Christmas Stuffing - Dark Comedy/Fantasy Short Film

Santa stuffs the stockings with care... Unbeknownst to Santa, a young Teddy Bear spies from out of Santa's sack. What the bear - Mr. Gregory - witnesses brings up questions of who this little girl might be, and what impact she will have on Gregory's life and destiny.

Prequel to the twisted dark comedy short film affectionately titled "Grow the Fuck Up!"

Learn more about "Christmas Stuffing" at https://angrybearfilms.com/christmas-stuffing/

Learn more about "Grow the Fuck Up!" at https://angrybearfilms.com/grow-the-fuck-up/

The Film:

The script for "Christmas Stuffing" was originally written to be performed at a weekly cold reading event in Vancouver, BC called "The Actor's Drop-in". At the drop-in, actors would perform scenes, off the page, without rehearsals. Often, the actors would be reading the scripts fresh, without having ever read/seen the scene. Back when I attended the drop-in, I was already a seasoned improv comedian, so it was just another fun event where I could make friends. I wrote a lot of sketch comedy, so I had scenes ready to be read by actors. The screenplay for "Christmas Stuffing" was one of many. Each time it was performed at the drop-in, it generated belly laughs in my audience, so I decided to shoot the damn thing as a short film.

As mentioned above, "Christmas Stuffing" is a prequel to the short film "Grow the Fuck Up!". It was meant to show how it all started. An origin story for the teddy bear, Mr. Gregory. How and why Santa Claus delivered the teddy to a troubled little girl. It's a story about love, but also a story about haunted old immortal desperate to redeem himself of a bloody past. Santa's story is a dark story indeed. I modelled my Santa Claus after Vlad the Impaler. He was a tyrannical war lord, cursed for an eternity for his sins against humanity. A curse that would have consumed him, until he found the Lord and the warm embrace of Christianity. That could have been the end of his story, but alas, Santa eventually grew tired of religion's hypocrisies. He eventually found solace in a world he found he could deeply relate to, consumerism. He became a giver; preferable to him then being a taker or a preacher.

The short film is pretty light-hearted, for the most part, but the darker themes do leak through. My favourite line of Santa's is "People think Santa dreams of sugar plums, but in reality, he dreams of scorpions and rusty nails." and "Bringing joy to children is the only thing that keeps Santa from going insane."

These Mr. Gregory the teddy bear short films gave me a chance to play in the genre of fantasy, but also keep my production budget low. Fantasy stories can get expensive. Special effects, makeup, and elaborate props and sets. I love the genre, but it doesn't come easy. A teddy bear puppet and a disgruntled old "elf" make for easier fare. The puppet alleviated the need for CGI, and was fun to interact with. For Santa, a couple of lighting tricks and one vfx shot of him vanishing, and all was good. Editing tricks came in handy with the puppet as well. Hiding the puppeteer under Santa's sack proved useful as well, as gross as that sounds spoken aloud.

"I was built for one purpose and one purpose alone, to love", it's heartwarming.