Too Much of One Thing...

Today I played kindergarten PhD fun with my classmate Jesse and her mom Martha.
Jesse and I are shooting a 16mm stop-motion animation film with characters/puppets made out of paper, glue and a lot of luck! We're using magnet pieces and brad/hinges for movement and placement of our characters.

The set-up: Jesse's uncle was friends with this guy named Cyril Winter. Cyril Winter liked to think of himself as Buddy Holly and spent $1000 of his own money to record a single with a B-side. The song "Too Much of One Thing" is the result. It's probably one of the worst songs in the world. Poor Cyril tries to hit all the high notes like Buddy Holly, but falls flat there and everywhere else.

Our mission: To make the long-lost music video of Cyril Winter. We're not making fun of Cyril, on the contrary, we're celebrating whatever it is that makes a person create -- even if the outcome is subpar and comical. Cyril's efforts on this song -- his dreams to make it big, his spirit, his enthusiasm -- this is what we wish to capture.

So we're making these puppets, and I've never made paper puppets before. Jesse and I met at her mom's house, about a half hour outside of Richmond, and got right to work. She's making the doctor, who Cyril visits in the lyrics. Doctor tells him to find some LOVE. The Doctor has a moving arm and will hit Cyril on the knee with a medical hammer. I'm making the love interest, who blows Cyril off. I've named her Hedda Handsome. She has a huge head and freakish hands. Martha started on Cyril, but because he's our main character, we need many bodies and heads with facial expressions for him.

I'm likening the puppets for this project to the early South Park material where they actually used paper for their animation. And I think the Black and White 16mm film will capture the aesthetic of the 1950's Buddy Holly era perfectly.

Tommorrow, we work on finishing up our Cyril puppets and on to making his band. Then we have 4 scenes to create where poor Cyril has, of course, too much of one thing, and none of another. Such as "Large stack of pancakes, small cup of syrup" and "Huge pockets, small change". Get it? If anyone wants to hear the song, I'll email you the MP3.