Finding Christmas

Finding Christmas is a Christmas black comedy short film directed by Andrew Laspesa (AndrewTheUncommon). The film was created as a final project for Andrew's Media Studies Seminar class. The film centers around a 9 year old boy looking to prove that Santa Claus is real, however things get wacky when it turns out this Santa is not the typical Santa Claus told in the stories. The film premiered on YouTube on December 8th, 2016.
==Plot==
Aaron Marcus (Andrew Laspesa) is a 9 year old boy who carries around a talking plush toy of Jabba the Hutt. He is bullied by his classmates because he still thinks Santa Claus is real. On Christmas Eve night, Aaron devises a plan to prove to the kids at school that Santa is real and waits in the night for him to come. When Santa (Kevin Martinelli) arrives, however, he is revealed to be an an arrogant, flask-carrying alcoholic who prefers vodka to milk and cookies, and claims the Santa shown in the media is an "inaccurate representation" of him. Putting his plan into action, Aaron surprises Santa and knocks him out with a bat, dragging him into his basement where he interrogates him. Learning he is real, he realizes this Santa isn't who he thought he was, and negotiates with Santa to free him if he gets the Millenium Falcon he's wanted for years this Christmas, to which Santa agrees. The next morning, Aaron awakes and comes downstairs to find no presents underneath the Christmas tree, and a lump of coal in his stocking, to which Aaron narrates he probably shouldn't have hit him with a bat as he starts to cry.
==Cast==
*Andrew Laspesa as-Aaron Marcus, Voice of Jabba the Hutt
*Kevin Martinelli as-"Drunk" Santa Claus
==Production==
The film was created as a video project for Andrew's Media Studies class in December 2016. Originally planning to do an improv sketch involving two friends struggling to come up with a screenplay without using an already existing idea, this was scrapped when they felt the video would fall flat, and a similar video ended up being made by a fellow classmate. A Christmas comedy involving a drunken Santa and Andrew playing a 9 year old was conceived instead as a "fun, absurd Christmas video". No formal script was written for the project, instead opting for using bullet points, and improving the majority of the lines in the film, with one section of the interrogation scene being one continous take of just Andrew and Kevin ad-libbing. The goal was to make the video as absurd as possible to the point where it works, and they felt people would either find it funny, or the stupidest thing they've ever seen.The filming process took 1 day, although it was delayed a week due to Andrew suffering from a severe flu/sinus infection for an entire week, while the editing took a total of 6 hours over 3 sessions to complete. As this was the first time Andrew had utilized audio pitching to this extent in a video, he found this to be tedious, yet a fun challenge. When selecting the soundtrack, he aimed for exclusively Christmas music, while trying to find the best fitted songs for each scene, although he intended to include the Trans Siberian Orchestra rendition of "Carol of the Bells" in the film's ending from the get-go.
==Trivia==
*While an outline of the script was made, the majority of the film's dialogue was ad-libbed and improvised by the actors. Two scenes in particular were completely improv'd on the spot (the long take during the interrogation scene, and Santa pouring the vodka into the flask and drinking it (the original planned shot was just for him to bypass the milk and cookies and go straight to the liquor cabinet)). 
*Many Star Wars references are included in the film, most notably Aaron's stuffed Jabba the Hutt and his desire to get a Millenium Falcon toy for Christmas. This was done as a nod to Andrew's documented love for the franchise.
*The film frequently breaks the 4th wall, particularly in scenes where Aaron points out he's "the tallest kid in his class". 
*The original plan was for the Jabba the Hutt plush to talk through the duration of the film as a character only Aaron can hear, though this was changed to just the one line at the end of the film (calling Aaron a "pussy"). 
*Andrew shot the film while just getting over a major illness, so his voice was hoarse during the film. This was one of the reasons his voice was pitched in editing (the other being to add to the illusion that his character is a young boy). 
Category:Movies