In this Movidiam podcast, we talk to Emmy-nominated director Stewart Hendler about his early love of film and his journey into feature films, series and commercials; Stewart’s recent work on the series Halo Forward Unto Dawn, and how he sees the influence of technology on the production industry going forward.
Listen here: https://soundcloud.com/movidiam/e33-stewart-h…
Hello. Welcome to Movidiam podcast. I’m George from Movidiam. Today, I’m speaking with Stewart. Stewart, welcome to Movidiam podcast.
Thanks for having me.
Stewart, you’ve done some remarkable projects. Emmy nominated. Can you tell us a little bit about your start in your journey?
Yeah, absolutely. I’m kind of a prototypical rather uninteresting story at this point, but I was the kid with the video camera when I was little and basically put every spare dollar I could muster into buying video equipment, which was quite bulky and expensive back then. Started a “production company” in my town to film videos and weddings and football games. Turned all that money back around and do short films and started our town’s first film festival.
Then went to film school and sort of in parallel, tried to get some, as many PA low-level jobs in LA, in the actual film industry as I could, which I found fantastic despite how menial they were. I was the kid who was happy to sweep the floors at the end of the night or do whatever was asked of me, just to be around it and watch other directors do what they do.
After doing that for quite a bit, I graduated. Amazingly, I graduated college at the same time, by a hair. Turned around and did a short film with the connections I’d made at film school and the friends that I had there. That short ended up going to Sundance, won an award there and that was kind of the kickstart for me. It got me theatrical representation. It also got me a cold call from a commercial company, asking if I’d be interested in doing commercials. I was perhaps too honest and said I had no idea how to do commercials. They weren’t fazed. They basically guided me through, helped me make a spec commercial. That did okay for me. That kind of got me going in commercials.
For the two years after that, I was learning the ropes of pitching longer-form projects via my theatrical agents, which I did terribly at first, shaking like a leaf because I had no idea what I was doing. I was quite nervous, but finally, somehow, managed to get a movie job. I’ve been going back and forth between longer-form stuff and commercials ever since.
That’s amazing, just look at your portfolio. You’ve got a ridiculously strong portfolio of work there and a real interest in a lot of car commercials, I can see. Porsche, Maserati, VW. Is that something you focused on or did that work find you or how did that come to be?
It found me. Once you do a car commercial, suddenly, you find yourself doing many car commercials. The first one found me. After that, it’s been a niche that I’ve been comfortable in and happy in and has generated a bunch of work for me. It’s quite a specific little corner of the industry, but it’s also pretty damn fun.
Sure. I can see there’s a lot of contrasting locations and imagery there, for sure. Do you sense that as distribution’s changing, perhaps some of the commercial content or the branded content or what is required from visual artists or producers and directors working for brands and agencies, is that in flux as well?
Yeah, absolutely. I started doing this about 10 years ago when people actually shot film and reels were sent around on 3/4 tape. It was a much more regimented industry. Things worked a certain way. Over the last 10 years, as technologies become more available to people, I think in a good way, it’s shaken up the industry and raised the bar. There are people that are coming into this that might not have had an access point before and doing fantastic work and getting discovered on Vimeo doing these projects that costs them $500. Suddenly, the $500,000 commercial model was being reanalyzed.
That’s not to say that those bigger jobs aren’t still out there, but I do feel that the bar has been raised in terms of what is expected of people and how fast and at what price, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I also think the blurring of the traditional 30-second commercial and content that’s going to live online or live somewhere as being equally relevant and sometimes more artful as a result of that, which has been kind of interesting.
Lead me on to your long-form content. Do you find it, is it a challenge to jump between each type of genre and then how do you prepare for a project such as Halo Forward Unto Dawn?
It’s a challenge for my agents because I disappear for a couple of years into one medium and then come back and do the other. I think it keeps me sane. I really enjoy short-form and long-form projects. They exercise different muscles. At least for me, it’s been a great way to not stagnate and stay in one place.
