Interview with Writer-Director Chris Hansen

2006-Apr-25 by Laughcalvin

As readers of HIT know, Chris Hansen is the Co-writer and Director of the very funny "The Proper Care and Feeding of an American Messiah." In addition to teaching at Baylor University, he is a husband and father of three beautiful daughters. Egad! Where does he find time to make feature films? I'll let him tell you. We "spoke" by email recently. A review of the film is below.

1. Thanks for taking some questions about your project "TPCAFOAAM" Could you tell our readers a little about yourself? what drew you to filmmaking, past projects, etc.?

I teach film and screenwriting at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. I always wanted to be a writer, and I majored in English in college. This made me a fairly intelligent and well-read person who otherwise had no employment prospects. So I decided to go to film school. Which didn’t exactly enlarge my employment prospects. But I’ve always been a proponent of “following your bliss” -- I couldn’t imagine doing a job every day that wasn’t something I loved to do. I started out wanting to write novels and poetry, but I discovered auteurs like Bergman and Fellini, and I started viewing film as art... and I decided I wanted to make movies rather than write novels (though I still enjoy writing prose fiction, too). I’m actually quite interested in images of the transcendent and ideas about spirituality and the afterlife, but obviously you can see from this film that I take a comedic approach, because — and I say this as a person of faith — I think there’s a lot of absurdity in belief. We have to be able to laugh at it.

As far as demographics, I live outside Waco with my wife and our three daughters. Most of the time, I’m just a dad to three beautiful girls.

2. What drew you to the mock-doc genre and was it your first?

This was my first mock-doc. First, I think that — done well — a mock documentary can be hilarious and thought-provoking. Now, the reason I chose to make THIS particular mock doc was that I was drawn to the ideas of this Brian character – this possibly-delusional self-appointed messiah. And I wanted to explore his belief, without having to resort to awkward dramatic situations where he tells people what his beliefs are. With the mockumentary form, we can let him talk about these things that might otherwise not come out, and we can simply follow the events. Of course, there’s a loose narrative structure there as well, and the style becomes intentionally more traditional as the story goes on, because once we get all the information we need about Brian, we simply want to see what happens to him.

3. Can you talk about the writing process, esp. in terms of collaborating with D.M. Lovic?

David Lovic and I met when he read a script excerpt I had put up on someone’s website. He was interested in going to film school where I had gone, saw the connection when he read (and liked) my script, and we started corresponding by email and phone. He had started writing this script about a two down-on-their-luck blue collar workers who lose their jobs and kidnap the Brian character to ransom him to his followers for big bucks. Of course, he has no followers, so comedy ensues. This was a funny idea, but I fell in love with this character and asked him if I could write a short mock doc. So the script started out as a 22 page short, which David and I then expanded to roughly 60 pages. And by the time it had gotten that big, it made sense to expand it into a full-fledged feature. We worked together by phone and email, and we would sit there on the phone and crack each other up. I laughed so hard writing some of this with David that I would literally be in tears. It was a fun process.

4. What kind of budget and crew did you have to work with?

We had one investor, who put up $10,000. And I was going to make the film on mini-DV, guerilla-style, while I was living in Virginia. Two or three summers passed as we tried to get things together to do this, but it never came together. Then I got the job teaching at Baylor, and it was like the whole thing was ordained from that point on. My department kicked in some production funds and made the whole production into a class, so we had a crew of about 30 Baylor communication students, of varying degrees of experience, working on the film. We had a summer semester of 5 weeks to make the film (we shot it on a 3-week schedule). So we used those students according to their experience levels. Some were just finishing their freshman or sophomore years and thus were still learning, and others were rising seniors or about to graduate, and they were able to be very helpful. Our art director/production designer was a student, a senior who I trusted, and she did a fantastic job designing, oh, pretty much everything you see in the film (along with an enthusiastic crew of fellow students working with her). We hired a professional DP, Damon Crump, who had just directed his first feature locally (a zombie flick called RISEN). And we had other faculty members functioning in key roles — audio and producing. Other than that (and me), it was all students.

5. What did you shoot and record the project on?

We shot HD – with a Sony HDW-F900. Edited on Final Cut Pro HD (we upgraded from 4.5 to FCP 5 in the middle of the edit process). We recorded audio on a digital recorder, a 4-track Edirol. We got the Edirol a couple of weeks before production, so that was fun for Brooks, our sound guy, to figure out. All the equipment is owned by my department at Baylor, so the only thing we had to rent were a couple of mics (when our regular mics stopped working well — one of them was shocking the actors, and since I had a mic on a lot as the ‘interviewer’, I got to feel it a few times myself).

