We love
puppets!
Puppetry
We love puppets. Our company has grown with a parallel appreciation of puppets used for stop motion animation, or puppets used more traditionally.
Traditional puppetry is a theatrical art form, and this gives us a novel break from using animation to achieve a character performance. (It also means we get the opportunity to shoot 17 takes if we need to, like our friends who shoot live action!)
Puppetry is often a useful alternative to animation because it affords a different kind of separation from reality. This means hand-controlled puppets can often reach into themes which might otherwise feel inappropriate for real actors (or even animated characters) to do.
Whether covered in fur or carved from wood, we can inject some theatrical performance into your idea with traditional puppetry.
Puppets & Puppeteers
Beautifully custom-made marionettes, rod puppets or hand puppets are tailor-made for any project and then choreographed for each performance by some of the most skilled puppeteers in the country. Whimsical and playful or expressive and eloquent, we are always excited to tell stories with this timeless art.
Whatever your vision, puppetry can be a great way to infuse a project with the energy of a live performance – the fluidity and natural flow of in-camera movement has a distinct quality that can make the action stand out.
Creating the right puppet for your project is key, whether a simple but lovable hand puppet, or a sophisticated marionette or animatronic head which can display a diverse range of emotions, to give a memorable performance. Take a look at some of our puppetry projects below.
Puppetry Examples
Diet Coke
(Characters, marionettes, advertising)
For Diet Coke’s ‘Love it Light’ campaign, we filmed highly sophisticated marionettes capable of eye blinks and mouth movements.
Wenceslas Square
(Characters, marionettes, story, music)
The music video created to compliment Goodnight Lenin’s song ‘Wenceslas Square’ utilises marionette puppets augmented with CGI eyes, for an unusual look that is highly effective for the tone of the track. Directed by Steven Spencer and Chris Keenan.
Road Monster
(Characters, informative)
A cast of brightly coloured puppet monsters with odd quirks gave us license to spotlight bad driving habits in this series of short films for West Mercia Police’s Safer Roads Partnership Scheme.
A Shark Who Swallowed The Sea
(Characters, story, glove puppets)
Simple but effective glove puppets were ideal for this fun tale about a greedy shark, written for CITV’s ‘Share a Story’. Bright colours, interesting shapes and contrasting materials help create identifiable and memorable characters.