Lying Down & Getting up
11 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in Voice Over Tags: depression, dysthymia, film students, Lying Down, Mak Wilson, Tony Wilkes, University of the West of England, voice over
A couple of years ago I auditioned for a got a voice over job on a docu-black comedy film about mental health called Lying Down … as you do. It was written, directed (and also performed by in certain parts) by local Shropshire man Tony Wilkes. I was particularly interested in the project because it was about a subject dear to my heart … or rather head, suffering from a form of depression called dysthymia myself. Like the message of this film, I think it’s important to talk about and try and distory the taboo that still surrounds these conditions. It’s been wonderful that Steven Fry has been so open aout his bi-polar and I think it has led others to talk about their various forms of the condition.
What was also great about this job was I was able to record it, with Tony, at my home. Always a plus! He actually needed me to do four different voices, but the main one was to be in the style of a game show announcer. I loved doing this and it was challenging in a way because I had to perform against the meaning of the dialogue. You’ll see what I mean if you watch the clips below.
Here are the seven parts of the film, now online. My work mainly appears in Part 3 (look out for the child’s animated piece) and Part 7 (‘Trampoline!).
IT’S GOOD TO TALK
I talked about my own condition in a documentary made about me by some very talented second year film students at the University of the West of England. Whilst it was mainly about my career, they wanted me to talk about my depression and my M.E. The latter didn’t make it into the finished film because of time constraints, but the former did and I think they made a fantastic job. You can see this film by clicking HERE.
Categories
05 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
In the right hand side bar there’s a tab called ‘Categories’. Be sure to check this out to see what’s where.
Thanks,
Mak
Screenwriting work of Mak Wilson
05 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Screenwriting Tags: 1066, Battle of Hastings, King Arthur, Mak Wilson, science fantasy, screenwriting, script, scrrenplay, Tapestry
I’ve decided to add a new category to the blog site: screenwriting. Let me make it clear straight away that none of my scripts have made it to the big screen yet (one made it to the little screen) but that won’t stop me trying. Two are currently with the BBC. Fingers crossed.
I’m going to be posting excerpts from the several screenplays I’ve written, or co-written, as examples of my work. Extracts from the following scripts will be here shortly:
Jill in the Rainbow (a musical fantasy)
The Traveller (a science fantasy set in Wales)
Tapestry (the story of 1066 and the Battle of Hastings)
Artur (the story of Arthur the commander, not the king)
Mak
New puppeteer talent
23 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Puppetry Tags: bTWEEN, Cannon Hill Puppet Theatre, Central School of Speech & Drama, Don Austen, Doncaster, drama school, East 15, Ellie Darvill, Fraggle Rock, Jim Henson, Mak Wilson, Midlands Art Centre, Mokey, Peter Hurst, Puppet Centre, puppeteer, puppeteers, puppetry, Robin Stevens, Simon Buckley
Me and Mokey from Fraggle Rock at the bTWEEN animation conference in Doncaster.
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I was going to write a blog about the lack of new talent around in the world of puppetry but having just worked with a group of 4 very talented young ladies on a commercial I’m going to change it slightly.
It actually still stands that there’s a seeming lack of new talent in the television puppetry field. I know of only 2 puppeteers in their 20s. Most of the talent out there are in their 30s and above. Most of that being people who came through the Jim Henson workshops, some of which I used to run with Nigel Plaskitt. There is no where in the UK dedicated to teaching TV puppetry and most new talent have to train themselves. There is plenty of scope for those wanting to learn theatrical puppetry with Central School of Speech & Drama, the London School of Puppetry and East 15 covering many aspects of it. None of these concentrate on TV puppetry, which is, of course, a very different techniques to all forms of theatrical puppetry.
Not that learning theatrical techniques aren’t a good grounding for TV. There are many TV puppeteers of my generation who came to television and film via theatre: Don Austen, Simon Buckley, Peter Hurst, Ellie Darvill, Robin Stevens, to name but five. All of these, including myself, spent many years at Cannon Hill Puppet Theatre at the Midlands Art Centre in Birmingham. But unless a student spends the time training in this technique they will struggle in trying to break in to television should they wish to do so.
