Puppet Design
7 Wunder - Nelson
Nelson is definitely the biggest and possibly the maddest puppet we have ever created. Devised as a man-sized co-pilot companion for Seven Wonders presenter Thomas Brezina they fly a crazy ship to far flung places. We undertook extensive paper-based development before finalising a design which would require two puppeteers, animatronic eyes and eyebrows. To bring Nelson to life, we worked with ex-Henson puppet builder, Paul Jomain. Check out Paul's Kids TV gallery here.
Checkout our 7 Wunders set design and CGI
Franz Ferdinand
Once Franz Ferdinand was the Arch Duke whose demise started a war... now he is a hugely famous, purple, punk-rock, Austrian wild boar puppet designed by us and on Austrian TV three times a week! Franz is a boar with attitude...and an absolutely enormous wardrobe, including a Versace leather jacket. We worked closely with Thomas Brezina through development then worked with Paul Jomain to create a classic, yet very modern puppet, with rodded arms and mechanical ears. Puppet built by Paul Jomain - Check out his gallery here.
www.kidstv.co.at/franzferdinand
Checkout our Franz Ferdinand set design
Richard House Children's Hospice
Dan and Lucy were joined by Chris Tomkins to create a film for children's hospice, Richard House. The idea was to tell the story of the hospice with the natural voices of those that work or stay there and to work with the patients and siblings to build the puppets. This way, we created an all inclusive film to raise awareness and to raise funds for Harry's Million. The Harry puppet has gone on to run a marathon and interview celebrities including Barbara Windsor and Imelda Staunton. The final look for the film is home-spun and lo-fi with sock puppets playing the parts of staff and patients talking with humour, warmth and emotion about Richard House. This was a lovely, emotional experience for us that we hope you enjoy...
NHS Tavistock and Portman Trust
The Tavistock and Portman is an NHS trust which treats children with emotional and mental health issues. We collaborated with the Tavi, Elmwood and Redhouse Lane to create the website Cam's Den, a safe, online place to go, to find out about feelings and emotions. We worked with children from the Tavi and from local schools to make puppets and films about feelings - fear, happiness, sadness, anger - and this helped us to create Cam and his Crew, a group of simple, emotive and funny puppets. We worked closely with clinicians to create three films and lots of visuals for the website. The site has been hugely successful and the use of puppets to help children explore their feelings has proven to be really potent and effective.
