How does one "puppeteer"?

[Smoogle]

I was wondering if anyone can give me some feedback on how they have learned to puppeteer?

Do you think it would be noticeable if a person controlling a puppet has no experience?

How does one learn if they want to be self taught?

thanks in advance

P.S. I've also tried to find some puppeteers in toronto but have not been successful, are there any out there?

[doctort13]

Practice, practice, practice. Then practice some more.

Join Puppeteers Of America (http://www.puppeteers.org) too.

Oh, I know there are Toronto puppet people. You need to keep looking behind the curtains. :)

[froggiegirl18]

I learned from Children's church pastors who did puppetry. They then recommended me to learn more from workshops so I attended OneWay Street festivals and Puppet Productions. Both have amazing puppeteers. This was where I learned the basics-advance skills(doing it for nine years). It takes a ton of practice. You can be self taught I think reading from a book somewhere that Jim Henson taught himself because he just wanted to be on television and saw that his local television studio needed puppeteers. There are books out there, but they are hard to find, because some are out of print. There are plenty of puppeteers on here that we can help you out just let us know what we can do.:)

[Frogpuppeteer]

it was passed down by my parents seriously...my parents were puppeteers in puerto rico and around age 2 i just picked it up naturally...now im learning the building part but its been a good run

[Buck-Beaver]

The most important thing to do is pick up and puppet and perform. For your friends, for your family, in the mirror, doing shows at schools and birthday parties, whatever.

Grab a webcam, a puppet, and make a show. Just be creative. Even if you're worried you might not be very good at first, look at things like the Heather and Ben Show (http://theheatherandbenshow.blogspot.com) or Pancake Mountain (http://www.pancakemountain.com) or even Wonder Showzen. They're not very sophisticated puppetry on a technical level, but people still really enjoy watching them because they're creative and the people behind them have fun doing them.

The more you do it, the better you'll get at it.

[super muppet]

One Word Will Solve Your Question....Practice.

[Iokitek]

I've also just started out puppeteering. And I'm not very good at it. But I just keep going at it. I'm already making my next puppet for the next idea. This one will have arms though unlike the previous ones. In case you want to know how to manipulate the arms there's abit on that here:

http://www.puppetproductions.com/5_basic_techniques_of_puppetry.htm

Hope it helps a little :)

[KNOCK A LOT]

I have also just started and you are right it is very hard to find training but I have found that the more you do it the better I think also if you think of your puppet as a real being with a personallity it helps I really love mine good luck knock a lot from tasmania

[Phantom]

I've been doing a series of articles on manipulation at puppetminister.com. Here's links to the first two:

http://www.puppetminister.com/articles/articlejan06

http://www.puppetminister.com/articles/articlefeb06

It's the classical basics that most beginners learn...but once you learn the basics, you get to break the rules. ;)


*NOTE: It seems my web host is experiencing server problems (lousyrackin'frackin'noaccount...). I'll remove this note, when they get their stuff together.*:mad:

[doctort13]

If you are a parent, as I am, try performing in front of your child. I lip-sync along to CDs to practice mouth movements. Sometimes I just improv, and do a whole "show". My daughter LOVES it, and it helps me practice with glove puppets.

[Phantom]

Web site seems to be working now. No promises, though. I couldn't edit the other link and I'm not sure why. Oh well..*phantom says as he goes bobbing off*

[MeepBorkMeep]

I bring my puppets to the kids I babysit for. They didn't like the first two because, according to them, they didn't "Cooperate nicely". So they were basically fired. But then I brought in my cowgirl puppet, Dolly, and they're absolutely in love with her. You know that thing the Muppeteers keep saying about how kids never look at the puppeteer and all they see is the puppet? So true. But I digress.

That's what I do to practice. Well, that and turn the mirror toward my bed and have it lip synch till midnight. ;)

[Smoogle]

Thanks everyone!

This place is like Sesame Street everyone is so nice and helpful. everyone should come together and form some kind of huge project.

All of you have given me great advice and I'll continue to practice as much as possible, I'll also visit those sites some of you suggested.

I've done plenty of browsing my self and i've seen all forms of puppets being displayed/performed online - From Whack Jack, to plenty of stuff that has been posted on here there seems to be infinite supplies of puppet shows that are great, heck sometimes i just browse on youtube and look at all the puppet stuff they have on there.

I hope when me and my partner are finished our show and post it up you all enjoy it. :)

[Smoogle]

I was wondering when filming do some of you use the recorded voices from the camcorder or do you add it in later with some sort of program - how would you sync that in correctly?

[MeepBorkMeep]

I'm not professional with this topic, but what I usually do is use a boom or the voices from the camcorder, as long as they're clear. If I am doing lip synching, though, I let my laptop play the song while I perform so it can be heard softly on the camcorder, then I put it the finished performance on iMovie, put the song in again until it synchs with the recorded camcorder song, then delete the sound from the video and just use the audio track. Ga, I didn't explain that well. But if you /can/ understand my gibberish, that's my amateur two cents. ;)

[froggiegirl18]

Being a com. major I understood you fine. That would work.

Give it go Smoogle. :)