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Gloria wins GOLD!

12/1/2022

 
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We're delighted that our ABC iView Campaign won awards at the Promax Global Awards held in LA in November 2021! The Promax Awards are the industry's top prize for outstanding achievement in entertainment marketing and design. The image of our puppet Gloria (made by Kay Yasugi and Katherine Hannaford) won Gold for best static outdoor campaign. 

The campaign also won awards at the Promax ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) awards 2021 with Best Streaming/website/interactive service spot (Gold) and Best outdoor or print ad (Silver)! Click here to see the 2021 Promax ANZ Awards brochure. 


Don't be surprised if you're surprised - Puppets on ABC iview

20/6/2021

 
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We are thrilled to have been involved in a new advertising campaign for the ABC's streaming platform iview. The ABC iView campaign was released in May 2021 and includes commercials on TV, digital media, GIFs and outdoor advertising.
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The campaign, called “don’t be surprised if you’re surprised”, features four puppet characters: Arj, Linh, Gloria and Vinnie. They were design in-house by ABC Made and created by Kay Yasugi (Digital Seagull), with the assistance of Katherine Hannaford.

​​Kay was interviewed about the project on the Puppet Place News blog (UK) - check it out to read about the process of making and operating the puppets. The article also covers challenges that the Australian puppetry community have faced in 2020 and how we are overcoming them.
Read Puppet Place Article
Kay was also recently featured in City of Ryde's Creative Spotlight. If you are an artist or creative with a connection to the City of Ryde, you are invited to sign up to their Artist Register so they can find out more about you and your work!
Read Creative Spotlight

ABC iview Campaign: Arj from ABC Made on Vimeo.

ABC iview Campaign: Vinnie from ABC Made on Vimeo.

Kay sewing puppets for ABC iview
Gloria on the side of a bus in Sydney, NSW
Kay with Arj at the stills shoot
Kay Yasugi with Puppet Maker Assistant Katherine Hannaford
Kay Yasugi filming 'Arj' GIFS, assisted by Eleanor Roberts
Kay filming Vinnie's ping pong sequence
Kay with Arj - filming on location in Sydney, NSW
Kay filming Linh's 'mind blowing' GIFS (with a confetti cannon)

A Music Video with Cowboys, Bar fights and Puppet Heartbreak

6/2/2015

 
In March 2014, puppeteer Kay Yasugi got on the puppet band wagon to film a music video for the Aussie folk duo Busby Marou to release their new song “A Second Mistake”. The film was directed by Renny Wijeyamohan (Open Door Films) and in case you may be feeling a little déjà vu, the puppets in the video are the very same ones that Kay made for a little Aussie doco about the Herpes virus on “Dating the H*Bomb” in 2012.  They were revamped (and re-wigged) for a big adventure involving lots of different film locations (which roughly translates as Kay operating the puppets while lying in the middle of a field, a saloon and even perched near a cliff). A highlight was staging a rather amusing puppet brawl with another (live actor) cowboy (who actually happened to be really nice off screen). That, and Michael (the green puppet who stars in the video as “Woody”) getting to show off the fruits of his puppet gym workouts (which he was pretty pleased about).

The film was also nominated for an ARIA Music Award for Best Video in 2014.

Here is a post about the video (which includes an interview with Busby Marou) on Yen Magazine
http://www.yenmag.net/music/busby-marou-video-premiere-my-second-mistake/

Puppetry Master Class with Noel MacNeal

5/2/2015

 
In February 2014, Emmy Award winning puppeteer Noel MacNeal (who has worked on Sesame Street, The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House) came to Sydney from Brooklyn USA to teach 2 one-week master classes on puppetry for film and television. Kay was really excited to attend!

Over the 6 day workshops at Carriageworks, participants worked with a range of moving mouth puppets and learned about principles in lip-sync and eye focus (while getting used to working with a TV monitor where what you see on the screen is the reverse of what you are doing – this was a challenge in itself!). There were also exercises in developing puppet choreography and staging, which included creating music videos (with props!) and short variety acts.

The course also included a day where the participants were invited to ‘play’ with some of the amazing puppets from Erth like their dragon, dinosaurs and Australian animals, all of which explored skills in full body puppets and bunraku-style operating techniques.

All in all it was a fantastic masterclass - it was amazing to have Noel share his extensive knowledge and experience in puppetry and children’s television, and we were also very thankful to Erth and Carriageworks for making this all happen – we hope Noel will visit Australia again soon!
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Sketch by Kay Yasugi showing some notes on operating techniques

A Season of Experimental Puppetry in Melbourne

5/2/2015

 
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In November 2013, Kay Yasugi was involved in performing at Melbourne’s La Mama theatre for an evening of experimental puppetry for adults. Artists came to present 4 short puppetry works in development. Kay worked with Tim Denton and Annie Forbes from AboutFace Productions on their show “What I Leave Behind” (and somehow she went from being an outside eye to one of the puppeteers in the piece!). Annie and Tim have gone on to perform their show at the Melbourne Fringe in October 2014.

