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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Episode 12 is here! This week, Mac and Cheese is confused about daylight saving time and daylight saving accounts. Bottle Monster educates him about the importance of saving daylight.

If you can’t see the embedded video,
Click here to watch it on YouTube.
Or download Quicktime movies here:
m4v format (40MB)
mov format (15MB)

And this video used lots of graphics generously licensed by their original authors through Creative Commons licenses. There are so many that they deserve their own table:

Graphic	Usage	Author	License
Office Buildings	Bobby’s narration background	Sylvain Racicot	CC Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic
bank at night	Moostifer night vitamin background	Carsten Tolkmit	CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
A car drives by in the night	Moostifer’s solar power car	Ben Watkin	CC Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic
A discovery	Dinasaurs talking	Denise Chan	CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
Comet McNaught	Comet	Steve Crane	CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

This is also the first episode filmed during day time (except the outdoor UCLA video) using natural daylight, which fits the theme, although it’s not intentional. In fact, I didn’t realize that until just now. Filming in the dark certainly has some weirdness associated with it.

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Episode 11 is here! This week, Mac and Cheese and Bottle Monster investigate why people go trick-or-treating for candy on Halloween on Puppet Kaos’ own newsmagazine 50/50. Do ghosts even like candy? Don’t vampires want blood instead? Does this tradition even make any sense? Let Puppet Kaos tell you the truth behind Halloween!

If you can’t see the embedded video,
Click here to watch it on YouTube.
Or download Quicktime movies here:
m4v format (80MB)
mov format (31MB)

The music is News Sting by Kevin MacLeod. It’s licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

And this video used lots of graphics generously licensed by their original authors through Creative Commons licenses. There are so many that they deserve their own table:

Graphic	Usage	Author	License
colourscapebg3.jpg	50/50 background	Jonny Baker	CC Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic
My First Jack-o’-Lantern With Ian	Truth Behind Halloween title picture	Tze-Her Su	CC Attribution 2.0 Generic
Machampane Wilderness Camp	Moostifer walking background 1	Ralph Pina	CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
San Gorgonio Wilderness	Moostifer walking background 2	Randy McEoin	CC Attribution 2.0 Generic
desert view	Bobby walking background 2	Jon Sullivan	CC Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic
A Picture Share!	Loose tooth picture	Jenny Levine	CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
At the Dentist	Dentist picture	Seth Werkheiser	CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
#4 – The Tooth Fairy	Tooth fairy picture	Kaptain Kobold	CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

I just got my new green screen from my friend Fiona, because my apartment-mate lost the mailbox key so I had to mail the greenscreen to a friend who lives nearby when I ordered it. Thanks, Fiona. I’ve been using the new greenscreen backdrop in this episode. I’m still getting used to it. Some of the focus and lighting conditions were not ideal since I’m still experimenting, but it does give me more freedom simply because it’s bigger than my good old green piece of paper.

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Episode 10 is here! This week, Bottle Monster keeps wanting to sneeze. Mac and Cheese, Bobby, and Moostifer try to help him find a cure through the power of… silent films.

If you can’t see the embedded video,
Click here to watch it on YouTube.
Or download Quicktime movies here:
m4v format (33MB)
mov format (11MB)

The music is Improbable by Kevin MacLeod. It’s licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

I considered using a sepia effect on the silent film part, but later decided against it. Also I tried rolling the credit for the first time instead of using still ones. It’s kinda cool. I discovered the rolling credit tool when I was editing. Otherwise I was considering possibly animating the rolling motion myself, but that proves to be unnecessary.

Oh yeah, and I was sneezing every now and then when I was making this film, but once I’m done, I stopped sneezing. Man, the human mind is powerful. Okay, maybe it’s just me.

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Episode 9 is here! Last time, in Episode 8 – Nobody’s Watching, Mac and Cheese and Bottle Monster decided that they should teach English. Instead of teaching letters like Sesame Street and teaching vowels and consonants like Between the Lions, they decided to teach words with a second meaning that people don’t normally know about. The list of words include stereotype, lexicon, hamlet, listless, sidewalk and multiplication table.

If you can’t see the embedded video,
Click here to watch it on YouTube.
Or download Quicktime movies here:
m4v format (52MB)
mov format (18MB)

The background images for “stereotype” is “DAB Radios” by Salim Fadhley, for “lexicon” is “Lexus” by Der Kraken, and for “listless” is ” ‘Overflow’ effect at Shaw’s Supermarket” by happylilcoder. All three graphics are generously shared by their original author under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Speaking of Creative Commons, starting from this episode (because I’m too lazy to go back and change previous episodes), I’m going to release my videos under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License, thus removing the “All rights reserved” label.

Comment here