Sorry for the late post! This week has been filled with work and meetings. I originally planned on posting another article but after watching Tuesday night's premier of Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge I thought I would talk about that instead.Tuesday night myself and two of the other No Strings Puppetworks builders (Tim and Amy) gathered at my house and watch the show. After the show we were a bit undecided about our feelings and weren't sure what to make of the whole thing. Was it any good? I think this is a multi-layered answer that can't be covered with a simple yes or no. It was fun to watch these very talented artists create some really beautiful puppets in a very short amount of time and it was certainly refreshing to see a show that does not pander to the spectacle like a lot of reality based TV does (Heroes of Cosplay specifically comes to mind). At the same time I had was a bit disheartened to hear multiple contestants say something along the lines of, "this definitely looks like a Henson puppet!" It bothered me because I worried that each of these artists would abandon their sense of style in hopes of creating a "Henson Puppet" to win the show. Each of Jim's productions had its own look and feel to match the project. Big Bird looked nothing like the Chamberlain from the Dark Crystal. It made me happy to see that the puppet that won the challenge didn't really look like a "Henson Puppet." I also really liked the fact that both of the winning designers had very different backgrounds and approaches to puppet building but worked wonderfully together. They took each of their strengths and put them together to make something really cool, which is what we try to do at No Strings. Each of us have an area in which we are strong and we work as a team to make each puppet better. I hoped we would see more of them building their puppets and how they put them together. I always find watching others work to be wonderful inspiration and I hoped to learn a thing or two. I knew that the odds of seeing this part of the process was pretty slim for may reasons, i.e. doesn't make for exciting TV and most puppet builders tend to be pretty secretive about their work. I hope as the show moves into animatronic work we will get a little bit more viewing time. All in all I am hopeful for the show, but will reserve my full opinion until I see a few more episodes. I liked watching the puppets performed at the end of the show. The puppeteers were pretty amazing! For the most part I agreed with the judges and liked how they spoke to the contestants. They showed the contestants a level of respect that is often missing on similar shows. I am excited to watch next week's episode. What did you think of the show, share your thoughts below! -David
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David Mort
These are the stories of my journey as a puppet builder. Some will be about my life and the role puppets have played in it and some will be about a project I am working on. I hope you enjoy my musing about life, love and puppets! Archives
May 2014
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