Long day

Today was long, but good.

One of the puppets had to throw this thing, which was challenging but not impossible with live hands. There were a limited number of configurations in which it could happen, but we knew that going into it and were planning on using the easiest of those options.

Then, of course, during the wide shot, the rodded puppet threw the thing in a different way. When we watched the playback as we were getting ready for me to do the live-hand throw, the puppeteer put his head in his hands and said, “This is impossible. I don’t think you can match that.”

If it had been any other puppet he would have been completely right. With this particular one though, just because of a slight difference, I’m able to put my arm up through the back of his shirt and down his arm. My elbow becomes his shoulder. I have to do a weird contortion to get the rest of my body out of the way, but it means that he could throw the thing and match the other shot.

When we set up to rehearse it, to see if it was going to work, I heard the director yell, “Shoot it, shoot it! Roll!” He wasn’t serious, but it was nice that he recognized the near miracle we pulled off. We did the take, and my primary puppeteer said he was very pleased.

We got lucky and it felt so good.

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