Alex Duggan
I have always loved horror and for my project I wanted to make a haunted marionette clown that would be fully articulated and be able to be puppeteer it to walk. The story of the puppet is that he is an old marionette that is haunted and goes from person to person killing whoever owns him. Now he is with his current owners who collect old toys, and they must try and survive. The idea was inspired by other horror movies about dolls and clowns and my own interest in both topics also the topic of the uncanny which I wrote my thesis on which helped inform his design.
The main goal of the project was to have a fully realized puppet prop that would be ready to be used in a film, that could be puppeted. This was done by the use of rods to control him, but looks to be a marionette pulling his controls behind him as he walks. Also have interchangeable mouths for different expressions and an extra head for a creepier look. He is based on old marionettes and aged to look like he has been around a long time with his paint chipped off exposing his wooden body.
By the end he was a finished prop ready to be used. He was articulated and had his interchangeable expressions, also had his weapons one main stunt safe and two weapons for details. I got the desired shots with the puppet including a shot of him walking towards the camera. I used a few new techniques while making the clown for example the paint chip effect and the interchangeable mouths. I also learned a bit about puppet making when it comes to the joints and how to make and connect them.
The thesis I covered the uncanny and liminal space/ liminality. The films covered are the original child's play that came out in 1988, and its remake Childs Play that came out in 2019. The thesis covered a wide variety of ideas and topics pulled from various sources. For the uncanny the main source is The Uncanny by Sigmund Freud. The topic pulled from his works is the idea of the uncanniness of a doll and the fear of death and the unknown. These ideas are applied to each film, the original being the uncanniness of the doll. For the remake, the uncanniness that is covered is the uncanny of design. To show this the original essay by Mashiro Mori is used to show how the uncanny effects design. The essay also uses images from the film and of liminal spaces for example. For the topic of liminal space and mentality as it applies to a person's life. The thesis looks at ideas of liminality as it applies to person and liminal space in film shots. To show this the original and the remake will have a physical version of liminality and the idea of it applied to the characters. The research from this thesis helped when I was designing the clown as to not over design him and make him too creepy looking.
My name is Alex Duggan, a final year student studying model making in IADT. I have always had a love for creating things and making props and models. From a young age I was inspired by film and TV and enjoyed recreating props and costumes from films I liked. This led me to pursue a model making course, where I enjoy the physical and technical aspects of model making. I have always had a passion for recreating a design and figuring out how to make it a physical and functional prop.
