Nathaniel Hansen is getting ready to take a cross-country road trip to find his film, a documentary called “The Elders,” but he’s found his funding for the journey through the kindness of both friends and strangers, and their belief, in dollars, in what he’s doing.

Hansen, an Oregon native living in Boston, and with a degree in documentary filmmaking from Emerson College, is one of those filmmakers who is inverting the formula for how it’s done.
One of the ways he has is by mounting a successful crowdfunding effort through Kickstarter.com, which bills itself as “a new way to fund and follow creativity.”

Kickstarter allows filmmakers and other artists to propose a project, with a defined amount of funding requested and defined window of time in which to raise it. If the funding goal is not met, all pledges are wiped clean, a kind of all-or-nothing prospect that can be both inspiring and daunting, seeing if your idea is as viable as you think.

Hansen says, “I’ve been following Kickstarter not quite since they launched, when a friend of mine sent me an email and said, ‘Have you seen this?’ I was a little frustrated because it was by invitation, and it was a bit of a mystery to me how you got invited. But I kept following it, and in the back of my mind I kept thinking, ‘What kind of a project would get me the widest possible support from friends, family and strangers?’

It’s a pretty long article, so if you’re interested you can read the rest of it here at documentary tech.

Participatory Chinatown is a 3-D immersive game designed to be part of the master planning process for Boston’s Chinatown. Players assume the role of one of 15 virtual residents and work to complete their assigned quest – finding a job, housing, or place to socialize.

Matthew Hashiguchi and I were asked to create this short doc for a presentation to Boston’s City Council and for the White House. I shot with an EX1/Letus Extreme and a Zeiss 85mm f1.4, and Matthew was shooting on a Cavision rig with a 7D, Canon 50mm 1.8, 70-200mm 2.8, and a 20-55mm 2.8.

The development was funded by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.

I was asked to DP and help edit a short documentary based on six conversations with the producer’s friends. She’s an undergrad at Emerson College, so I have to first of all give her props for having the courage to seek me out and ask me – I’m not sure I would have been so bold at 20. She (Elizabeth Charles) wants to be a producer, and so far she’s on the right track.

We shot and cut the project in one day, due to schedule, and because the competition she entered it in had a deadline of the same day we were able to film. It was a bit rushed in the edit, but overall I think it turned out. I’m not crazy about the music, but it was provided by the contest organizers.

Shot in a small dorm lounge with EX1, Letus Extreme, Zeiss 85mm f1.4, a Lowel kit and my Mole Richardson tweenie kit. I enjoyed lighting this piece as it was a challenge given the space.

Hi Nathaniel –

[your project] sounds great. Welcome to Kickstarter.

Let your community, your audience and your network know about your project. The lion’s share of your funding will come from them. Spread the word!

Rewards are just as important. Offer something of real value, and consider something more intangible, more about an experience. That will have an enormous impact. Three or four reasonably priced rewards is ideal (think of it as S, M, L, XL). Take a look around the site if you want some inspiration.

And finally, include a video. It’ll drive home that this is a real person doing this.

Good luck!

Whaaaa! This is what I had been waiting for!! I was elated for the remainder of the day. Instead of waiting around for an invite from a stranger, I decided to email the staff to see if I could get the ball rolling. I had spent all day on the Friday before building a website for the upcoming project, and had sent it off with my proposal to kickstarter at 2am.

Come Sunday afternoon, I was surprised how fast they responded. The excitement hasn’t worn off – but the sheer realization that the heavy lifting is now begining has officially pushed down on my shoulders. It’s just the beginning, and we haven’t even launched our project yet.

New Documentary Film Website - Screenshot

Kickstarter.com is an interesting model for independent filmmakers like myself who tire of competing for studio dollars or scrapping for a bad distribution contract. The key (I think anyway) to running a successful project is networking. This sounds obvious, but for me and our team, I think that it’s time to capitalize on our social networks (both on and offline) to make something we’re passionate about and make something we believe people will want to see. We also think they’ll enjoy it.

I’ll be keeping an active journal of our fundraising activities, both here and on the acutal film website. As I navigate the somewhat chartered waters of crowdsource fundraising, I hope to become something of an expert so to continue in my efforts to make interesting documentaries. Stay Tuned!!

Jeffrey was introduced to me by my colleague and friend Nicole Prowell, who produced this piece.

BACKSTORY:
Jeffrey is a former professional boxer and a trainer at “the ring” boxing club in Boston. He has a compelling story, and an amazing life vision which anyone who views can learn from.

TECH:
I filmed this piece on a Sony EX1 with a Letus 35mm Adapter and a Zeiss Planar T* f1.4/85mm prime lens. Final Cut Pro and magic bullet looks.

As of this morning, I have just received some of that good fortune. This website that you’re reading, www.nathanielhansen.com, now ranks on the first page of Google for the search term “documentary filmmaker,” just a few spots down from one of my favorite documentary filmmakers “Errol Morris” whose work you can view here.

I have designed this site as a space to showcase my more personal and passionate projects which consist mostly of documentary short films and two upcoming feature length projects. To be successful as an independent filmmaker you have to be entrepreneurial. It’s no longer just enough to produce a film and release it to a festival. From the very start, the web in all it’s iterations must be part of the equation, and so must the project itself – it must be able to transcend traditional media boundaries and be portable to a variety of mediums (digital and analog).

