Rebekah Caputo

Rebekah Caputo is a puppeteer, theatre actress, creative arts project manager and workshop facilitator based in Leeds. A 2006 Total Theatre Award winning performer, Rebekah writes and performs original puppetry, working in shadow, rod, lip-syncing and object manipulation. She has ten years of experience in designing, coordinating and delivering performance-based activities to adults and children of all ages and abilities.

So far, we have had talks from filmmakers, VFX artists, game designers for this year's PPP module... but I don't think I would have expected to have such an interesting speaker pay us a visit. But it makes sense considering our practice as a puppeteer's work overlaps with character performance... and I must say, it is a rather nice change of pace.

So what is puppetry? 
It is for anything inanimate to appear alive, and not just your typical puppets (No, we are seriously talking about anything, even a plastic bag, that thing can grow a face if you put your mind to it).

And why puppets?
There is just something magical about them, the fact is, with puppetry, you can be anything and do anything, without being restricted by your human form

While Rebekah originally studied acting (Which she of course still incorporates into her present practice), she grew interested with the visual side of things, as compared to narrative based performances. It was the F aulty Optic theatre of Animation (Which has since ceased its working activities, with the two founding directors forming their own separate companies and shows) that opened the way to her new found passion, she saw "Fishclay Perspex", and that's when she knew what she wanted to do instead.

After splitting from the company that she had formed alongside her old college mates, it took her one to two years to learn how to make her own puppets, experimenting with various materials (Such as paper, clay, cloth, etc.) and learning how to effectively make each one more durable than the last, as well as giving them better joints to control them more effectively during performances. And during her first few puppets show, she was able to learn what it is the audience actually liked. In all, it really came down to constant experimentation to get where she presently is.

"Celebrate the darkness within!"

It is notable that Rebekah's has a considerably macabre inspired style to her works, and it is not surprising considering her main influences include the works of Faulty Optic, Pickled Image and Folded Feather. Other thing that influence and inspire her are simply people, as we come in all shapes and sizes, she enjoys watching all the interesting folks that walk by and they definitely give her an idea on how she should design and control her puppets for future projects. Various types of masks are also a huge source of inspiration for her as they tend to be an exaggeration of the human face... and then there are skeletons, though this is for the more technical side when she needs to figure out how to build the interior of each character, especially non-human ones.

Rebekah happens to be a part of Odd Doll and works alongside Kathleen Yore, together these two has collaborated with various folks on different projects. As adult puppetry doesn't really have that big a big audience, they had to do some more family-oriented performances, such as "The Worried Walrus".

She has also worked with performing arts company A Quiet Word to create a shadow puppet instillation of a dancer's (That she collaborated with) shadow for a special event, this dancer had photos taken of her shadows, which were then inverted and projected onto the walls. Rebekah also made various things for the dancer to wear so to create unique shapes for the shadows when she was taking photos of them, you could say it was an experimental sort of puppetry. It is just interesting to note that she never truly works alone when it comes to her practice, she tends to collaborate with all sorts of people, such as models and sound composers, whom she has worked with for her MA art show.

"Music is pivotal to puppetry."

I had a video, but it was too big to upload here...

Overall, I absolutely enjoyed this talk, it was wonderful seeing Rebekah's journey, learning all sorts of new things as she went along and experimenting with all kinds of puppetry instead of merely sticking to one type. It was fun seeing my classmates taking part in the little exercise at the end too, I would have taken part if I hadn't injured my knee the other day... but eh, it doesn't hurt to simply sit back and watch once in awhile...

And before it all finally came to an end, Rebekah shared with us a reading list if we wished to look further into puppets as well as mentioned "1927's Golem at the Young Vic", which I really wouldn't mind checking out if I had the chance.

Kath Shackleton

Last year I had the chance to attend a talk with animator Zane Whittingham (In a nice empty theatre with some of my classmates and with some of the other seniors from DFGA), who shared with us the variety of works he has done over the years. And this year, his lovely wife, Kath Shackleton, paid us a visit to talk about her role as a producer and project manager in this husband and wife tag team.

Whilst Zane normally stays in the studio to get the animations done, Kath is the one that heads out to submit pitches to various clients in hopes of getting their commission. She has to face the brutality of rejection most of the time, especially when these clients unsurprisingly wish to go with someone cheaper. But despite all of that, Kath just continued pushing until she got that commission!

"Fall down 7 times, get up 8 as they say."

With their office situated in the heart of Pennine Yorkshire (Hi Anna!), Fettle Animation takes commissions for all sorts of animation, from promotional films, to children's TV, to animated documentaries to animated music videos, which is no surprise considering that they have the versatile Zane Whittingham as their animation director.

"You are as good as anybody, no one is truly better than the other."

"It just happens to be price over quality, sometimes."

Fettle Animation was soon enough commissioned by BBC animate a series of poignant short films on interviews with people who experienced the horrific genocide first hand, as a way to educate the UK children on the Holocaust. Titled the "Children of the Holocaust", these shorts were created by Zane, Kath, as well as several trainees, thanks to funding from Kirkless Jobs Fund and Creative Skillset, with Paul Honey, providing the soundtrack.

It was a long process getting the commission for "Children of the Holocaust", Kath previously worked with the National Media Museum on "Fragile Stories", a series of animated documentary shorts based on interviews with members of Bradford's Polish Community, and it was from there that she caught the attention of her next client.

"TV people do not innovate, they iterate, they avoid risks and always try to stay safe."

Needless to say, it wasn't as easy as that, while the client was indeed interested, Kath still had to make sure her pitch jumped out from the first page alone before she was able to get that commission, and when that was done... that was only just the beginning. Various people still needed to be brought in, especially when it came to their finances, which most of us in this area probably dread and will panic about the most (God, I really wish I still had my Principal of Accounts textbook...) for any project.

While I had the chance to watch an unfinished preview during Zane's talk and one during the Bradford Animation Festival, Kath happily allowed us to actually watch all of them during this talk. Needless to say, most of these shorts easily pulled at my heartstrings, especially as I thought about my own family when these brave souls recounted how they had lost their own during their nightmarish ordeal.

As mentioned before, several trainees were hired to work on this series, some did good work, some did better than others, while some just thought way too highly of themselves... Needless to say, it was an experience working with these newbies, and on the bright side, most of them were hard workers that did what they were hired to do. Regardless of how talented you are and how well you did in school, don't be a douche.

For such a project, Fettle Animation had to work with people  such as Lilian Black from the Holocaust Survivor Friendship Association, whose role is to double check on the accuracy of the historical facts that would be presented in these animations. A Sales Agent was hard to find, seeing many believed that animation doesn't sell in this day and age, but they got one soon enough.

Before the talk came to an end, we were given a few tips on how we should present our pitches to potential clients in the future. I honestly wished that we had been give a copy of that sheet that she showed us instead, but hey, just take what you can get, am I right? So anyway, the first things you should most definitely consider are:

1. What's your idea?
2. Write/Draw it down
3. Who is your target audience? (Remember what these people are like)
4. Who might be interested in paying you for it? (Eg, internet, commission through different channels)
5. Who do you want to pitch it to?
6. Did you do your homework?
7. Refine that idea
8. Summarise each point into one sentence if you can.

For the pitching process, what you write is absolutely minimal, think who your commissioner is this and persuade him/her that there is an audience for this product.