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Making the Puppets Dance Far From their Stomping Ground

By Warren Strugatch

NY Times, Sunday March 28^th, 2004

  Before terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, Mitchell Kriegman lived the life of a Greenwich Village Geppetto, updated to the age of MTV.

  From his workshop in the West Village came a stream of characters, topics and treatments that broke new ground in broadcast programming for children, pulling in big audiences, selling videos and winning three Emmy awards. There was "Bear in the Big Blue House," which mixed puppets, actors and computer animation with topics like potty training, and "Clarissa Explains It All," starring a savvy, confident girl and drawing audiences of both sexes. Mr. Kriegman founded his own studio, Shadow Projects, patented his own animation technique, got his calls returned by the industry's big shots and managed to fill his calendar doing the kind of programming that directors with lesser Rolodexes yearn to do, but cannot.  His programming style characteristically addressed children in a manner more Bugs Bunny than Romper Room. "He's like Mr. Rogers on speed." said Henry Schtieff, chairman and chief executive of Court TV, who, when be was running the Viacom Entertainment and Broadcasting Groups between 1967 and 1992, worked with Mr. Kriegman on "Twisted Puppet Theater."

  His lifestyle was also a Geppetto update. Mr. Kriegman lived with his wife and three children in a converted workman's cottage in the West Village. The puppets had the first floor. The family lived above. "My kids went downstairs and played with the puppets and hung out with the puppeteers," their father recalled fondly. "They also gave me ideas, lots of them. They still do."

  Today, the Kriegman's are gone from the West Village. The couple divorced two years ago, but both have relocated within several miles of each other, he in Water Mill and she in Wainscott, sharing custody of their children, ages 6, 9 and 12. (Mr. Kriegman did not allow his children to be interviewed, and asked that his former wife not be named, saying he wanted to protect her privacy.)

Mr. Kriegman said that he was seeking financing to lease and renovate LTV Studios, and that production could begin there as early as this year on one or more of the children's television series currently in development stage. One is called "It's a Big, Big World," aimed at preschoolers. Another is a yet‑unnamed series for Viacom's Noggin network. A third is a Muppet movie-named, but still under wraps ‑ for the Jim Henson Company. Mr. Kriegman said he was also planning to write and film at least eight additional Bear movies for the home video preschool market.

"I spend my time writing, getting a financing deal for the studio, and getting the series launched," Mr. Kriegman said.

Another idea in development is a treatment of the life of Dr. Heinrich Hoffman, who more than a century ago wrote a children's book called "Struwwelpter" (roughly, translated: Pigpen Pete.) It's a dark tale, taking place in the morgue of a children's hospital, written by an author who worked in an insane asylum.

Josh Gladstone, the artistic director of Guild Hall in East Hampton, said he met recently with Mr. Kriegman to discuss the possibility of staging the story, with actors in puppet costumes, in a workshop format next year. Mr. Gladstone called Mr. Kriegman a "brilliant performance artist, a creative spirit and a national caliber talent."

But to continue his career, Mr. Kriegman needs to establish Shadow Projects 100 miles from the lattice of studios and office buildings, nightclubs and lofts that nurture television and film programming in New York. Television production is a collaborative business, and Mr. Kriegman needs to convince others ‑ puppeteers and prop people, camera operators and actors ‑ to follow in his footsteps and relocate far from Manhattan's employment Mecca. To produce a series for network television, a production studio needs to hire between 80 and 100 people for a period lasting front several months to a year or more.

    While the East End has famously become a summer home for many actors, writers, film directors and other creative lights, few of them work here with any regularity, commuting back to Manhattan or the West coast to work. East Hampton Studio, a production studio and sound stage next to LTV Studios that was built in anticipation that TV and film production work would follow the big names. It has found itself with bills to pay and not enough business knocking on its doors. And because there's no production operation, Mr. Kriegman has no local labor pool of technical staffers, like camera operators, production assistants, and studio electricians. He said that they would mostly need to be recruited. But Mr. Kriegman said he was not worried about being able to staff up. "I have come up with a game plan that has a transitional step involving bringing core people out here and training them," he said. In this industry, "a lot of people travel anyway to do what they do. People work in Toronto, North Carolina, and Los Angeles, and live in New Jersey. Traveling for work is nothing new." Additionally. he said, technologies developed in recent years. like broadband cable transmission, minimize the importance that geographical distance traditionally played in production. ''You can pretty much do this anywhere," he said.

