True Blood behind the scenes : Puppetry from MastersFX

Thanks so much to MastersFX for sharing all their magic - check out their website for their work on other shows and movies. http://mastersfx.com/

A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object — a puppet— in real time to create the illusion of life. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or her own hands placed inside the puppet or holding it externally. Some puppet styles require puppeteers to work together as a team to create a single puppet character.
There are a wide range of styles of puppetry but whatever the style, the puppeteer's role is to manipulate the physical object in such a manner that the audience believes the object is imbued with life. In some instances the persona of the puppeteer is also an important feature.
"Puppetry is a highly effective and dynamically creative means of exploring the richness of interpersonal communication. By its very nature, puppetry concentrates on the puppet rather than the puppeteer. This provides a safety zone for the puppeteer and allows for exploration of unlimited themes through a safe and non-threatening environment for communication."
Puppetry is a live medium and this distinguishes it from animation in which animators make a puppet appear to move by using a stop motion film technique in which the puppet is moved tiny fractions between each frame.

Puppets listed in various True Blood episodes include: Daniel Q. Rebert (Puppeteer), Bernard Eichholz (Puppeteer), Billy Bryan (Puppeteer)

Ep2 One puppeteer (Sookie is beaten)
Ep7 Two puppeteers (Lettie May exorcism w/possum)
Ep12 Three puppeteers (Sookie and "Dean the Dog" beaten)