Over the next few weeks...
Each of you...
Post a description of the characters and scenery that you are creating for your Chinese shadow puppetry project.
Post a link to a good, interesting, entertaining, helpful site that you have found on the subject.
Post a comment on why (whether?) you think moral tales, fables, cautionary stories, stories with messages (propoganda?) are well communicated through puppetry. Why might an audience be inclined to be influenced more by a puppet than a person, after all, there is a person behind the puppet...isn't there? Why might someone learn more from a shadow than a human? Might we learn more from a piece with no words than a traditional spoken play? Might we learn different things?
Post responses to each other's responses.
Team with most/best quality post wins a prize.
the puppet that i am making is a monkey!!..too go along with the monkey i have also created a stick!!i have used this because most of the pictures i have seen of the monkey from the 'journey to the west' it is usually holding a stick or a sword in it hand!!
ReplyDeletea good page i found for journey to the west is
http://www.vbtutor.net/xiyouji/journeytothewest.htm
this website has a lot of informations on it about what journey to the west is about and also give more links to the monkey and videos. =)
The link above was really helpful as we get a futher insight to who the characters are rather than a taster as the website goes into full detail about the personality and traits, it helped me design my characters in a particular way! with also the refrences to society had an effect on the amount of detail i would use on them
Deletehi bee i know it was very good especially with the monkey it had lots of videos, picture and details for it which was very helpful. =)
DeleteThe puppets I'll be making are the "White Bone Demon" character and Friar Sand. As we watched the actual puppet show during the lesson, as well as reading through the booklet and watching the trailer for "Monkey: Journey to the West", I noticed a few things which aided in my conception of the demon. The name itself meant there would be a strong stygian theme and so I made sure my puppet had a skeletal appearance; a gaunt frame, toothy misshapen jaw and bulbous joints. The idea of the trident was one I had agreed on with Blessing; there would be fighting scenes, and as we had witnessed the Demon puppet on Youtube brandishing the same weapon, I felt I would follow a same aesthetic. Additionally, the idea of the snake was a common one; I felt my skeletal demon character, while scary, needed a bit more femininity; to this end, I endowed her with a coiffure of delightful snakes; both to emphasise her devious, duplicitous nature but make her gender somewhat more apparent. I felt the presence of snakes for hair harkened back to the Gorgons and Medusa; hoping this connotation enough was adequate to get across her femininity.
ReplyDeleteThe second character was Friar Sand. I needed to do some more research on him, not knowing much about him outside his connection to... Sand. Doing some reading, I found out about his monstrous appearance, as well as the type of tool he used; from here, I could see that my approach to the task was one based on the foundation of the legend, rather than coming up with anything bright and shiny; not that this was a problem; after all, these are strong characters with obvious cultural significance. Friar Sand was going to be given a rather voluminous appearance, I would dress him in robes to accentuate his role as disciple and "Friar" to the Tang Dynasty Monk. He was said to have sported a selection of emancipated skulls for a necklace. Considering the lack of detail on our silhouettes, and my utter lack of dexterity with the craft knife, I opted to draw him with skulls hanging from his belt. His face, I would give fins; I wanted to show his significance to water and sand, and felt a fish like appearance was the way to go.
The following are websites I used;
http://www.vbtutor.net/xiyouji/pshawujing.htm - Has a lot of character information.
I also used Wikipedia; I won't lie. I was hoping it would have some nice sources but they weren't accessible; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sha_Wujing - The character of Friar Sand begged a lot of research. Finally is a website detailing some cartoon versions of the Journey's main characters, which I shamelessly used for inspiration:
http://www.humblecomics.com/monkey/frsand.html
I was just wondering how you would have made your characters if you were to have the crafting skills required, To what extent did you think your "Lack of dexterity" atribued to a change of your design? Also did you think this changed the characters meaning or symbolism portrayed.
DeleteHaha! My lack of dexterity really did affect the crafting; I had to ensure any bits I cut out were large enough for me to cut, so the end product was really lacking in the same patterns and intricacies as the genuine thing. I'm not sure if this affected the symbolism though... The demon still looks quite skeletal. I think the lack of skillz was more of an aesthetic hindrance than a representative one.
