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How to Make a Moody Christmas Holiday Short Film in One Day
Four cast and crew, three pages, and two locations
Not too long after I got into filmmaking, I became interested in making short films for the holidays. They were never meant to be big productions or what you would consider the typical Christmas movie. When I set out to make one of these shorts, I picture it as a video Christmas card. Story is incidental for me when I make these short films and they are meant to be shared like a Christmas Card. Many of us have complicated feelings around the Holidays and I had an interest in telling holiday themed stories that are off beat.
a holiday gift, the fourth exploration into Holiday themed shorts is about a lost spirit exploring her past and searching for her lost partner.
She receives the gift of remembering that she is a ghost and finding the spirit of her husband.
This two minute short was filmed in under five hours. In December 2022, we filmed in Downtown Chicago and captured some footage in Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza. We had a brief company move to the south side at a location in Bridgeport Chicago.
We had a cast of two — Pamela Strateman and Gary DeVar as the lost ghosts and two crew. I directed, filmed, and used two lav mics to capture sound. One of my…
