Diving into Chalkboards

I received an opportunity to delve into something new: Graphic Advertising.  The holistic pet food company Hollywood Feed needed hand drawn chalkboard advertisements created for their new stores and the idea sounded so fun I just couldn't resist.  They required 13 chalkboard ads every 2 weeks and I was more than happy to oblige.  These are just a few of my favorites!

Previous Ventures into Video

Sometimes a great opportunity presents itself that you just have to jump on.  It won't matter if it requires three days with no sleep, or even if they ask you to work with an extremely limited budget.  Sometimes the project is just too fun to turn down.  Such is the case with the videos below.  For some, it was an opportunity to showcase a variety of skills, and for others it was an even rarer opportunity to help some friends realize a vision.  If the opportunity ever appears again, you can be sure, I'll jump right back in.

First up is a commercial for Athenos Hummus,
created by They're Using Tools and produced by GeniusRocket.
I was contacted by They're Using Tools to create and puppeteer the various puppets in this internet commercial for Athenos Hummus.  I had roughly four days to efficiently build the two main characters, and the minor ones for the end scene.  Once that was done, I got to stretch my performance legs and bring life to these cute little critters.  For as quick as the project was, it's one I'll never forget, and will always be proud of participating in.

Next comes a couple of commercials for FUZE,

from the studio 1st Avenue Machine, with costumes by Randy Carfagno Productions,

and animated by Chaoticflux.  My involvement in these commercials was as a costume builder for Randy Carfagno Productions.  RCP was asked to create and perform the characters in the shorts.  The special thing about these particular puppets, is that everything was performed upside down.  The character's legs are actually the performer's arms, while the character's arms and eyes are animated.  When building the costumes, we had to be careful to keep the tracking marks for the animated features visible, while not interfering with the actual physical performance.  Ultimately, the process creates a truly unique visual that would be incredibly difficult to reproduce.

 

Finally, I bring you Lobsterdance Production's unofficial music video

for "Almost Home" by Moby.  This video was created for a contest on Genero.tv to create the official music video for Moby's "Almost Home."  Unfortunately, Lobsterdance Productions didn't win, but everyone involved is no less proud of it.  They called me in to create the costume for the forest creature.  This was particularly fun since it was a return to building the entire costume alone.  I got to really bury myself into the process of building the suit and sculpting the tree on his head.  Ultimately, I wasn't able to be on set to see the performance, but I was more than pleased when I finally saw the performer bring the body I built to life.

Toys, Props, and Giant Watches

Every once in a while, a client will ask for something more in line with a prop rather than a costume or puppet.  These can range from toy prototypes all the way to party stage pieces.  Sometimes the item will be quite large, which is typical at the studio, and other times will be tiny, which requires a bit of a brain shift from the norm.  But whether it's big or small doesn't matter, we'll give each item the same amount of effort.

Here's a few examples for you to size up:

Saturday Night Live contacted the Carfagno Studio late one Friday night and asked for a prop parrot sitting in a game show chair.  With such a weird request, who could say no? Randy called me up and I ended up building the game chair that night, while he worked on the bird.  It's made using a variety of PVC, plastics, and a little bit of foam and leather.

This is a toy prototype that sadly never made it to the stores.  The client wanted fully posable and plushy toys, so I set to work on creating a foot tall skeletal structure for this lovable little guy, complete with a soft foam skull to keep that adorable face structure.  

These Jenna-babies were Jenna's (30 Rock) fall back plan inspired by Precious Moments.  After designing and sculpting these little cuties, I cast them up to make a few duplicates and the Carfagno crew painted them nice and pretty. 

Here we have three 22 foot replica watches for Audemars Piquet Watch launch installation. Because nothing says million dollar watch like three giant sized working watch replicas.  I over saw their construction, painting, and installation.

Larger Than Life Portraits

At the Carfagno studio, we've made a lot of things.  I think everyone at the studio would agree; our backpack mascot portraits are the studio's claim to fame.  The most well known examples would be the Washington Nationals' Presidents, originally four, but recently added a fifth.  Unfortunately, I wasn't involved in the first four, but I've been a major part of the "big heads" following them.  As Randy often says: "We don't have big heads; we just build them."

Here's a few you can look up to:

William Howard Taft is the recent addition to the four presidents on the Washington Nationals.  Being the most recent one we've made, I was involved in almost every step, excluding the clothes.  I created the patterns for the structure of the skull and face, built the foam sculpt and inner metal frame, painted his eyes and skin, and made that manly hair style and 'stache.  He stands over 9 feet tall and has about a 4 foot diameter, given his apparent... robustness.

