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the HERALD- Community Focus School News Community Focus SECTION B Wednesday November 20 ll THE HILLS A Christmas special from Ballinafad By LISA BOONSTOPPELPOT The Herald Soulmates in life St George and husband of Ballinafad have created and produced an animated Christmas Special The Gift of Light which appropriately features two animated heroes known as which will air next Wednesday Nov on at The animated SoulMates are two Valley Kid type aliens on a mission tosave a disenchanted Santa Claus from becoming a homeless bum in the halfhour special In reallife the soulmates are Ms St George and Mr a wife and husband team who collaborated to produce their first- ever animated special Their venture began several years ago when Ms St George a film major at York University received a fellowship jointly funded by CTV and Telefilm Canada creating a position for her as Assistant Story Editor on the CBS police show Night Heat After the weeks of her fellowship Ms St George was of fered a permanent fulltime position as Story Editor on Night Heat along with a contract to write an episode as a freelance writer IP Two years later after having edited over So Night Heat episodes and writing six Night Heat scripts she accepted an offer to be the Story Editor on the live series Diamonds She worked as Story Editor on this show for one season and wrote two Diamond scripts In the interim she married Vetro a Wilfred business major graduate who played professional football for four years with the Montreal Alouettes and Hamilton TigerCats When his football career was cut short by a car accident he used his business degree to begin severaLbusinesses in Toronto and Brampton By 1988 Ms St George wanted a change Being a Story Editor meant gruelling 80hour weeks and with a young son it wasnt the ideal lifestyle While on- Diamonds I was asked to be the story editor for the jour nalism drama and I said them basically you want me topyt my son up for adoption They said yes and I said no recalls Ms St George To find something that would allow her time with her family and incorporate a desire to do something for children she decided to bring some of her own ideas to the screen as an independant producer She created the SoulMates and her husband became the con tractual negotiator financial ad visor and production manager Im a strong believer in positive thinking she says With all the things children have to face today such as war and crime I think kids need all the help they can get with positive thinking Positive thinking is what the SoulMates named Orion and are all about Using special power and insight theyre on a mission to Earth to fight the evil McBragg who uses his wizardly powers to spread negativity and disillusionment around the world By the time the SoulMates reach earth Angris has used a dirty trick to make a seeing eye dog believe he can no longer help his little charge Ella and as the rippling effect of negativity spreads even Santa becomes disillusioned and sets off into the night believing he cant make a difference anymore Just as the prospect of having a joyous Christmas looks its bleakest the SoulMates save the day in a nailbiting adventure youll have to see Wednesday night The production features many bigname Canadian stars including TV Star Al Waxman King of Ken sington as the voice of Mc Bragg movie star Sheila McCarthy Die Hard 2 Stepping Out Paradise as Orillia and Gema Felicity on Road to Avonlea as the little blind girl Ella The show also features a rocking soundtrack developed by Domenic Troiano who worked with the Guess Who and created music scores for Night Heat and the new TV show Counterstrike Now that is set to air Ms St George and Mr Vetro are hoping for high ratings which will springboard the feature as a pilot for a Soulmates television series It was originally made as a Christmas special to play year af ter year said Ms St George But the second part of the project was that the show would serve as a pilot for a Saturday morning car toon series Already has indicated in terest in creating a cartoon series said Ms St George who has already outlined the first episodes If it does work out SoulMates Productions Inc would become a fulltime job for producer Mr Vetro and require consistent creative in put from Ms St George Theyve even discussed opening a SoulMates office in Georgetown to serve as a meeting place for writers and a base for financial operations Besides Ms St George is hoping to open a new door in feature film writing Shes already completed her first feature film script called Heart and Soul which is a romantic comedy about an elderly woman who breaks out of a nursing home meets a bank robber and has an ad venture Shes just completed a second re write on the script for film and TV producer Henry Winkler who wants to produce the movie Glamorous You bet Ms St George just got back from Los Angeles where she met with Mr Winkler to discuss the movie I like the hard work and the glamor she admits also like getting to put my family first and live out in the middle of nowhere The couple has lived at their stately Ballinafad home for two years after residing in for three years Their house is up for sale and theyre considering moving to California but if they dont they plan tostay in Halton Hills Currently all thoughts of the bright lights of Hollywood are being pushed aside as they wait to see how successful their first bigtime project SoulMates will be Mates in animation Husband and wife team Gabrielle St George left and Vetro cozy up at their Ballinafad home to watch a tape of their animation creation The Gift of Light which airs m on CBC Nov Herald Photoby Lisa BoonstoppelPot Santa a bum tn this scene from the animated feature film The Gift of Light a disillusioned Santa Claus becomes a homeless bum and befriends a seeing eye dog Trueman whos been cruelly tricked into believing his sight is failing by a wicked wizard Its a sad scene from the Christmas special created and produced by Gabrielle St George and her husband Dom VeTroxif Ballinafad Photo submitted Happy ending The animated Christmas special created by St George of Balllnafad ends on a happy note as all good Christmas shows do and features Santa Claus Comet Trueman the seeing eye dog and Santas helpers It airs Nov on CBC Photo submitted