What is the film about?

The holiday season is fast approaching, but Santa Claus is overcome by lethargy. It’s up to his anxious helper elf to help kick him into gear before time runs out!
A seasonal tale of the frustrations borne from upper-management not pulling their weight.

Officially selected for over fifty international film and animation festivals including ITFS Stuttgart, Anima Mundi, Monterrey International Film Festival, Cologne Comedy Festival, Shnit International Shortfilmfestival, Corona Cork Film Festival, Euro Shorts, Flip International Animation Festival, Balkanima, Citrus Cel Animation Festival, Dawson City International Short Film Festival, ISFF Detmold, Salento Finibus Terrae and Annecy Plus.

Best Animation – Thermaikos International Film Festival
Commendation – Magma Short Film Festival
Independent Prize – Festival of Fantastic Films

©2010 Ben Mitchell
Produced by Harmful Mind Productions.
Distributed by PhatBoy Media.
Footage from “The Lonely Socks Club” courtesy of Veronika Broscheid, ©2009.

What influenced it?

Bill Plympton, Bob Camp,

A little background information...

This film was a short skit idea that sat in a notebook for six months until a lull in work gave me an opportunity to get started on it. After the bulk of the character animation was finished I was granted completion funds from the Mackay Foundation for Social Arts for cleanup and post-production.

How was the film made?

Combination of hand-drawn animation with Photoshop for colouring/backgrounds, ToonBoom for cleanup and After Effects for compositing