An Experimental Puppet Show Teaches the Key to Communication [Premiere]

July 11, 2016, 9:15am

Plenty of talk gets flung around the world of The Creatures of Yes, but is anyone really listening? In the premiere of the newest episode of Jacob Graham’s experimental, retro-inspired puppet show, premiering today on The Creators Project, the Creatures have all sorts of conversations with one another. “The idea behind the video,” says Graham, “is about people who are talking to one another but not really communicating. One person says something and then the other person says ‘Oh, that’s nice,’ and then says something completely different.”

The show retains its characteristic vintage feel (Jacob and Caleb Graham film the series with cathode ray tube cameras from the 1970s), but the new video is the most ambitious piece the Creatures crew has made so far. “We were trying to be fairly conscious of camera angles,” says Graham. “And changing the angle as much as possible. And really trying to take the cinematography aspect of the video out of the realm of public access, and a little bit more cinematic. We definitely come from a starting place of that sort of public access, educational show style. And we don’t want to be totally tied down to that, because we don’t really consider the show this rehash or homage. We want it to be its own thing and evolve however it does. And I’ve recently been reading a lot of cinematography books from the ‘60s, so we’re focusing on the experimental aspects of the show, and we’re going to keep experimenting with the form.” Check out the newest Creatures of Yes below: