SANTA CLAUS Vs. MEGASHARKOSAURUS

Happy Holidays... (take that, religious right!)

Here is possibly the most ambitious... and yet, somehow... shittiest fx-wise installment of LTP. Watch it to enhance your depressing X-Mas season... because if greened screened santa claus and bad shark puppets can't get you in the mood for Egg Nog abuse... then, I don't know what can.


So here it is... the ridiculous...

SANTA CLAUS Vs. MEGASHARKOSAURUS



INFLUENCES
I think my influences are obvious... at least I hope they are. Everyone loves a good "mockbuster"... and this is my goofy wink to some of the over-the-type dreck that SyFy has been rocking lately... with a dash of "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" thrown in for good measure! A killer Santa would have been too easy for the December LTP... so, here we have him as a good guy... and kicking some giant monster ass!

BEHIND THE SCENES
I wanted a Santa suit. Why? Because I'm weirdo... so I bought one... hellbent on coming up w/ a faux trailer idea. Then, we used it to dress me up as Santa for a Mondo Balitmore screening. I still might wear it for my niece and nephew... maybe not... it reeks of Natty Boh.

So, we got the costume. Ryan Thomas demanded to play Santa. I had to oblige him. Somehow, Ryan always ends up in the best costumes in my flicks. We got George Stover to Rod Steiger it up as the army commander. Patrick Storck mixes up Clint Howard and the gay dude from "Airplane" very well.

All of the major sequences were green-screened... to make it look extra-ridiculous. Plus tons of snow/flurries to hide some very sloppy chroma keying on my part.

The worst factor HAS to be the Megasharkosaurus itself. It was supposed to be completely CGI, but my friend who agreed to do it dropped the ball. So at 8pm last night, I drove to Michaels and a dollarstore called DEAL$... and I bought paint, some little dinosaurs, and rubber shark toys. Some dabs of hot glue sealed the deal and the shark shots were composited by midnight.

They're not great... but that's not what this is about... ;p

Also, no scratches/dust on this one. Decided (after some debate) that this is a modern spoof and deserves a different approach.

Two other notable tidbits! 1. When Andrew sent the VO, the final track was a hilarious deadpan deliver from a guy with a very thick foreign accent... Andrew informed me that he bought a car from this guy and the gentleman wanted to do one. It is brilliant/terrifying. 2. Some of the best lines were adlibs by Patrick Storck and Ryan Thomas. Just wanted to give credit where credit is due! "I've got your sack of goodies right here!"


CAST
Santa... Ryan Thomas
Commander... George Stover
Operator... Patrick Stork
Terrorized Citizens... Nikc Miller, Fred Teasley, Daniel Tayag, Kim Hoang, Mike LaMartina

CREW
Written, directed, and Edited by Chris LaMartina
Voice-Over by Andrew Shearer