Tom Knight Puppets Blog

what's been happening

2010-08-07T08:16:00.001-07:00

OK, until yesterday, I haven't posted for over a year. I think it's time to pick this up again!

Here's a quick summary - I moved from Ithaca, NY to Northampton, MA. I had been feeling like I needed a shake-up in my professional and personal life, and moving to a new place seemed like the best way to do it. It worked! I got shaken up and have found new friends, and new business connections.

In regards to my career, I've started a new puppet company with Amy Dawn Kotel, called Otter and Moo Puppet Theatre. It's been very exciting to collaborate with another person who has strong visions of what she wants to do. It takes my creativity in new directions. Specifically, I'm enjoying her original stories, and her skill at choreography, as well as her outgoing personality.

I also did a project with Christine Olson, an original story called "The Sorcerer's Cauldron."
It allowed me to use talents I don't usually get to use - acting, writing a long story, and collaborating with a pianist. I'm hoping to do more work with Christine this Fall.

I've also been doing more video work and am assisting a director on a feature length documentary called "The Great Turning," about a spiritual response to the ecological crisis. My experiences with The Garbage Monster and The Elephant's Lullaby, whetted my appetite to do more film making and I welcome any chance to be involved more in the process.

The most challenging part about the move has been finding enough paying work as a puppeteer in Massachusetts. It's happening, but a little more slowly than I'd like. But in the mean time, I'm doing a lot of work that is creatively inspiring.

Otter and Moo are now booking

2010-08-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

Otter and Moo Puppet Theatre is up and running! We're building new puppets and working out new stories, songs and dances. We're booking shows in the Northeast now. Check out our web site for more details.www.otterandmoo.com . We're on Facebook too!

On tour!

2010-08-06T10:57:00.000-07:00

Tom Knight on Tour:
New York, and Pennsylvania
It's been a great Summer so far, with shows in California, upstate NY, and Massachusetts. Plus I had some relaxing time off.
I'm about to embark on a short tour of Northern PA and Upstate NY coming up next week. For Ithaca fans, I'm hoping to arrange more shows there in the Fall and Winter.
August 10th - 1 PM, Taylor, PA Library

August 11th - 6:30PM, Sayre, PA Concert in the Park

August 12th - 2PM and 6:30 PM, Geneseo Library

August 13th - 1:30 PM Oswego Library

Details are on my calendar.

Ithaca Farewell!

2009-07-30T13:51:00.001-07:00

In 1985, with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from UC Santa Cruz, I didn’t know much about Ithaca, and my only experience of the town was riding through it on a bus. I have a memory of looking at funky houses, people who dressed like I did, and the sun shining on the lake.

I had a feeling like I would like it there.

I was looking for a town that had good music, and restaurants and culture. Someplace where it snowed. Someplace I could play my songs in a cafe. Not too big, and not too small.

And on that basis, knowing only one person slightly, I came here, with a dulcimer and a backpack, looking to start a new life. 24 years later I’m leaving with a 14 foot UHaul packed to the rafters, with a friend driving my car.

I spent all of my adult life here (after college.)
Virtually all the songs I’ve ever written and recorded were done here.
My first puppet show was here.
My first girlfriend was here.
I learned how to swing dance here.
I formed a band and met lots of great musicians.

I will miss:
My friends
My yoga teacher - Jessica Rodgers at Soma
My chiropractor - David Cedarbaum
My haircutter - Ellie Jones at Hairy Canary
My songwriter’s group
Treman Park
The walk along the inlet
The Plantations
Greenstar
Wegman’s
The State Theater
Cinemapolis
ABC Cafe (farewell!)
The Commons
The Ithaca Festival (though I might be back for it!)
The Tompkins County Library
Cayuga Lake
The numbers that change on New Year’s Eve at the Ithaca College Towers

The Garbage Monster Video on YouTube

2009-06-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

The final Garbage Monster Video!

Tom Knight is moving to Northampton!

2009-06-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

You may have heard a rumor about me. It’s true! I’ll be moving from Ithaca, NY to Northampton, MA on August 1st, 2009. Photos from a recent trip.

