Freak and the Beast: Senior Thesis Introduction
If you told me a year ago that I would be working with puppets for my IMM Senior Thesis, I would have the same look on my face as my mom did when I told her a couple months ago (i.e. confused, but supportive).
Over the course of college, I’ve fallen out of love with television and back in. The shift can be attributed to my refocus on children’s media and animation, two genres that I feel are still somewhat resilient to the parts of the television industry that I really disliked. I got an internship in children’s media at Nickelodeon in Spring 2019, and that sealed the deal. I noticed that creative people I looked up to like Fred Rogers and Jim Henson were all creators of children’s media.
Then it came to what exactly my thesis would be. I thought of a TV pilot, but I wanted to make something bigger, more involved, more moving pieces. I wanted to use as many of my skills as possible: writing, comedy, set design, prop design, etc. Then I realized Jim Henson and Fred Rogers had something else in common: puppets.
Puppets were it! I was going to make a pilot for a show with puppets, specifically Muppet-style puppets. I had a few themes I knew I wanted to focus on: female friendships, flawed but loveable characters, misfits, self-acceptance, etc. Soon, Freak and The Beast was born.
Freak and The Beast follows two best friends, Freak, who is people-pleasing and a little neurotic, and The Beast, a selectively cuddly misanthrope, as they tackle middle school. The two characters are monster-style Muppets with fur while all the other extras on the show are humanoid Muppets, to emphasize that middle-school of feeling different from everyone else.
I started learning about puppets in August, and started building them around three months ago. Here are the two characters I have so far:
Next steps: set-building! Stay tuned for updates.