Jim Bowie was one of the first "big head" portraits I was majorly a part of.  He was made for the Texas Rangers' hero line up for their half time show, along with Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, and Nolan Ryan.  The shortest of the team, he stands at a mere 8 feet tall.  I created the patterns, built the foam sculpture, painted the eyes, and made his bowie knife, sheath and all.

Later on, Earl Campbell joined the Texas Rangers line up.  This one turned out to be quite a fun build, given the huge shoulders.  When said and done, this mountain of a portrait towers at almost 10 feet tall.  Again, as with Taft, I was involved every step of the way, but this time I also got to design his caricature as well as make patterns, build the sculpt, shape his hair and beard, and paint his eyes and skin tone.

Who said every president had to look heroic?  This was created for a more political minded client that wanted to use this giant evil caricature of Ahmadinejad for several protests concerning the Iranian president.  Unlike most of our portrait pieces, they asked for props to go along with the 9 foot tall villain.  He comes complete with a bomb detonator, a WMD, a bullet belt, and some atomic bling for good measure.  I created patterns, built the sculpt, and carved his hair.

And here we have George and Tom.  No, these aren't the Washington Nationals, they're the mascots for Washington Jefferson University!  Looking for a different caricature than their national counterparts, I got the chance to make the caricatures myself.  Afterwards, I once again made the patterns, built the sculpts, and painted the eyes.

Mascots! Mascots! MASCOTS!

While working at Randy Carfagno Productions, I've worked on many different projects, but our bread and butter lies in mascots.  Yes-in-deedee-do, we build those fabulously furry lovable characters that romp around your favorite sports team's field.  I've worked on many aspects of them from foam under sculpture, to creating eyes, and even styling their hair doos.

Here's a few examples to grace your ocular nerves:

The Phantom Beaver!  I admit, he's a bit goofy, but I'm sure he'd give Space Ghost a run for his puck out on the ice.  This hockey team mascot was a fun challenge, since his fur posed the problem of masking the sculpt underneath.  Our solution was to not only exaggerate the foam sculpt, but to 'sculpt' the hair as well.  I built the head, created his eyes, and trimmed his facial fur to not turn him into a giant furball.

Built to be the mascot for a news station that sees it all, this here is C. Moore.  As you can plainly see, he's mostly eyes.  This is particularly interesting, since this is one of the few mascots we've built that literally sees through its own eyes!  They were formed using a moldable net, which was covered by a very very fine fabric net to allow for a nicely painted iris and pupil.  I created the eyes, the foam sculpt, and his oversized shoes.

Angel the Crab is one of four large mascots we built for the Miami Marlins.  Normally, we would classify this specific build as a "backpack mascot", since their size requires a harness with a metal support frame on the inside.  Most of these are portraits, but the Marlins asked for something special: aquatic animals! After I worked out the patterns, I built the foam sculpt and installed the metal frame that supports the body.  

The second tallest of the Miami Marlins mascots, Bob the Shark stands over 9 feet tall.  His open mouth can actually fit a human torso inside, but hopefully they feed him regularly at the stadium to prevent any "incidents."  I created the foam patterns, built the sculpt, installed the metal support frame, and gave him the captivating smile that intrigues the Marlins' fans today.

Puppetry Fun

Over the past few years I've dabbled in the artform of puppetry.  Some was done on my own in college at the Rhode Island School of Design, but a large part of it happened at Randy Carfagno Productions while working for a variety of clients such as Comedy Central, 30 Rock, and various other companies. 

Here's just a few for you to take a gander at:

This is Berry Cherry and Mushroom Swiss.  Comedy Central asked us (Randy Carfagno Productions) to design and build these puppets for a brief McDonald's spot on their channel.  After doing the designs, I constructed the puppets out of foam and colored them with paint and markers.

A refined rat, even if he's naked.  An odd job at the Carfagno studio, he was built along with three other rats to be used in an interactive educational performance for children about early immigration to the United States.  I designed their look, created the patterns, and constructed the foam sculpture.

Gomby the Goat.  I built and covered him for a clever live action short  to help promote funds for the college WPI.

A Zombie head built at the Carfagno studio to promote the game Plants Vs. Zombies.  I built the foam understructure, created the eyes, teeth, and hair.  And the hair on his chest is a sample of my fine penmanship on fabric.