Why am I moving? I'm still working on the answer to this question. Basically, I feel like I need a change in my life. It will be 24 years in August since I arrived. It's been a great town, but I feel like I've done everything I want to do here. I want to shake up my life, meet new people, write new songs, find new collaborators. I'm already talking to a puppeteer I hope to collaborate with and create an entirely new puppet show.

Why Northampton? Once I started thinking about moving, the question was, where should I go? I love the East Coast - the seasons. I don't want to cut myself off completely from Ithaca by moving very far away.

I looked around Boston, where I have friends and relatives, but didn't really find any place that felt like "home." A good friend suggested I might like Northampton, so I decided to visit. When I got there and walked along the street, I felt my heart racing. It just felt exciting and new, yet familiar. This is a place I want to be!

It's a town full of artists, musicians, students, cafes, theaters, and liberal politics. It seems like there are many like-minded people there. Even though I don’t really know anyone there yet, it feels like I can easily make new friends.

From a career perspective, I think it's a good move because Boston and other cities are close by. I'll have easy access to new performing venues.

I plan to continue doing shows in Ithaca and central New York, since it's only about 5 hours away, but I'll try to put all the shows together in a tour. Some of my Ithaca fans might not even know I've left.

In the meantime, I’ve started booking shows in Northampton, and made some great professional contacts. It seems like no one else in Northampton is doing exactly the kind of thing I do, so I should be a welcome addition to the landscape.

So far, everything has been going incredibly smoothly. The people I've met have been really inspiring, and feel like kindred spirits.

There's a lot I will miss about Ithaca. But I am very excited to try this new adventure. Thanks for your support and encouragement!

Sincerely, Tom Knight

The Elephant's Lullaby on Yahoo Video

2008-12-15T18:29:00.000-08:00

This is a high quality version of the video from Yahoo.

The Elephant's Lullaby

The Elephant's Lullaby on YouTube

2008-12-15T18:26:00.000-08:00

Elephant's Lullaby Online Now!

2008-12-14T09:28:00.000-08:00

The Elephant's Lullaby is now up and running on the web!

The Elephant's Lullaby (Flash Animation Version)
Click on the monkey's face where is says "Watch this Movie!"

I'm hoping it will be on YouTube later today!

- Tom

The Elephant's Lullaby Intro

2008-11-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

Here's the intro from the Elephant's Lullaby Cartoon. That's me there on the left, with Marika the monkey. I'm teaching the motions to the song.

Artists - Liz McLelland, Wright Rickman, Chris Davidson.

3rd day of filming

2008-10-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

We didn't get all the shots we needed from the exterior film shoot with the Garbage Monster on Oct. 10th, so we needed to come back and shoot a few more things. On Oct. 22nd, we went back to my friend Mihal's house to film the ending of the story.

I was a a bit worried that the yard wouldn't look the same. The temperature had gotten much colder, and leaves had fallen off of trees. Things can change fast this time of year.

Luckily, it didn't look too different, in the dark and with the lights set up.

A few things were different about this shoot. It was much colder - about 35 degrees Fahrenheit. On Oct. 10th, I think it was probably about 60 degrees.

The other thing that was different was that Steve Yale-Loehr was not able to be the Garbage Monster again. After asking around a little bit, we couldn't find a suitable replacement. I decided I would try to fill the Garbage Monster's Ginger Ale Shoes myself!

I'm a little shorter than Steve, but I thought it wouldn't be too noticeable. I knew that the original King Kong movie used models that had very different scales from one scene to the next, so that the Gorilla would appear to be 40 feet tall in one scene, and 25 feet tall in another. A couple inches shouldn't make much difference in this case.

It took about 30 minutes to get the costume on. We weren't sure exactly where all the stuff went, but used our best guess. I think when you watch the video, it will be fun to see how the tomato container is on the right arm in one scene, but on the left arm in the scene. But on the other hand, it's supposed to be a pile of garbage. Cans can shift around in a pile of garbage, right?

