Puppet Kaos - where Kelvin Kao plays with puppets and tell random stories

And… here’s the new video! I built four new puppets for this project, so together with the old ones, there are 8 total in this video. This is a music video that I made in January to enter the Brad Paisley’s “Start A Band” green screen contest (which I didn’t win, but whatever, enjoy! )

If you can’t see the embedded video, click here to see it on YouTube.

The premise of the contest was that they provided the green screen footages of Brad Paisley singing the song, and you can use the footages in your video any way you like. I was glad that I participated, because I’ve always wanted to try these things:

1. make a music video
2. purchase and learn to use a sewing machine
3. build more new puppets
4. build puppets that are humans (as opposed to “monsters” and animals)
5. build puppets that have shoulders made out of foam and cloth them
6. build puppets with hair made out of yarn
7. try out new lighting set-up
8. enter a contest
9. overlay several different green screen shots

And somehow making this video has all those elements! Of course, that’s also because I consciously attempt to try out a new technique every time I make a new video, but so many of them at once? That hasn’t happened before. So yeah, it was definitely a good experience. And I hope you all have as much fun watching it as I have making it!

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In this episode, Bottle Monster can not decide between Barack Obama and John McCain. And that’s when he discovers another candidate – Chet.

If you can’t see the embedded video,
Click here to watch Chet for President on Youtube.
Or download Quicktime movies here:
m4v format (29MB)
mov format (10MB)

Now, why would I release a video on election day when everyone is watching news coverage of the election turn-out? Good question, I don’t intend to answer it.

Is Chet a character that I’ve recently created? The answer is no. Chet and these other characters in the Chet 2008 campaign ad are part of the Bubbleboy Films, which is another online series of puppet videos. It’s created by Paul Hokanson and is my favorite online puppet series at the moment. I’m a big fan, so thank you, Paul, for letting me use your footages. To see more of Chet and his friends, check out Bubbleboy Films. I’ll probably write more about it later.

Update: Yes, I just voted.

The background music is Eternal Hope by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

Previous episodes:
Episode 16: Insomnia
Episode 15: Godfather Nightmares
Episode 14: Tofu

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About damn time for me to release a new episode, eh?

In this episode, Mac and Cheese is having a hard time falling asleep. Bottle Monster suggests sheep-counting as possible remedy. And then… I think it would be more fun to watch the video and find out for yourself instead of having me tell you.

If you can’t see the embedded video,
Click here to watch Insomnia on Youtube.
Or download Quicktime movies here:
m4v format (22MB)
mov format (7MB)

I actually got the idea for this episode when I was sort of dozing off. Also, filming this one made me realized something: it’s probably a good idea to get a small TV to use as a monitor. See, with the bed scenes, I was operating one puppet on each hand. And that can get pretty awkward already… especially when Mac and Cheese was in bed and Bottle Monster was supposed to be on the side. AND I had to twist my back and neck just enough so that I could actually see the camera’s tiny LCD screen. Since I like to find the easy way out, I think I should probably get a monitor so I don’t have to look at that small screen. Heck, it’s easier than becoming a contortionist!

In case you are wondering what’s that book Bottle Monster was reading, it’s Marisa Haedike’s What Are You Going to Be Today, Olive?

The tracks used are Earnest and Hamster March, both by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

PS. What’s a little odd is, the video and audio are slightly off in the two downloadable files. But when I uploaded the file to Youtube, it seems to be free of that problem. Weird.

Previous episodes:
Episode 15: Godfather Nightmares
Episode 14: Tofu
Epiodse 13: Tis the Season to be Charlie

To subscribe:
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And you can also find all the episodes on iTunes!

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In this episode, Mac and Cheese and Bottle Monster talk about the strange nightmares they have after watching the horsehead scene from The Godfather. If you don’t know what that scene looks like, you can look it up, but I will not be held responsible for any of your nightmares.

If you can’t see the embedded video,
Click here to watch Godfather Nightmares on Youtube.
Or download Quicktime movies here:
m4v format (23MB)
mov format (7MB)

The tracks used are Serpentine Trek and Mystery!, both by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

By the way, Kevin made a bunch of holiday sing-alongs. You can download them at his website Incompetech.

PS. I actually had some problems with YouTube this time. I normally upload the m4v version, which is 23MB in this case and takes a few minutes to upload. However, when I upload this file onto Youtube, the video and audio became all out of synch for some reason. So I uploaded the DV file, which is 422MB (!!) and took a few hours to upload. The video did come out better though, so I might do that again for future epiodes. I don’t like the black bars at the top and bottom though…

Some Links:
Episode 14: Tofu
Epiodse 13: Tis the Season to be Charlie
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Bottle Monster is currently reading eating the Problogger book.

See related post here: I won a book!

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Wow, haven’t posted a new video for two months! This, of course has a lot to do with Christmas. Before Christmas, we had a lot of work to finish and we couldn’t really go on vacation until we finished them. So yeah, I was working hard, making money instead of putting together videos. And then I went home for Christmas, away from all my video making stuff. And then after I came back from Christmas I was just lazy… not so great of an excuse. Anyway, here is an episode that I wrote, recorded, and filmed before Christmas, but couldn’t finish editing in time. Now that I’ve wrapped it up, enjoy!

In this episode, Mac and Cheese and Bottle Monster answer questions about tofu and soy milk using shadow puppets. It was my first attempt at making and filming shadow puppetry! Did it turn out perfect? No. But it was fun to do nevertheless.

If you can’t see the embedded video,
Click here to watch it on YouTube.
Or download Quicktime movies here:
m4v format (24MB)
mov format (14MB)

The background music is Joy to the World arranged by Christopher Baker. It’s licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 1.0 Generic. No, he didn’t write it but he did arrange and produce it. The original Joy to the World is by Isaac Watts and Lowell Mason. And of course, the lyrics is by moi.

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