Meet Park Slope's Zack Buchman & His Magnificent Puppets!

I love puppets. Every summer my friend Ursula hosts a “Let's-Drink-and-Make-Sock-Puppets” party. Last year I made a sock puppet of my dad as a high school gym teacher (the placement of pipe cleaner chest hair was very accurate). You know what else is fun to do at a party littered with PBR and googly eyes? Try replacing the word “sock puppet” for a noun in any movie title. For example, “How to Train Your Sock Puppet,” “Good Will Sock Puppet,” and perhaps my favorite, “Y Tú Sock Puppet, Tambien” (for a full list of sock puppet movie titles look HERE). OK, moving on.

Nestled deep in the heart of Park Slope inside a cookie cutter brownstone is the birthplace of some amazing puppets that aren't of the tube sock kind. These are puppets more akin to the Mahnahmahnah kind: Yep, I'm talking 'bout Muppets.  Furry Puppet Studio, operated by its Founder and Creative Director, Zack Buchman, is a secret to most Park Slope residents. Unlike 6^th Ave's Puppetworks, Nicolas Coppola’s non-profit company known for its marionette puppet performances, FPS’s creations are mainly used for film, television and commercials. Therefore they remain hidden from the public until appearing on your Tivo between episodes of Breaking Bad. 

I first learned of Zack when Erica forwarded an email from him in which he shared a Funny or Die Exclusive music video for folk rock band Herman Düne. The video’s two main stars are a small blue yeti created by FPS and none other than Sterling Cooper's own Jon “Crotch Bulge” Hamm (these two are thirty seconds away from clutching hands and having a Thelma and Louise moment, no?). 

 

I checked out the studio’s website and learned more about these furry creations, which begin in the studio as design sketches. Their skeletons are carved from foam rubber and covered with sleek materials made for even the most tricked-out HD camera. Many are built with mechanisms that allow the puppets a wide range of movement and expression. Pretty impressive for an operation that takes place within the walls of a Park Slope brownstone. 

If you’d like, venture with me into the painting on Mr. Roger’s wall and check out a pretty cool "making-of" video that takes you through the production of three puppets that were created for a Philadelphia energy company. The final commercial is also included in the video.

After perusing the site I became excited at the idea of seeing one of these puppets in person and channeled cheese-loving, Slanket-wearing Liz Lemon: I WANT TO GO TO THERE.

So I did, but not before gleefully dragging along FIPS photographer and overall super talented guy, Spencer Ritenour. If at all possible I wanted a photo of me getting lost in a sea of puppts, a la that one scene in ET. On a muggy morning not too long ago, we infiltrated the hidden puppet studio. Spencer snapped away (although we couldn’t photograph most of the puppets/concept sketches, since the agreements between Zack and the client state that they remain top secret while still in production), and I asked Zack a bajillion questions. He was nice enough to answer all of them.

FIPS: As Creative Director, what is your role in the process of design through final delivery of a puppet?

ZB: When I started I was building puppets. But over time I expanded my area of influence to design, management and creative direction. So right now I not only design most of the characters, but I also manage their creation. I’m not a puppeteer though.  It’s really a team effort (Zack lists illustrators, designers, builders and puppeteers among the seven or so team members). I don’t like to take too much credit for myself. I think the key is to have loads of artists working together, and when you have an ego there, it’s just getting in the way. I manage the project, and I see myself more as a visionary. 

 Zack Buchman (Photo via Park Slope Lens)

FIPS: Your background is in animation, correct? 

ZB: I started in classic animation, just frame by frame.  But I’m a very impatient person and it’s time consuming. You just want the character to move from point A to point B, but you have to work so hard to do that. It just takes so long. So I felt like with puppets we basically design the essence of the character. You don’t really have to move it, it just moves.  You can interact with it. You just design the character and then it has a life of its own. So that’s why I kind of moved to puppetry. I love classic animation a lot though. 

FIPS: Who or what would you say are your biggest influences?

ZB: I think that all of us were inspired by the muppets. Denying that is like denying that Mickey Mouse and Disney were a huge part of animation. We were all exposed to that as children. I actually used to be scared of the muppets. Until very recently I still had nightmares of some of the episodes. Also Pink Floyd, specifically The Wall. I found the art very extreme. Very wild. You can never go that far. As much as you try. That’s always a very strong reference point for me.

FIPS: What’s been the strangest request for a puppet? Like, has a guy ever called you and said, “Hey, my wife’s gonna’ be out of town for a while and I’d love to have a puppet version of her to, uh, you know…”

ZB: We had a big network client that just casually, after we started working on the puppets, sent us an email that said, “We just want to make sure the puppets come with penises, alright?” Just casually, you know.

FIPS: Were they clothed puppets?

ZB: Yes. That’s a weird request, right?

FIPS: That is a very strange request.

ZB: OK great, just confirming.

FIPS: So let’s talk about the Herman Düne video (Side note: Zack himself was not at the shoot, so I couldn’t ask about the famous Hamm bulge).

ZB:  [Director] Toben [Seymour] and I started to talk about that a year ago. He wanted to experiment with puppetry.  He’s a true visionary. He really works with his heart. I think it came out very well.  He basically got John Hamm to do this. He’s just getting stuff done. He’s going to get very far. We’re working on a concept for a short movie and he’s trying to find the right people to produce or fund it. It’s a short movie based on a family of yetis who live in the woods. I’m assuming it will involve Herman Düne as well.

FIPS: I feel like I have to ask this. When, if ever, have you been fucked in Park Slope?

ZB:  Well, I have to say that overall, I’m pretty at peace with the Slope. I think the worst Slope encounter may have been being stuck in mounds of snow during the blizzard this past winter for about 5 days. But even then, we were able to get vegetarian Chinese delivery to our door, so I can’t complain too much!

FIPS: What’s up next for Furry Puppet Studio? 

ZB: In addition to constantly improving our design techniques, we’re also in the process of developing a concept and characters for a pretty unique project that will be debuting soon. So stay tuned.

And there you have it. Just another cool cat that we Park Slopers can claim as our own. Maybe next year at Ursula's party I'll down a couple PBR's and make my own Zack Buchman sock puppet. Then he and my gym teacher dad can battle in a sea of sparkles and googly eyes while my friends and I try and come up with the most clever title for a Sock Puppet television show (Sanford and Sock Puppet, Who's The Sock Puppet?)

You can check out the entire mega gallery of puppets on the Furry Puppet website, but if you're too lazy or whatever to click on over here are a few more! 

Photo via Park Slope Lens

Photo via Kfir Ziv