{"id":8228,"date":"2014-08-02T13:29:39","date_gmt":"2014-08-02T17:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.puppeteers.org\/?p=8228"},"modified":"2014-08-02T13:30:20","modified_gmt":"2014-08-02T17:30:20","slug":"giant-monster-puppets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lacquiparledesign.com\/pofa\/2014\/08\/02\/giant-monster-puppets\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant Monster Puppets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giant monsters have always had a special place in my heart.<\/p>\n

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Photo from the collection of Jim Fye<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ghostbusters 2<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0had The Statue of Liberty who broke loose from Staten Island and was piloted by the Ghostbusters through the streets of New York. Thanks to the fantastic behind the scenes photos shared by friends, I am able to show you a bit of the process.\u00a0 Jim Fye, the actor, was brought in for a full body cast and head cast.<\/p>\n

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Photo from collection of Jim Fye
From left: Bill Forsche, Jim Fye, Chris Goehe and Wim Van Thillo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The body of Lady Liberty was sculpted by Ralph Miller and cast in silicone. \u00a0 Here Bill Forsche is sculpting the head using photos of the statue as reference.<\/p>\n

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Photo from collection of Jim Fye
Bill Forsche sculpting Liberty’s head<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

At Industrial Light & Magic\u00a0the creatures and models were built in house and then the scenes were filmed there against a blue screen. The schedule was usually pretty intense.\u00a0 Liberty was the last of the creatures we shot with the actor, Jim Fye. Though the costume was heavy with limited visibility, I never heard a complaint.<\/p>\n

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Photo from collection of Marc Tyler<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ghostbusters 2<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0had the Statue of Liberty, but the original Ghostbusters<\/em><\/strong> had one of the greatest giant monsters of all time, The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.\u00a0\u00a0 Crewmembers\u00a0 Marc Tyler and Diana Hamann have fantastic photos of the process and have been generous enough to allow me to share them with you.The creatures for the original Ghostbusters <\/em><\/strong>were\u00a0 created\u00a0 at Richard Edlund’s shop, Boss Films, in Los Angeles. It was like a mini Industrial Light & Magic\u00a0with miniatures, opticals, animation and creature effects.\u00a0 The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man was built in one part of the shop.\u00a0 In a different building a crew headed by Steve Johnson did most of the rest of the creatures, including Slimer, the library ghost.\u00a0 The Terror Dogs were designed by Randell William Cook who also animated the stop motion puppets. The sculptors included Steve Johnson, Linda Frobos, Mark Siegel, and Mike Hosch\u00a0 Some puppets were shot underwater for an ethereal effect.<\/p>\n

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Photo from collection of Diane Hamann
Back row from left: William Bryan, Eric Fiedler, Terri Hardin Jackson
Mid row: Diana Hamann, Etsuko Egawa Front: Marc Tyler<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man was built by a crew headed up by William Bryan, who came up with the approach for the suits. William Bryan was also the performer inside the suit.\u00a0 According to Marc Tyler, the suits were \u201cunpainted fine-celled white scotfoam over L-200 body-pods. About a dozen suits were made, using storyboards to plan the white foam coverings, making sure all seams were on the off-camera side for a given shot. It was quite a sight to see four or five people holding a sheet of scotfoam taut as Bill Bryan sprayed glue on the L200 pods and smoothed the foam into place\u201d In one scene the character catches fire, and several \u201cpyro\u201d suits were made with flame resistant foam.For some of the scenes where Stay Puft is walking down Central Park West, puppeteers were pushed on a dolly under the elevated miniature set while Bill Bryan in the costume crushed cars above.\u00a0Much of the Stay-Puft footage was shot against a blue screen.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Marc Tyler
William Bryan in suit with Diana Haman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Diana Hamann came on as a production assistant, and an extra hand to work with the Stay-Puft crew.\u00a0 She went on to puppeteer the Stay-Puft mouth and finally to being a coordinator for the Stay-Puft suits\/shoot.\u00a0 Diana shared some recollections about the shoot \u201cIn those days (as you know) almost all controls were hard wired with cables.\u00a0 Remote control devices were just beginning to be used and Stay-Puft could be shot successfully (& more reliably) without them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo by Marc Tyler<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It is fascinating to watch creature puppeteers on a set.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure how much of it is conscious, but the puppeteer\u2019s faces nearly always mirror \u00a0the expressions they are trying to create with the puppets.\u00a0 According to Diana, \u201cWhen I puppeteer, I mimic the action I’m trying to achieve.\u00a0 If I don’t, I lose my mojo.\u00a0 So in all the pictures of me puppeteering the Stay-Puft mouth, my mouth is open! Of course, puppeteering in this case was not exactly a nuanced thing.\u00a0 The controls were very simple:\u00a0 closed, open, half-way open, up on one side, big “O” for screaming.\u00a0 Clunk, clunk and you were done.\u00a0 No joystick of happy subtlety! \u201d<\/p>\n

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From the collection of Diana Hamann
From left: Bart Daniels, Marc Tyler and Diana Hamann<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Here is the puppeteer crew for Onionhead (Slimer) using similar controls.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Marc Tyler<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ghostbusters will be re-released on\u00a0 Labor Day weekend to celebrate the 30th<\/sup> anniversary.<\/p>\n