ReelHeART: Chris… U There..?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: I am!
ReelHeART: Helloooo Christopher Hansen. It’s Shannonn Kelly, the Director of the ReelHeART International Film Festival. Ben and Cassandra are off today. Would it be okay if we chatted…?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: I’d love to.
ReelHeART: Great! let’s get started. How did you find out about ReelHeART?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: I believe I saw your postings on the Withoutabox forums and investigated from there. I liked the fact that you guys really support and encourage true indie film, and that you didn’t have a genre focus – just good movies.
ReelHeART: We like that about ourselves too… J
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Ha!
ReelHeART: I think I actually came across your 1st documentary here while researching online. The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah. Please tell us first a little bit about that doc
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Well, that one is a mock doc about a man who thinks he is a local, regional messiah for his own hometown. Now that you say it, I recall you emailing me and requesting to take a look at it! I had forgotten about that. It screened at about 20 different fests and won several awards.
ReelHeART: How did you come up with the premise for that film…?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: A friend had created the idea of this character who is a religious figure with no followers. I fell in love with this character and asked him if we could develop it together for a feature mock documentary. So we wrote it together.
ReelHeART: And then a couple years later you turned the camera actually on yourself in “Clean Freak”. Was that difficult for you. Was it autobiographical or were just a convenient prop..?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: It was legitimately autobiographical. I have an issue with having things neat and tidy at home. It’s not a germ issue – I just like “order.” After having watched a few personal docs, I thought it might make for a good take on my next film. I wanted to explore these issues, but I also wanted to explore how the doc format was changing. So it’s part legit doc, part mock doc.
ReelHeART: I just realized my rudeness. I didn’t ask you how you are today? So, how are you? I understand we’re chatting while you’re on set. Correct..?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: I am very well, thanks! Actually, I finally have a day off from shooting. I’m in the midst of production on my new film, tentatively titled “An Affair.” How are you? I’m sure “busy” will be your answer as you are starting the fest!
ReelHeART: My feet are up. I’m soaking in the tub. not a care in the world. Ok. I’m lying… Now, The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah and Clean Freak, and the film you have at ReelHeART 2011. I count 3 films now, in various genres. How many films have you made in total (minus the current one)
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: I made a film in film school (I won’t tell you the title so no one can look it up online), and after that I made another short adapted from a feature script of mine. Then I made Messiah, Clean Freak, and Endings. So five in total, but my output has been fairly more consistent the past few years!
ReelHeART: So, please give the title of your current film, the genre and when it premieres at ReelHeART 2011
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Endings is a drama, and it screens June 25th at ReelHeART!
ReelHeART: I’ve got the link right here http://reelheart.org/saturday/saturday-main-program-b/ The story is a little darker than your previous 2 films that screened here. Why..?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Yes, it’s a drama about three people who are all facing their impending deaths for one reason or another, and it deals with how their loves are impacted when they meet. I actually had always been interested in serious dramatic filmmaking before I made American Messiah. After that and Clean Freak, both of which were well received, I felt that I wanted to make something that had some emotional resonance. I wanted to make something that might make people cry. I also wanted to push my own creative muscles a bit.
ReelHeART: And you cast your own daughter in the role of the ailing little girl. Why?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: When I made Messiah, I was away from my family for weeks (actually, they were away from me while I stayed home alone). I’m a family oriented person (my wife and I have four kids), and it’s hard to disconnect from family for so long and then reconnect. So I decided to write my family into the next film as a result. The other kids were all too little, but Emma, my oldest, was at an age where I thought she could handle the part.
ReelHeART: Was this Emma’s first time acting …?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Yes, it was.
ReelHeART: I got a little James McAvoy vibe from your male lead. http://www.jamesmcavoy.com/ Where did you find him? Is he from Texas…?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Matthew Brumlow and I actually went to college together. He’s a Georgia boy who now does theater in Chicago, where he’s been for the past 13 years or so. When I was a senior working on a directing project in a senior theater class, Matt was a freshman actor with loads of talent. So we got to know each other, I cast him in that, and we ended up being good friends. Then when I was working on Endings, a mutual friend reminded me of Matt, and I thought he’d be perfect for it. It was so terrific to reconnect with him while making art together. And in fact he is starring in my current film as well.
ReelHeART: Speaking of school. You work at Baylor University in Texas in the Communications Department right?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Yes, I’m the Director of the Film & Digital Media program in the Communication Studies dept. I’ve been here for seven years now, and have made all my recent films in that capacity.
ReelHeART: So there is a film component to their curriculum. Was it always as such…?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Yes, there is a Film major. It’s been called different things over the years – RTF, Telecommunication, and now Film & Digital Media. The program has been around for probably around 30 years. Students at Baylor who major in film learn basic production skills, film history, media and society, and then they can advance to other advanced courses like screenwriting, directing, HD studio production, etc.
ReelHeART: What happens when you come across a brilliant film student. Do you keep it quiet and put them on one of your projects. Or do you get goosebumps knowing you’re looking at the next great Texas filmmaker since Houton’s Richard Linklater…?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Ha – I get excited when I see a student with a ton of potential. Good example: Taylor Rudd was first AC on Endings. He was already a sharp photographer and knew a ton about cameras on his own. When we shot the film, we knew we needed him because of his talent, and our DP on the film, John Franklin, told me after half the shoot that he would hire Taylor professionally right then – the guy just knew his stuff. So after Taylor graduated, he went off and started doing professional work. When I started prepping my new film, I emailed him and asked him to be the DP. And he’s doing terrific work. So stuff like that excites me.
