Category Archives: tv puppetry

Behind the Scenes with “The Secret Keeper”!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Who are these peculiar people in their fetching Steampunk/Cyberpunk coats? It is Collette Knowles and Tim Austin of Rough Magic Theatre on a family outing to the YSP (Yorkshire Sculpture Park) in the torrential rain! The Sculpture Park is on the site of the former Arts University (Bretton Hall) where they met for the first time 19 years ago!

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Thanks so much for contributing to our work! 😃👍

Thanks so much for contributing to our work! 😃👍

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  • Working on a bomber style jacket for the King of Junk Town’s Party Clothes
  • Finished Look with crown over the top of the Bowler Hat
  • Front facing view

Here is some of the work on the character of the King of “Junk Town”. In the first episode he is attending a party so the first look I needed to create for him was not his normal wear but his party clothes (what he would wear to show off his wealth and importance to the City Folk).

I have been watching a lot of videos on YouTube showing people how to make their own top hats out of foam to look like they are made out of riveted metal so we fancied the idea of a metal top hat. This turned into a crown with bits of iron railings bolted onto it.

We also figured it would be cold in Junk Town so his clothing would feature lots of fur perhaps so for a party look we settled on the idea of a sheepskin bomber jacket.

He also has a pair of delicate sunglasses which would be very valuable at this time and a status symbol because there would be so few undamaged pairs of glasses left.

If you too would like to get into a steampunk mood while reading this marvellous blog why not check out this video on how to make a steampunk top hat out of foam from “Lost Wax”:

“The Secret Keeper” – Work on the new shadow puppet series begins.

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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The Secret Keeper

The Secret Keeper – Show Logo

Tim Austin and I have got a lot of initial groundwork done for our new shadow puppet series.

We have come up with a name: “The Secret Keeper”.  This is a reference to the main character who has a library of books relating to “crime”.

We have worked out who the different groups of people will be in the world and what they are like.

We have come up with images for what most of the main characters will look like and ideas about a general look for some of the groups.

I have also come up with a design for a front facing shadow puppet face with moving facial features.

We will make close up head puppets of the main characters with different expressions and accessories etc, facing in different directions. We can then cut between these different puppets for dialogue scenes to create a filmed “multi-camera” look – a unique approach for shadow puppetry.

I have also set up a new Instagram account just for the show.  This will post pictures of the images I am using for inspiration amongst other things.  CLICK HERE for the Instagram account @5ecret_keeper. We will be launching a Facebook page and a twitter account too in the run up to production.

Our current aim is to prepare and shoot a “Pilot” episode as an example piece. This will demonstrate the potential of the series as we look for funding for the show.

Tim is in the process of story-boarding the plot of the series, setting out events and story-lines that will stretch out episode by episode. This is an extremely complicated process!