For an upcoming project, I’m looking to hire a puppet designer.
My producer and I are talking with several name-brand puppetry houses, but since I’ve often had great luck finding talented folk among my readership, ((This blog is how I found Ryan Nelson (my Director of Digital Things), Nima Yousefi (our coder), Stu Maschwitz (Fountain) and Alan Dague-Greene (Courier Prime).)) I thought I’d put out the call. You might be the right person, or know the right person.
For this live-action film project, I need a puppet that interacts with human characters. It’s not a hand-in-foam puppet, but something more like a marionette. Imagine Pinnochio without his strings.
My hunch is that it’s a rod puppet, and we’d be painting out the rods in post. But it might be a marionette (think Team America). It might be a combination of real puppet and CG and stop-motion. Regardless of technique, the goal is to make something that feels very real and grounded in its environment.
I don’t want a puppet-y puppet. I want a 15-inch tall character.
If you’ve seen the stage version of War Horse, that’s another good example of what I’m going for. Imagine Joey, but with the puppeteers digitally removed.
I’m hoping to shoot this project in LA, and would prefer to work with a local designer. But I’ll consider folks from all over. My ideal collaborator would have sketches, reels and references that convince me we could make something really cool together.
If you think you might be right person, email me at ask@johnaugust.com. If you think you might know the right person, you can also tweet me a link @johnaugust.