Christian Sorensen Hansen

1) How did you get into directing?
Since I was born my parents worked in the ad world so growing up I would go to creative and client meetings with them.  We always had cameras laying around the house and I suppose directing for me first started with making skate videos with those camera.  I was probably 12 or so when I first picked up this big VHS camcorder.  From there it was like any good hobby turned serious—something that just grew naturally.  At a certain point it was all I could think about and I haven’t stopped making movies since.

2) What is your most recent project?
I’ve been in New York the last couple weeks working on a couple projects, one for Barrett SF and another for Publicis. I probably can’t talk too much about those without getting in trouble. However, amidst all that I shot a contemporary dance film entitled Nocturnal Patterns. The piece attempts to encapsulate the core emotion of certain hours of the night- a concept that arose out of a soundtrack that I had built as an exercise.

3) What is the best part of being a director?
It’s hard to pinpoint but I’d say high on my list would definitely be collaboration.  Working with the smartest people I possibly can to realize and execute an idea.  Perhaps this is why I was drawn to film so early one because this is inherently an collaborative medium.

4) What is the worst part of being a director?
I like to think of it more on the awesome to slightly less awesome scale.  Sure there’s stuff that’s not quite as fun but I still feel so incredibly lucky to do what I do.  Lack of sleep would probably be one of the furthest things on the slightly less awesome end.

5) What is your current career focus: commercials & branded content, TV, movies? Do you plan to specialize in a particular genre—comedy, drama, visual effects, etc.?
It’s a simple thing but one of the most difficult things I’ve learned how to do is tell a good story.  To me the image comes quite easily but figuring out how to use those visuals to tell a story, or in this case lend to the story, has taken quite a while.  I don’t think I’ll ever stop working on that regardless of the genre.

6) Have you a mentor and if so, who is that person (or persons) and what has been the lesson learned from that mentoring which resonates with you?
I don’t have a mentor in the classic sense, as in I don’t have a Mr. Miyagi in my life. What I do have is a network of filmmakers, builders, poets, farmers, musicians, the list goes on, all whom I greatly admire. All of these people are brilliant in their own right but their approach to life at large is incredibly inspiring.  I’m so turned on by how this group of people relates to the universe beyond how they contribute in a creative since. One person who’s be an integral part in my commercial career so far has been Harry Calbom, my EP. Since signing to Society about two years ago he has been the closest thing I have ever had to a Mr. Miyagi.

9) Tell us about your background (i.e. where did you grow up? Past jobs?)
Well I worked at a Jiffy Lube for a while!  Though I suppose that didn’t much influence my filmmaking beyond giving me some really greasy stories.  After that I worked at a video store and tanning salon, yes and, called Video Quest.  This a little before VOD really took off and just after film school, a big reason for working there in the first place was to have access to all of these movies.  I would work a day or two and come home with stacks to watch over my days off.  Eventually I got fired for missing too much work because I was always shooting music videos or what have you, but while it lasted it was an amazing resource.

Contact

harry@society.tv