'Highly Strung' Puts Puppeteering On A Massive Scale

Highly Strung from dave jones on Vimeo.

With so many other forms of entertainment the puppet shows of today may seem like an already dead medium. However, you'd be wrong in thinking this, since Australian filmmaker Dave Jones shows us that there is still a fair amount of life in the ancient form of storytelling with his highly ambitious piece, "Highly Strung."

Performed on the back of grain silos, "Highly Strung" features an enormous 45-foot tall puppet that took 10 people to operate. The giant work of art was bolstered by projected animation done largely by local school children, giving the production an eerie Tim Burton vibe. This particular performance took place at the Nati Frinj festival in Natimuk, Australia.

Jones said of the animation, "For the mouth we actually mounted a projector inside the puppets head and gaffer taped it to an iPod which we could control wirelessly from the ground 20 meters below." Though it is just a five minute edit of the whole performance, the clip is captivating, immersing the viewer in a bizarre, but ultimately innocent world of dreams and wonderment. You can get some behind-the-scenes insight over on Jones' blog.