Enlisting his creative partners Hannah Miller, John Regan III, and April Tennyson, Jack and his team embarked on a whirlwind week of building and shooting. Most of the puppet characters were chosen from Jack’s personally-created menagerie of existing creatures, but a typewriter monster had to be fabricated nearly overnight from garbage lying around their studio by Hannah to match the crude, surreal aesthetic of the story. Time was especially short for this crew, since Jack had to leave for two weeks to Canada to fulfill a puppetry residency funded by the international organization of puppetry, UNIMA, before the contest deadline. John Regan III stayed past midnight to capture shots in spite of the 5am call time for his day job.
April switched shifts at the City Pottery Studio in order to help complete the video. Even so, time was running too quickly and too short! Luckily, the team’s Gainesville-based puppet friends Daniel Ballard and Rachel Wayne showed up and spent their entire day-long social visit assisting with whatever tasks were put to them on set. After the shoot, Jack spent the evenings of his Canadian residency performing the complex rotoscoping and editing work needed to remove puppeteers from the shots and assemble a finished video.
“Startling, original, repulsive in the most beautiful way, it engages with the lyrics without being an on-the-nose dream sequence. And the physics of puppet dismemberment are as accurate as I recall from puppet medical school." -John Hodgman
Jack Fields graduated from Stetson University with a B.A. in Digital Arts and is currently the Digital Media Producer at IBEX Puppetry. He has received grants from United Arts of Central Florida and The Puppet Slam Network as well as a scholarship from UNIMA-USA in support of his puppetry and film endeavors. His short film, Happy Memories, is currently touring festivals, and his second, Hey Einstein! is in pre-production.
Hannah Miller is a Sculpture B.F.A. candidate at University of Central Florida and graduate of the Studio Arts program at Valencia College. She is the Director of Marketing and PR for IBEX Puppetry. She has received grants from United Arts of Central Florida, The Puppet Slam Network, and Puppeteers of America in support of her puppetry work. Hannah is a three-time alumni of the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Puppetry Conference.
John Regan III is a graduate of Full Sail University and accomplished freelance camera operator and editor. He has partnered previously with Jack Fields on the short film Happy Memories, currently touring film festivals internationally.
“Startling, original, repulsive in the most beautiful way, it engages with the lyrics without being an on-the-nose dream sequence. And the physics of puppet dismemberment are as accurate as I recall from puppet medical school." -John Hodgman
Jack Fields graduated from Stetson University with a B.A. in Digital Arts and is currently the Digital Media Producer at IBEX Puppetry. He has received grants from United Arts of Central Florida and The Puppet Slam Network as well as a scholarship from UNIMA-USA in support of his puppetry and film endeavors. His short film, Happy Memories, is currently touring festivals, and his second, Hey Einstein! is in pre-production.
Hannah Miller is a Sculpture B.F.A. candidate at University of Central Florida and graduate of the Studio Arts program at Valencia College. She is the Director of Marketing and PR for IBEX Puppetry. She has received grants from United Arts of Central Florida, The Puppet Slam Network, and Puppeteers of America in support of her puppetry work. Hannah is a three-time alumni of the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Puppetry Conference.
John Regan III is a graduate of Full Sail University and accomplished freelance camera operator and editor. He has partnered previously with Jack Fields on the short film Happy Memories, currently touring film festivals internationally.