The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.
But the second-best way to spread Christmas cheer is to really go to town on the decorations.
“It had to be he would use everything that was in the store.”
Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf in ‘Elf’.Everett Collection
But the sequence in the department store had to feel different.
“It had to feel handmade.
It had to feel like Buddy actually did it,” Smith says.
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“We were all spitballing,” he recalls.
“Jon came up with the Lite-Brite thing.
It was nostalgic toys and stuff like that.”
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(Hint: An affinity for elf culture is a good start.)
Smith says the cotton batting they used was one of the easiest pieces to source.
“He goes through and he decimates the department store,” Smith says.
Everett Collection
“The thing we wanted with that was to double-check we saw him being meticulous.
It couldn’t just be a staple gun; it had to be a hammer and nails.
It had to be very particular because Buddy would be a perfectionist.”
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It took weeks and weeks for that alone."
“The mantra was that it had to be ludicrous,” Smith says.
to make it make it that fantastical, it took a lot of hands."
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Eschewing CGI was part of the aesthetic.
The idea for that particular set piece came quite late in the process.
I was like ‘Yes!
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The Lego skyline required five sculptors to build the structures over the course of two weeks.
“It was very mathematical.
I didn’t fully appreciate the complexity of it at the time.
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Using the illuminated pegs, Buddy spells out a snow-covered welcome sign in huge blue and red letters.
This design presented a similar challenge as the Legos.
“A Lite-Brite comes with a certain number of colors.
Alan Markfield/New Line Prods./Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
We needed extra parts for that as well,” Smith says.
“Each one takes a person.
Somebody’s got to be on Lite-Brite assignment.
It was another case of a very short turnaround.
“We only had a very limited amount of time to shoot it,” he recalls.
“That was on the side street of the Empire State Building.
I love that moment.”
“He had a vision very clearly of a holiday classic.
It had to be grounded in heartfelt honesty, but still in a weird, fantastical situation.
He was very good at guiding this film down that path and crafting that.