DeleteI found this to as my cutting skills are far from admirable , Although it really did make me aware of how skilled the practicioners who make these puppets are really skilled people. I don't think i would ever have the skill ( or patience) these people have.
DeleteOh! And one thing I really enjoyed was a cartoon for the 2008 Beijing olympics. Does this animation style seem familiar? It should do; it's very reminiscent of "Gorillaz"; no surprise that Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn produced the music and animations, then! Worth a watch:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr5ZWYRaAyw
And to wrap up...
I do think that tales with messages are well communicated through puppetry; I think this for two key reasons, the first being the very demographic of a puppet show's audience. As we watched the puppet show in the lesson, I could see that the majority of the audience were... CHILDREN! When the impressionable youth are exposed to the idea of these larger-than-life, amazing characters, it's no wonder they become receptive to morals and "propaganda", perhaps more so than they would listening to a real, human being; I can vouch from experience, when I was a tot, I'd much rather watch a cartoon than sit through a live-action studio show; though I remember being infatuated with characters such as Sooty, and Rosie and Jim. The fact they were these innocent, toy-like characters was ensured my loyalty. The second reason, is because I think things such as puppets, with the human pilot of view, are more "neutral" than most human actors. I think there are reasons that old war cartoons were cartoons, rather than an actual interview with some army commandant promoting the army; when delivered through a proxy like that, it's easy to look past the potential human poison or influence.
I totally agree with you Kristain!
DeleteThe fact that most of the audience were children, who do not fully understand the true meanings of these performances or the background plots as they can be as ones story. It's kind of like when you go and watch a favorite cartoon you used to watch when you were younger and you can pick out all the things you failed to realise at that certain age such as the background stories and the innuendo that has been used! which could be used to influence perspectives
Hey Team check out this link below
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-mzqxZNp2g
its kinda a dummy run through to what Chinese shadow puppetry is and it has amazing pictures that illustrate and give an insight to how they are made!
I hope you like it :/
This was a very interesting video. Makes me wonder what "intangible culture" England has; probably something like complaining about the weather or tea, I have no idea.
DeleteWatching the video enlightened me not only about the cultural attachments to the puppetry, but the mediums of sound surrounding it. Throat singing, or opera, as well as the various instruments could certainly help us when we actually perform this piece; we would need to think of key sequences and apply sounds to them.
Again, the cultural aspect of Shadow Puppetry really forces you to consider its roots; the fact it is a "people's art" and so reflects their way of life and personal opinions is important. It seems like a more pure form of theatre when we liken it to practitioners such as Brecht or Stan, were perhaps the target audience were more selected and elitist. Here, it's almost as though its a home-grown endeavor, and reflects the community or popular culture. The fact it is ever changing and is so versatile mirrors the ever developing nature of "community", it's pretty inspiring.
The paragraphs above are put beautifully together but do you think the style and story telling will change as the world evolves as the stories are based around their culture?? or will we begin to see shadow puppetry on tv rather than in a theatre? with diffrent settings and made to look like are cartoons using the same effects but with technology as candles have a diffrent effect to a lamp its sort of a battle between synthetic and naturalism!
DeleteThe character i am making are the girl, the pig and the mountain
ReplyDeleteso far making the characters i am struggling a lot with the cut out im shocked that i havent cut myself yet doing the finishing touches!
My pig has a few details which are cut out for his body, which i tried to cut out in a special way but i kinda failed!, the girl is a hard character to try and draw and cut out but i will manage.
But Team i have no Idea what you want me to put on the mountain or how to shape it?? help!!
I sent you some guidance on the ol' Facebook. And I have to agree with you, looking at some pictures of these genuine Chinese puppets, there are very intricate sections cut out of the figure, almost like mosaics of absence, if you see what I mean! I butchered my puppets in places trying to cut them out with the craft knife; not very dexterous. You can really appreciate why they would need to be made from leather and other more resilient materials; I can feel my own puppets' fragility.
