Sinead Doyle
I wanted to test myself to make a marionette-style puppet of an animal figure, a dragon, after learning how to make a humanoid marionette-style puppet while on Erasmus. I also wanted to do some level of miniature work, but not to the extent of exact proportions being needed, which is how I came to the concept of a 15th century puppet show.
I wanted to make a 15th century mystery play-inspired travelling puppet theatre set, along with a dragon puppet as an allegorical character for the devil. It is puppeteered by a group of travelling members of the 15th century carpenters' guild. The prop is meant to be used in a few-second clip in a market square, which shows the puppet theatre being used to entertain children. The puppet show can be dismantled easily and there are multiple possible scenarios for the clip, with shadow puppetry, backdrop changes, etc.
The final result of this project is a 1m² sized puppet show authentic to the time period that is easily dismantled and light to carry, along with a dragon puppet that interacts with the set. There are also set elements like fire and trees with wooden fire and flower petals being used, as well as two interchangeable backdrops.
For my thesis I researched how death is portrayed within animated films to children. I looked into the relationships that ancient cultures that inspired Moana (2016 & 2024), Coco (2018), Brother Bear (2003) and Hercules (1997) had with death, their beliefs and customs surrounding dying and the afterlife. My second chapter was on how mainstream media portrays such cultures in a child-friendly manner. My final chapter then brought in Cartoon Salooon's The Secret of Kells (2009) and Wolfwalkers (2020), and Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke (1997) and Grave of the Fireflies (1988) to look into how non-mainstream media from countries other than the US portrays death and culture surrounding it to younger audiences. I found it interesting how modern mainstream animated films portray these cultures to young children, and themes like death are either shown briefly or made comical. This idea of showing death to children led me onto the idea of a puppet show that features a more horrific death via the fire of a dragon, which is displayed in a town square for the entertainment of children. The miniature version of the scene, along with the sound effects made by the puppeteers, would make for a more comical show.
My name is Sinead Doyle and I am a final year modelmaking student in IADT. I have always loved art, and knew i wanted to be in design for film since I was a kid, since I had heard about it from a family friend. While on a portfolio preparation course, I developed my 3D art skills more and discovered I loved creating cool things. This led me on to pick modelmaking as my discipline and i have enjoyed it ever since.
