Zack Buchman Interview: Part One
I recently had a chat with Zack Buchman, the creative force behind Furry Puppet Studio, and asked him some questions about his company and his puppet design process. I really respect his work and his devotion to his art. He’s also a fellow judge on this year’s Puppet Contest by Project Puppet. Here is part one of the interview:
PH: First of all, tell me a bit about yourself and your team. How did you get involved in puppetry and where did you learn to build puppets?
ZB: My story is somewhat unique. I started in the field of animation, which I really enjoyed for a few years, but slowly grew tired of it. The animation work took over my life. I spent all of my time doing technical stuff, drawing frame after frame, after frame. I knew I couldn’t do it for much longer.
Puppet making was an obvious transition for me. Just think about it–to make a puppet move you don’t have to draw thousands of frames, you just have to physically move it. In other words, with puppet design you only create what’s really important, the essence of the character. From an animator’s point of view, seeing your character moving in real time, touching it, interacting with it; it’s truly exhilarating.
My studio partner, Maria Gurevich, really deserves the credit for getting me into this world. she was my first teacher; she taught me how to sculpt, to understand the materials. It’s sort of unbelievable that today we are partners. I owe her a lot.
PH: Tell me a bit about Furry Puppet. How did it get started, and how did you come up with the name?
ZB: The studio started in a very natural way. I came to NY and wanted to make puppets. I designed our first website from inside the Starbucks at Times Square. Somehow our company stood out from the others; even back then we were successful. That initial success opened a lot of doors for us.
Regarding the name, Furry Puppet, I really don’t have a great answer. Maybe it was the fact that I constantly drew little furry characters, on the subway, in the park–maybe it was my primitive English when I first started here! I guess the bottom line is it worked.
PH: Who is your biggest inspiration artistically and why?
ZB: Like almost any puppet builder you’d ask, my biggest inspiration is Jim Henson’s Muppets. Those guys established many standards and rules for puppet building that constitute the basis for this genre. Any new puppet character you come up with is automatically compared to one of Henson’s characters–and I’m OK with that.
Besides that, I take inspiration from the wonderful mix of characters walking the streets of New York. This city is so full of amazing characters: so many different colors, shapes, and sizes. In one subway ride, I can find enough material to fill an entire sketchbook (though I get a lot of dirty looks!)
Other artists I take inspiration from are those that were responsible for the golden age of computer adventure games during the early 90’s. Pierre Gilhodes and Steve Purcell are two big ones for me. There is something enchanting aobut their pixellated, 2-D work.
