PROGRESS UPDATE...

Just a quick post on the progress of BF and G. 

As you can see I've finished Gray's arms. I'm not sure if I even did it right but I think they look good. I went for the long spindly type. I hope the arms are stiff enough. The hand color is the same as the color of his head which I hope to have complete this weekend. 

As for Bigfoot, I have pretty much finished the under-structure and have to put a shoulder harness inside. After that a pattern will be made off of this structure for the fur "coat". Hopefully that will be finished soon as well. 

Next post will be the finished duo I swear!
Chris

GIVING MYSELF A HAND... OR TWO

Finally found a spare few hours to get back to the puppet fabrication. Today I tackled the hands. Below you can see I glued some florist's wire onto the one side of a hand. This way I can pose them. The tubing wrapped in the wire is the housing for the rods that will work the arms and hands. The rods will be removable so that if I don't need them in a scene I can just take 'em out.



I sandwiched the two halves together and glued.


Once that dried I pinched and glued the edges together as in the hand on the right to give them a more tapered look.



Finally, the finished pair of hands.


Next they will be covered in the same fleece material that will cover the head.

Until next time,
Chris

I HAVE A HUNCH...

I took advantage of the time waiting for the fleece to arrive for Gray's covering and started the fabrication of Bigfoot's costume. This is the foam under structure of the upper shoulder area.

I needed to create a dome of sorts (as in the drawing above) to get that hunched look. So I dusted off some long forgotten math to figure this one out. My high school math teacher would be proud.



I got to this point in the build when I realized that the costume was too narrow. He'd end up looking like a furry hotdog. My mind quickly went into action and came up with a solution.


I cut the dome in half and added this twelve inch strip of foam in the middle.


Now the shoulders look broader like I always envisioned them to be. A happy accident to be sure. I'm pleased with the outcome.


Next I'll measure it against the actor and find the right spot to cut the head hole. I'm not sure how much of a hunch I want so I decided to leave this part till later. Prolly a wise choice. The body will come next. Then I will have to make a rough pattern out of some muslin and then sew the fur covering. If all goes to plan I should have the costume complete in a couple of weeks!

Until next time...
Chris

UP NEXT: FINISHED GRAY PUPPET!

OKAY, SO I LIED....

I made pretty good headway (pun intended) on Gray. So much so that I wanted to share it now. My nervousness about proceeding on building a puppet for the first time turned to excitement. I think it turned out pretty good so far. I'm thinking that maybe this part will turn out to be the easiest. I'm now fretting about how to cover him.

Anyway, as I said earlier I'm glad I ordered the pattern from PROJECT PUPPET. As you can see it was a big compromise from the head shape I designed, but worth it to avoid all the problems it may have brought.

This is about a days worth of work. I was too afraid to stop so I went ahead and finished the head.

I enlarged the pattern for the head by 25%. I wanted to have the usual large head/small body of an alien. The hands will be longer than the supplied pattern as well.

The red bits on what are the mouth plates are strips of cloth to be used as finger holds for the puppeteer. Those weren't in the instructions but I think they should be. It really helps.

Here is the finished head. I really like the dimples on the corners of his mouth when it is closed. 

Now onto the body, arms and clothing.

See you then!
Chris

BUILDING GRAY...

I'm finally starting fabrication of the puppet. Pretty much flying by the seat of my pants here. I made a compromise and purchased a puppet pattern from PROJECT PUPPET. I'm glad I did instead of trying to do it all from scratch. Foam is frickin' expensive. I'm pretty sure I would have ended up needing more foam. I prolly won't post again about Gray until it is finished. I am taking pix of the work in progress and will put them up here. Wish me luck. I've already glued my finger tips together. 

Yikes.

Chris

CASTING NEWS...

Casting of the main characters is finally complete! I'm really excited by these guys and cannot wait to get them in front of the camera to see what they do!!! 

                             CARL FARUOLO AS "BIGFOOT"

                            NATE KNETCHEL AS "AGENT Y"

                              MARK BELTZMAN AS "AGENT I"

Just need voices for Gray and the Narrator... but i have some awesome names in mind. 

Until next time!

Chris

NEXT UP: PUPPET FABRICATION BEGINS!

I HAVE SET A SHOOTING DATE!

I set a shooting date of October 10th, 2009! I figure if I don't set one I'll never get this thing done. Now that I have set it I HAVE TO do it or face certain shame. You can follow BF&G on TWITTER now. I'll be sending TWEETS from the set location with exclusive pics and info. Updates will still be posted here during preproduction and also after the shoot. Click the link to the right and follow Bigfoot and Gray!!!

Thanks!

Chris