I also would advise any puppeteer to have as many techniques under their puppeteering belt as possible to broaden their chances of work. A television puppeteer, like puppeteers in general, does have to be both versatile and multitalented. They need to be able to act, sing, do a wide range of voices, puppeteer and have a good sense of dance and movement. Besides this they need spacial awareness and the ability to work with a monitor … either straight or reversed scan. Now, a certain amount of this can be done in the comfort of the home, but a lot can’t and I wish the afore mentioned puppetry schools were doing more to help. If not, I’ll just have to set up some classes myself!
Mak’s Movies
13 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Puppetry, Voice Over Tags: animation director, Animatronic, Babe the Pig, Bellina, Blawp, Creature Shop, Dark Crystal, Henson Company, Hoggle, Interpreter, Labyrinth, Little Shop of Horrors, Loch Ness, Lost In Space, Michaelangelo, Pinocchio, puppeteer, Return to Oz, Santa Claus - The Movie, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Bear, The Dark Crystal, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, The Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Vogon, voice artist, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
- Puppeteering the Henson animatronic system on Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
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A soon as people find out what I do, they always ask me what movies I’ve worked on. The problem is, I can’t remember all of them off the top of my head. So, I’m going to list them all here and then I can just tell people where to look.
FROM OLDEST TO NEWEST
The Dark Crystal - part time Mystic
Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes – Figs (Tarzan’s fat ape friend) voice of Mother Ape.
Return to Oz – principle puppeteer of Bellina the chicken
Labyrinth – co-face puppeteer of Hoggle – Brickkeeper – Riding Goblin – Shaft of Hands – various goblins
Little Shop of Horrors – lip lipsync puppeteer – voice of the small plant.
Santa Claus – The Movie – Comet and Donner for flying sequences
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? – SFX puppeteer
The Bear – Puppeteer of animatronic Kiki and performance co-ordinator
Loch Ness - Animatronic puppeteer of monster and CGI puppeteer CGI version
Teenage Mutant Hero (Ninja) Turtles - Animatronic puppeteer of Michaelangelo’s face.
Teenage Mutant Hero (Ninja) Turtles II - Animatronic puppeteer of Michaelangelo’s face and performance co-ordinator.
Babe - Animatronic puppeteer of Babe, performance co-ordinator and voice artist of a sheep.
Pinocchio - Animatronic puppeteer of Pinocchio’s's face and performance co-ordinator.
Lost In Space - CGI animation director and puppeteer of realtime CGI Blawp.
Buddy - Animatronic puppeteer of Buddy’s face and performance co-ordinator.
Mee-Shee –The Water Giant - CGI animation director and puppeteer of realtime CGI Mee-Shee.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - Animatronic puppeteer of Vogon faces and voice artist of the Interpreter.
Mongrels
08 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Puppetry Tags: BBC, Cat, Fur TV, Marion, Mongrels, puppeteer, puppeteered, puppetry, puppets, shingles, Spitting Image
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Looking forward to puppeteering on the new season of BBC 3′s Mongrels for a couple of days next week. Worked on it briefly last year when I stood in for Warrick Brownlow-Pike performing Marion the cat. A lot of fun to do and a great bunch of people. Many old friends there too. I was supposed to have auditioned for the show, but a bout of shingles put pay to that! Never mind eh? It’s still good to do some work on it.
I do like doing adult shows with puppets. It’s a bit like doing what we usually do between takes on a kids show. I’ve worked on three adult shows
now: Spitting Image, Fur TV and Mongrels. Spitting Image was just too much like hard work as many of the puppets weighed a ton. Fur TV was a very raunchy, very naughty show mixing puppets and people in which I puppeteered the lover, Lapeno. My right arm got to be in some very interesting positions. Definitely not to everyone’s liking that show but very, very funny … especially for 18 to 25 year old males.
Welcome to the blogs of Mak Wilson
08 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: actor, Arthurian, badonicus, director, histoical, Mak Wilson, puppeteer, puppetry, voice artist, writer
(Click on the title ‘Welcome to the blogs of Mak Wilson’ above to make sure you activate the comments page).
Welcome to the blog site of Mak Wilson: puppeteer, voice artist, actor, director and writer.
Not sure what I’ll be writing yet, but it will generally be cover my life and work in the TV and Film industries.
In the meantime, take a look at my website, or follow me on Twitter. I also have an historical and Arthurian blog called badonicus.
Have a good one,
Mak
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