BIGFOOT & GRAY: on the run.

TIME FLIES...

...When you have no funds...

Welp, my self imposed October 10th shooting date has come and gone and i'm still in the same place I was before. Sad and true. The good news is that I am still working on this project the bad news is that funds are low so it is taking longer to pull it all together.

Like I mentioned before I am totally revamping the Gray puppet. I think it is the wise choice and it gives me an excuse to not be finished. (haha). Another MAJOR decision I have made is to shoot the whole thing on green screen. Some may gasp, but besides the fact that it will be WAY more easy to control the shoot (don't we love control?) and get everyone in sync, it will give me far more latitude in post production to play with colors and effects to push this into a cartoony look. Plus I might be able to do full body shots of Gray (instead of the limiting hand puppet shots) and all i will have to do is "erase" out the puppeteer. Sweet. Also, it will allow me to shoot WHENEVER i want rather than waiting for the weather to be right up in Big Bear. Basically I was limited to just before and just after winter. Not fun.

Besides this, I have also been working on other projects and pitches. The Lazy Susan with all of my projects has spun around I am inclined to work on them. Currently (and simultaneously) I am reworking the animated version of Bigfoot and Gray as part of a larger pitch which includes live action segments. Also working on two other animated series pitches that I am super excited about.

Well that's about it for now... i hope that those of you who are following along feel that it is worth it... I will do my best to make it so!

Until next time!

Chris

THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT?

Attention iPhone lovers/film makers check this out! CINEMEK is offering a STORY BOARD application for the iphone! It's called HITCHCOCK (of course) and it's pretty sweet! For 20 bucks I say you can't go wrong! Be sure to check out the VIMEO tutorials!

UPDATE.....

It's been a while I know... Work has taken over my life for now. Tough making a film on the side of such a demanding career. Anyhoo, my perfectionist side or perhaps my insecurity got the best of me. I've decided to start over on Gray's puppet head. Not that what I have is bad, but I really like his design and I want to try and get it closer to that. I learned a lot buildng the other head and hope I can apply the principles of that build to the new one. Wish me luck. I'll keep you all posted!

Best,

Chris

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.