finding a musician
"I first saw Kent Rousseau in the Thoughtful Guy cover contest," says Donna Williams. "His entry was good but it didn't do justice to the brilliance that is the rest of his channel. Here's this kid doing beautiful keyboard arrangements way beyond his years. I knew he was the guy for the Smitty scenes. Thankfully he said yes."
Though he was commissioned to do five 30-second pieces, Kent made complete arrangements of all five Rhett and Link songs. One, How We Met, was used as is in the first scene. The other four complete works are on the extended soundtrack. Remixer Babe Arinfu turned Dope Zebra into Dub Unicorn, and Editor MichaeL Perrotta, Jr. was brought in to shorten the remaining three. It was Michael who helped Belevedere belch fire in Neighbors. The full cut of Dope Zebra was used in the Gutless Musical Apocalyptic Trailer. it's just not working
The Smitty scenes were shot in one day as instrumentals by CCW Crew and sent to Editor Kevin Hilt. He thought the songs might not be enough to explain what was going on in the scenes, particularly for those outside the Rhett and Link fan base. He wanted to add dialogue among the characters using subtitles.
But puppeteer Donna Williams didn't want Smitty to speak. So driving on Christmas Eve, the idea came to change the scenes to a storybook. She knew singer Jim Patton had volunteered early on for voice work, and a narrator was born. Kevin wrote the story, even leaving an opening for a sequel. And Jim's voiceovers brought the mythical beasts of the North Carolinian Wilderness to life. |
puppet tech
First, puppets and scenery had to be cut from black cardstock using precision craft scissors. Mythical beast images were printed from online coloring pages and used as a template for cutting. Characters were attached using wooden skewers.
A large picture frame served as the set and a green pillowcase became the screen. The frame was propped on a shower rod and plastic ivy was attached with twist ties to cover the pole and the frame's wire. A simple desk lamp was used to light the scene and double as the sun. hidden in the forest
|
- welcome
- about
- tunes
-
toons
- The Smitty Scenes >
- Ounces (Origins remix)
- Holy Juju Beans
- Barber Blues (Melvin Cooley cut)
- Tucker's Amazing Ability
- This is a Dream >
- Awake >
- Squirt Some Mayo On It
- Welcome to the Show!
- Somebody Stole My Dog
- Un-Umbilicalized Smoke Emission Tubule
- Where Did You Go?
- Oh My Goodness (Sheriff remix)
- Tubule Test
- I'm Coming Home
- End Credits
- musicians
- animators
- crew
- promos
- TOS
- muses