Tinsel & Treachery

History

Ho-Ho-Hollywood Freelancers’ Guild (H3, The Guild) was born from the ashes of independent filmmakers crushed under the boot of mega-corporations like NorthStar Media. During the late 1990s, a group of rogue directors, actors, and screenwriters formed the Guild as a desperate countermeasure to preserve creative integrity in holiday filmmaking. These idealists were fueled by a passion for unfiltered artistic expression and a deep resentment toward the corporate behemoths that homogenized Christmas media.

At first, H3 operated in relative obscurity, crafting heartfelt, low-budget holiday movies. However, as corporate Christmas blockbusters pushed them further to the margins, their tactics grew more extreme. By the mid-2000s, Ho-Ho-Hollywood had transformed into a guerrilla filmmaking syndicate, waging war against the studios that controlled the holiday narrative. They began using black-market resources to fund their productions and staged impromptu public screenings in defiance of corporate censorship.

Today, the Guild straddles the line between rebels and criminals. While their works are celebrated by underground audiences, their methods are far from noble. Armed with cameras, scripts, and explosives, they are as much saboteurs as they are storytellers, willing to destroy the Christmas machine to keep their vision alive.

Structure

Ho-Ho-Hollywood is decentralized, operating more like a loose collective than a unified organization. Each “cell” within the Guild is led by a director or producer with their own style and goals. Though they share resources and coordinate for larger operations, internal rivalries often lead to chaos.

1. Directors’ Circle: The informal leadership of the Guild, made up of the most influential rogue filmmakers. They provide strategic direction, but every cell has autonomy.
2. Production Cells: Small teams of filmmakers, technicians, and mercenaries who carry out guerrilla productions and sabotage missions.
3. The Talent Pool: Disenfranchised actors, writers, and crew members who provide support, often moonlighting in Guild productions to escape corporate contracts.

Tactics

The Guild specializes in guerrilla filmmaking and disruption. Their tactics blur the line between art and warfare:

1. Guerrilla Productions: Filming on location without permits, often in hostile corporate-controlled zones.
2. Media Bombing: Releasing viral content that mocks or undermines rival factions’ propaganda.
3. Sabotage Operations: Disabling corporate equipment, vandalizing sets, or disrupting filming schedules to bleed rival studios dry.

Operatives

• Washed-Up Directors: Veterans of the industry who’ve been blacklisted by corporate studios, now leveraging their experience in the Guild’s operations.
• Rogue Producers: Financial masterminds who secure illicit funding and manage the logistics of underground productions.
• Pyrotechnic Artists: Explosive experts who double as special effects coordinators, bringing chaos to both the screen and the battlefield.
• Guerilla Film Crews: Skilled cinematographers and technicians who can turn even a warzone into a movie set.

Current Agendas

• Expose Corporate Exploitation: The Guild seeks to reveal the corruption and soulless practices of factions like NorthStar Media.
• Take Back Christmas Media: By producing authentic holiday films, they aim to re-center holiday content around art and creativity rather than profit.
• Destabilize Rival Studios: Their sabotage operations directly target the infrastructure and public relations of corporate-controlled Christmas media.

• Screening: “Mall Santa”
  The Guild infiltrates a corporate-controlled shopping mall during the holiday season, covertly broadcasting one of their banned films on every screen. A skirmish breaks out as corporate enforcers arrive to shut them down, turning the food court into a battleground of popcorn bombs and guerrilla tactics.
• Production: “Final Cut”
  A rival studio’s Christmas blockbuster is set to debut in a heavily secured theater. The Guild stages a daring raid to steal the master copy of the film, hoping to expose its vapid content and humiliate its creators. The mission devolves into a firefight when corporate security corners the operatives mid-extraction.
• Principal VFX: “Shooting Star”
  Under the guise of promoting an indie holiday film festival, the Guild infiltrates a gala sponsored by Yuletide Dynamics. Their true goal: rigging the stage with pyrotechnics to destroy the advanced holiday drones on display, striking a blow against the faction’s growing influence.