Episode 29

Spafford critiques Gillian's artwork.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 28

Barff learn how to count to ten.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 27

The Wippets Family Christmas Special - Part 2:
Barffmas Clause meets up with long-time fan, Sally.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 26

The Wippets Family Christmas Special - Part 1:
Caroline gets a special surprise from Barffmas Claus.

See the Quicktime version here.

Episode 25

Spafford is hired to conduct a "Behind The Scenes" Documentary on Collideascope Animation Studios to find out what harsh conditions the cartoonists are working under. He makes many disturbing discoveries. Beware: some unforseen dirty language and inapproriate situations occured during the filming of this piece, viewer discretion is advised.
The footage ran too long for YouTube to upload, but you can watch the Quicktime version here.

Episode 24

The second Wippets music video.
This video was our biggest budget yet: $5.76 was spent on lighting.
Music by Cliff Gouthro and Lance Laffin.

See the Quicktime version here.

Episode 23

Barff witnesses another magic trick.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 22

Barff & Caroline sing Happy Birthday to Jennifer from Quebec.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 21

Barff tries to cheer up Caroline.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 20

Spafford tries once more to get a date with Caroline.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 19

Spafford interviews "The General".

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 18

Barff & Spafford have a debate over how edible pipecleaners can be.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 17

Pupppeteering the Wippets for ep.17 & 18 are a couple students from the Truro Animation Program that I teach at every friday. They had fun performing their own versions on the characters.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 16

Barff learns a magic trick.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 15

Barff gets a ride in a shopping mall car.

See the Quicktime version here.

Episode 14

The first Wippets Music Video.
Music by Cliff Gouthro & Lance Laffin.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 13

Ricky Laffin returns with two new performances.
I spliced them both together into this one clip, unfortunately we ran out of memory card space, so it cuts off a little short, sorry.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 12

Spafford tries too pick-up Caroline again.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 11

Barff has trouble falling asleep.

See Quicktime version here.

Pacheco

I'd just like to take the time to thank the guy who built our wonderful puppets, without them, we'd be filming our naked hands over here. So here's a big thank you to
Nate Pacheco.

Puppet Vision

A website dedicated to current events in the puppet industry has done a write up on The Wippets!!!
See it here.
Andrew Young the mastermind behind Puppet Vision, gave me some good feedback on our acts and offered us helpful links to visit about staging and filming.
I'm hoping sometime next year he can make it here in town to give a seminar on video puppetry.

Update

I now have these first 10 episodes archived to be viewable as MP4 files, higher quality and smoother picture than silly YouTube. So if you don't mind the download time you can watch all these episode (plus all the future ones I post) as Quicktime video, found under every YouTube window and on the sidebar "Episode List".

We've been having lots of fun filming these puppet shows, and your suggestions and comments are most appreciated and welcome. Any more advice would be great, cause I really don't know what I'm doing, but I'm confident that we'll get better as we go.

Here's some pics of our "behind the scenes" setup so far. This is Jacques' digital camera, it's the only one I could find that takes 640x480 @30fps for 8 minutes. Unfortunately once Jacques moves to Vancouver this January, I'll have to find a new video camera.


Here's my recently acquired monitor. The experts use these in abundance so that the puppeteer can watch him/herself while they act out their scenes to accurately see how the characters are interacting and to keep eye contact with each other. I just now found the appropriate cables for this ancient Commodore TV-monitor which I "acquired" from the animation college in Truro. I'm far from an expert but its the next step to using the proper equipment to capture some funny moments. We will be testing it this weekend.


I've been reading up on puppet show composition and puppeteering tricks lately to see what new things we can try. There's still lots of kinks to work out, but we're determined to up the pacing and humor. So keep visiting here every week to view more new footage. Thanks to everyone who's been watching our stuff, and if you have ANY suggestions or ideas for upcoming shows or would like to see the puppets do something funny or act out a particular scenario, just post the comments and we'll do our best to fulfill your requests.

Episode 10

Spafford tries to get Caroline to smoke.

See Quicktime version here.

Outtake 1 - Our first attempt at filming this episode.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 09

Curtis & Spafford at a rave.

See the Quicktime version here.

Episode 08

Seth reads Green Eggs & Ham to Barff.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 07

Barff confronts Caroline about her absence.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 06

Barff gives Caroline some relationship advise.
I think these two will be returning for more performances very soon.
Can you feel the chemistry?

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 05

Rick Laffin entertains a curious Barff.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 04

Barff & Spafford made a guest appearence at the studio.
This regular production meeting was hosted by the two rascals.
As you can see, we're still trying to find voices for these monsters.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 03

Spafford attempts to fire Curtis.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 02

Ryan "The Model" Martel is taking a snooze on company time.
So Barff decided to show him who's boss.

See Quicktime version here.

Episode 01

Mirco unloads his frustrations on Barf,
fortunately he got away unharmed.

See Quicktime version here.

The Wippets Blog is up & running!

Well here it is, the beginning of a production dairy for our amateur puppet shows. We put these on for fun, no rehearsal, no set building, no lighting. These are usually quite spontaneous sketches and acts.

Shot with a cheap digital camera, we come up with an idea and usually do it in one take. We're currently trying to write out songs and performances so we can plan out more stuff in the future. Until then please enjoy the quick spots we film for kicks here at the animation studio.

I acquired two muppet-quality puppets a couple months ago, with my busy schedule I haven't had much time to practice but come January I will be making a stronger effort to practice the very difficult craft of puppet-acting. I had been searching for generic muppet-style puppet monsters for years, I was thrilled to finally find some.

Here are photos of our current cast members, Barff & Spafford: