Puppet staging: Creating Emphasis

Old Muppet segments on Sesame Street are often brilliant examples of how to stage scenes with puppets and create emphasis using simple camera moves.

If you want to see some great examples of puppet staging, watch old Muppet segments from the `70s and early `80s. Almost all of the early Muppet segments on Sesame Street were shot in one long continuous take with only a couple quick cut aways to close-up shots. That's sometimes hard to do from a puppeteering perspective, but shooting this way ultimately makes you a better puppeteer because you don't get to rely on cut-aways and editing to cover up mistakes.

A good example of simple, brilliant staging is Sesame's "Telephone Discovery Sketch" with the Yip Yip Martians from 1971, which someone has uploaded to YouTube (update: the video has since been yanked, but if you go to the Sesame Street Video site and search for "Martians and the telephone" you can watch it there). It's very minimalist with an economical set, only two puppets and a few props that are essential to the story. It hasn't been "art directed to hell" (as a puppeteer I know is fond of saying) with lots of clutter, unnecessary props or a set that overwhelms the characters. All that's there is what's necessary to tell the story. The window sill both frames the Martians nicely and tells us that they've landed near a house and are outside looking in. The shot includes the phone (the focus of the sketch) and gives the puppeteers enough space so that they can play and go back and forth in the frame.

Watch how the camera moves and more importantly think about when and why. Most of the scene is done in a wide shot. The shot itself is very nicely composed with the Martians higher in the frame than the phone (see my previous post on composition for more on that subject) so our focus is on them, but they can still refer to and interact with the phone. When the Martians do get close to the phone and put their emphasis on it the shot zooms in accordingly. Once they are no longer focused on it and move away and the camera zooms out and goes back to the wide shot.

This scene is so well staged that you can watch and understand most of it with the sound off. Although some of the humour is verbal (the Martians making their funny "Yip Yips" and animal sounds) even without audio you get about 80% of the story. In fact, since the Martians speak their own language there's very little English used at all!

Lots of great classic Muppet sketches can be found on the Sesame Street "Old School" Volume 1 DVD.

27/12/07 Update: Video URL updated.