DeleteThank you! it really helped was just really brain blocked on how to fit all seven characters into the cave! i hope it will work out somehow!
Deleteand the materail that we have been using is not that great as you said it is really fragile when doing loads of mosiac patterns on the paper to give it a certain effect that is not plain and simple!
My hands hurt a lot from cutting all that card! :(
The puppets i made where the tsang dynasty monk and the "father figure" , when researching on how a Tsang dynasty monk was supposed to look like i found that a lot of images where of a man dressed as a pig http://pic1.dbw.cn/0/00/13/44/134464_769439.jpg and a lot of information about Xuanzang http://www.iep.utm.edu/xuanzang/
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in hearing how these influenced your design.
DeleteDid you make them as displayed or tweak the aesthetic based on the resources you found? See my post for my own creative process.
Not that much really, Many of the images of xuanzang he is carying somthing on his back http://www.iep.utm.edu/wp-content/media/xuanzang1.gif , i thought this was because of his travels since he was a far traveling and adventurous monk. However i then realised this was the real monk the fictisious Xuanzang was based upon and then based my chatacter on these images http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Xyj-tangseng.jpg
DeleteWhen thinking of my father figure i remembered an old game i used to play called "Emperor Rise of ther middle kingdom" and i drew inspiration of the Rise Paddy worker at the start of the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBcFkcQP3Hg . I chose this figure because i imagined he had a family and was struggling to support his family as well as with the fatherly qualitys such as hard working and dedication.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! While the source is admittedly an odd one, there seems to be deep influences from the peasantry when we deal with shadow puppetry, such as the thoughts accompanying your Father's creation.
DeleteI find it really peculiar, considering the purported birth of shadow puppetry started with the monarchy, the Emperor. How this medium of entertainment has taken on its own life and is now something "loyal" to the people rather than the One really makes you think. It parallels the evolution of other forms of theatre really, doesn't it? From a "culinary" naturalism into the everyman's Epic, or from Melodrama into the Theatre of Cruelty.
I think this is mainly because "storytelling" is a natural part of the human experiance, this transgends class and culture. As children we all used to create shadows with our hands on walls and i suppose children 1000 years ago did the same. Even by adding the grandiose and pomp of these productions i think they still keep its heart, and this is how the medium took on its own life.
DeleteThe mountain has no stimulus what's so ever but that is the beauty of it! anything is possible, as the theme is shadow pupperty obviously there's a variety of effects i can create with sharp scissors and a pencil to create mosiac tile like patterns to have a diffrent affect when behind a screen while the light is shinning upon the mountian moving the moutain forwards and backward illustrates the diffrent effects it can have on the piece as the detail will go from focused to unfocused! ;)
ReplyDelete"The beauty of theatre is that anything is possible"
DeleteBad memories. Bad memories. ;_; That lesson.
Jaques Lecoq and me "i think his name is prounounced Jaques Lecock :')"
DeleteThen there was me , "What iff we all have individual ITS" "whats your IT?" "IT". It learnt a lot about myself and other people in that lesson. :')
DeleteHey B.T.W *By The Way*
ReplyDeleteyou know the way we are making these puppets! how are we gonna add sticks to them to make the move and do tricks!! thats one that has left my mind! Opps :/ but is that detail really important?
I believe Mr. Pope is going to help us with that, or at least give us some sticks. An idea I had would be to make holes in the poseable limbs, that we can push the sticks through, so there is something to hold on each side. Because of the two dimensional shape, and the shadows, the sticks wouldn't be seen. I'll try and explain it tomorrow if we get a hold of some sticks or straws.
DeleteYes , i was thinking this too.Im having concerns as to how to operate the sticks and make them move themselves We'll need training! Also i had no pins to stick together each limb so ill be bringing in a handfull of bits tommorow to stick together. :')
DeleteOhhhh yeah i forgot he said that! i just hope it all goes well!
DeleteHe's also going to supply pins.
Delete*Looks at sir.* o_o