Ruby's Christmas Movie (Behind the Scenes)

Shooting a Frame

What does life look like in a creative household?

It looks like this...

Ruby decided to make a Christmas movie as her gift to everyone this year. (She learned how to make stop action movies at the Austin Film Festival summer camp.) Our camera was buried under a mound of chargers and USB cables in the back of a cabinet. We hadn't used it in a couple of years. (With cameras in cell phones now, we'd even forgotten we had one.) I tested it to see if it worked. I had to erase over a hundred out-of-focus pictures she'd snapped of her grandparents' French Bulldog a couple of winters back (when she wanted to be a photographer), before turning it over to the budding young filmmaker. She borrowed a tripod from my parents. She designed the cast of characters and molded them from clay. She wrote the script and built an awesome movie set. She sent me to the store to fetch a 100 watt-equivalent bulb to properly illuminate everything before she could start shooting, which put the production a little further behind schedule.

Moving the characters between shots

After all the filming was done, I helped her download the pictures. We used MovieMaker to put it all together.

The film looked good, but it was still missing something... A soundtrack! We fumbled around the app store, trying to figure out what recording app to get. We downloaded something that proved a little clunky, but for the sake of time, we moved forward to our hastily assembled, recording studio. Several takes later, we had a couple of songs in the can.

A micromanaging Executive Producer

Executive Producer, Charlie the Cat, supervised much of the shooting, but slept through the hard work of post production.

After editing, we posted the video to YouTube. I'm happy to report that the entire production came in early and under budget.

I interviewed the Director and Screenwriter, Ruby, opening night, and she had this to say: "It was harder to make than it looks, but it was a lot of fun."

We wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy the movie.

#Christmas #claymation #stopactionanimation #animation #family #fun #SantaClaus #moviemaking #JingleBells #WeWishYouAMerryChristmas