IDEA #1 – PUPPETS!!!!
My most prominent skills in IMM are in video production, design, and fabrication. While brainstorming over the summer about what could combine my love for comedy, writing, children’s TV, set design, and prop design, I came to PUPPETS! I thought about how I loved The Muppets, Sesame Street, and a very weird show on Nickelodeon in 2005 called Mr. Meaty, and suddenly making a pilot for a show starring puppets made a lot of sense. I’m pretty deep into pre-production right now and feeling really excited about it. (Short synopsis: Two best friends take on seventh grade in “FREAK AND THE BEAST.”) I’ve already built a prototype puppet and finalized designs for the sets. I hope to have 5 characters (including an Anything Muppet) and 4 sets to create an 11 minute pilot.
IDEA #2 – MINIATURE TECH DOLLHOUSE
Since Freak and the Beast already combines so many of my interests, it was hard to think of an idea with all the previous things I mention taken off the table, but I guess one of my passions I haven’t explored in IMM is miniatures. I think it’d be fun to create a modern dollhouse with an accurate portrayal of how many screens are in a typical household. You can buy LED screens pretty small, so it’d be cool to have functioning screens in the dollhouse, all playing era-accurate media like YouTube and Netflix. I like the idea of the juxtaposition between dollhouses (which you might picture as pretty vintage) and an accurate portrayal of technology in the household.
IDEA #3 – DIGITAL GRAPHIC NOVEL
Honestly, even if it wasn’t related to my career, I’d probably continue with puppets because I love them so much, and even more since I’ve started research. If I couldn’t do puppets, I’d probably write and illustrate a digital graphic novel, because I love those, but I knew I wanted to so something way more involved and layered for my thesis.
PUPPETS
This is great! (Look at that, you’ve gone and made me use an exclamation point.) You’ve clearly got the skills, background and enthusiasm for it, so by all means full stream ahead 🙂 I would encourage you to look for opportunities to enhance your idea with elements that are more *typically* IMM — digital video and motion graphics, 3D printing and other digital fabrication, sound design, etc. So-called children’s shows have often pioneered innovative approaches to style and technology. Blues Clues really put After Effects on the map, for example. I’d also recommend that you try to develop / test / refine this as much as possible in lo-fi form — scripts, storyboards, paper prototypes — before sinking a lot of time into polished characters, props and scenes. I look forward to seeing your vision come to life.
MINIATURES
This is also appealing. There’s a passionate community for this sort of stuff, but from what (little) I’ve seen they’re traditionalists who haven’t really embraced the potential of physical computing (sensors, lights, motors, microcontrollers) or the Internet of Things (networked lights, power, sound). It would be interesting to explore. There was another miniatures idea for thesis years ago. Never materialized. But I encouraged the student to play around with a back-and-forth between animated elements on small screens and a miniature physical environment. Imagine a tinkerbell sorta light on a screen that somehow jumps into the physical space and is represented with actual light.
Caitlyn I love your puppet idea, it’s so creative and obviously fueled by your passion for the hobby. I think if you pursued this concept for your senior thesis it’s one you would have the motivation to complete on time. However, I was wondering what you were thinking about for sound design – were you thinking about voicing all or certain characters yourself, or getting other friends or actors involved in the production? I know it’s early in the design process, but it’s a good thing to have sorted out now before we actually begin construction next semester.
Your puppet idea is extremely fascinating in that there is a lot of room for potential ideas and concepts. My only advice for you is to try and come up with a few directive ideas and see which one will work for whatever direction you’re looking to take the project on. Create a storyboard and layer out how scenes will flow forward. I know this seems like basic info but any advice helps I say. Great idea and keep moving forward
I know your third choice isn’t one of your top desires, but I would really love to see how you build on this project with the digital graphic novel. But now that I think of it, I really love the puppet idea. I think branching out to the real world sharing stories through your imaginative creatures will really tell a story. How will you be preparing/structuring your project before thesis comes around? I know it’s only the first semester, but I would love to hear some of your ideas.
Having seen your work before, I have complete faith and excitement towards you bringing your first idea to life! The interactive comic story is a great way to demonstrate your creative storytelling abilities (writing/developing the story), expand your digital illustration skills (designing the characters/setting), as well as give the audience something fun to do (direct the fate of the story).
I took a look at the comic Rachel suggested you look at and I think it would be a great template for you to follow.
I also think the novel’s Ault suggested will help you get a firm understanding of making a comic as opposed to just a normal type of video.
I’m assuming Photoshop and After Effects will be your best friends for this project but I’ve heard of a few types of software designed specifically for digital comics that you can probably find on Google as well.
Looking forward to seeing your final product in a few months!
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Your skills, passion, and personality all fit perfectly with your #1 project! I love that you found a way to combine your comedic skills with something childlike but also something that requires a tremendous amount of hard work.
It seems like you already have a pretty fleshed out (if not completed) storyline for the show but it may be cool to consider adding in some sort of interaction for the audience whether that be the puppets cracking jokes with the audience during the introduction of the show or maybe some sort of brief set interaction while the audience is waiting for the next show to start.
Definitely admire all of the effort I have watched you put into this project thus far (your puppet looks great!).
I truly think your second idea would be a super cool project as well though, and one that would definitely capture the difference of how we/our parents played as children (physical dollhouses) versus children today (iPads, computers, tablets, etc). Something to keep in mind for the future for sure.
The puppet idea is Great. Fresh, Original, and has the opportunity to really show off some execution skill. I would REALLY be interested in seeing a breakdown/BTS video and design schematics/ breakdown sheets of the puppets along with the final presentation.