6. Tell us a little about the casting process.

I thought casting would be a LOT easier than it was. When I was planning on shooting in Virginia, I had the three major roles mostly lined up. Then I moved, and I had no network in this part of the country. So we put out general casting notices: the Texas Film Office’s production listing, craigslist, and any Texas-based production listings we could find. We scheduled a bunch of people for auditions one weekend. Several didn’t show, and the ones who did — well, let me say that the ability to act completely natural with the dialogue, to sound like it’s real speech — that’s a special kind of acting talent. And not everyone can do it. Well, Ellen Dolan (Miriam) is a New Yorker who hails originally from Houston. So she saw our Texas production listing and contacted us. I had her audition via videotape, with some direction from me in advance. And she was terrific — the role really calls for someone who can act without getting the opportunity to say a lot of lines. And, well, Ellen can act — lines or no lines. And when she and I spoke, I mentioned that we didn’t have a Brian yet. Now, you’ve seen the film — you need a GREAT Brian to make this film work. So I was really sweating this, and I was considering whether I would play it. But I really didn’t want to seem like one of those directors who wants to be a star actor, too. I just knew I could do it, because I have acted before and I had lived with this character for several years and completely understood the tone — this earnestness he has, coupled with his anger and frustration with other people (some of this comes from my own life, so I knew I could do it).

Anyway, Ellen mentioned her friend Dustin, and he and I spoke and worked out a similar audition tactic — and when I got his tape, he had nailed it. He was younger than I was wanting for the part, so we aged him with the glasses and by shaving his head — which he had to maintain every day, and which needed constant attention (he needed makeup or his thick hair would show through).

Finally, the part of Aaron went to Joe Frost — who was the only holdover from the original cast in Virginia. I didn’t audition anyone who could convincingly play the man-child nature of Aaron without sounding ridiculous. But Joe has this ability to sound and look completely vacant. He’s amazing at it — especially considering that he’s a very intelligent guy, a playwright and a professor of theater at Belhaven College in Mississippi. He was reading a book about Samuel Beckett in between takes where he had to act like this complete nincompoop.

7. They say there are three things one shouldn't ask in general conversation but I gotta break this rule, Chris. After all, it's a piece about a Messiah! Did you have any views about X-tiananity before writing the project? Have they changed or altered since completing the project and getting people's reactions?

Ha – a completely valid reaction. I am actually a Christian – a protestant, charismatic Christian. This surprises some people when they see the film, but my intention wasn’t to lampoon faith or Christianity, but rather the way some people in the church misunderstand and misuse faith, sometimes even with good intentions. Brian gets faith all wrong — he has made it all about HIM, about the glorification of the self. But in reality, faith is something we’re supposed to project outwardly as love and service. There’s more to it than that, but that’s the kernel I started with. I also wanted to comment on Brian’s desire to find out this big “special purpose” in life — and how he delays his life while he waits for that. He neglects his family and treats others poorly while he waits for his big news. That’s a very personal thing for me — as an aspiring filmmaker and screenwriter, I’ve often been guilty of putting everything on hold while I wait on my career to start. And I think this translates well to a world of faith — how too many people are expecting a major “purpose” and not taking care of poor people and other simple but important things.

I’d say that the process didn’t change my views on Christianity — because the purpose of the film was very intentional at the outset.

8. What was the funnest aspect of working on the film? The most trying?

It’s a fun script, so there were a lot of days where we were struggling not to laugh during the shooting. Moments like that, where the acting was fantastic and we were just clicking, were the best. Also, the first read-through, the day before shooting (which was the only ‘rehearsal time’ we got), just laid me out in laughter. We actually have footage of it, because a student made a documentary about the making of the film, and there were times when I was listening to Dustin doing these lines just like I’d heard them in my head, and I just couldn’t stop laughing.

The most trying — well, we were shooting in Central Texas in the summer. The heat just saps people of energy, especially the actors. On some days, they struggled to keep the energy and ‘pep’ up to the right level when their physical energy was flagging from horrible heat. I’ll probably never shoot a film in Texas in the summer again. Actually, that’s not true. Given the opportunity to do it again, I’ll always keep making films, even if it’s in that ridiculous heat.

9. How has dist. gone for the project?

We’re still getting started. We’ve been in a few festivals so far, and we’re considering a Video-on-Demand release from a significant indie site/service. Also, the film is being considered for DVD release. I’m very hopeful that it will get to a larger audience. I think it’s a quirky film that appeals to a lot of people, if we can just get the word out.

10. What's up next for Theoretical Ent.?

I’m working on a couple of things now. I’ve got a script out there, being read by a handful of production companies and producers, so I’m hoping that will hit with someone soon. And I’m starting work on a short film that I’m calling a “solipsistic, navel-gazing documentary about one man’s obsession with a clean house.” I’m trying to play with the form a bit and do something different. I’m hoping to get the opportunity to do another feature, but I’d like to do a slightly bigger project next — something where maybe a production company can bring some bigger players into it.

Thanks a bunch Chris. Feel free to add to or omit any questions, or if you have questions for me, shoot.

The pleasure was all mine, Jerry. Any chance to talk about ME and my work is just fine with me. :-)

Chris

Interview with Writer-Director Chris Hansen

Info

Links

Categories

Recent Posts