Indie film, ‘The Ventriloquist,’ produced by “House of Cards” EP, Dana Brunetti,  follows a taciturn ventriloquist who tries to outwit his gregarious dummy produced and starring Kevin Spacey .

I was introduced to the team by puppet FX master, Alan Semok:

“I recommended Michael  for the job of providing manipulation for “Mr. Higgins” in that scene where Kevin Spacey was not operating him. Michael did a fantastic job…his puppetry was very precise and nuanced.  In my opinion, that short scene demonstrates just about the most perfect manipulation of one of my vent figures that I’ve ever seen.”  – Alan Semok

Originally coaching Kevin on technique,  evolved to also consulting the production on shooting puppets, and set design to execute  puppet  effects.

It was brilliant watching one of the finest actors experience something new.

Unlike most ventriloquists simply playing the straight man and feeding set ups, Kevin had the rare undertaking to be responsible for enveloping himself into his character while simultaneously manipulating the inanimate object.

For many actors, this would pull them out of their personal moment in the scene. So I  tried to show him how to best support his acting choices for the puppet as well as himself.

Only having access to the puppet a few days prior to shooting, Kevin handled it beautifully and got a real kick out of it. If he was able recall a quarter of the coaching while producing and starring in the three short films, he’d be great.

I also manipulated the dummy for certain scenes when technically required. The puppet wasn’t built for this kind of manipulation so although it wasn’t “clean” by my standards (tough pivot, sticking mouth, etc.), the limitations worked for the genre of the film.