Puppeteer: Who makes Star Wars’ BB-8 come alive?
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hello i'm yinka bikini and welcome to out of frame if you've ever sat back and wondered how are movies actually made well prepare to have your mind alone because this is the place to find out on this podcast i speak to the most talented and creative people from the world of film and television we're shining a light on below the line crew members because they're the ones who bring the magic to our screens And each week, I get to pick their brains right here at Crew HQ, at the heart of Warner Bros Studios' Leavesden. This is Out of Frame.
We all have our favorite actors, the ones we look out for when a new movie comes out. But today, we're taking a moment to appreciate the puppets. Puppet movies use everything from handcrafted marionettes to advanced animatronics. And puppetry shows up way more in movies than you probably realized, like Star Wars, Jurassic World, and Beetlejuice. Someone who has worked on all of these films and so much more is Dave Chapman. Dave is an acclaimed puppeteer and actor, and he's worked on a wide range of action, entertainment and children's films. Dave, welcome to Out of Frame.
Thank you very much. Nice to be here.
I'm so happy to have you here because... Like puppets is so niche. It's the nichest thing I could probably think of. But I can imagine you're about to open my eyes and everyone who's watching and listening to a world that we just didn't really understand.
Yeah, I think there's a lot. People don't know where they are, or sometimes people say, well, what do you do when you're not doing a puppet character that I can see with little eyeballs and a mouth? Where else are puppeteers used? And you go, oh, well, they do this and they do that. If you watch a commercial where some washing is dancing around, then that's been danced around by puppeteers. Or, you know, if there's like a toaster that's jumping around on a work surface, usually adverts have a lot of weird things like that, and you go, that's been done by a puppeteer. It's not just a bloke with a rod, you know. Move that up and down. It's usually been coordinated and thought about and carefully sort of choreographed.
Well, I can't wait to get into it. But first, we've got to get to know you a little bit.
Okay.
Outside of the puppets.
Mm-hmm.
What is the last film that you watched that really inspired you?
Wow. The last film I watched that inspired me in a major way is A Long Time Ago. Is that an acceptable answer?
Yeah, yeah, fine.
When I saw Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave, I thought, oh, I can see how he's made that. And I read about it and I found out that it was done on a tight budget. And I just sort of thought small cast and not many locations and stuff. So that inspired me to go and make a short film when I was 28. Okay. So I went, oh, it seemed tangible and feasible. And when I read about his modus brandi and the way he made films, I thought, oh, I could give that a shot. So I made a short film.
What's the first film that you remember watching?
The first film I remember watching was Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
That's actually one of my favorite films.
Is it really? It's really long.
Is it?
Yeah. I mean, having watched it as an adult, it's really long. It needs an edit.
No, they need an extended cut.
But I loved it as a kid. And it also has a lot of things that come to life in it. Famously, walking suits of armor and stuff. And as a kid, I just blew my mind. I was probably like five years old. And I just thought, what is going on there? How is that happening? It was all the crazy stuff you read in books as a kid. And things you imagine as a kid because you have a rich imagination much more than adults do and I was seeing it and thinking how has that done so that was a yeah the very first film I saw.
Dave it isn't always the case that I bring someone into Crew HQ and their job is exactly what it says on the tin sometimes we've got to dig a little bit deeper but you are a puppeteer yes so of course you work with puppets tell me more how did you get into it?
I got into it because soon after Bedknobs and Broomsticks, I saw Star Wars, 1978, UK.
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