Erin arrived, all bundled up, and we began shooting. The first thing we did was a chase scene. I chased Erin. Then we switched, and she chased me. I could only see a little out of one eye, so it was a bit challenging. Also, the mask covered my mouth, so I couldn't breathe very well either.

Later, we needed to shoot a scene of the garbage monster emerging from the trash can. Since Erin was small enough to fit in the can, we asked her to put the mask on. She did great!

The final scene was the garbage monster walking down the driveway. Again, Erin was the Garbage Monster. We put the mask on her, and dressed her in an oversize garbage bag, and filmed her walking away from the camera, down the driveway.

We wrapped at 9:15 PM - an early night compared to last time!

We still have a few more shots to catch, but they are interior shots. Then the editing will begin!

2nd day of filming

2008-10-25T07:01:00.000-07:00

The Garbage Monster music video has two main parts: "the story," with the recycling kid and the garbage monster filmed outside at night, and "the concert," with me, Tom Knight, playing guitar to an audience who is singing along.

On October 20th, 2008, we filmed the concert part of the video at the Ithaca Sciencenter.

Annie Zygarowicz had created a cool set, which consisted of an arch made entirely of recycled bottles and cans. It was very festive and colorful.

I was wearing my costume made by Amelia Rosenthal - the necktie vest and porkpie hat.

We arrived at the Sciencenter around 9:30 AM so Photosynthesis Productions could get the lights and cameras set up. Then we began shooting a lot of close-ups of me singing the song over and over. I had to make funny faces, wink at the camera, and try to remember the spoken words in the middle of the song. They shot some close-ups of my left hand playing the guitar, my right hand playing the guitar, and my feet tapping. This went on for a couple hours or so. It was actually kind of fun.

After a short lunch break with delivery from Taste of Thai Express, we were ready to bring in the kids. About 25 kids from Ithaca (and surrounding towns) had been invited to be in the video, along with a few parents.

We set everyone up sitting on the floor in front of me, much like a typical concert, and I sang the song about 10 times. Everyone else sang it too. We took a break at one point to dance to the Wiggle Worm song.

The director Meg Doherty did a great job keeping everything fun and engaging for everyone. David and Billy and Garth kept the cameras working, and moved lights when necessary.

Before the film shoot, some kids met with us at the Sciencenter to make "garbage monster puppets," which are monsters made out of garbage and recycled materials. We passed out these puppets and the kids held them up and danced around with them.

We wrapped up around 7 PM. We only needed about 2 minutes of good film, and we had shot about 2.5 hours worth! I knew we had plenty of great shots to choose from. We'll see what happens with the editing!

All photos are by Billy Boyce. Thanks Billy!

Tom's new costume

2008-10-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

To go along with the theme of recycling for the Garbage Monster song, Ithaca designer Amelia Rosenthal created the vest and the hat from recycled materials, including neckties, and clothes from the Salvation Army.

The Elephant wants to eat some peanuts

2008-10-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a little flash movie of a scene from The Elephant's Lullaby, done by Moving Box Studios.
Artists on this project are Chris Davidson, Liz McLelland, Wright Rickman, with production assistance by Meg Doherty and Tom Knight.

The Garbage Monster Costume

2008-10-14T14:57:00.001-07:00

Here are some snapshots of the costume from the dress rehearsal on October 9th.

Here's the face, without the black fabric that we added to cover up his face. Steve Yale-Loehr has a mouth guard in his teeth to hold the lower half of the monster's mouth.

The shoes made of ginger ale bottles!

Steve Yale-Loehr and Lauren Cowdery, the costume designer.

First day of filming

2008-10-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

We began filming on Friday October 10th, 2008. I was kind of nervous. A lot of time and energy and money were going into this production. Would everything work out OK?

The director and producer Meg Doherty, and I, got there around 4 PM. The location was my friend's house on Aurora St. in Ithaca. She generously allowed us to use her backyard. We moved some things around to clear some space for the shoot.

Then Lauren Cowdery, our costume designer, and Steve Yale-Loehr, the actor playing the monster, arrived. It took about 40 minutes for Steve to get into costume.

