Christmas Gaeity

So yet another holiday part comes to a close...It was quite a success with a great mix of people. At the risk of sounding mushy, no present could match having such a great circle of friends. I'll have the pics from the party up later this week...However, what I do have is something I've mentioned over the past couple of weeks. This year's holiday party marked the premiere of "The Ted, Larry, and Mandel Holiday Special." As some of you know in the past, our holiday parties have involved some presentation. Two years ago, it was a live variety show featuring performances by friends capped off with an original song called "The World is a Big Place (So Stop Hitting Each Other) by Ted, Larry, and me. Last year, Ted and I put together a live Christmas-Disco Medley featuring Miss Piggy.

This year, we decided to go with a pre-recorded piece...This special was put together over the past month. We tried to get as many of our friends involved with this project and in addition to turning out really well, it was a BLAST to put together. This is one of the proudest things I've been involved with. Because of the length of the show, I've split it into two parts.

First, is "Animagic," a two-minute stop-animation piece showing what happens when some elves get a little bit unruly in Santa's Toy Shop. This piece was primarily the result of Ted and our friend John's hard work. They painstakingly snapped pics frame by frame on a digital camera and with some computer magic...voila! Out comes an homage to Rankin and Bass.

Second, is "Keep Christmas Gay and Bright." Something Ted, Larry, and I have always wanted to do as part of our holiday parties was a music video. Ted wrote the lyrics to this first, and I wrote the music to put together with the lyrics. We then rustled up a few of our friends to lay down the vocal tracks over the instrumental parts I recorded on Garageband. And throughout the past few weeks, we've taped the visuals to go with it all. Throw in a couple weeks' worth editing on Final Cut Express and prestochango...it's a music video!

Here are the links to the videos (Quicktime required) and MP3s:


ANIMAGIC!
Directed by Ted Biaselli and John Ender
Voiced by Ted Biaselli, Mandel Ilagan, Larry Lawrence, Davy Reddish, and Tim Sheridan
Edited by Ted Biaselli and Mandel Ilagan
Musical score by Mandel Ilagan
Low res (2.0M) / Medium res (5.5M) / High res (13.6M)


KEEP CHRISTMAS GAY AND BRIGHT
Directed by Ted Biaselli, Mandel Ilagan, and Tim Sheridan
Music by Mandel Ilagan
Lyrics by Ted Biaselli
Choreography by Larry Lawrence
Edited by Mandel Ilagan
Low res (4.3M) / Medium res (11.9M) / High res (29.8M) /
MP3 Audio of the Song (5.7 M)