How do you make a 12-part video series about information security entertaining? Why just ask Penny and Liam to help out. ACD Jarrett Hothan offers a deep dive into an educational series production that featured human and non-human talent, unique internal collaborations and one fun week on set.
Who doesn't love puppets?
Well, maybe those where were scared of 1982's The Dark Crystal growing up. I was in the same boat, believe me. We can get through this!
Puppets are both endearing and enduring. In fact, puppetry is one of the oldest performance art forms—dating back over 4,000 years! Kermit wasn't even a tadpole yet. Puppetry has been used to communicate ideas, tell stories, satirize the ruling class, spread laughter and educate audiences.
You could imagine our team's excitement when we received a unique request from our friends at Rippling, an HR and IT Software company. The needed educational video content about information security, but in the form of "SNL-funny" sketches. From there, a memorable puppet-powered production was born. Here's a background on how everything was stitched together—literally—and some of the learnings and laughs we had along the way.
The Persuasive Power of Puppets
Following the client's initial ask, we brainstormed all the different ways that we could approach a humorous educational series aimed at employees of all types. Full transparency—I think everyone blurted out "puppets" in unison during our brainstorm session. Sure, we're always game for a puppet show—but were they right for this project? And how would they be used? After some discussion, we recognized that puppets truly created a unique entry point for sharing this specific subject matter.
When it comes to learning about IT security and digital threats in the workplace, different demographics have different knowledge levels and technology literacy. And there are some sensitivities too. It's a bad stand-up routine at this point. Millennials overshare online! Baby Boomers can't open PDFs. We've all heard these jokes ad nauseam. Having human characters depicted as the root of cybersecurity mistakes or misconceptions might reinforce stale stereotypes, hurt feelings and cause viewers to tune out.
But what about non-human characters? Why not have a puppet serve as the "problem child" instead? They could act as a content catalyst for silly or serious questions, that then avoids putting a person as the butt of the joke. This line of thinking led us to the winning idea, "SOC Puppets." Let's have a subject matter expert teach a workplace staff about data privacy matters, including two charming (but disruptive) puppets as employees.
But as popular puppets have proved—personality is key. Who are they? And how should they act?
Meet Penny and Liam
"We knew we wanted two puppet characters so that they could play off one another, but we didn't immediately know how many co-stars they would have," said Colin Hogan, Managing Director. "We decided to use the classic four Commedia dell'arte character types for our main cast, which you see used already in contemporary pop culture staples like Seinfeld and Atlanta. With the number of core characters decided, things moved pretty quickly once we started attaching personalities to this fun foursome."
Let’s think through the lens of making something from “the show about nothing.” Cue that bass line. Our first puppet Liam is the George Costanza archetype, fretful and anxious—a perfect proxy for the fears we have about cybersecurity issues. Our second puppet Penny is the Cosmo Kramer of the bunch, whose eccentricities can often lead to problems or solutions. Penny and Liam then play off our two human characters—the assertive but charming co-worker Pilar (Elaine Benes) and the upbeat, slightly-neurotic session leader Ernie (Jerry Seinfeld).
By defining their character types, we were able to think more about how they would both look and sound. And that meant custom puppets brimming with both personality and production durability. Enter Chicago-based puppetry polymath Andrew Marchetti. Andrew is a performer and puppeteer heavily involved in the local theater community, who also designs and fabricates puppets. He was suggested by Cody Benefiel, the producer for the series and aficionado of all things funny. Cody frequents local shows featuring Andrew and his creative collaborators, and immediately had him top-of-mind to connect with. We provided Andrew with a creative brief featuring design references, script samples, notes about their personalities and more. That was all he needed to bring Penny and Liam to life.
“Andrew was really experienced with the mechanics and materials needed for this custom ask,” said Marissa Davis, Producer. "He was able to read through the initial script and call out moments where certain mechanics would be needed, like fingers that could open and close, eyes that show expressiveness. This really took it to the next level and gave them an interactive, human-like quality that we needed.”
With just a couple of tweaks, we landed on the final designs. Penny, who was a blue felt human-like character, had a fun bouncy bob hairdo that worked well with her high energy personality. For Liam we leaned into his anxiety-driven and chaotic vibe, and gave him an orange and shaggy look to go with a reserved but professional wardrobe.
From there, we started thinking about casting as well. Chicago’s scene of comedy performers was certainly rich for us to help with casting the human characters. But of course, we needed puppeteers who could not only perform the characters but also provide the unique physical performances needed to really make the project sing. Andrew shared his reads for Liam and totally nailed it, and immediately brought the character to life. Man, what can’t this guy do! We found our Penny with Liz Jarmer, a comedic performer with puppet chops who had her own breezy spin on the character.