Then the film crew from Photosynthesis arrived - David Kossack (the Director of Photography) and the crew (Garth and Billy Boyce). An Ithaca College Student (Jessie) arrived because she wanted to watch a film in progess. We enlisted her to be script supervisor, which means she took notes on every shot that we made, with descriptions. That will help us later when we start editing.

Then Erin Hilgartner, the Recycling Kid, arrived.

Then we began filming the first shot! Action! Erin walked down the stairs with a flashlight. Cut! She did it again.

I'm learning what filming is like. First, you set up the lights for about 15 minutes. Then you film for 10 minutes to catch a 10 second shot. Then you do it again. It takes a long time, but it's worth it.

The costume was really cool. There were a lot of parts to it. Once Steve was in the costume, he couldn't eat or drink or go to the bathroom without taking it off!

At one point, Steve and Erin started dancing around. I don't know what started it, but it was pretty funny to see them both dancing.

We finally finished around 1:00 AM. We still have a few more shots we need to get, but Erin needed to go home and everyone was really tired.

I'm looking forward to the next day of filming, October 20th!

Photos are by William Boyce, who is on the film crew. Thanks Billy!

- Tom

Erin looks around for the garbage monster.

Tom and Steve as the Garbage Monster

A little costume malfunction.

Come with me and we'll rule the world!

Erin on the screen.

Uh oh!

David gets the right angle.

David, Jessie, Tom and Meg, behind the camera.

OK. Now imagine the monster is in front of you!

A new song

2008-09-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

I wrote in the description of this blog that this is about a musician/puppeteer and filmmaker. I've been writing about puppets and film, but not much about music.

Here's a song I wrote last year about the Autumn.
Autumn Reverie Streaming

In case you are interested, the song is based on a poem I wrote years ago. It was basically a poem about what I hope to achieve in my life. The poem seemed to work fine on it's own, and didn't require music.

Then, seven years later, I decided to make it into a song. I had to rework all the lines so they rhymed and the meter worked.

At first, I wrote a melody using chords from the jazz standard - "Autumn Leaves." It sounded pretty good, but I decided it was too melancholy for the subject matter.

I rejected that melody, and created a new melody from the chord progression of the song "Blue Moon." That seemed to fit the mood better.

I recorded it all on my computer in my room. I used drum and bass samples to create loops, and build tracks, then recorded guitar and vocals on top of those tracks.

I even played a guitar solo myself. I think it took me about 2 hours to get that 30 second solo. I kind of like it, but you can tell I'm not a lead guitar player. Some of the notes are not very solid. Anyway, I like the song, and the imagery.

- Tom

The Elephant's Lullaby

2008-09-13T05:26:00.001-07:00

Meg and I met with Chris Davidson yesterday and managed to get a still from the video. Marika the monkey is on the left, and Ellie the elephant is on the right. Marika is about to teach Ellie the motions to the song.

Artists - Wright Rickman, Liz McLelland and Chris Davidson

a new garbage monster face

2008-09-11T15:03:00.001-07:00

Here's the latest version of the Garbage Monster face that I've been working on. I like it better than the previous one. The eyes are really important. The other eyes didn't look alive. This one is better, I think. I'm going to show it to Lauren, the costume designer, tomorrow.

Why I'm making videos now

2008-09-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

In case anyone is interested, I thought I'd write a little about why I'm making videos now.

Basically, it's because I want to move my career to another level. I like doing small parties for 20 kids, and I've been doing that for 20 years now! I guess I don't want to be doing small parties for another 20 years.

I'd like to be at the State Theater in Ithaca in front of a large audience.

I went to see Dan Zanes when he came to the State, and he was lots of fun. But I was also thinking - I can do that! I have some songs that are more participatory and can be more engaging.

Besides the hair, what's the difference between me and him?
How can I get a large audience in some large city like Philadelphia, for instance? How can I get my music out to a wider audience so that I'm famous in other cities?

In the old days, people would get on the radio and tour a lot. I've been touring a lot, and haven't had much luck with radio.

