Production Still
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It all started when I misread a headline. I glanced at a newspaper
in the lunch room at work which had a review for a certain Oscar-award-winning
film, and thought it said, “Grouchy Tiger…” The simple plotline of
a miserable tiger being bothered by a badly-hidden dragon popped into my
head immediately.
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Original Sketch. |
But how to do it…
At first I wondered if I could try hand-drawn animation. I tried
some designs but it didn’t look right.
Then I saw a “Biography” about Sesame Street, and my eyes lit up, a light went on in my head and I danced around my living room. “This!!” I sang, “This is what I want! A puppet-movie! I love puppets!” |
I’ve been playing with puppets since I was a kid, so it just made sense. (see My Bio for a picture!)
A friend got me in touch with a talented puppet-maker named Kanja Chen.
(Chensational Puppets)
He was so excited about the project that not only did he build the
tiger “Genghas” and the dragon “Pyro,” but he made me agree to have him
operate Genghas for the film. I wholeheartedly agreed. What
a joy!
It took some co-ordination of many busy schedules in order to find a shoot date, but at last we started rolling on Saturday, August 9, 2003. Many thanks to all my friends who gave up their weekend to be moving foliage and/or crew!
Especial thanks to Mike Scott who was our Set-Meister and Genghas’ right hand, and Alexander Galant who not only gave me pointers as a director, but operated the digital camera, adjusted the lights and provided me with smoke. (He is the Master of Darkness after all!)
I learned a great deal by creating this short film:
1. Always have food on-set.
2. Try to stay cool – in body and in mind. Tempers and panic
can skew your judgement. Luckily it was a warm room but we had a
great time!
3. Invest in good live-sound equipment. We didn’t. Next
time, perhaps. But if you must do post-production sound, find a guy
like Kirk Teeple who can help you out with a nifty digital sound system.
He’s also using that nifty system to compose the score, so that worked
out well!
Next comes the Festival Circuit! When Grouchy Tiger, Hiding Dragon is complete, I’ll keep you all posted as to its progress!