The Writers' Room
It’s one thing to have the voices of the puppets. But what are they going to say? We needed to thread a few needles with the scripts. They needed to be educational and properly cover the comprehensive subject matter—but also be entertaining, with a little overarching narrative sprinkled in too. If you are required to watch a 12-video training module, we wanted to develop characters that you want to spend time with, and see grow and progress through the series. This is an important Demo Duck ethos for educational productions or video series. We tend to think of those like a TV series—giving them storytelling legs for a long run and maybe even syndication.
During a typical explainer video production, we often work in smaller teams where one of us leads the scriptwriting while others then provide edits and additions. However, since we were pretty much creating a mini TV comedy series, we decided to do a “Writers' Room” type setup, where we would have multiple writers on the project—including our versatile producers Cody and Bailey Williams writing scripts too. After dividing up the scripts, we’d then bring them to a table read where everyone could provide punch-up jokes or feedback in the moment. This also helped us make the different scripts feel cohesive, and help us forecast where some recurring themes or character dynamics would go next.
“It was a fun puzzle we all played a part in putting together,” said Chris Reynolds, ACD/Writer. "We all started with the same rules, but came back with a huge variety of ideas. Seeing what everyone was bringing lit a creative fire, and it wasn’t just jokes too. We all came up with interesting ways to frame the educational content that others might not have thought about initially. Defining the personalities of the characters early in the process really helped the jokes and humor come naturally.”
SOC Class Is Now in Session
We found the perfect location, a hip and well-lit office downtown Chicago. Also, our central room was also key as it needed to be spacious enough to accommodate our actors but also our seated puppeteers in a manner that wouldn’t look awkwardly spaced. To help capture the fun lived-in feel of The Office and Parks and Recreation—which thrive off the thrill of the reaction shot—we settled on a two camera set up. After a pre-light day where we were able to work out staging, set design and more, we were ready to get to it.
During the shoot, we had multiple monitoring systems where our Directors Colin and Bailey were able to track two cameras to make sure of the human and puppet performances. Also, puppeteering has its own performance challenges, besides holding your arm up for hours. You need to make sure your puppets are in frame—not your head or arm—and that their sight lines are keyed into conversations with other characters. We had additional monitors available for Liz and Andrew under their desk so that they were able to keep track of Penny and Liam’s performances “above ground.” Similar to the approach for a TV series, Colin and Bailey both directed a few episodes in the series—adding a fresh energy to each section of our shoot.
“The puppets were so fun to work with because they have a completely unique performance language compared to what human actors,” said Bailey. “For example, their mouths can only open and close rather than smile or frown. If we needed a certain reaction from a puppet, like disbelief or wonder, I’d work with the puppeteer to figure out an expression that would read on camera. I felt being in the writers room brought more depth, vibrancy and variety to my directing style, as I felt very close to the characters and their larger perspectives and motivations.”
Our Rippling clients also flew in for the shoot. Having them on set was a blast, and their presence also helped with keeping our information requirements intact while still fostering comedic improvisation. All of our actors—human and puppet—were talented in riffing or trying alternative lines, which ultimately led to some winning takes. The clients helped us make sure those on-the-fly moments were still tracking with the content, and even propose their own creative or production solves.
Stitching It All Together
Two cameras, 12 videos—that’s a lot of footage. We weren’t just looking for takes that delivered the correct information and script lines, but we needed to arrange them in a way that made our jokes land too. The reactions, the extras adding atmosphere, the prop reveals, the crash zooms—all were an important part of capturing the energy in the training session and helping the humor land as well. Similar to our writing session, we had multiple Ducks helping with the edit including Editor Nick Roth, Colin and Bailey. Colin created the initial edit of the first video, which then the team used as a “source of truth” when structuring the rest of the series.
“Timing is everything with comedy, so we needed to make sure our editing matched the humor of each scene,” said Nick. “Letting a moment breathe, pushing in slowly when a zany line is delivered. Also keeping the actors' energy consistent from video to video. Sometimes, an actor would try something unique, but it didn’t match the tone of everyone else, so we’d find another take. Luckily we filmed lots of them, so there was a lot to choose from.”
No Strings Attached
Phew! If my fingers are tired from typing this, imagine how Andrew and Liz's arms felt after the shoot.
What a memorable project. Not only did we get to bring Penny and Liam to life, but we all got to take on different roles and responsibilities and really get hands-on. I even helped Liz puppeteer Penny’s hands in a few moments. In the weeks following the shoot, it was hard to go about my day-to-day at work without hearing a question and thinking how Penny and Liam might respond with a quippy zinger.
Let this be yet another reminder that puppets are awesome, and that educational materials don’t have to be a boring slog for audiences. Humor helps make information memorable, characters can bring to life interesting use cases, and an entertaining series has on-demand replay value that people will want to revisit to learn and laugh. Our team at Demo Duck can certainly help you with any needs on that front…and if you want to dream up some new puppet pals, just say the word.