A Jailbreaker steals the diamond from a resident on the highest floor of the Chase Hotel. Unbeknownst to the Jailbreaker, highly esteemed Detective Chouteau is waiting right outside. The thief makes it out and both must race to the bottom of the complex before the other one gets there first. Spoiler: neither gets what they were expecting.
The Inspiration
The first step was going back home to St. Louis, and taking as much photo and video reference as I could. This included visiting the real Chase hotel and documenting the area.
Even the wrestling segment of the short was based on a real program, which was filmed at the real Chase!
Every detail, from the intricate gaslights to the Art Deco mail letter shoots, all found their way into the final short film!
Equally as important was researching the history of The Chase hotel, which lead to even more inspiration
A Chase Hotel menu from 1960s
Art Style
Eventually, the art style took most of its inspiration from old children's books and especially those that used the 3-color printing process. But to reach the final design style took a lot of trial and error, as seen in these early drawings:
Final Design:
The final look also involved tinkering with the compositing, in particular blurring the edges and distorting the image to make it look like the short was shot on a Cinemascope anamorphic lens.