New puppets and a new show! (..a plug)

[Mr.Penguin]

New puppets and a new show...with the puppets!

Yes, after about two years, way-too-dang-many promising journals on Deviantart and a whole lot of procrastination, material hunting, puppet-building and a whole lot of other nonsense that happened to show up, the spectacular display of splundiferous mediocrity that is THE MOVIE RATS web-style show! Here's our channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/themovieRats

and part one to our first episode here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XS9Kh1m8iw

And soon we're going to be totally moving to Vimeo with a new style/format, a new first episode and a Christmas movie that we'll be trying to shoot in the upcoming weeks.

http://vimeo.com/user2755354

My best friend Mike plays....Movie Rat Mike and I play Movie Rat Ian and Mindy (and some others that show up), and our friend Robert lends an extra hand as her in the opening. I think it came out pretty good!

Here's the puppets I built for the show:

http://ZipMartin.deviantart.com/art/Movie-Rat-Ian-3-142981115
http://zipmartin.deviantart.com/art/Movie-Rat-Ian-2-142980958
http://zipmartin.deviantart.com/art/Movie-Rat-Ian-1-142980884
http://zipmartin.deviantart.com/art/Movie-Rat-Mike-1-143658248
http://zipmartin.deviantart.com/art/Movie-Rat-Mike-2-143658358
http://zipmartin.deviantart.com/art/Movie-Rat-Mike-3-143658485

These are the ones I was asking about the fur for here a while back...when I still posted here regularly.

Check out both of our solo YouTube channels for single-character straight movie reviews (not a half hour like the show):
Mike's: http://www.youtube.com/user/MovieRatMike
Mine: http://www.youtube.com/user/MovieRatIan

Please support us with as many good ratings, links, comments and word-of-mouth you can because the only ones watching right now are my mom, sister and cousin. Oh, and please friend us or subscribe! We're not one's for spamming so this is one of two shots I have at self promotion.

Despite what may appear, this show actually took a whole lot of work behind it. Yeah, the week before, my mother's putting-off-of-work finally caught up to her all at once and the rats themselves were finished and clothed in two nights total, in an incredibly well done rush job...if I say so myself. Filming was also really weird due to some last minute cancelations from our help and some major compromises of our....well, I guess you could call it the "vision." We started up simply enough and tried to jump right into it, but soon realised how awkward we became on camera, with Mike surprisingly admitting his trouble with improv (you may not know him, but that's sort of an event). The show was postponed another day for scripting (while watching Count Duckula), and the show was finally filmed Saturday afternoon with my crappy-written intro in place. 1001 script f-ups, retakes, sinking puppets and visible arms notwithstanding, we actually managed to have a whole lot of fun shooting this show...though the room got hot, my asthma came back and our arms near fell off. Even when it was done filming, the editing was a nightmare. Mike tried his best to work with his materials...but his materials sucked. Seriously people, don't but Pinnacle Studio. Just don't. The audio track slid around like crazy and the playback came out choppy (when it wasn't coming out as a wall of black), making the editing really....hard, to say the least. And afterwards it took hours to upload. Oh, and this is all a bad combo with Mike's busy schedule, procrastination and incredible ability to stay out of touch.

Me via Facebook photo comment: "Waiting for Mike to put Movie Rats online....waiting, waiting, waiting."
Mike: "well, it've beed have been uploading video all morning and have been non-stop since 9:00 so, yeah. It's uploading on youtube, but it's going to be another 50 minutes. But, I have to go to work so, i'm just going to leave it uploading, til I get back."
Me: "Whoah, that's a long time...Well, thanks, at least it's finally going somewhere...try and fix it tonight too, if we're doing the promised/planned Halloween episode. Please send it the second you're back. We're already a week behind. Also, if we're doing a Paranormal Activity parody for the Halloween episode *I need to see the movie!* Can we see it tomorrow morning?...and did you actually script this change-of-plans?...and is it a review or what? You keep coming back to me with these cryptic half-answers and I'm alone in the dark not exactly knowing what we're doing. With your schedule, we barely have contact and it's really taking a toll on this show. It only "gets easier from here" if we work."