In the coming weeks, I’ll start writing more about my two feature projects (as well as my shorts) so that I have a record of sorts to look back on in a few years. each project is unique, and involves so many components that are becoming fluid and natural to me, I’m hopeful that my experiences will be of use to those just getting started.

BACKSTORY:
Lilah is the 4th piece in my short documentary profile series.

Lilah is a psychic, about 55 years old, who has lived within the same 2 block radius in downtown Boston her entire life. Her neighborhood once rife with crime, drug abuse, strip clubs and prostitution, is now home to luxury high-rise buildings and multiple college campuses. Her business and home, and a few of the other area taverns and restaurants, are the last of the “old time” holdouts.

The idea of interviewing a psychic interested me early on in this project, as I pass several on my walking route each day. I worked up the nerve to buzz the psychic on the 2nd floor of one building in particular, and was immediately buzzed up. There I met Lilah who was very, very reluctant to be interviewed. I was quickly informed that 1-2 times each month she is asked for interviews by students, newspapers and magazines – and she turns them all down. I took my time, didn’t push, and enjoyed a 30-minute conversation about nothing much at all. I showed her the piece I did on Pat, whom she knows. At the end, she agreed to see me the next day but wouldn’t allow me to film her face. I reluctantly agreed. I suppose I could always film her hands?

The next afternoon, I showed up at the appointed time, and we discussed my approach and how I thought the interview could best reflect her story. After 15 minutes of visiting and some gentle persuasion, she agreed to let me film her – face and all. We chatted for a little over an hour, and the final piece is my impression of that time, boiled down to 5 minutes.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT:
This being the 4th in my profile series, I needed to ensure that it could stand on its own apart from the other three, but could also push the boundaries of the project. My approach to these profile pieces has been consistent, methodologically speaking: present and confirm a stereotype within the first minute and then break down that stereotype to reveal the human story.

Maintaining a consistent “look” trajectory while at the same time allowing for each piece to live and breathe on its own has been challenging. It’s difficult to know what might be perceived as gimmicky and what will genuinely add to the story. Shallow depth of field, natural lighting, hard edits and jump cuts, extreme close ups, color grading, musical flow, all seem to be emerging as a part of my personalized style. This was true for my piece on Lilah. This combination of elements is not unique, but I believe I’ve employed it in a way that helps me tell compelling stories with my signature embedded.

TECH:
I filmed this piece on a Sony EX1 with a Letus 35mm Adapter and a Zeiss Planar T* f1.4/85mm prime lens. I opted for a simple 3-way color correction in Final Cut Pro instead of magic bullet looks (my usual choice). The natural light turned out beautifully and very much reflected the mood of the room, and the interview.

This is the third documentary short in my profile series. I came across Ron while walking through the Boston Common near Park street. He was articulate, thoughtful, and a pleasure to talk to – and he agreed to an interview.

He was working, and agreed to the interview if I promised to keep it under 10 minutes. This was difficult, as it takes me a while to get going and it’s almost impossible to get to “that place” in an interview when you’ve only got a couple minutes.

The edit was very difficult for me, but I found the footage of his conversation interesting. I had left the camera rolling while I was doing something else. For me, the conversation represents a tiny crack in the presentation. It gives the viewer a peek at his real life however dramatic or mundane.

As a stand alone piece, I feel it holds its own but has a different feel and cadence than the other two shorts I’ve done in the series so far. It’s more real, somehow, and less moving perhaps because it’s so normal. As apart of the series though, Ron occupies a significant space. I see Pat and Gilbert as bookends, and Ron’s interview is almost a breath of fresh air by comparison.

I filmed this piece on a Sony EX1, with a Letus 35mm Adapter, and a Canon L series 24-70 f2.8 lens. The project was color treated with magic bullet looks.

This is the second documentary short in my profile series. I’ve walked by this store on Boylston street hundreds of times, and there is always an elderly woman peering out from behind the store front.

The front of the store is all glass, and the display case is filled with “collectible junk.” I couldn’t help but think every time I walked by, “how does this store survive, and what is that woman’s story?” I had no idea just how interesting the woman in the junk shop would turn out to be.

Artistic Statement: As the second in my profile series, I wanted to retain certain aesthetic elements from my first piece in the series featuring Gilbert. The challenge would be to keep the series interesting, and to keep those aesthetic elements from becoming cliche or gimmicky.

I decided early on to make the store an extension of the main character, Pat, as she is very much a part of the store and the store a part of her. I utilized an establishing shot from across the street to convey voyeuristic sense of peering in to this “familiar stranger’s” life. I wanted to create a sense of place, differentiated by sound and perspective, that marked the outside from the inside of the store.

I wanted the interview to have an almost home movie or archival feel and I felt that the drab colors and the cool fluorescent lighting should be accentuated for the viewer, so obviously black and white wouldn’t work like it did with Gilbert’s piece.

My only regret with this piece is that I didn’t have a wider lens to shoot the narrow store interior and capture the clutter and sense of claustrophobic nostalgia one feels when inside. Although it was awkward for me, I chose to frame a couple shots of Pat where she sits all day long near the store front. She literally blends in with the items on the wall. Over the last 35 years, Pat has become a part of the collection that she so lovingly curates.

I filmed this piece on a Sony EX1, with a Letus 35mm Adapter, Zeiss Planar T* f1.4/85mm prime lens, and a Nikon 50mm f1.4. The project was color treated with magic bullet looks.