Evolution of The Flockettes: I once created an egg with legs for a college photography assignment using paper clips and clay. We had a chocolate egg with a peep inside, so I figured I could do something like that, with the peep cracking open the shell and sticking his legs out... until my son ate the prop. :-/
OK then, I'll make a peep look like a dancer. The package consists of 5 peeps stuck together, so I guess it's a chorus line. I bent some paper clips to the right shape and went to get the Play Doh. I couldn't find any, but discovered the foam tulips among our craft supplies. The Mrs. informs me that we're out of Play Doh. I tried some modeling clay, but it was too hard to work with. *sigh* At least I had a stage. My kids had an unopened puppet theater that they received as a gift. I put it together and found that it was just a wooden frame with yellow curtains (no stage or background). I was about to give up, when my wife found some yellow Play Doh in the basement.
The material was easy to mold around the paper clips, but the feet were fragile, so I set them aside to dry for a while hoping that they'd get tougher. I tried to think of something else to add to the tulips as an outfit. Ah, muffin cups! We even had them in matching colors (although too pale to matter). I couldn't figure out how to attach them to the front of the peeps in any way that would make sense, so I glued pieces to the tails instead.
I went back to the basement for something to use as a stage. I tried foamcore, marble, wooden serving trays, a lazy susan, and finally an old cutting board, which fit perfectly. I used books underneath to level it. The blue theater frame was distracting, so I put black mat board on the left to keep it in shadow. For a background, I hung my daughter's red dress from the chandelier. I tried putting the audience peeps in Easter grass, but they sunk down in it too much, so I used a strip of astroturf. The peeps wouldn't stand up on that either, so I snipped their little butts off with scissors to expose the sticky marshmallow inside (ha).
Now for the hard part. I figured the paper clips would be strong enough to support the peeps and I'd just hot glue them to the board to stand up. I cut a slit in each peep to glue the legs on, but the drying Play Doh turned out to be very brittle and I had to hot glue several of the feet back on. There was no way these chicks were going to stand on their own, so I glued a length of thin fishing line across their tails and used gaffer's tape to hold it on either side of the frame. So the front-heavy peeps were "sitting" on fishing line and kept from rotating forward by their feet. The final touch was a monolight with a 10 degree honeycomb grid for a spot light and a little bit of fill light from a softbox off to the right. Total time: about 2.5 hours, and I only used materials I already had in the house (including the peeps). The title was a desperate attempt to avoid "Peep Show," since I figured there would be a dozen of those.
Processing: Convert from RAW, levels, saturation, clone out the fishing line, dust specks and some imperfections on the audience peeps, shift the color of the legs a bit to match, and a little Dodge & Burn and USM.
Statistics
Place: 2 out of 99 Avg (all users): 7.4249 Avg (commenters): 8.2778 Avg (participants): 7.0714 Avg (non-participants): 7.5693 Views since voting: 11609 Views during voting: 590 Votes: 193 Comments: 46 Favorites: 11 (view)
The peeps wouldn't stand up on that either, so I snipped their little butts off with scissors to expose the sticky marshmallow inside (ha).
Don't even try to claim that no peeps were harmed in the making of this photo. I may have done some things to woodies - torn limbs off, burned them, submerged them in hot oil, carved faces in them with a dremel tool, BUT I NEVER snipped their little butts off. There oughta be a law...
:P
A little late congrats, by the way. Much patience, much effort, nice reward.
Ahh, I never tire of reading your adventures in setting up these creative shots. This made me feel better about sitting with a pair of tweezers putting little pieces of thread on a hacked together peep bunny. Thanks for sharing how you found solutions for problems with the setups! And, congrats on a well deserved red! :)
For future play-dough emergencies: make your own!!!
Easy, cheap, and has a wonderful texture. The best one is the cooked version:
Traditional Play Dough
* 1 cup flour
* 1 cup warm water
* 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
* 1 teaspoon oil
* 1/4 cup salt
* food coloring
Mix all ingredients, adding food coloring last. Stir over medium heat until smooth. Remove from pan and knead until blended smooth. Place in plastic bag or airtight container when cooled. Will last for a long time if stored in the frige.
Just read your story....that's dedication....a man who is truly willing to suffer for his art! : ) I almost feel guilty that mine took about 20 minutes to set up....ALMOST! : ) If you are like me the arts & crafts portion of the set up is nearly as much fun as the update button. Well worth the effort and another splash of red for your profile (will you even notice? ;) Congrats!!
I hope this ribbons because there has been so much work put into this. It's a scream. Where di you get the peep legs? I love the stage lighting too. Good luck!
Creative use of elements to make this scene. Can I say it's "believable"? Yes, weirdly, I'm sitting in a low balcony seat (just like Lincoln when he was shot...gasp!) looking down on the peeps and their peeps. :) Are those wood tulip cut-outs from the craft shop!? ...and muffin papers, too!? Lighting is what makes this, of course. It's just how it should be down to the last detail of stepping... Smacks of Scalvert! (Which, if you don't know and aren't he himself, is a compliment...I think.) I will curse you with a high vote (as I did another) in the hopes that it plagues your profile page for long to come. ;->
The Flockettes
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