Halo Forward Unto Dawn was an amazing project, kind of an unusual project. It felt like we snuck in the back door on one of the most biggest IPs in history and got to do this super cool thing that kind of flew under the radar. I got a call from a producer saying that she was doing something for Microsoft. It was all very top secret and I basically found myself in a room, pitching to the heads of the Halo creative world. They needed a project turned around in eight months that was going to be feature length, although cut up into several pieces. I kept expecting to wake up and find out the whole thing was a dream at any stage, but it kept moving forward. We got to put Master Chief on the screen in short order. It was a blast.
What was the side of that production in terms of headcount of people involved? Was it a cross board of production, were you producing all over the place and shooting all over the place?
It was all shot in Vancouver, not surprisingly. Production size-wise, I kind of equate it to like a well-funded pilot, TV pilot. On our best days, it felt like we were the least funded Sci-Fi, giant Sci-Fi movie of all time or the best-funded web series of all time. Depending on which way we wanted to look at it. We had days when we had 200 people on set, Pyro and stunts and riggers. It was a full-size machine. To balance that out and make it work for our budget, we had days when we tried to be as much an indie movie as we could. If we were shooting two people talking in a room, we tried to scale accordingly, which you could do to some extent and try to manage how you’re using your resources.
In terms of working for a brand, per se, it was Microsoft, there’s a different process of working than developing out a narrative script for a feature film, isn’t is? There’s lots of stakeholders and lots of back and forth. What is the process of reviewing like?
Intense. Halo’s one of the most revered story worlds, I think, that’s out there. The fan base is extremely vocal and vigilant about the accuracy of their world. They’ve come to expect it to be at a certain level and rightly so. We had people from Microsoft that were literally engaged with us up in Vancouver. Every day we were in the office, they were there. We had somebody who was in our team who’s job was exclusively to be in charge of approvals and getting designs and ideas through the Halo machinery to make sure it was kosher, it was in cannon. That was great and hard at the same time.
The great thing is we had very little time to put the whole show together, so we got to draw on this incredible wealth of design from a suit standpoint, weapon standpoint, wardrobe standpoint. We could jump off from where the games and novels and what have you, had already been, but anytime we wanted to do something that was our own, obviously it had to be put through the layers of approval. They were great. They understood that it had to happen quickly. It was a delightful tornado.
Precious. ‘Delightful tornado’. What an interesting description. Television-side of things. Warfighters, I can see is on the portfolio there. How does that come about? Where does the core come from and who is it that pulls you into that production? If something, again, maybe going back to the branded piece, if someone or some other brands say saw that Microsoft piece of work that I’m a Chief Marketing Officer, I’d like to get you involved, how would your agent feel about you being approached directly, do you think?
There’s two parts to that question. The television stuff happened through contacts that I worked with previously. I find that a lot of work tends to happen that way nowadays. One of the Halo producers actually had moved on to the company that produced that and called me and asked if I could contribute. That was something I hadn’t done before, so it was a cool opportunity. It was docudrama. It was basically trying to be as accurate as possible to some real life stuff and heavy military reenactment type stuff, which was a lot of stunts and weapons and all that stuff. It was a cool experience to be able to learn that side of things.
I tend to get jobs and calls from all over the place, in a good way. The traditional model is you have a theatrical agent, you have a commercial agent, and that’s where everything comes from. I found it to be a bit more amorphous than that, at least in my situation, which is that you get a call from somebody that you met two years ago that you had no idea would one day be in charge of a production company and now is doing this project that’s out-of-the-box and is wondering if you can help. Things find their way back to you.
Thinking about Movidiam and the profiling system. There’s a lot changing, isn’t there, with how people are reaching out? You mentioned earlier this newer generation coming through who are extremely talented, perhaps not as battle-hardened as the industry but very useful and extremely talented, much like you started sweeping the studio floor to get your start. An individual today can be talented and put their work out and start to attract interest.
