Similar situation with the eyes. The eyes took about 12 pairs to get just right to where I was satisfied with them.
The end result were made from soup spoons that were sanded, had a screw and bolt epoxied to the back of each eye then inset inside of the head.
Next, the tongue was foam carved with uvula/throat features airbrushed.
Finally, I placed his pupils using a straight pin to get the focus right.
After the puppet was finished, it was time to costume!
My friend, Mae Risk helped me problem solve the hat and necktie. After they were fabricated, I permanently sewed them to the head.
Then after a bit more cleanup work, he was finally completed on 11/16/2020.
Hope this was useful and insightful for some people.
He was a major challenge but I’m pretty satisfied with the end result given the parameters of this project. If I were to start again, I would do some things differently but glad it’s over and ready to start onto new projects.
ONCE AGAIN….NO! I do not accept replica requests/commissions. Don’t ask.
Kiedis the Troll - Custom Puppet Build
Today we’re featuring Kiedis the Troll, custom puppet built and designed by Connor Asher completed on February 24th 2018 for our live touring theatrical production “Three Billy Goats Gruff”.
Kiedis the Troll is now being used in collaboration with the Insurance King and preparing for his own upcoming web show.
More soon.
To request your own custom puppet, visit our custom puppets page and fill out a form: https://www.creventive.com/#/custom-puppets/
Thats all for now. See you soon.
SEE HIM IN ACTION NOW:
Dexter Blue Monster Sack Puppet - Rental for Commercial/film/tv/stage
Welcome back to the blog.
Today we’re featuring our latest rental puppet: Dexter. A sack puppet designed and built by Connor Asher.
What’s a rental puppet?
If you don't have the time or budget to have a custom puppet built, you can rent one from our stock for a reasonable daily rate.
Our rental puppets can be customized to fit the needs of your project. Whether its an individual character or a full cast, any and all existing customizations are possible to be built from our own minds directly to your own hands.
As always, contact us here to discuss a quote for your own custom projects!
See him in action now:
Shmoop Hand/Rod Puppet - Rental for Commercial/film/tv/stage
Welcome back to the blog.
Today we’re featuring our latest rental puppet: Shmoop. A hand/rod puppet designed and built by Connor Asher.
Built using: Faux fur, gasket rubber, ostrich feathers, felt, velvet, wooden spheres.
What’s a rental puppet?
If you don't have the time or budget to have a custom puppet built, you can rent one from our stock for a reasonable daily rate.
Our rental puppets can be customized to fit the needs of your project. Whether its an individual character or a full cast, any and all existing customizations are possible to be built from our own minds directly to your own hands.
As always, contact us here to discuss a quote for your own custom projects!
See him in action now:
Dog Hand/Rod Puppet - Rental for Commercial/film/tv/stage
Welcome back to the blog.
Today we’re featuring our latest rental puppet. A hand and rod puppet designed and built by Connor Asher.
What’s a rental puppet?
If you don't have the time or budget to have a custom puppet built, you can rent one from our stock for a reasonable daily rate.
Our rental puppets can be customized to fit the needs of your project. Whether its an individual character or a full cast, any and all existing customizations are possible to be built from our own minds directly to your own hands.
As always, contact me here to discuss a quote for your own custom projects!
See him in action now:
Debuting our "Three Billy Goats Gruff" - live educational puppet show
On March 28th, we premiered our new "Three Billy Goats Gruff" live educational puppet show.
CPC's Three Billy Goats Gruff was written with the intent to teach kids about "not being greedy" through the Troll, including counting and simple mathematics.
The Billy Goats Gruff show is a total of 30minutes with a pre show with out Q/A session after the show.
The show was written by Connor Asher and Caelan Cavanagh. Following the original fairy tale, we wanted to stick to the origins and add more into the story while not changing what people were familiar with. One of the challenging parts about writing puppet shows is accounting all the props, puppets, set pieces and things that need to be made since everything is hand-built. In addition to this, only two puppets could be on at any given time because of the number of hands backstage.
One of the new characters we introduced was "Birthworts: The wicked witch". In the beginning of the story, she casts a spell over the land that the Billy Goats live in, because they keep eating her flowers, transforming all the fresh beautiful green grasses to become baron and infertile, forcing the three billy goats gruff to move.
Later in the story, the witch visits Sir Kiedis and because of his greed, she transforms him into a troll.
Voices by Connor Asher and Sydney Alexander. Audio by Sydney Alexander.