ReelHeART: Chris, What or Whom inspired you to get into filmmaking?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: I was an English major in college – always wanted to be a writer. Studied all the great literature, and I was sort of planning to either go to grad school for that or perhaps go into publishing when I graduated. Then I started ‘discovering’ the European auteurs of the 60s – Fellini, Bergman, etc., and I just fell in love with film as an art form. I had always loved movies and made movies with my brother when I was a kid. So it was sort of a re-discovery of that love, and the realization that this was the kind of writer I was best suited to be.
ReelHeART: What do you hate most about being a filmmaker ..?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Logistics – I hate trying to pull it all together. And marketing. I’m not terribly good at it, but for indie filmmakers, it has become a necessary skill!
ReelHeART: The business of filmmaking may be more important than the film at times. The marketing of a film (or lack of it) makes or breaks it at film festivals and at the box office alike…
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Indeed – I can’t deny the truth of that! And it’s frustrating to me, because it’s not the part I’m best at!
ReelHeART: Okay, so What do you love most about being a filmmaker..?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: What do I love most? I’d say those moments when you’re creating a scene with the actors, and they’re full engaged in the process with you, where you’re even arguing about things, because it means everyone is so passionate and engaged. I love those moments, because I’m doing what I love, doing it with people who love to do it as well, all of us giving our all to create something worthwhile. It’s exhilarating!
ReelHeART: Back to your film, since writing is a major part of your creativity when it comes to film, did you also write the screenplay for Endings?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Yes, I did. I would never say never with regard to directing someone else’s work. But I feel more comfortable directing stuff I’ve written because I feel I know it inside and out. When I talk with the actors about their dialogue or what’s going on in a scene, I feel like I know it better than anyone else because I wrote it.
ReelHeART: Where did you shoot Endings? And… How long did it take from pre-production to post production?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: We shot Endings where I work – in Waco, TX and in neighboring Bellmead, TX. It was a three year process from script to screen. Post was a lot longer than I anticipated it being. Whereas post on American Messiah had been a little less than a year, Endings took two years in post, mostly because the sound work took a lot longer than I imagined it would (no slam on my sound designer – just that I couldn’t afford to pay him to work on it nonstop!)
ReelHeART: Is this a Canadian premiere for Endings?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: It is indeed! An international premiere as well!
ReelHeART: Wow! Thank You! Chris, Do you have distribution for this film yet?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: I’m working on a couple of things right now – nothing signed and sealed yet, so I’m still considering offers!
ReelHeART: Besides sound Where there any other pitfalls?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: How about pratfalls? During production (though off set), I fell and broke my left arm, and it was bad enough that I had to have surgery to insert a metal plate – and it had to happen during production. So I took two days off for surgery and recovery then got back to business. But to keep swelling down on my wrist, I had to wear a brace that had cold water circulating through it via an electric-powered cooler to which I was tethered. It made the second half of production really challenging.
ReelHeART: Sounds like you were making the Bionic Man.
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: LOL – yes, I’m the bionic filmmaker.
ReelHeART: Were there any happy surprises?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: I think the happiest surprise was that Emma, my daughter, could really act. I had worked with her and thought she’d do well, but I had my concerns. And then when we started shooting, she turned in a great performance. The other happy surprise was when the person planning to do the animation dropped out at the last minute. I ended up finding someone with more professional experience and it didn’t cost near what I thought it would.
ReelHeART: What displeases you most about your film?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Ugh – well, like many filmmakers, there are things you cringe when you look at them. I think the thing that bugs me the most is that the convenience store we used for the robbery scene just didn’t look like it was open and operating. It was a closed store that we got permission to use, but it was completely empty, and our budget just didn’t allow us to buy all the products we needed to put in there to make it look full.
ReelHeART: I’m going to go a little James Lipton on you know Chris. Okay…?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: LOL, okay.
ReelHeART: What sound or noise do you hate?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Oh – a few things. When my kids cry in pain Birds outside when I’m trying to sleep. And trains – when I’m shooting a scene and all of a sudden a train horn blares!
ReelHeART: What are you seeing on your desk right now while we’re chatting? Give me a list…
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: I’m actually sitting on the couch with the computer in my lap. I see – an issue of Creative Screenwriting, the TV (showing the College World Series – Florida vs Texas), several Netflix envelopes, a camera, my wife and a stack of books waiting for me to get a break and read them!
ReelHeART: Hello wife of Christopher…
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Sherry says hello!
ReelHeART: What sound or noise do you love?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: My little one Ava giggling, and when good actors are saying dialogue I wrote. Also, good music.
ReelHeART: What’s your favorite curse word?
And…Is there an awesome Texan cuss word…?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: We keep it pretty clean here in the southwest. Gosh dang it!
ReelHeART: Gosh dang it Y’all…
ReelHeART: Finally, Christopher, Is there anything you’d like to mention in this chat, knowing that it’s published on the Internet and will live on forever…?
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Ha – I’m just honored to be a part of another ReelHeART. I’m really honored when any festival wants to show my work – it means someone watched it and thought it was good enough for people to see, and that’s the whole point.
ReelHeART: I just want to remind our visitors, I’ve been in chat with “Endings”
Director Chris Hansen from the great state of Texas. His feature film has it’s ‘World Premiere’ at ReelHeART 4:15 PM – SATURDAY June 25
Theater 222, Innis College
2 Sussex Street, Toronto
Tickets are only $10 and here’s the link for more info. http://reelheart.org/saturday/saturday-main-program-b/
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: Thanks for having me!
ReelHeART: Chris, sir, it’s been fun chatting with you. Enjoy your evening. Maybe you and Sherry can catch one of those NetFliks -)
Chris Hansen, Director, “Endings”: LOL, thanks!