Short idea with dolls!

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Hey guys I came up with an idea I thought was pretty funny the other day using only dolls as the actors and I'd add the voices later. Its about Ken, who has a anime porn fetish specific to female Disney characters that gets in the way of his sexual relationship with Barbie. I was hoping you guys could point out some creative ways to make it look more fluid, as they are dolls, without my hands getting in the way. Also their mouths won't move is there a way I can do that and add it in later. Its not stop-motion. It'll be filmed with the small camcorder I have as you were shooting real actors, over the shoulder, panning, tilting etc.

As always, thanks.

edit: I have a couple more ideas for similar shorts using dolls and possibly with recurring characters esp. Ken and Barbie. Any help would add to a greater cause :):lol::cheers::woohoo:
 
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lol wow. i did similar thing with gi joes a year ago, when i got my camera.

Here is my technique..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OykNSbEdU8

It was just a learning shot, and I was trying to figure out wtf depth of field was :)
 
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Thanks Dima. Its telling me the video is private...i went to your actual member page on youtube and didn't see it there either. Can you set it to public? I was thinking the idea of the hands in the shots might be kinda funny as well but if there was an easy way to make them move without I think that'd be fun to mess with. Thanks man.
 
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These are all along the line of what I was thinking. I just wanted to find out what my abilities were with a shortage of actors and camera people I'm left with myself but I can't act and film myself at the same time. I appreciate your guys pointing me in the right direction. Anyone ever see those youtube videos of teh annoying orange. How would I do something with the mouth similar to what they did? Its almost as if they recorded the mouth of a real person doing teh dialogue then super it onto the orange in post. Is this how I could get my dolls to have moving mouths. For their limb movements I will probably just change them as teh camera angle switches so whenever they are talking on screen they'll most likely be stuck in one position until I switch to other doll. Any ideas on how to get more fluid limb movement? Or am I limited to just changing it when the camera switches? Thanks.
 
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I made a dozen films (super 8) using the fully articulated
G.I. Joes when I was starting. I wish the footage survived
so I could show them. I even built monsters and dinosaurs
out of wire and foam so they had something to fight. Even
my sisters Barbie's ending up is some of my films.

I think you have a great idea here.
 
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Thanks rik, curious how did you make them "fully articulated"? I'm sure I can figure out how to get a moving mouth on top of a doll's non moving one but how can I make it appear as their limbs move?
 
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When I was 12, 13, 14 (when I started making films) the G.I. Joes
were fully jointed. That's what I meant - the dolls themselves were
fully articulated. To make them move I used standard stop-motion
techniques.
 
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Oh I see, so are you suggesting I do stop motion? I could just stop motion(take stills) when I shoot something where they should be moving then keep it simple(record with camcorder) for things like close ups and other angles where they don't or we won't see anything that should be moving.
 
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directorik said:
I can't think of any other way to make a doll move.
Click to expand...

Couple of ways, one of which is a PITA.

First, keep your hand off camera and just "ambulate" your plastic character.

Second,
- goto HomeDepot/Lowes,
- buy some thin steel rods in the hardware section,
- drill a hole up the plastic characters' a$$.
- epoxy a length of steel rod up there to make a support,
- bend an "L" below the feet and cut off a few inches,
- attach to a heavy enough support base, 6x6 maybe.
- Drill holes into the elbows or forearms of the characters,
- epoxy black painted rods in there.

With sufficient weight on the support base and a good squirt of WD-40 on the doll's elbows you should be able to use the rods to "push" the arms all around without moving the trunk of the character.

P
I
T
A, but do-able.
 
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Thanks Ray, was thinking going old school and attaching fishing line to the appropriate appendages to get the to move, but seeing as we have ipods and cell phones now, I think I'll try messing with the "mechanical" option you've just laid out.
 
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