the year without a santa claus

i am a big fan of the rankin/bass Christmas movies. it must take a great deal of time to accomplish the stop motion animation they use. i will write about The Year Without A Santa Claus this morning. it has a good amount of comedy in it as well. i like the heat miser/snow miser sequences. it is certainly the right time of year to bust out the classics.

when shooting it, do the just set up a camera really close to these miniatures? in some sort of diorama type setting? how do they do lighting on such a small scale? tiny lights? these are all questions i think of each year when watching the various rankin/bass productions (rudolph, santa claus is coming to town). it is impressive that the movies are as effective as they are.