Director’s Page

Often, “Thank You” is said as an obligation. My thank you is sent with true admiration and respect for all of you who have made my dream come true. This original story was written eight years ago with the hopes of making Once Upon a Christmas Village into a full feature animation film. As Dani Donadi and I worked on the music, it took a different turn, a turn for the better. We decided to go back to our roots of musical comedy animation and develop a short film, then a feature that would tell my story.

Dani and I have always admired the early works of Walt Disney. Walt once said, “The three most important factors to a successful animation production are story, story and story.” That is when Andy van Roon came into the picture. For the feature script, Andy and I sat down and started with a beat sheet. This was our blue print and it allowed us to create a world of imagination and wonders. Andy and I found a way to capture that nostalgic holiday story and make it new in our feature script “Snowyville.”

When I sat down with Paul “Kit” Stolen, Kit brought to life my characters with his inventive and creative art direction. Kit created a whole new look and feel for the short. Kit and I worked for several months refining the style, tone and colors for each character. We are currently working on new and exciting characters for Snowyville. Kit has a wonderful imagination that is highlighted with his amazing artwork.

As the project received the many awards and accolades, Executive producer, John Hadity joined the team to raise the money for our feature film Snowyville. John has an incredible way to recognize a project, analyze its potential than develop a plan for success.

My animation producer, Jeff Scheetz was also one of those magical things that had happened during this project. Jeff had assembled an animation crew that not only got inside my head but, found a way to animate it. His knowledge for animation and movie making was contagious to everyone who has worked with him.

The making of this short film consisted of many great moments. We traveled to London to record Tim Curry, jet set to Hollywood to record Jim Belushi, recorded a live orchestra, combined motion capture CGI with live action backgrounds and worked with several Emmy Award winners.

Not only is my movie making team the real reason for my success but my creative team makes the world know we’re here. Dream Balloon Production’s website and creative collateral design team Yvette Castro and Michael Dumlao from Style & Image Network have been the driving force behind the magic. They handle the much needed media venues that keep our project in the eyes of our future business partners.

A business could not run smoothly if it did not have a business manager and attorney to look after it. Our attorney, Gary Mason has been the work horse and creative person behind our business success. His knowledge and ability to make deals happen instead of breaking them has been a true asset. Our business manager, David Ciambrone has been a true believer of my projects for several years. Although he is new to the entertainment business, that does not stop this incredible businessman who has owned and successfully ran a family business for 25 years. David’s business knowledge and desire to win has been one of the most important factors to our success.

But, One of my biggest thrills in this entire project was seeing my family’s reaction when they first viewed the film. You see, we lost my father a few years back and he was one of my biggest fans. He used to ask me when I was going to finally make that Christmas movie because he loved it. This good news is that we did finish a short and a feature is on its way dad.

In a humble way, I hope you enjoy our short film, Once Upon A Christmas Village and we promise you a wonderful, exciting, fun and imaginative musical animation in SNOWYVILLE.