Making Mac the Dog |
|
Monday, 11 December 2006
If you go to www.dogshowusa.com you may be surprised to see a talking dog. Well, don’t worry it’s just Mac the Dog, a puppet built by John Kennedy for Media Art Concepts (www.macsbestfriends.com). NBC Sports asked Mac to be the co-host of their Dog Show USA campaign and help Kenan Harkin with four internet commercials which state the rules of the competition. Everyone is encouraged to visit the website and enter their dogs in the online dog show.
 |
It was back in 2001 that John was commissioned to create this life-like puppet which was made to resemble a real Bearded Collie named Mac. It took John several weeks of sewing and gluing to fashion this puppet and even more time to create his character traits. Mark Gale, a puppeteer currently living in Connecticut, was commissioned to perform Mac and has been involved with many productions in Orlando, FL. |
 |
As you can see, there is a lot of planning put into the framework of a dog puppet. This is not Mac, but another dog puppet John built early in his career that played heavily on the design of Mac. With the use of boning and mini-cell, L-200, foam John made a light weight body that was easily covered with fake fur. |
 |
From this angle you can see how the boning creates a bone-like frame that keeps the body shape. Boning allows the puppet to breathe, keeping the puppeteer’s arm ventilated, while giving maximum movement to the puppet. |
 |
To make the dog as versatile as possible, John used key clips to fasten the legs onto the body. This way if the legs get worn out he could build leg replacements without having to make the whole puppet over again. He could also make different legs with wires or marionette style attachments. Key clips are great to use because they pivot smoothly without losing their grip and can be found at the key copying desk of any hardware store. |
 |
We at Hands In Art, Inc. want to congratulate Mac on his big “Online” debut and wish him and John much success in the future. |
|
|
