Seemore Goodstuff

We had a fun, two-day shoot last week over at WTVI, the local PBS affiliate here in the QC. I have puppeteered a character named Seemore Goodstuff there for years. Seemore is a 6-year old (perpetually) elephant who tries his best to know right from wrong. He hangs out in the Kids' Clubhouse and soaks up adult-type advice from Beverly Dorn-Steele, WTVI's Ready to Learn Diva.

Over the course of the two days, we found ourselves shooting on-location in a dentist's office, a playground and around a police car in a parking lot. We also shot several spots in studio. Seemore and Bev usually say their piece in a nifty 30-second interstitial that's shown in-between regular PBS Kids' programming.

I'm always reminded during these shoots how lucky I am to be able to puppeteer both on stage and on camera. The two are so different and it's a blast to explore the manipulation differences inherent to each. A subtle twitch of the puppeteer's wrist is lost on stage but becomes an incredulous look of disbelief on camera. Large, sweeping movements that read well on stage are big and overblown on camera. Using the camera's perspective to puppeteer by, via a monitor, is a must. What a neat challenge it is to create a believable character while it stays neatly tucked inside the tiny camera frame.

Role-playing with an on-camera character in between takes is an important personality builder too. What may appear as frivolous fun really is an exercise in finding out what a character is capable of physically and also how and why that character may react to different situations. I really believe that exploring the character's traits off-camera creates a better performance on-camera. It also helps mask the puppeteer's pain, since we usually are crammed into some unnatural position, with head craned downward to keep it out of the shot!

The end product is so different with on-camera work versus on-stage work. The immediate reaction of the audience is not there. It's a delayed gratification for sure; the end result put on hold until the piece is post-produced and readied to air.

So it went last week. A great two days of exploring what new things this character I know so well might be capable of. And then seeing if I was capable of making him achieve them through movement and dialogue. I look forward to seeing the end result of our work soon, after the spots are edited and complete!