I’ve linked to Thistledown before in the dotBoom blog, but I was just looking at their work again today, and, wow. It continues to blow me away. When I look at Thistledown’s stuff, I want to be able to build puppets the way they do; their work is consistently creative, and their builds are beyond top-notch.
Here’s a great video of a rat in a lab coat, dancing on a stage. He’s got legs, even. It’s nice.
Mr. Wojtal is a great puppet-builder, and has had a hand in shows such as Crank Yankers and Bear in the Big Blue House, and also Avenue Q. You should check out his portfolio site, because it kicks ass.
(There’s no reason for the link other than that it’s cool)
Hey everybody,
As part of the insane ramp-up to not only a dotBoom 2.0, but the couple other shows that we have in the works, we’re looking for more people to help out with the production of the show. If you’re in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, or can get yourself here somewhat reliably, and are interested in helping fill out any of these roles:
We’d love to hear from you. The production won’t start until the beginning of 2008, but I figure I’d start asking now. The time involvement varies, but it’ll be whatever you’re able to help out with. Also, unfortunately, this is an unpaid gig; there’s the slim chance of something later on, but for all practical purposes this is volunteer.
I should say that what these positions lack in money, they make up in fun: it’s a puppet show, you know? It’s fun. And also you’ll be working on something that a lot of people will be seeing, which is cool.
Also, food will be provided. Because everybody needs to eat.
If you’re interested, either respond to this post, or e-mail me at brian@hoggworks.com. Thanks!
Excellent article over at the Muppet Central forums about the things you need to think about if you’re going to build puppets for money.
The plan is to create dotBoom 2.0, to make it significantly bigger and better than the first season, and to do so while also making a handful of other shows at the same time, in our spare time, with no money.
This first episode is something of a mission statement.
Question: Who do you think would be a good guest-star on a puppet show about lewd web designers?
The answer can be as realistic or as pie-in-the-sky as you please.
(I am of course referring to dotBoom.)
The Ask the Optimist video that we did with Jesse Thorn of Maximumfun.org and George Saunders, which is here, is featured currently in the Comedy section of Youtube. You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/categories_portal?c=23&e=1
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As part of the whole ‘treating Hoggworks like a real company’ thing, I’m working out plans for multiple shows. Going to be the dotBoom, plus the Inside Hoggworks, plus some others. The plan is to create a framework which will allow me to easily shift between shows. As part of that, I present a big of a cross-post from the dotBoom blog, talking about ideas for set structures that I’m thinking about:
These are some quickie Google-sketchup images of the reusable set structure I’m thinking of for dotBoom 2.0, and all other shows I’m planning. There are details missing from this (doors and windows), and I have to adjust the designs to accommodate any other specific needs of the other shows (which I still have to figure out), but this is the overview: a series of 2-foot segments, each 9-10 feet tall, with a five foot set area, each segment to be re-arranged based on the look of the given set, with the visual elements clamped on top, removable and re-usable.
Modular. Extensible. Excellent.
And so far, I don’t see the Big Problem that will keep it from working. Hopefully there isn’t one.
This’ll be a behind-the-scenes blog, with photos of upcoming designs, in-progress stuff, and the like. It’ll also be the home of “Inside Hoggworks,” a show I’ll be doing detailing the process, and my attempts to make multiple dotBoom-level shows concurrently.
