An elf recently spread holiday cheer throughout downtown Naperville and a pair of videographers captured his spirit for the Naperville North Holiday Assembly.
Naperville North staff members Scott Potter and Tobey Stanford were asked to produce a series of videos for the Assembly. They interviewed students performing in the Assembly, in an American Idol style format, to produce one minute videos that introduced students before they were to perform.
“While we were interviewing the kids, we asked many of them to talk about their favorite holiday movie. Almost all of them talked about Elf (starring Will Ferrell). Then one girl, Emma Wichhart, started talking about how her dad had dressed up like Buddy for Halloween and that she had been trying to convince him to dress up and go to downtown Naperville during Christmas time, but couldn’t convince him. Tobey and I emailed her dad, Tony Wichhart, and he immediately agreed to be filmed as a surprise for his daughter,” explained Scott Potter.
The video, posted on YouTube, made its world debut at the Assembly and has gone viral in Naperville. Student reactions suggest this will bring holiday memories for a lifetime.
“It was a total blast shooting with Tony. He was enthusiastic and never turned down any of our ideas,” Potter said. “I stopped everyone as we walked by the shop window to direct that scene on the fly; he made it turn out to be one of the best ones. We edited it all together the same night and it was played at the assembly two days later. Emma was totally surprised and her reaction and thanks made the extra effort completely worth it.”
