An Intensive 3 Week Summer TV Puppetry Workshop 2010 in Sydney, Australia

Our first International three-week intensive Puppetry for Television and the Web workshop will take place at the Wesley Institute for the Arts in Sydney from 11 to 30 January 2010.

This puppetry workshop is suitable for film-makers, performers, puppeteers, educators and others interested in learning about puppetry for the screen. The course includes design and construction of puppets, manipulation for the camera, developing scenarios for performance, voice characterisation, and directing short performances. Participants will develop, perform, produce and edit their short scenarios for webcast on a dedicated puppetry ‘You Tube’ channel.

This course examines the art of puppetry in the 20th century and its effectiveness as a medium of communication in our digital age. The history of the puppet on film and television from Burr Tillstrom’s Kukla, Fran and Ollie and Jim Henson’s Muppets to contemporary productions will be explored.

Participants will work with professional puppet builders to design and construct their characters. Specialised puppetry techniques required to perform for the camera will be developed. We will specifically focus on developing characters and will spend time improvising on camera to discover the puppet’s individual personality, voice and movement.

We will explore the art of the puppet effectively interacting with live performers on camera.
An Australian cinematographer will teach camera techniques to capture and enhance the performance on screen. Each group will have an opportunity to edit their short pieces.
The participants will investigate effective television techniques and learn how these differ from developing a production or series for the web.

The workshop is produced by Gary Friedman Productions in association with Wesley Institute for the Arts and is aimed at anyone interested in producing, performing and directing puppetry for television and the internet. We have all the facilities and nearby accommodation available and it'll be a wonderful opportunity to experience an Australian summer. For full information, email me here!