June 13, 2022 – June 17, 2022
Monday through Friday | 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. | 5 Sessions
Location: 934 SW Salmon St, Portland, OR 97205
Ages: 11 – 14 years of age
Instructor: Jesse Blanchard
$310
Learning everything you need to create your own puppet and then bring them to life in a short film in the week-long intensive course. You’ll learn all the practical skills needed to fabricate your own character, bring them to life, and then go through the actual steps of creating your own short film.
Topics covered include: puppet fabrication, mechanism your puppets, how to hide rods and controls, storyboarding for puppets, shooting and filming with puppets, and editing for puppets.
Writer/director Jesse Blanchard from Portland, Oregon, is best known for his innovative use of puppetry and practical effects to create richly detailed fantasy films. Blanchard started making films in college. His work quickly earned the praise of filmmakers including Neil LaBute, Drew Barrymore, and horror master George Romero, who distributed Blanchard’s zombie short “Run for Your Life” along with his feature Diary of the Dead. In 2010, Blanchard began experimenting with puppetry, developing a strict set of guidelines : the characters are treated as real; the puppeteering is hidden; and the special effects are practical whenever possible. His ‘Puppetcore’ shorts played film festivals from Los Angeles to Cannes. Beginning in 2014, Blanchard and his team began creating the characters, props, and sets for the feature-length puppet film Frank & Zed, as well as developing new techniques to allow the puppets to perform the intricate effects the film required. Production was completed over the course of the following six years. Frank & Zed has earned rave reviews from the Hollywood Reporter, RogerEbert.com, Nerdist, IndieWire, and others. It is currently on the festival circuit with screenings in Mexico, Brazil, Korea, and Canada among others.