How much to buy,,,

[Eccoglyph]

Hello everyone! I'm new here - been reading the threads for the last couple of weeks. My friends and I are to put on a puppet performance in two months and none of us have ever made a puppet before. I've researched the construction process, materials, cost, etc., but in attempting to buy supplies, I realize I know what to buy, but not how much of it. We're doing a parody and will be reconstructing many of the muppets (Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, etc.) Is there a general rule of thumb to use when purchasing fleece? One yard per puppet? (Georgia Stage tells me its 54" wide) We'll probably make about 10 muppets in total, and most of them will be fully costumed the entire time, so I don't think we'll need to fleece most of their bodies. I'll account for the "oops" factor before purchasing - I'm sure we'll waste a lot as we learn. Thanks!

 

[scarylarrywolf]

If you're just making hand and rod puppets like Kermit, then you'll need between a yard and 2 feet of fleece. I'd aviod the anti-pill fleece -- the fibers are too short to cover any seams. If you're going to try foam contsruction for sheet foam, you'll need about 1 1/2 yards for each puppet (1/2 inch thickness is good for detailed construction, but 1 inch is good too). these puppets will probably cost you about $20 a piece, so if you want to get cheap supplies I recommend going to a thrift store to look for fleece blankets or some such substitute.

Now, having given all that advice, I'd to encourage something that many of the puppet builders around here do. You'll usually have better results creating your own character than trying to recreate a Henson character. Not only will it then be copyright-infringement free, but you can use it again for other shows, and have the satisfaction of your own personalized character creation. So we highly suggest using your own creativity in developing a character, rather than attempting a replica.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Good rule of thumb is one metre (or yard) for each puppet unless it is especially large. If it's a "live hands" puppet I would go for 1 1/2 if you can afford to.

 

[Eccoglyph]

Thanks. I bought .5" polyfoam as directed by "The Foam Book" - and because my friends and I like to be as accurate as possible, I figured I'd splurge and purchase 12oz antron fleece from GA Stage. We've only ever done costuming in the past so this is a bit if a tangent for us, though I'm looking forward to sewing detailed costumes for the puppets. I think it'll be strictly rods, not live hands, so I'll go with your recommendation of a yard a puppet.

As to the characters, its a 3 min performance (I know, a lot of work for 3 minutes!), its free, and as I understand it, parodies fall under different rules for copyrights. And the parody really only works if the audience knows the puppets' personalities upfront - no time to develop the character and plot in 3 minutes. But I hope when this project is done, I'll have enjoyed the puppetry experience so much that it will inspire me to create something original. With 50 feet of foam sitting in my house, I sure hope so!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Parody is tricky thing - and legally it's open to a lot of interpretation.

Doing some thing like this is absolutely permitted as "fair use" but if a certain mouse-eared copyright owner decided to challenge whether not what you're doing is fair use or not in court you're going to need a lawyer and many tens of thousands of dollars to prove what you're doing is fair use (for proof check out some of the copyright horror stories in Lawerence Lessig's new book Free Culture which he's giving away free as a .PDF file).

So to avoid any trouble, if you're doing a Muppet parody it's a good idea to have the characters look a lot like their Muppet counterparts, but not *exactly* like the actual Muppets. This way no one can ever be confused in to thinking these are actually the Muppets. It's also a good idea to have a disclaimer on a poster that clearly states that your show is a parody and not endorsed by Muppet Holdings LLC (or whatever the new holding company is called). Even Avenue Q has a disclaimer so people don't confuse it with Sesame Street.