FM 89.7

Hear The Music !

The 2008 Singing Reindeer Project
Revised in 2009

In 2008, we're adding a very special element to the Belardo Lights display. Brandon and I were inspired by a couple of songs that feature a singing soloist and some harmony in the background. We don't want to give away the songs just yet, but we were envisioning a fun way to feature this music in the display with some singing Reindeer!! So we decided to build a soloist reindeer, along with 4 part harmony reindeer...Five total reindeer, all singing along with the music. Wow, what a project! Two of the harmony reindeer will be on each side of the display and the soloist will be in the center. So with that as an idea to move forward, we started looking around for some reindeer images that we could use to model our very own Singing Reindeer after...

After some searching, we found an appropriate soloist Reindeer piece of clip art online. Using a laptop computer and a digital projector, we first projected the image on the wall onto a large piece of butcher paper for tracing. Using the projector and the controls, we projected the image at just the right size for the finished product and proceeded to trace it out. The trick to success with these figures is only to reproduce the "Highlights" of the features. Too much detail outlined with lights gets lost in the figure and makes it hard to interpret.

After tracing the pattern, the next step is to mark punch marks every 3/4" and proceed to punch the holes where the lights will ultimately be mounted. In this photo, you'll notice that there are two overlapping sets of ears. Our plan is to animate or "Wiggle" these ears at an appropriate moment in the music. It should be fun and exciting!

Here is the finished Soloist Reindeer, outlined in Target Gold Lights. Notice that he also has two lower lips for his singing. He's a cutie, and will hopefully captivate all of our guests at Belardo Lights this year!

And here is a picture of what the Harmony Reindeer will look like. There are two green reindeer with green outlines and red eyes and two more with red outlines and green eyes. They also have the animated ears and lots of flexibility with their mouths to reach those high notes!! It took many weekends to build the Soloist Reindeer and the four Harmony Reindeer...All the long hours building was worth it in the end. Wait until you hear them sing!

And, of course, the back of the Reindeer is alive with the sound of music (well, at least alive with lots of wires!). There are separate lights for the various face/mouth parts that have to light to simulate the singing. It look complex, but it's more time-consuming than difficult. The lumps of leftover lights on the back are lights that are leftover from the various strings that are taped off so they can't be seen from the front. Light strings can't be shortened or made smaller than 50 lamps (in this case). So the balance of the lights unused in a string are taped off and stored.

These Reindeer are constructed with Target-brand red and green lights purchased in the after-Christmas sales in 2007. Please pay us a visit this year and check out the fantastic Singing Reindeer!!!