Currently, his staff consists of a development director in Brooklyn and an executive assistant who commutes by Hampton Jitney from Manhattan.

''It's a long ride and I wouldn't drive it.'' said Kelly McHugh, the assistant. "But coming out on the jitney is O.K. I can read, work, do what I like."

Geraldine Laybourne of the Oxygen Network and founder of Nickelodeon, worked with Mr. Kriegman on the Emmy‑winning "Clarissa" a series that helped establish the fledgling network. Ms. Laybourne, who calls Mr. Kriegman "one of the most brilliant, creative people" she has ever worked with, said that because his reputation preceded him he would draw top talent even if people had to pick up and move out east to work with him.

''People would be foolish not to want to work with Mitchell," she said

Mr. Kriegman clearly hopes she is right. In any case, he said, he is not second guessing his decision to leave Manhattan.

"New York was very good for a long time," he said, "Until it wasn't anymore."

PUPPET PROJECTS ON EAST END WITH NO STRINGS

Producer sets up shop in new digs

By Aimee Fitzpatrick Martin

   Southampton Press August 26, 2004 Move over Clifford, Blue and Limo, and make room for Snook, an energetic and lovable sloth whose mission is to help preschoolers and their parents develop a sense of safety, understanding and tolerance in today's changing and unsettling world.

   Snook, the star a new PBS television series entitled "It's a Big Big World," is the brainchild of Mitchell Kriegman, an award winning writer, producer and director.  The show is scheduled to air the fall of 2005.

   Mr. Kriegman, founder of Shadow Projects, has made a name for himself in the entertainment industry as the creator of such hit shows as "Clarissa Explains It All" for Nickelodeon, and "Bear in the Big Blue House" and "The Book of Pooh" for the Disney Channel, He also served as executive head writer and developer of numerous other signature television series, including "Rugrats,' "Ren and Stimpy," and "Doug in Grouchland."

  With credentials like those, one might expect Mr. Kriegman to produce "It's a Big Big World" in a big city like New York, Los Angeles or Toronto. Instead, the show will make its home right in our neck of the woods at LTV Studios in Wainscott. (Hey, it is a small world after all.)

  PBS has already committed to airing 40 episodes and National Geographic has signed on as a partner for the show, which teaches young kids about geography and geoscience.

  With production slated to begin as early as January, Mr. Kriegman, a 30 year Manhattan resident who moved to Water Mill last June, is now in the throes of transforming 10,000 of LTV's 14,000 ft. of studio space into a full-fledged animation, puppetry, commercial and feature film facility. When completed the studio will house two-possibly-three stages, state‑of‑the‑art blue and green screens, audio recording and video editing capabilities, and office space for writers, production personnel and support staff.

  "This has been a two-year planned effort. I've gone to great lengths to stay low-key about it because I wanted to have a really clean and positive start in the community," Mr. Kriegman explained last Friday during a tour of the expansive space. "I looked at buying a studio in New York City, but the cost there is huge and I could never have grown my business or be as profitable as expected to be out here."

  Mr. Kriegman said one of the problems with building a new studio is that "they typically don't work unless there's an anchor tenant, like 'Sesame Street' has been at Kaufman Astoria Studios. The great thing about this is that I'm coming to my own 'facility with my own anchor tenant-Shadow Projects and 'It's a Big Big World."     Anticipating that it will take several years to complete all 40 episodes for PBS-and with countless other creative irons in the fire- Mr. Kriegman plans to be on the East End for the long haul. And since he can't do all the work by himself, he wants to hire 75 to 100 writers, producers, production assistants, accountants and support staff. "I'm targeting people who live in Suffolk County for the jobs. This won't be a location shoot where people come and go," he said. A native of Virginia, Mr. Kriegman who is 52, started his career as a short story writer and performance/ video artist in New York City in the early 1970s.

  "I studied writing at Bennington College and had many famous writers for teachers. They all told me I had no talent. So when I had my first short story published in The New Yorker, I didn't have a lot of people to credit but I had a lot of people to blame," with a broad smile. His humorous stories were also published in Harpaar's Bazaar, Glamour and the National Lampoon.

