[Eyegore]

Pumpkin&Tombstone prop idea

Idea Concept to combine the talking bust and talking pumpkin into one projection animated prop!

Ok so, I thought It would be cool to have a talking pumpkin paired with a talking headless horseman tombstone. The plans are below.
I'd like some criticism and ideas before I get started.

Does this idea work?
How could it be improved.
Should it be generic or do you think the headless horseman angle is a good idea.
What should the tombstone epithet or name be?

 

[Eyegore]

projection!

 

[Eyegore]

I was thinking they would both have an independent speech and a skit they do together. Any ideas? I know at one point I want the pumpkin to sing "the headless horseman" and I want the bust to lose his head. But as to their interaction I haven't got a working script yet. I want to play of of the headless horseman somehow.

 

[Eyegore]

Does anyone have any script or animation ideas? I haven't a clue as to what they should say...

 

[Mr_Chicken]

how do you plan to make the bust lose his head? Seems to me that it would be way too complicated to actually make the head come off, but you could animate an incision on his neck.

 

[Eyegore]

well according to the HH legend. He loses his head by cannon ball blast. I plan to have it all be animated by projection. I think having the head explode is a bit over the top. I will probably just make his head "dematerialize" and have the head fade to black with the body of the bust staying lit. If not! I might consider just making the neck start to bleed.

 

[TheEighthPlague]

Name of Headless Horseman.

I'm not sure if a name appears in the literature, as I remember, he was just listed as a Hessian. Well the Hessians were German Mercenaries, so the German word for mercenary is Söldner, so that'd make a good last name in my book. Maybe make his first name Franz or Fritz or Heinrich? or Josef? or Geköpft, German for decapitated? Kopflos, German for headless? Reiter, German for horseman? Pferd, German for horse.

That's how I'd do it.

 

[TK421]

This is a fantastic idea. I love it. I actually think you can move away from the legend a bit and take it in a more vaudville direction. What you're setting up here is the perfect ventriloquist skit.

You can talk about all sorts of Halloween related events -- not just the headless horseman and his pumpkin head.

Saw the mummy last week...
Oh, yeah, what'd he say?
Not much, just, "mmm..mmmmmm.mm..mmmm"

(I know, that's a cheesy one, but you get the idea.)

You can search online for ventriloquist scripts, check YouTube, etc. You could turn this into a hysterical skit that people won't want to pass by!!!

BTW, what are you using for a projector?

 

[Eyegore]

Thanks TK421! I was actually planing on it being a series of skits. But still related to the horseman! How I invisioned the characters are as follows:

The bust will speak with a holow germanic accent and speaks with disdain and agression, but get's easily upset when the pumpkin makes fun of him for losing his head.

The pumpkin will hopeful speak with a deep smooth voice like Bing Crosby.

Durring the routine, which Im still working on, a running gag throughout the 2minute act will invoves the pumpkin saying an insult or joke to the bust and the bust losing his head before he as a chance to answer or make a comback remark. Also at somepoint the pumpkin will sing the Headless Horseman song. I plan to have the bust, tombstone, and pumpkin all be animated. with the tombstone's name changing from "hessian soldier" to "headless horseman" and the horse at the top galloping (hopefully).

 

[Mr_Chicken]

My only concern with making the head disappear is that you'll still be able to see the bust, unless it's just a flat projection on the tombstone. Remember that there is no true "black" on a digital projection, so as long as the projector is on, the projection surface will be visible.

 

[Eyegore]

My only concern with making the head disappear is that you'll still be able to see the bust, unless it's just a flat projection on the tombstone. Remember that there is no true "black" on a digital projection, so as long as the projector is on, the projection surface will be visible.

Yeah I thought about that. I think I will make it fade to the texture of the tombstone. My constructed tombstone and bust are solid white (best for projection) The texture of dark grey marble, the horse relief, the R.I.P name, and the bust's eyes and mouth will be projected. The bust itself, when animated, will have a ghostly flame color as if illuminated by the spirit of the headless horseman. When the head disappears, I will just fade the "glow" out around his head, leaving the the textured marble backgound. Hopefully the dark marble texture will "hide" his head enough to make it look like the head dematerialized! With the addition of sound effects I think it will be a great effect!

 

[Eyegore]

A question to everyone!
If I go the vaudeville joke route; do you think it would be funny to have a sound effect of a horse neighing
as the rimshot sound?

 

[TK421]

I don't know that you need the rim shot, but if you do go that way, I think the horse would be great!

You're only running a two minute loop? That's not a lot of time for jokes, but it is good for moving people along.

I really like this idea, and I'm interested in doing something similar. Can you talk more about the electronic components you're using?

Are you dedicating a laptop to the projection loop? Where are you hiding the laptop?

How are you running the audio -- what kind of speaker set up?

What are you using to project the images?

P.S. if you need voice talent with accents, let me know. I can do a lot of them. Don't know if I can be as smooth as Bing, but I can definitely give you a irritable German.

 

[TK421]

Eyegor, could you also send some pics of the tombstone/pumpkin setup? How much texture are you going put on the pumpkin and tombstone vs. projected texture?

 

[Eyegore]

I don't know that you need the rim shot, but if you do go that way, I think the horse would be great!

You're only running a two minute loop? That's not a lot of time for jokes, but it is good for moving people along.

I really like this idea, and I'm interested in doing something similar. Can you talk more about the electronic components you're using?

Are you dedicating a laptop to the projection loop? Where are you hiding the laptop?

How are you running the audio -- what kind of speaker set up?

What are you using to project the images?

P.S. if you need voice talent with accents, let me know. I can do a lot of them. Don't know if I can be as smooth as Bing, but I can definitely give you a irritable German.

OK get ready for a really long post...

Them thar are a lot of questions. haha. The electonic components are a projector, ipod video, and dock with remote control. Electronics will be in a black wood box housing that will be staked to the ground and tethered to a bush. computer speakers for the audio will be attached to the projector and hidden behind the tombstone and pumpkin.

The tombstone/bust will be painted with light flexstone spraypaint so that it can still have the appearance of stone in the daytime. the pumpkin is nothing more than a foam pumpkin purchased from Michaels. The bust was also purchased. I sculpted a mouth cover for the bust, so that I can project a mouth onto him. It was made out of sculpy clay. It covers up his mouth, providing a blank area to project the animated talking mouth. The eyes will also be animated.

The projected movie will play on a loop from my ipod and I can remotely trigger the prop by the ipod remote if needed. The 3-4 min routine is being created in flash and will eventually be converted to video to play through the projector.

Most of the aged textures will come from the projector. It is easier to texture the video footage vs adding it to the tombstone. Plus by doing it that way, the bust losing his head effect should be more convincing. I can't wait to finish this! An important note...some of the prop's detail gets lost once the video is projected, so It is a good idea to exagerate the tombstone details.

Whew! I think that covered about 25% of everything! If you have any other questions. PM me!

 

[TK421]

What kind of project are you using? Could you post a pic or send a link?

That helps a lot. Now, get out your camera and post some pics!!