I think that’s fantastic. I use the Internet as a way to find talent all the time now. It wasn’t something that you could do before, but the DP that shot Halo that shoots a lot of my commercials, shot my last movie, was shooting short films when I first found him. It was an email from a friend, saying, “Hey, check out this cool short.” My first question was who’s the DP and latched onto that guy but would never have come across him in the traditional sense where DP agents send you a piece of paper with the list of credits and a reel. I start on Vimeo or a new platform like Movidiam is what I call it is sort of like the LinkedIn meets Vimeo, a portfolio site where you can actually beautifully display your work. It’s a cool hub. I think it’s the way things are going to be happening in the future. I think it’s great.
It’s a positive reaffirming experience. Especially if it’s a professional domain. You can feel this is where I do my work and perhaps Facebook is where I do my friends and other things like that. I think there’s lot of digital treatments coming on this space and that’s before you even start talking about the tools and the visual effects tools and the animation tools that are developing at a pace as well.
Yeah, absolutely. I think that agents and the classical machinery is all still important, but it’s not the only means to an end these days. I think you can find harder-to-find talent more easily now. I think you can vet people in a more reliable way. I mean that in a good way.
In a good way, yeah. It’s building a trust, isn’t it? It’s building a trust. I think people use PMs they’ve worked with before because of this trust, and they’ve been through the storm with them or work late or whatever it is. I think now there are so many touchpoints online. There are many different reference points and effectively testimonials and credits are more visual. I mean the idea of receiving a sheet of paper to see if a filmmaker or a DOP is a capable DOP, obviously is accompanied by a reel, but actually, that is a very undynamic way of reviewing it.
Yeah. In the age of Amazon reviews where I literally won’t buy something unless it’s been rated well.
Highly rated, yeah.
It’s hard to imagine going back to the old system where you had to basically track down people that had worked with said person before and call them and say, “Is this person as good as they look on paper and what do I need to know?” Now that’s rightfully so is becoming more easy and cohesive online.
I think you’re absolutely right. The traditional mechanic and infrastructure are still there, and actually, humans are incredibly adaptable, and they get stuff done with or without technology, but I think it just happens quicker with the streamlining tools.
I agree. I think the access to a talent pool that you might not have had access to before is great. There are some jobs where I have to go to people that have 20 years experience because the client will not consider anybody else, but there are jobs where I feel like I could sneak somebody in who I’ve been a fan of online because they’re compositing reel is awesome or their DP reel is awesome. When those projects pop up, it’s a new kind of way of working, but it’s been great. The stigma of working with ultra-young, ultra-cutting-edge filmmaker people, I don’t mean young necessarily in age, but in experience -
It’s dissolving.
It’s dissolving. Yeah, absolutely.
I think also geography isn’t a point. Movidiam’s map search. If you’re looking for a drone shot in Whistler Mountain, for example, why not get a guy who’s passionate about skiing, knows the mountain very well, and also a fantastic drone DOP?
Yeah, and Whistler turns out some of the best shooters around. There are so many good Canadian shooters up there, which is funny you mentioned that, but absolutely. The drone thing is actually really funny because that’s come about quite quickly too.
Yeah, sure.
Yeah, and there, I’ve shot in quite a few countries over the last year. When you say land in New Delhi, and you’re trying to figure out who is the best drone person in India, it’s not always the easiest thing to do, especially when you’re dealing with a new production crew and a different language. These kinds of tools, I think, are becoming essential.
Look, Stewart, it’s been fantastic to have you on the Movidiam podcast and glean little bits of your insight on what are the remarkable journey from sweeping the studio floor all the way to your working on your Halo Forever Unto Dawn. I’m sure our listeners will be delighted to have that little bit of insight, so thanks very much for your time. Do check out Stewart’s Movidiam profile. It’s a remarkable portfolio I’m sure which is only going to improve and mature with time.
Cheers. Thanks for having me on. I really like what you guys are doing.
Find Stewart Hendler online here:
Movidiam: https://www.movidiam.com/stewarthendler
Website: http://www.stewarthendler.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/stewarthendler
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stewarthendler/