And so on and so forth. So yeah, The Movie Rats is serious business.

Honestly, looking back, it's pretty incredibly that he managed to edit at all and he did a good job. (Though yeah, there's a lot of bloopers) It was both really fun and really hard to make and you should go and appreciate my friend's work in making this thing possible!

I'd like to know if anyone's watching and if anyone likes it; and don't worry....it'll get...better.

 

[Puppetainer]

Just watched episode 3 (and subscribed). Looks like a good beginning. I have to give you a tip of the hat. I'm currently working on a puppet web show of my own and am WAAAAAY behind you! I've got a first script written, and puppet and set designs, but that's about it so far.

I've been stuck at that point for a few months now. It's so much easier to sit at this point and dream of how awesome the end result is going to be. Because right now my imagination is unhampered by all of those fun details that can screw up my perfect vision as we transition from dream into reality. All those fun details that you were talking about. I have to say that I really enjoyed the tale of your journey. It gives me hope that I too can make it.

Still one must begin. I have to make my first episode and then learn from that one and use those lessons in the second and so on. I'm a bit envious because you have already moved farther along that track. So kudos to you! I think the two of you have good chemistry and if you apply the lessons you're learning as you go this could develp into something really great!

That is why I've subscribed. I wouldn't bother if I didn't find something entertaining there. And while these early episodes are a little rough (and hey it's easy for me to criticize because I haven't done anything approaching what you have, right?), I think you guys have the start of something there. You can learn and develop technical and puppetry skills, but chemistry isn't something you can "create".

So keep up the good work and hang in there! I know how hard it can be to keep moving forward but you've already come so far! You've created the puppets you've put up several episodes, you've already learned a lot! Just keep it up! I will watch for new episodes and if I EVER get to the point where you are I'll be sure to let everyone know so they can see my freshman efforts! I'm sure there'll be lots of pointing and laughing, I just hope it's at the jokes!

 

[Mr.Penguin]

Wow, well I'm really glad you actually like it, good to know we sorta have something now. As for yours, even though I don't know what it is, I'm always excited to see what other people are doing here puppet-wise. And right now, you actually sound much farther ahead than we ever were, the script was our last thing and our biggest problem. We used Project Puppet for the base designs and these sock-style ones are quick, so I'm sure it won't take too long to finally put it together with the help of some friends.

I'm happy to hear it. What you described is exactly the point we were at for the past two and a third years...if I didn't get up and finally push to get this thing done at the last minute, we never would've finished.

Thanks! (we need all the viewers we can dig up) Him and I have been friends since the 5th grade, so I'm glad it's showing up a bit on camera. Technically, I'm my own biggest critic, and this move to Vimeo is actually a major self-induced quality push, with a better camera, different "set dressing" (no more green screen), more of the jokes I had scripted (we haven't used them all), edit fixing and a bunch of new characters that we'll be introducing in the Christmas Carol episode. I'm much better off-camera with my characters...maybe it'll show with these new broader characters.

And hey, from the sound of it, you don't have too far left to go and I'm sure you'll get as far as we are now...definitely; whenever you make this project let me know! Good luck!

(oh and btw, I sorta wanted to make this show a puppet showcase in a way, so when we get on a roll with these reviews I was hoping some people here could do guest spots and stuff...including you when you finish your puppets)

-

 

[MGov]

It would be nice to see the rats' eyes when they are talking.

 

[Mr.Penguin]

Yes. Yes it would. That's a problem I noticed at the last minute after it was too late the fix the puppets...and I'm not sure if that's possible at this point. So....is there anything else you thought of the show? ^^;;;;

 

[Mr.Penguin]

Um, nevermind

 

[ravagefrackle]

Its not the eyes , or the position of the eyes that is the proplem, It is the postioning and posture of your hands and arms in side the puppets,

If you are not working with a monitor, you need to aim your focus down more,try playing around in a mirror in the postion you are sitting to perfrom , and really focus on where your hand and fingers are pointing.

 

[Mr.Penguin]

Good idea (we do tend to look way off camera a lot, in addition to the fur covering the eyes sometimes), I'll tell him so we can try it. Thanks