Final Cut Studio

I have a wide assortment of film , photography and video equipment and supplies, most of which is outdated, but we won't go into that!

But Final Cut Studio is one program that I haven't gotten around to using yet. I'm thinking that I need to integrate PowerPoint with Final Cut. In particular, I have been documenting the puppetry with video, so that too needs to be integrated into the editing bench. This is all leading toward the animated videos of each scene.

The other bit of activity that is moving forward is setting up the green screen/sound stage. Right now that space is junked up with assorted supplies, but I'm setting up shelving in the shop to recover floor space. The stage space is starting to seem more necessary. I have been thinking about setting up the scenes with models, or even with the puppets, for the sake of the illustrations. It's much more advantageous for the artists to have a 3D cyclorama to aid in drawing. But that has an array if other uses as well. So that is moving forward, in conjunction with setting up Final Cut Pro.

AG

Music Score

So, as I said, I've been working with PowerPoint. I created a publicity presentation which includes one of the songs, which is accompanied by the Lead Sheet.

The song is Zach & Ferny's love song, a duet  titled "Completely" featuring Nathan Odhner and Justine Buss singing. It was recorded some years ago and turned out really well. 

I n the PowerPoint, the sheet music is presented in such a way as the pages turn at the appropriate time for the reader to follow along. Well, this works out so well that I am going to do the entire score this way as a learning tool. It is so much easier to lay down a piano track against this sheet music for the singers to learn the music. I don't want to eliminate the rehearsal process with an accompanist, but to expedite the process, this method is a great tool.

That being said, I'm working on "The Stone of Wisdom", which you could say is the finale of Act One. It's an epic tale sung to Zach & Zebby by The Master Gnome. It's a very cool song.

I sing with the choir, so I sing an assortment of songs. My propensity is to remember the hook, but not much else, even on my own songs! That frustrates me. What I'm saying is that "The Stone of Wisdom has a great hook.

Well, I'm hoping to post something here, but since I'm going to make the e-Storybook a membership site, then the music will be available on that page. It's about time I start making some money with this project, so I think it's time to set up the membership site. On that site all the material will be available to our members and by so doing, they will be helping us to produce this show.

Well... More later. AG

Parade Float

I'm posting on this subject using a new devise, so this is really a test for me.

After writing the last post I started thinking about the size and shape of the parade float. It gets down to the mobile stage being put into application, for example, at the end of The Southampton Days Parade at the carnaval/fair taking place in Tamanend Park after the parade. So that parade float will also need to serve as a stage for the puppet show. I'm thinking that blending live performance with puppetry may be the best approach to presenting the show in the context of assorted festivals, including "Gnome Fest".

As I said before, the parade float dimensions will also need to be applicable in a Little Theatre environment. As I write this, i'm thinking that a show which starts out with puppets may transition into a live performance. That would be interesting.

So those are some recent thoughts. AG

Puppetry

  For about a month I was busy re-engineering the tail section of the Dragon Puppet we use for the Pageant on June 19th at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral. 

I'm not sure how many years it's been since we built the dragon, by now, over seven years, maybe over ten. A team from NYC was employed to design and supervise building a seven headed dragon puppet as represented in the Book of Revelations. It was intended to replace the hand puppet that was used for decades. It is also like twenty times bigger.

Well, when it was announced that the dragon would be built at MPAC (Mitchell Performing Arts Center) the community was invited to volunteer. I figured why not, after all, I am a theatre guy. 

So I ended up building the chassis to the body & tail, as specified and assembling the necks, while other people built the paper mache heads and made scales.

Well, after the one week build was done, Alex (the designer) christened me the Dragon Master. So I've been in charge of all repairs, modifications and instructing the puppeteers in operation.

Over the years, I've rebuilt and redesigned numerous aspects of the Dragon. The heads were reconstructed to accommodate a flow of water (silk) which involved modifying the structural and mechanical design of the mouths and the operation of the heads.

 The necks we're altered to accommodate the actual operating circumstances, regular annual repairs have been implemented, due to things like the sword fight resulting in damage, but also the original design was insufficient, in terms of durability and didn't really meet the needs of ongoing performance. It was designed as a parade puppet.

Most particularly, this year, I have had to redesign and implement a new spine structure in the tail. 

The tail is a very active part of the puppet, having a stinger like a scorpion, which flexes as part of the operation, to represent stinging and pulling down "the stars of heaven" as conveyed in Revelations. 

So, the tail has broken numerous times, not only because it was not designed for years of use, but because the puppeteers get excited and wack the tail around a lot.

I will post some photos of the dragon and the rebuilds that have taken place when I can do so.

I have to say that; this year's rebuild has me thinking a lot about the puppetry I want to implement on the parade float for the Gnomes. I'm thinking that the sets and such for the parade float may also be usable in Little Theatre, but I'll talk about that later.

I expect to post video of the tail rebuild and will post a link here.

That's all for now. AG

I've also performed as John for the last twenty plus years.

She represents The New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven, revealing the Dive. Good and True in the Word