Today on People Behind the Puppets,
I'm talking to Alicia Britt.
Alicia is a puppet maker
but in the last year she has been
specialising in digital stuff.
Hi Alicia!
Hi Angel!
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too how are you?
I'm very well thank you now I wanted to ask you,
you went to Puppet School is that right?
That's right I went to Curious School of Puppetry
which is a whole entire school where
puppeteers and puppet makers come together to
train in puppetry. And we came right here to make puppets!
Oh wow that's amazing! What is it about puppets that you really love?
Oh well I grew up always making things but also performing.
I love both equally.
So I think puppetry for me just kind of brought those two things together.
So when you're making a puppet, what are 3 things you need to consider?
Oh well I think the first thing is
you have to think about what you want your puppet to do.
Because if you make your puppet but you haven't
thought about what you want it to do,
it won't work! After all those hours you spent making it.
So I think a really good design is very important.
A good design.
You also have to think about how long you have to make your puppet
because sometimes a puppet that you make really quickly in an hour or so
can be so much fun and so I think some of the best puppets you can make really quickly.
So always think how long you want it to take.
Ok anything else?
The next thing I would say was have a look at what other people are doing and get inspired
because you can always have a really great idea by seeing what someone else is doing really well.
Oh brilliant. There's a lot to think about there.
Now, there are obviously many many different types of puppet.
What's your favourite and why?
I can't pick one Angel!
(Angel laughs)
Try!
Oh ok, I think, just today my favourite puppet is a surprise puppet
and that's a kind of puppet that you wouldn't think was a puppet
but has a certain personality to you and suprises you
and it might just be a tea pot, that has a silly face, that you can create a character from!
And I think today, that's my favourite kind of puppet.
A tea pot, a tea puppet!
(They both laugh)
Very good!
Can you tell us a bit about the show you created called 'Busy Being Ze'?
Yes I think you would love it Angel!
So 'Busy Being Ze' was a show inspired by the Pride flag
which is a rainbow made of all these wonderful colours.
Oh I love rainbows!
And each colour of the Pride flag was one of the puppet designs.
So we had a red monster, a yellow monster, an orange monster and a green monster
and they talked about all of the lovely things we can do to be kind to one another
in a wonderful adventure show.
Aw, that sounds really really nice.
Oh thanks Angel.
So can you now tell us about what you've been doing in lockdown?
Ok well it was a bit scary at first because I had to close my workshop.
So I had to pack a suitcase and all I had to take home was a sketchbook
and some colouring pencils and pens really. I didn't have much.
Didn't have any woodworking tools, I didn't have anything to carve with or any paints,
so it was a big change for me, but at home and I suspect a lot of you at home as well,
have computers.
Yeah.
So I've never really had time to do anything with computers before.
I normally make puppets like you Angel, so I spent a good couple of months learning
on the computer how to take puppetry into animation.
But how do you do puppetry on a computer?
Well that's a good question Angel!
Well there's a lot of really good amazing software you can get
and some of that software you can get on your iPad or your iPhone and you can make
animations at home, really easily!
In fact, you've brought an animation with you today haven't you and a puppet inside your sketch book!
I have! Would you like to see?
Yes please!
Ok, here they are.
So this is my stop motion animation puppet.
Oh!
And they're a skateboarder.
So how does it all work?
So, I just make this with paper. Normal paper from my sketchbook
and if I lift it up, you can see the puppet is made of all different parts.
So let me take off this arm.
Oh!
That looks painful!
It's a bit sticky. There you go.
So I drew each part of the puppet individually so that I could stick it back together again.
And then you can move the parts, like this in front of the camera to make your film.
And do you think our viewers could do this themselves at home?
Oh I really hope you can! It's so much fun.
Oh good! We've got the instructions on our website so you can give it a go!
Alicia thank you so much for joining me today this has been wonderful!
Oh it's been a pleasure Angel thanks for having me!
You're welcome.
Bye everyone! See you next time!