I think people came to see Dan Zanes because they know his name. And they know his name because they saw him on TV.

So I need to get on TV!

So I'm making music videos. I hope to get on TV, but in the meantime, I'm planning on posting the videos on the internet - Youtube, etc.

That's the short story.

I'm encouraged by a comic that I met recently. Mrs. Hughes. She told me the story of how she got her video on the internet, and her career was transformed overnight. She got a million people to watch it! Wow!

Her act is pretty funny. I'm not sure if there are any kids reading this, but I would rate her act PG.

By the way if you are reading this, and you want to be on the mailing list, to find out when the next video is coming out, go to this page. Join the email list.

- Tom

the elephant and the monster

2008-09-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd do an update.

I'm feeling a bit schizophrenic right now, trying to make two videos at the same time.

As it turned out, my idea to add another motion for the elephant's lullaby got vetoed by the director and the producer. They thought it just made things too complicated.

So, we filmed the green screen stuff of me teaching the motions. Nutmeg (the producer) played Marika the monkey.

I intended to take a photo of the set to show how the green screen thing works, but I couldn't find my camera when I needed it. So no photo.

The idea was to film me teaching the motions as a reference for the animators. Liz McLelland and Wright Rickman will watch the footage of me, and draw me onto an animated background, and use the sound we recorded.

I'm excited to see what they come up with.

I've also been working on the Garbage Monster video. Lauren Cowdery has come up with some great stuff so far, based on David Murk's design.

But I want to do something a little different with the face. Here's my first attempt.
I kind of like it, but it doesn't really work. I think the eyes and the mouth need to be different.

Here's what I've been doing lately:

Figuring out a costume for myself, hopefully involving a pork pie hat.

Scheduling auditions for kids
Talking to my friend about scheduling her house for the location
Talking to an artist about doing the title for the Elephant's Lullaby video.
Talking to designers about how to dress the set for the film shoot at the Sciencenter.

It's been a fun process, but challenging. Every so often, when I start to think that I know what I'm doing, something happens and I realize I don't know what I'm doing!

The Elephant's Lullaby

2008-08-27T06:03:00.000-07:00

(drawing by Liz Mclelland and Wright Rickman.)

As I said in my last post, I'm going to be filming Green Screen stuff for The Elephant's Lullaby video. The main point of the intro is to teach the motions for the chorus.

Little elephants need to get their rest
To grow up big and strong
To make their ears so big and floppy
To make their trunks so long

I've got motions for "rest" "growing up" "strong" "floppy ears" and "trunks so long." I decided today, after performing the song for 6 years, that it would be good to have a motion for "elephant." Since I'm filming today, I'd better figure it out!

I asked my neighbor, who knows sign language, if she knew the sign for "elephant." She did!

You start at your nose and make a graceful swoop down like an elephant's trunk.

So today I plan to film the new motions for posterity!

The animators won't like this because that will mean more animation!

- Tom

Welcome to my blog!

2008-08-27T04:20:00.000-07:00

OK. Here I go. I've been thinking about starting a blog, and now I'm finally doing it. So much is going on in my life and career right now, and I'd like to document it. I think other people will be interested in it too.

Today I'm meeting with my producer Meg Doherty and costume designer Lauren Cowdery to begin work on the Garbage Monster costume for the upcoming video. Meg has suggested I bring a bunch of recyclable stuff to work with. I plan to raid the Ecovillage recycling shed as a start. The meeting is at 1 PM.

The contest for creating a garbage monster design just ended a few days ago. I got a lot of great entries. One by David Murk really stood out as a viable costume design. There were a lot of other great ideas that I want to incorporate into the design too.

At 4 PM, Meg and I are going to Moving Box Studios (aka MBS) to film the intro to my video of The Elephant's Lullaby. I will be introducing the motions to the song in front of a green screen. Chris Davidson, Wright Rickman, and Liz Mclelland from MBS will then animate it and put me on a jungle background. Meg Doherty will stand in for the monkey Marika. I'll bring my camera and get a couple photos.

- Tom