  During his early days in New York, Mr. Kriegman traveled in an avant‑garde circle of artist friends that included Julian Schnabel. As a performance artist, his goal was to perform in front of people without them seeing him.

  "I did a show called 'An Evening of Stories and Tricks You Won' t See Anywhere' where I performed totally in the dark," he laughed, adding, "Now you know why I'm not performing anymore." That "out there" kind of humor got him hired as a writer, performer and filmmaker for "Saturday Night Live" in the early 1980s.

  "It was during the show's darkest days when Lorne Michaels wasn't there. The reviews said I was a scholar among morons, which basically meant that everyone on the show wanted to kill me," he laughed.

Successful stints at Comedy Central and Nickelodeon followed. For Nickelodeon, he was the story and character development person for 65 episodes of "Rugrats," 26 episodes of "Doug," and six episodes of the very surreal "Ren and Stimpy Show."

"Then I created a sitcom 'Clarissa Explains It All,' which starred Melissa Joan Hart and was a huge groundbreaker for me," he said of the show that aired on Nickelodeon from 1991 to 1994, earned him three Parents Choice Awards, and is still in syndication.

Mr. Kriegman said he's also proud of "Bear in the Big Blue House," a Disney Channel show that he created in association with the Jim Henson Company and which garnered two Emmys for Best Direction (in 2000 and 2002) and the prestigious Directors Guild Award (in 1998 and 2000). The series is currently shown in 60 countries.

"I loved that show because Disney and Henson let me do what I wanted creatively, and it's such a karmicly positive show, without being mushy or saccharine," said Mr. Kriegman, who is the single dad of Mac, 12, Jake, 10, and Tess,7.

 It was for another Disney show, "The Book of Pooh," that Mr. Kriegman introduced Shadowmation"- his patented animation technique that integrates animatronic puppetry with computer generated animation (CGI) and real-time virtual sets. The end result has a vibrant 3D "ViewMaster" visual quality.

Story characters are created at Shadow Projects subsidiary that is considered one of the foremost character design and animatronic puppetry shops in the country. The creature-creating design shop uses a strategy that combines animatronic special effects with the artistry of Bun Raku, a 300-year old form of puppetry.

"It's a marriage between the most contemporary technology and the most ancient technology," Mr. Kriegman noted.

With the "Shadowmation" process, a team of puppeteers-covered head to toe in either blue or green so they are invisible against the blue or green background screen manipulate the characters like a live-action cartoon. The virtual sets, special effects and other computer-generated animation are added later.

"Unlike Elmo, which one person operates, our characters rely on a team of puppeteers who have to breathe, work and improvise together. One person is in the puppet's head, another person is holding it's hands, and another is operating its feet. And all the animatronics in its head make for a more expressive, warm character, " he said.            

Throughout the filming, Mr.Kriegman's camera is attached to a one-of-a-kind Zero Gravity Crane, which he likens to "the expensive equivalent of a joystick in a videogame." The cranes virtual capabilities have drawn the attention of a number of well-known people in the industry, including Francis Ford Coppola. 

What sets Shadowmation apart from the technology used in feature films like "Toy Story" or  "Finding Nemo" is that those movies are 100 percent computer generated.  

"There's no performance, no real time actor element. It's like building a character out of a grain of sand on the computer. It's a very laborious process that can take up to seven hours to produce a single frame.  A film like that typically takes four years to create and the cost is huge," he said noting that his technique can produce an animated feature film for a third of the cost in a third of the time.

Along with, "It's a Big Big World", which will use the Shadowmation technique, Mr. Kriegman is developing two feature films using "Shadowmation." The first feature, "Sizzling Kung Fu Mice," is about three young mice learning to make their way in the world with the help of a cat who teaches them how to do kung-fu with chopsticks, toothpicks, and after-dinner mints. The second feature, "Whatnot!?," is set in a magical world of puppets, toys, and knickknacks and tells the story of how all the traditions of Christmas came together from the toy point of view.

A hybrid version of "Shadowmation" is also being used for a pilot of "Baby Town,"a show for moms and babies that Mr. Kriegman is developing for Oprah Winfrey's Oxygen network.

With projects like these on the horizon, and many more fermenting in his fertile mind, it's no wonder that Mr. Kriegman sees a big, big world ahead of him.