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Jul. 29th, 2005 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zustiferThis video is just beautiful. Cecil sent it to me, as an example of modern puppetry, but it's not just that; it's a portion of that wonderful/terrifying line-walking that I love so much.
Part of that reaction may be due to a dream I had sometime in college, which the scene in the operating room really yanked out of deep storage and into conscious memory. I'd written it down back then.
[This dream was] supposed to be a jim henson movie, except that to the naked eye there didn't appear to be any puppets. But the people acted like puppets, in that their lower halves were never really shown and they had that sort of exaggerated walking movement that muppets have. So, the first scene that i remember was a fastish dolly in the door of what looked like an operating room. we're facing away from the door of the room, and we dolly back through it. Standing apparently on a stool to the right of the doors is a guy in a dark brown or navy suit, who's hanging on the doorframe like a muppet. As the camera goes through the door, this generica suspenseful 'da da DAAA, da da DAAA' music plays (think 'normal view'), and after the first few bars the suit guy starts singing along with it in a really amusing faux serious way. Then either the camera swings around or there's a cut, and we're looking at an operation taking place. The guy performing it doesn't have a mask on, but i think he is wearing scrubs, and he's just kind of rooting around with something on the table, which we can't see because there are all these people crowded around with bated breath. The guy's acting like the pressure's on, all sweating and frantic. Suddenly he ceases his struggling and just looks blankly down at the operating table. He doesn't move again. This girl walks in from the right with a muppety gait, and, not looking at the camera (looking toward apparently nothing stage left), says, "There's something wrong with the new god. There's something wrong with the new god," in a very singsongy yet oh-no sort of way, like her mind has been blown by the fact.
zusty: That floaty hips-up and hips-down motion at the end in the operating room is really making me think of that puppet operating room dream I had
zusty: I just love it.
zusty: The gurney shot is the pinnacle though
zusty: his horrible teeth
zusty: and the multi-axis mouth motion
The way the puppeteers keep encouraging your suspension of disbelief, but then crushing it when the puppet's mouth opens too wide and abnormally deforms the face, and the way the body in the close-ups never wavers but then a cut directly to a nerd-dancing long shot-- this kind of stuff is suddenly awesome in the usually predictable world of music videos. I think there are three - possibly more, but probably not - separate puppets.
Closeup one, as seen at the beginning. Has eye, eyelid, tongue, and several mouth controls.
Full-body, as seen at the beginning and at the end. Has no finer controls.
Closeup two, as seen toward the end. Watch the way the mouth and jaw deform, and look closely at the brow, and tell me if you think it's the same as closeup one. I think it's different; maybe there was damage to the original puppet. [Addendum: two is definitely a new puppet; it has the eyebrow controls.]
Also, I can't help but think of Daleks while watching this video for Cish Cash, which I didn't even know _had_ a video. The delicate way the tanks move their little gun barrels is extremely Dalekly to me.
Part of that reaction may be due to a dream I had sometime in college, which the scene in the operating room really yanked out of deep storage and into conscious memory. I'd written it down back then.
[This dream was] supposed to be a jim henson movie, except that to the naked eye there didn't appear to be any puppets. But the people acted like puppets, in that their lower halves were never really shown and they had that sort of exaggerated walking movement that muppets have. So, the first scene that i remember was a fastish dolly in the door of what looked like an operating room. we're facing away from the door of the room, and we dolly back through it. Standing apparently on a stool to the right of the doors is a guy in a dark brown or navy suit, who's hanging on the doorframe like a muppet. As the camera goes through the door, this generica suspenseful 'da da DAAA, da da DAAA' music plays (think 'normal view'), and after the first few bars the suit guy starts singing along with it in a really amusing faux serious way. Then either the camera swings around or there's a cut, and we're looking at an operation taking place. The guy performing it doesn't have a mask on, but i think he is wearing scrubs, and he's just kind of rooting around with something on the table, which we can't see because there are all these people crowded around with bated breath. The guy's acting like the pressure's on, all sweating and frantic. Suddenly he ceases his struggling and just looks blankly down at the operating table. He doesn't move again. This girl walks in from the right with a muppety gait, and, not looking at the camera (looking toward apparently nothing stage left), says, "There's something wrong with the new god. There's something wrong with the new god," in a very singsongy yet oh-no sort of way, like her mind has been blown by the fact.
zusty: That floaty hips-up and hips-down motion at the end in the operating room is really making me think of that puppet operating room dream I had
zusty: I just love it.
zusty: The gurney shot is the pinnacle though
zusty: his horrible teeth
zusty: and the multi-axis mouth motion
The way the puppeteers keep encouraging your suspension of disbelief, but then crushing it when the puppet's mouth opens too wide and abnormally deforms the face, and the way the body in the close-ups never wavers but then a cut directly to a nerd-dancing long shot-- this kind of stuff is suddenly awesome in the usually predictable world of music videos. I think there are three - possibly more, but probably not - separate puppets.
Closeup one, as seen at the beginning. Has eye, eyelid, tongue, and several mouth controls.
Full-body, as seen at the beginning and at the end. Has no finer controls.
Closeup two, as seen toward the end. Watch the way the mouth and jaw deform, and look closely at the brow, and tell me if you think it's the same as closeup one. I think it's different; maybe there was damage to the original puppet. [Addendum: two is definitely a new puppet; it has the eyebrow controls.]
Also, I can't help but think of Daleks while watching this video for Cish Cash, which I didn't even know _had_ a video. The delicate way the tanks move their little gun barrels is extremely Dalekly to me.
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Date: 2005-07-30 01:29 am (UTC)man I got a great idea for a music video today and I'm gonna have to do it.
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Date: 2005-07-30 07:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 12:06 am (UTC)I shewed it to Lisa, she had the bizarre response: "It's not any good. the puppetry is bad and doesn't sync up with the singing". I made her go home.
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Date: 2005-07-31 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 02:15 am (UTC)I wonder how much juice that thing needs to run... and they must have made it strong, see how it presses on the doctor's hands?
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Date: 2005-07-30 05:47 pm (UTC)The uncanny valley?
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Date: 2005-07-31 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 01:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 10:40 am (UTC)