Famous | AxaMarionettes

FAMOUS / We perform on global stage

Many of our puppets became famous. In many different ways and in different parts of the world; on stage, on TV, in a film production. As a totally new character made to order or in a form of a miniature duplicate of a celebrity.

Usain Bolt and Ole Einar Bjørndalen Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) approached me with a request to create a puppet of Usain Bolt. This puppet traveled with a TV crew to Moscow, where it had the opportunity to interact with ordinary people and fans on the street.

About a year later, I received a commission to design a puppet of Ole Einar Bjørndalen, the Norwegian King of Biathlon. There was a special requirement for this marionette: the rifle on its back and the ski boots, along with the skis, had to be removable. This allowed the puppet to ski and walk. I attached additional, nearly invisible threads to the skis to prevent them from separating and crossing each other. However, I overlooked informing the film crew about this special modification. Unaware of this unique feature, they accidentally cut the lines and had to painstakingly reattach them to make the puppet work correctly.

TV Quatar Barae TV in Qatar produced three series of Mosleh's Stories. Each series consisted of 30 episodes, introducing fairy tales from around the world to Arab children. I had the opportunity to collaborate with this TV company on the second and third series. Each episode featured a different fairy tale, which required creating numerous puppets of people and animals. For the first series, we made 29 puppets, and an additional 10 for the second series. The main character was a carver who narrated these fairy tales to two small children and a bird, and these children were a part of every episode. Fortunately, the costumes for these characters were produced in Qatar, and there were approximately 120 costumes needed for each series.

I had the pleasure of participating in the filming process. My role involved preparing the puppets for various scenes, which included changing their costumes, adding or removing wigs, and ensuring they were ready for their on-screen appearances. It was a demanding but rewarding job, and I look back on the experience with fond memories.

There are three videos on Youtube about this project:

Robin de Bois (full title Robin des Bois: Ne renoncez jamais) was a French musical with a stage set by Michel Laprise and lyrics and music by Patrice Guirao and Lionel Florence. It premiered on 26 September 2013 at the Palais des Congrès de Paris and ran until 5 January 2014

It was a very large project with about 10 people working on it. Within two months, we managed to produce 6 marionettes based on the characters of the actors who acted in the musical. Five 2D puppets 60 cm high, a mechanical 2D relief of a horse that was supposed to run around, with a fluttering mane and four mannequin structures.

You can watch a movie on YouTube and see how the puppets were created.

Shavings I was contacted by director Jorge Harrington with a unique request to create a puppet for his new horror film. The puppet needed to resemble Robin Hood but have the face of a mummy. It was intended for specific scenes where it would hold a knife to attack the main character and, in another scene, shoot arrows from a crossbow. To facilitate this, I embedded magnets in both of its palms so that the knife and arrows could easily attach to them. Towards the end of the film, the puppet was supposed to burn down, and its owner would then begin to repair it. Consequently, a replacement head was crafted specifically for this scene.

Sasha Ferrier Sasha, a professional photographer, also approached me with a request for a unique puppet to use in his photo production. He needed a versatile puppet that could achieve poses and positions which regular puppets can’t enact. For this purpose, the puppet was designed with a custom-made waist-joint and a hip-joint jig to ensure it could even cross its legs, providing the flexibility required for the photography.