SlickSilly.Com Launches!

This is some exciting news about the children's interactive DVD. The official website has been launched and it looks amazing! I spoke recently with Producer/Director Nic Sulsky who has informed me that there are some final things being done with DVD before it will be officially released.

Nic tells me that the show is going to be shopped around in the next three weeks or so. It seems that the general word coming from most distribution companies is that getting a show with puppets created is not so easy. Many people have the opinion that puppets are not popular. I would need to see the statistic before I ever believed that.

I have a lot of faith in the potential of this show. It is something special.



This leads me to say a few words about the director/producer of the show Nic Sulsky. It really isn't until a performer has the opportunity to work with someone so gifted and down to Earth that they truly appreciate the role of a director. Nic was nothing short of awesome. I have worked with some great directors in my time, but Nic's ability to get across what he wanted, keep track of the production, deal with any problem that came up, and assemble one of the best teams of talent I have ever worked with is beyond impressive.

Currently Nic has started a new media company called Media Cravin'. If you have a television or media project that you want done with the most amazing value possible, get in touch with Nic.

I am currently meeting with Nic to develop a few ideas that I have. I will post any information on those projects as they develop.

Big smiles on TLN shoot

Well the commercial shoot has been completed and it was an amazing experience for a variety of reasons. The series of commercials is part of a Dental Medical Clinic (owned and operated by Dr. Nelly and Simha Mendelsson) and TLN joint project. The ideas was to help create a series of commercials that served to educate and promote "Dental Med" and its services.

Like with most projects I have done, the challenges on this project were excellent learning opportunities. I had the opportunity to work with some amazingly creative people. The director for the shoot was Jaime Escallon-Buraglia. A young and talented director who has produced and directed a variety of projects including a well received documentary titled "Sanctuary", which has been aired on CBC's Momentum documentary series. Jaime has worked with such companies and organizations as TV Ontario, OMNI TV, The National Film Board of Canada, Bravo!Fact, CBC and TLN. I look forward to the opportunity of working with Jaime again in the future.



This shoot was unique in that the voice for Tino was chosen to be a talented Colombian actor by the name of Carlos Congote. A well known actor in Colombia, Carlos has started to do work in Canada and cretead a wonderful personality for our little friend Tino.

The obvious challenges for the shoot were, first that Carlos was a voice actor and not a puppeteer. Second, I was a puppeteer (and a voice actor), but I didn't speak fluent Spanish. And third, it was decided that live recordings offered a greater amount of impact than pre-recorded voice tracks.

The solutions was this. Carlos was to be set up on location with a script and mic. I was to do puppeteering by listening to Carlos' live dialogue and try to lip sync the puppet with him as we both performed live.



The result was nothing short of amazingly challenging and wonderfully exciting. I needed to sync my puppet's mouth movements (as well as puppeteer the rest of the puppet) to a live actor, speaking Spanish, that (due to live performances) had slight variances each time. I was ultimately happy with the shoot and all those involved had a lot of fun. I am waiting to see the final commercials and I hope that when I see them I will not bee too hard on myself. After all, how many people can say they have done this type of puppeteering?