Wild Inspiration

Last October I documented the building of my Where the Wild Things Are costume. I never intended it to be step by step instructions for creating your own wild thing, but apparently they could be used as such if you happened to find yourself with the desire, time, and crafty skills to pull it off.

A few months back I received an email from a stranger with a few questions about my wild thing. After a few clarifications on my process she got to work. I never expected to hear back from her with pictures of a finished wild thing of her own, but amazingly I did. Thank you Amy Skinner for sharing your photos with me. You did a fantastic job and it looks fabulous. Seems like you may have even improved upon the design.

Amy's brother even wore the costume to work..... he's an orthodontist.

Thanks again Amy for sending me the finished photos. It turned out great and I am glad I could help.

A Dreadful Opportunity Part II

Dread Dismissal from Jessica Bayliss on Vimeo.

Here is the final product. Lindsay and I spent the Saturday prepping from 9am until around 5pm before we started shooting. Amazingly, we finished at around 2am (I thought it was going to take even longer). It took 9 hours, but we decided to power through. We were all tired and a little grumpy, but we finished! A few process shots below.

Jury-rigging a camera onto a ladder. It was the largest tripod we could make.


Leave the make-up to the expert. Emily Adams, our fashion guru, kindly offered her make-up services and like a trooper stuck around till the bitter end helping move Lindsay parts and take photos.


Lindsay was pulling popcorn out of all sorts of places after this part.


Its really gone Lindsay. Like a weight off your shoulders... literally.

Left to Right: Jamie Bayliss, Jesse Bayliss, Lindsay Nack

More behind the scene pictures and video to follow in "A Dreadful Opportunity Part III."

A Dreadful Opportunity Part I

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from a close friend on mine from college, Lindsay Nack.

Lindsay had decided a few months ago that after 5 long years of growing her gorgeous dreads, it was time to cut them off. As you can imagine, this is an occasion to be documented. Lindsay, being a photographer herself, knew that pictures must be taken and they were.

This was not really enough though. Lindsay wanted to document the actual cutting of the dreads. A YouTube search revealed that most videos posted of cutting off dreads kinda suck. We can do better than that.

So Lindsay called me for advice on how to make a stop motion video. Lindsay lives in Portland and I live in LA, so at this point, all I did was attempt to explain the issues and techniques behind turning her head into a puppet. I realized very quickly that I was way too excited about the opportunity to not jump on a plane and fly to Portland and do it myself. How could anyone really resist that?

So before flying all the way to Portland to shot a video in a single day, I figured I should make a plan. I set up a rig for the camera that was made of things around the house that Lindsay could find herself.

So we both gathered the supplies we needed, I packed my bags and flew to Portland. Stay tuned to find out what happened to these lovely babies.

Storage Woes

I promise I am not being lazy about making things and posting about it. My entire life has been put on hold and into storage since the end of January. I moved out of my apartment. Unfortunately, I have yet to move in somewhere else. So for the time being everything, sans a couple suitcases of clothes and other necessities, is in storage.

I have been itchin' to get back to work on something but I have no idea where anything is and probably won't for another couple weeks. I know I have been attempting to buy this condo since April of '09, but I really think we might be getting close now. Cross your fingers and maybe I will be able to unpack and start blogging again by March :)

Blake Thomas Puppet Idea

I am in the process of making a Blake Thomas puppet with the idea that I could make a music video for one of Blake's song once it is finished.

The video quality is not very good here, but this is a live performance of the song I want thinking about using. I am open to suggestion though, if any Blake Thomas fans would like to see a different song used. Just leave me a comment about it.



Watch this. He just needs a to be a puppet, right?



So this is my initial concept drawing.


I think it is all in the eyes. Sad eyes and red hair.




The Jim Henson company made a few muppets for a preformance of The Country Trio. Each puppet looked like it's puppeteer: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Jerry Nelson. I would like to go for a similar style with this puppet. I posted one of their performances below.

Holiday Game House Animation

I created a holiday animation for Real Arcade's Game House website. It was a super tight schedule and most of it was finished in my spare time over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Considering the frenzy I was in (30 sec. of animation in less than 2 weeks), I did not post anything about it at the time. But here is the finished piece. Enjoy!