There was one moment where the cigarette in a character’s mouth jumped out of place – perhaps a dropped frame or a forgotten step in the animation sequence? The one part that must have been the most difficult was a scene that included an explosion, which looked to have been done in real time – either on set and with the claymation characters, or off set and spliced into the image. As one might expect, the combination of animation and real-action looks a little odd. Most of what I know about the stop-motion was learned listening to director commentaries from The Nightmare Before Christmas and Chicken Run, so I don’t know how best to put together stop-motion and something filmed “live” like an explosion. But as odd as the juxtaposition looked, I wondered if it might not have been easier to do the explosion in clay instead.
The use of the “Nutcracker Suite” as a score was a very good choice – not only is it in the public domain, but it’s very recognizable as Christmas music. The film’s dialogue was easy to understand, with TV notable Dick Van Patten doing an excellent job as the narrator– he had the perfect sort of Grandfatherly voice that befits a storyteller. Additionally, Ms. Clary got Christian Kane (Just Married, Leverage, WB's "Angel") to voice the character of Doug Davidson.
Understandably, the largest part ($250) of this film’s $500 budget was spent on art supplies (I’d love to work on a film where that category was the biggest purchase!), sound recording cost only $100, and the other $150 was spent on a hard drive. Using “Starry, Starry Night” as a backdrop and “The Nutcracker Suite” as a soundtrack was a clever choice, as both works are public domain, so the cost of making a backdrop and paying for a composer and/or music rights could be avoided (so long as you get it performed by an orchestra that will let you use their performance for your film at no charge to you).
Though claymation is very time-intensive, at least its production cost is sometimes lower than many feature films as it does avoid some of their bigger-ticket items. Though in my opinion, The Christmas Conspiracy should have had a bit more character development and fleshing-out of plot, which is an important part of pre-production.
This is the sort of short film that would definitely appeal to children; the simple theme, amusing characters, and colorful imagery are more appealing to a younger demographic. Adults with young children might be entertained as well, though those without might not be so easily attracted to the story. If an older crowd is the target audience, the film could use some better character development and a more extensive storyline. But if children are the intended audience, The Christmas Conspiracy has certainly met that goal.
The Christmas Conspiracy is a fun and creative short film. It’d be a definite hit with children, and even adults might find themselves smiling at this simple story about faith and the magic of Christmas.
