Picture from HPANWO Voice
My interest/obsession with the cardboard policemen seen in shops as a shoplifting deterrent (ironically in shops that usually don't have anything worth nicking) has dipped a little bit just lately as it turns out that there aren't as many as I thought there were. I'm always on the lookout but the self-indulgent photo blog will likely gather dust with only the occasional entry.
Recently I have been tossing around ideas for a film using these figures and have finally worked out what I want to do with this. Originally I was going to chop up some of the characters and hinge them so we could have rod operated puppets, who would move in a similar way to King Rollo or Captain Pugwash but I didn't want to make a farcical comedy. Instead I have tidied up the idea and come up with a short film idea in a Hitchcock thriller style, while still staying true to my comedic inclinations. All of this is academic though because I am having far more difficulty than I imagined finding at least ten of these cardboard coppers to use. I don't even need to damage them anymore but they are still proving themselves firmly in the 'rocking horse shit' category.
As an attempt to get my hands on these items I emailed Poundland and Poundworld who informed me that they remain the property of the local police force and are returned after their use, which I don't personally believe as I can't imagine they want them back. A company that manufactures them replied to tell me that they only supply them to order to individual forces all badged up and identifiable. My final resort was to send a message through Facebook to Nottingham Police, who have not replied. Looking on Amazon and Ebay I find that these cardboard policemen are around the £30 mark, and I need at least ten to make my idea work, also they all need to be identical.
Unless I can raise the £300 to buy ten cardboard cops (PayPal button at the top of this page - in return for your generosity the finished film will be made available for free online) then I really need a plan b. The best I could come up with is just to make them myself, it shouldn't be too hard to do. Either that or I waste a good film script idea.
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