Puppets for Goodnight Moon Music Video

The real kick in the butt to turn this blog from mere topic of dinner conversation to the real thing was from Alex and Lingie over dinner a couple of weeks ago.  They are two of the funniest, most creative, and biggest dreamers I know.  If it weren’t for this particular collaboration (circa January 2009), the friendship I’m lucky enough to say I have with them today probably wouldn’t exist.  For those that don’t know, Alex is an up-and-coming musician, and Lingie is a film director in the making.  Jackie Kim is another person I was lucky to have befriended during this project as well – she lends her ultra smooth Norah Jones-esque vocals to Alex’s song.  I also have to thank Charles for “volunteering” me to Alex and Lingie for this project.

Lingie, who directed the video, drew out a great concept for the Alex puppet which would have the spotlight for the majority of the video.  As you can see from the photo, I had my work quite cut out for me to replicate that cute thing.  After a few meetings about the rest of the puppets/backdrop and a 2-hour trip to Joann’s Fabric Store, we were off and running on the project.

I actually learned how to make the Alex puppet by literally watching every single one of these crazy “How to Make Puppets” videos.  The guy that does the videos is completely crazy, but he definitely knows his puppets.  I used yellow fleece for the skin, black felt paper for the inside of its mouth, and a wine cork cut in half lengthwise for the nose.

The sun and moon were made from a styrofoam ball cut in half and wrapped with cotton or satin fabric.  Alex’s puppet family and the Jackie puppet were made with the same yellow fleece, and styrofoam balls for the heads.  All of the hair and facial features were made with black felt paper.  Their “outfits” were made with random pieces of cloth I had in my apartment from previous projects, and the sunglasses and glasses were purchased from Build-A-Bear.

The Alex puppet’s guitar and shirt were also purchased at Build-A-Bear to save time, but everything else on it was made by hand.  Alex was also obsessed with a particular hat at the time, and luckily I had some leftover cloth from a costume that I made for the previous Halloween that matched Alex’s hat pretty closely.

I didn’t take a lot of photos during this project, but you can see the puppets and backdrop in the music video. Enjoy one of Alex’s original songs!