Puppet Size

[Melonpool]

After watching and interacting with Greg the Bunny and seeing the MR Kermit the Frog, I'm beginning to think scaling down my puppets from their current 10-12 inch tall heads to a more manageable 7-9 inch head might be in the foreseeable future.

The benefits I can see range from being able to frame shots a little more easily -- especially on a set made for a production (the same 5-6 foot wide set would look a lot larger onscreen if the puppets were 60-80% of their original size). Also, mouth movements should be a lot more subtle given the smaller mouth palette.

My question is -- has anyone else shrunk down existing designs at any point? And, what size are most puppets for video?

Steve

 

[BorkBork]

I prefer to make smaller puppets. Where the headpattern can fit well on an A4-size sheet of paper.
I think the puppets become more comfortable, eazier to perform, and it also takes less time to assemble them

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I don't think there's a "standard" size, but I've shrunk the scale I work in by anywhere from 25-50% over the past two years for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I sort of stumbled on to the idea when I was building puppets that had to be really small for something in 2004 and I fell in love with how flexible they were.

Almost all of the puppets I used to build were probably the same scale as yours and it's amazing the difference using a smaller puppet makes. It's cheaper, less work to build, easier to perform and when it comes to mouth control there's no comparison.

I found scaling down existing puppets can get tricky (especially for live hands puppets), but the approach I'm using now is to build the puppet around the puppeteer's hand and make the head as small the design and comfort will allow so the puppeteer has maximum flexibility. Sort of stealing from the idea that "my hand is the soul of the puppet", the mouth plate gets built first because that's where the puppeteer's hand is and then everything else flows out from that.

I'm still experimenting and trying different things with the new, smaller scale (I'm in the midst of building 20 puppets) but I love it. As far as I'm concerned, small is the new big!

 

[Whispers]

I have never attempted to shrink a pattern but admit, it does sound tempting now! The only thing is i have big hands, the biggest in my puppetry team so existing patterns work well for me since my hands fit perfectly However I would love to try and see how good a just right mouth plate would work!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Steve, after playing with Muley: How'd you feel about his size? Proportionately, his arms and legs are correct lengths, and I made him so the bottom of his body falls comfortably in the bend of the elbow and he doesn't have to be held up high to work. That was all something I felt needed to be considered in the beginning when playing with making puppets in 1990.

In shots where he's discussing things with people, he isn't too big at all.

And we're jealous that you got to meet Greg the Bunny. The closest person we got to meet so far that was famous has been the Memphis Mayor, and everybody hates him!

 

[puppetsmith]

Hey Melonpool! I get emails from folks all the time who have played around with scaling the Project Puppet patterns. I think it's great. Big Mouth is made from the Punto pattern scaled down 90%. Just scaling it down 10% makes a difference. I know many who have scaled the Glorified Sock Puppet Pattern as well to get a better fit for their hand.

Buck's thought about the hand being the "soul of the puppet" is dead on. I've been trying to experiment around with ways to decorate the puppeteer's hand with a character. The more your movement translates to the puppet, the more "life" your character has.

 

[Melonpool]

Steve, after playing with Muley: How'd you feel about his size? Proportionately, his arms and legs are correct lengths, and I made him so the bottom of his body falls comfortably in the bend of the elbow and he doesn't have to be held up high to work. That was all something I felt needed to be considered in the beginning when playing with making puppets in 1990.

I think Muley and Mayberry are about the same size, more or less. Mayberry's butt also hits me in the elbow, making it easy to position characters in doorways and on ledges.

The main problem I'm suffering from now is that the sets I have to construct tend to take up a lot more room than I'd like to. Scaling down the puppets seems like a good way to get more bang for my buck. Plus. if I can scale them down effectively, it gives me some ideas on ways to use both sized puppets in some of the same productions.

When Mayberry is framed with a human in a shot, he has to be right up to them just to put them in the same shot. Often he looks enormous. I think a smaller puppet might be a good experiment in interviews, if only to see how large he'll look onscreen.

I'm thinking about modifying the Roly pattern for some of the smaller round characters. The modifications would give them a little more eye room, but from what I can see of that puppet, it seems to go in the direction I want to go.

Steve

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Are you using Wide Angle lenses for puppet/human interaction? That way you won't have to get up SO close to the action or press your subjects against one another.

Unless it's a hot chick and Mayberry is at all like Muley and WANTS to be pressed up close--and as I recall they are alike in that way!