Other artists who performed on the night included Rod Primrose, Beth McMahon and Mike Bevitt (The Indirect Object) with Gabriel Partington, Alison Richards and Debra Batton. In the words of the event's curator Nancy Black (from Black Hole Theatre), “The work was bold, rough, raw, funny and strong.  The audience knew it was unfinished – and they responded with joy and excitement.”

A Music Video with Puppet Plants, Tree People and Glitter Hands

5/2/2015

 
In August-September 2013, puppeteer Kay Yasugi was involved in devising and creating a new music video for the Aussie music duo Ginger and the Ghost, for their new song “The Mark of Hearts. 

Arms were sprayed in glitter. Bodies were wrapped in branches. Hands were transformed into botanical critters. And everything, in the end, was covered in confetti and colour bombs. The result was an imaginative, other-worldly and slightly psychedelic clip that I hope you will enjoy.
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Willow tree people (Kay is on the right).
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Ginger on the set of The Mark of Hearts
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Glitter hands! Kay Yasugi with puppeteer Kailah Cabanas
Click here to find out more about Ginger and the Ghost

A Short Film with Cops, Danger and Ferrets

5/2/2015

 
PictureKay Yasugi about to operate "Richard" the ferret puppet in a police car
In March 2013, puppeteer Kay Yasugi worked on a short film with a difference.

It involved operating a very realistic ferret puppet – who ends up biting a police officer in the ‘nether regions’. The film is thus appropriately titled ‘The 8 Inch Pinch' and was directed by Scott Walker, produced by Sarah Nichols and stars Toby Truslove as the unfortunate police officer. As bizarre as this all sounds, the film is actually based on a true story of a Queensland constable who was given an assignment to transport an illegal ferret (ferrets are illegal in Queensland) to a wildlife facility – only to be attacked while driving in his police car. (In case you are wondering, the police officer is okay).

Here is the trailer:

Scott Walker - 8 Inch Pinch Trailer from BUDDY on Vimeo.

The film was screened at Flickerfest in January 2014. 

You can hear a radio interview about the film here
http://www.2ser.com/component/k2/item/6806-interview-the-8-inch-pinch

Koala puppet goes global! Teaming up with Tourism Australia

5/3/2013

 
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Sam the Koala (Photo by Kay Yasugi)
Tourism Australia has just launched their fantastic new campaign that is sure to draw young people from around the world. The commercial for “The Best Jobs in the World” competition also stars a little furry koala named Sam, which was designed and constructed by Digital Seagull puppeteer and puppet maker Kay Yasugi.

The journey to make Sam was full of unique experiences, which included having extended conversations with a taxidermist, roaming around the Melbourne Museum, spending hours at a Koala sanctuary sketching sleeping koalas and even visiting a puppy parlour. However, the journey did not end there. 

Once Sam was completed, Kay travelled with the puppet to shoot part of the commercial on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. The location was the stunningly picturesque Seal Bay, where Kay operated the puppet right on the beach - which was lined with sleeping seals! The film shoot also involved visiting Pardana Wildlife Park, where the crew was surrounded by a big group of very friendly and curious kangaroos.

The commercial is presented by Ben Southall, who is the winner of Tourism Queensland's 2009 ‘Best Job in the World’ competition.

So, if you want one of the Best Jobs in the World, check out the video to learn how you could be in the running!

Note: This competition is only for people outside of Australia

For more information about the campaign, visit www.australia.com/bestjobs

If you would like more information about custom made puppets, contact Kay at info@digitalseagull.com 

A Documentary with a Difference: Puppets, Dating and STDs

28/2/2013

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(Photograph by Beth Taylor)
Puppeteer and puppet maker Kay Yasugi from Digital Seagull worked on a unique and unconventional film project last year that explored the Herpes virus – with puppets! She designed and constructed 3 lip sync foam puppets for the film and operated them on screen.

About the Film
If using a condom is tricky to bring up when your date gets hot and heavy, try dropping the ‘H-Bomb’ - admitting you have genital herpes. In Dating The H*Bomb, Heidi, Hector and Michael candidly share intimate stories about life with the incurable and taboo herpes virus, from the shock of diagnosis to the search for true love. Re-enacted with puppets, these everyday Australians reveal what it’s like to negotiate love, sex and human relationships in the shadow of a disease that affects one in eight Australians.

This documentary was produced by Lala Pictures, with Director Jay Court, Producer Andrew Arbuthnot and Screen Writer Wendy Hanna. The film was premiered at the Cockatoo Island Film Festival in Sydney, then aired nationally on ABC2.

"Dating the H*Bomb" was part of the Opening Shot series on ABC2, which is an initiative between Screen Australia and ABC Television. 5 Australian filmmakers under the age of 35 were selected to produce cutting edge documentaries addressing taboo issues.

For more info about Opening Shot, visit http://openingshot.abc.net.au/
For more information about LaLa pictures, please visit http://www.lalapictures.com
Also check out the Dating the H*Bomb Facebook page

Watch the Behind the Scenes video below (see more info on the Opening Shot website):

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    We're based in Sydney, Australia and are always interested in collaborating with people who want to work with puppets - whether it's for film, television, theatre, workshops, corporate clients or individual projects.

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