This is a "never say die" story with its roots in 1979. From a vision to reality, along one of the weirdest career paths you could imagine: from sculpting toys, working closely with folks at Sesame Street, Henson and Disney to video games to a PBS TV series with puppets, Pollywog Pond. We’ll talk about the video game development that led to the show, the show’s development process over the years, and many obstacles from learning to building puppets and sewing to 18-months of legal contract negotiations. The process of pitching the show with zero success to the breakthrough moment of getting greenlight for a series that, in its debut, received a number of awards including two Emmy nominations. We’ll share how we built a full broadcast studio on a shoestring budget. We’ll also look at writing with a curriculum and will share some of our solutions to technical issues. Our production relies heavily on chroma key background. We fought the beast, with miserable results, wrestling with cameras, lights and backdrops for over two years before finally conquering it. We’ll simplify the set-up process for you to get clean chroma key video to put your puppet actors anywhere you wish, from a muddy swamp to the moon. We will also cover some of the video post settings to process the videos. Our small team of five is now in full production! Hopefully we can inspire you to go after your dreams and visions.