Phantom Harbor's "Hurry Home for Christmas"

I have to share my favorite Christmas video, created by friend of FLIP Shannon Shea.  I have known Shannon since our days at CalArts thirty years ago, when he was a frustrated student in the Film Graphics Department. He has had a long career as a frustrated make-up effects artist, with a resume as long as Santa's gift list.  He's worked on films such as Predator, Terminator 2, Dances with Wolves, and my favorite Drag Me to Hell, just to name a few.

PHANTOM HARBOR: Merry Christmas 2011 from Shannon Shea on Vimeo.

Shannon created the website Phantom Harbor as a labor of love.  It is produced from his home garage with the help of his wife, Tracy.  As Captain McAlistair, he tells horror stories from the hull of his shipwrecked vessel, the Sofia Maria.  His site is a modern throwback to the Saturday afternoon horror shows we watched on UHF as kids in the '70's.   Sure it's been done before, but what makes Phantom Harbor stand out from other modern incarnations is that Shannon plays it straight.  As Captain McAlistair, he never mugs at the material.  This, to me, is what makes it hilarious.  

Which brings me to Hurry Home for Christmas, Phantom Harbor's Christmas video from 2011.  Shannon, as Capt. McAlistair lip sync's Robert Goulet's holiday classic.  He walks that fine line of genuine, maudlin earnestness without being snarky. The art direction does the same, capturing that 1970's Merv Griffin Show cheesiness.  I get a simmering joy watching it, and hope you do too.

-Steve

Read more about Phantom Harbor  from this FLIP article.