Santa Goes to Hell!

I worked all week on the trailer for my upcoming animated short. I even woke at 1:30 a.m. the night before we left for New Jersey so I could finish it and post it with this blog in time for Christmas. See, as important as artistic quality is, making deadlines and coming in under budget is just as important to many great film-makers: Quentin Tarantino, Roger Corman and his protege's (people like Scorsese, DePalma, Demme)

Even though I'm not a working film-maker yet I admire their respect for the practical, work-ethic side of show business. I did make my self-imposed deadline BUT the trailer is on a flash drive...on my desk...at home. Hooray for moral victories, even when they're in California and you're in Jersey.

The idea for Santa Goes to Hell came when my wife posted Facebook pics of me playing Santa at her elementary school and said that the teachers were already requesting me for next year. I said, "There's no way in hell" and my Uncle Bud posted, "There's your next story: Santa Goes to Hell". I knew right away there was a funny, quirky Something in that idea, a story that I wanted to tell.

"What did Santa do to get sent to hell?" I asked myself. "Oh, that's easy. Same reason some think my handbasket and I are headed there too. He pissed the conservatives off." In my story, Santa gets damned to hell for taking the focus off Jesus and his followers. Shame, shame, shame.

Of course, Jesus is (by definition) the "reason for the season" but does that mean that the religion that takes his name is too? Is Christian merchandise also the reason for the season? How about preaching? Evangelizing Christmas-and-Easter church-goers and the rest of the lost? Hmmm.

Here's an excerpt from my work-in-progress script where I play with some of my questions, the kind that make me occasionally wonder if I'm going to hell.

--

After explaining that there's no such thing as a Naughty List, Santa Claus gives Satan his presents, no strings attached.

Satan: So what do I owe you for the, uh, unconditional love? How much that put you out?

Santa Claus (chuckling): You don't owe me anything.

Satan: Right. Okay. What kind of strings you got attached here?

Santa Claus: No strings, Satan.

Satan: It's cool. I'm cool with it. What do I gotta sit through? Little presentation? Some long-winded speech?

Santa Claus: How about a 'long' friendship?

Satan: Right. 'Friendship'. So, like, I call a certain amount of times a day? Couple texts an hour. Skype on Sundays.

Santa Claus: To be my friend, just 'do as thou wilt'.

Satan: Hm. That's interesting, man. That's...it's...

Satan gets choked up. His lip quivers. A few tears pop out.

--

There you go. Bet you didn't know the secret to friendship lay in the words of Anton Levay: Do as thou wilt.

Happy holidays to you all!

May they be new and old at the same time...

mm

To Come Home

I have been working on an animated short called Little Wing. All animation, however rudimentary, is incredibly time-consuming so it's easy to fall out of love with a cartoon before it's even half finished. Three weeks into this project, though, my passion was renewed when one of my characters burst into song (in my imagination, of course). Little Wing was now a musical. I'd had no idea.

The best thing about me making a musical is that I don't like musicals. Even the few I do enjoy (Nightmare Before Christmas, Moulin Rouge) annoy me at times as the plot keeps getting put on pause for what I feel are too many overlong songs. Little Wing: Episode 1 will have three or four songs, each between thirty seconds and one minute in length. So, even though the songs are extremely important, hopefully they don't overstay their welcome.

Here is the final sequence of Episode 1. It the song 'To Come Home'. This being a work in progress, there are a couple shots (taken from 'The Green Mile') that haven't been drawn yet. I decided to leave them as stills, though, to give you an idea of how I create.

Look for the shooting star at the end and how it works with the tail end of the song.