1) What have you been up to since we last spoke in July of last year?

Not too much. I got real lucky in the festival circuit with Squirrel and it played in many random places all over the world, so I used that as an excuse to travel a bunch -- which was great for the soul but not for the wallet/career. Other than that, I've been working on some feature scripts, pitching some TV shows. If you just imagine whatever the most cliche version of a filmmaker trying to get his career going in Hollywood looks like, it's probably what I've been doing. Everything takes very long and goes very slow and then I realized that the year and decade was quickly coming to an end so I decided to slip one more completed thing out there to feel like I was actually being productive. I'm so used to making shorts and webseries really fast that it's really hard for me to re-adjust my brain into feeling like I'm actually doing anything if I'm taking a long time to write. Like today, after I type out this interview, I'll probably go sit in a coffee shop for the rest of the day and write four or five pages that I might have to throw away next week and it's a constant battle to remember that this IS the process and it IS something. Whereas, you make a little Christmas short with your friends and it can exist and you can look at it and email to your parents and you definitely created something.

2) What’s the backstory here - what was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?

I went to the mall (the Glendale Galleria) to get a jacket or something that I needed and it was late November so there was absolutely no line to take a picture with the mall Santa and I got so excited because I wanted to get one of me and Santa shaking hands and I really felt like that would be a strong addition to my Instagram feed. But, unfortunately for my Instagram followers, I soon learned that the cheapest option for me to even get near that Santa was forty-five dollars. And I actually got really mad. Not at the staff there, just that we all live under this oppressive boot of capitalism and, the moment you let your guard down slowly, here's yet another thing costs money. I've done a lot of blended narrative with "man on street" type stuff so I thought having a free Santa available was a very nice prank to do. And then I bumbled around with some ideas around that scene and I called my friend Ryan, who plays Ted in this, and said some of those half-ideas to him and he chuckled a few times, so I thought that was good enough to make it.

3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And generally what part of the creative process do you enjoy the most, and the least?

I don't think there were many big challenges, other than the time crunch. I wrote it to be real easy to shoot so we could edit and put it out on Christmas Day. And as far as what I enjoy most/least of the creative process, I have two cop-out answers. Cop-out answer number one: what I enjoy most is screening something that is done and what I enjoy least my least is producing or dealing with any of the logistics. But if you're thinking neither of those count as part of the creative process, fine, here's cop-out answer number two: writing is both my favorite and least favorite part of the creative process. The early parts are so great, every idea is so exciting, but then sometimes it becomes such a drag, you fall into such a hole, and, worst of all, it's generally a very isolating process. For this particular thing, the writing process fortunately wasn't a bummer. I tend to categorize what I'm working on as either "maybe has a reason to exist" and "definitely does not have a reason to exist". Gilbert definitely falls in the second camp and those are always fun and quick to write. There's something very creatively freeing about knowing no one needs this made, no one needs to watch this, no one should be putting any effort into this idea. It makes the concept of its existence fun and that's always a good spot to be in when writing. My actual favorite part of the creative process is when Jason emails me the score for whatever and the editor just drags and drops it anywhere in the timeline and suddenly the terrible rough cut is watchable.

4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?

I saw Magical Girl recently and I really loved how simple it was. I watched it while I was in a middle of a particularly overly complicated draft of something and it was like, goddamn it, this is a much better way to tell a story. Guy has a terminally ill daughter and he wants to make her happy and buy her some super expensive anime collector's something and he gets the money by blackmailing someone else and so on and so forth. Other than that, 2019 seemed like an exceptionally good year for movies so that got my creative urges going so hopefully I'll find the discipline to do something with that.

5) What’s next for you?

I'm back in my writing hole. Back to TV pitching. Playing more tennis recently. Volunteering for Bernie, who looks like he's winning. The All Winners Survivor season just started. Got a lot of high hopes for this year/decade. We shall see.

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