CULTUREPULP 027 APPENDIX: Interview with fan-filmmaker Chris Hanel



As promised to CulturePulp readers in today's comic: After the jump, here's my 2,300-word instant-message interview with fan-filmmaker and poker-blogger Chris Hanel -- which I had to brutally boil down to make CulturePulp 027 into a workable script. Enjoy if you dare. (Photos of Chris at Comicon courtesy of Britt Dietz.)

(click here to read the interview)

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M.E. RUSSELL: So, dude -- you wore the DARTH VADER SUIT? What the hell was that like?

CHRIS HANEL: For most of the entire day. I wouldn't let them take it off until I was wrapped.

Q. Method Vader?

A. No, more like "Raging Fanboy Vader."

Q. How long did it take to suit up?

A. 20 minutes max.

Q. Better than I thought! BTW, how tall are you?

A. 6'1." Same height as Hayden.

Q. Gotta ask: How do you pee in that thing?

A. The costume-maker was more intelligent than most and put a zipper on the leather part of the suit. Thankfully, I didn't have to test it out.

Q. How hard is it to do a proper lightsaber battle wearing the suit?

A. It can get tricky. You can't lift your arms completely above your head. And it gets extremely hot once you start trying to duel. By the end of the shot, you're begging for the helmet to get pulled off.



Q. You've been doing these fan films for a few years now -- but these "Pink Five" folks are doing something a bit more elaborate than the usual two-kids-and-a-camcorder thing, aren't they?

A. Yes -- this is full-on filmmaking. Renting a green-screen stage, having a fully trained cast and crew.... A few of us have quit our jobs to do this full-time.

Q. Well, you didn't really have a job to quit, did you? Are you still supporting yourself fully on poker winnings?

A. I was a barista making close to minimum wage at the time. I'm probably making about the same playing poker.

Q. Where the hell do you find people with that level of dedication to a fan film?

A. Where do we find these people? We don't. We make them drink our special Kool-Aid.

Q. And you get to blog about your "job" now. Both of them, actually. There's a "Pink Five" blog and a "pokergeek" blog. (I still can't believe "pokergeek" was available as a domain name, BTW.)

A. Trey lets me write the occasional post on the "Pink Five" blog, but the poker blog is my heart and soul. It's crazy that so many people read it. It's actually starting to become a financial reward of its own ... if you count 50 cents a day as "financially rewarding."

Q. How many readers do you have at Pokergeek now?

A. 500-600 a day. If a bigger blogger chooses to link to it, it'll spike to over a thousand. I'm told that for a blog as young as mine, that's pretty decent. I have no real clue -- the person saying it was buttering me up to link to theirs.

Q. Heh. Okay, now you and I are both pretty pathetic "Star Wars" nerds. Unlike me, however, you have actually made out with an actress playing Princess Leia.

A. Has she been bragging again? Jeez, she's giving me a bad rep.

Q. And you've hung out with Mark Hamill. He visited the "Pink Five" set, right? Discuss.

A. Meeting Mark Hamill was insanity. I've worked at enough conventions assisting celebs, I should be used to it. But this is MARK BLEEPIN' HAMILL. Words became mush. Nicest guy in the world. Nobody told me he was coming to the set.

Q. I don't believe you. Show me a picture.

A. *flips out wallet*



Q. You were Han Solo's stand-in in "Return of Pink Five," right?

A. The actor playing Han had to leave early and there was still one shot we needed to get ... the make-out scene. I bravely stepped in at the last second.

Q. And you had this improbably beautiful actress playing Leia, and I just think you have a very strange life. Next thing you know, you'll be showing me pictures of you with the cast of "Firefly."

A. Actually, I have pictures like that. From GenCon So-Cal:



Q. Oh, bite me. So. Explain this whole "Pink Five" phenomenon to me.

A. The "Pink Five" series is an account of the "Star Wars" universe as seen through the eyes of a Rebel Alliance Valley Girl named Stacey. The first one features our heroine flying through the first Death Star battle. The second one, she's training with Yoda on Dagobah and mistaking lightsabers for hair dryers. "Pink Five" is getting crazy popular. Someone at Celebration wore a Stacey costume around the convention. In hindsight, we should have never made the second one, because it meant we HAD to make the third one -- and now it's the biggest project any of us have ever undertaken.



Q. You and I have talked about this before, but fan films are getting so elaborate now that the best of them actually do have small fan bases.

A. Though saying that, I'm sure a few fan-film fanatics would hunt us down and kill us. When people like ["Pink Five" director/co-writer] Trey Stokes are at the helm, it's bound to turn into an awesome product. It's only right that people would become just as fervent about his work as "Star Wars" in general.

Q. Are fan films the products of total lunatics, a way to get your resume out there as a filmmaker, or a valid new form of fan participation?

A. Uh... Yes?

Q. Where do you personally fall in that list of options? Like, you have actual filmmaking aspirations, right? How old are you?

A. I'm 24. I started out as a total loon who wanted to make movies. Now it's all about getting your resume out there, while still getting to be a bit of a loon. I've been lucky enough to help make six films this year -- ranging in position from visual effects artist, actor, unit director, writer, and lighting guy. I'm still not getting paid to make them yet, so the battle continues. But not bad for a guy that never went to film school.

Q. You went to F/X school, though.

A. ... And failed the final class. Never got my degree.

Q. What do your parents think of all this? Like, do they go to parties and say, "My son played Darth Vader yesterday!"

A. My parents are supportive -- in the sense that they have faith that I'm doing the right thing. They've started to see snippets of where all this can lead, and they're really excited. When the writing opportunities started becoming visible, they jumped for joy. Mostly because I owe them for school.

Q. Which will be better -- "Return of Pink Five" or "Episode III"?

A. This is like asking the Superfans, "Bears vs. Bulls?"

Q. No, it's not.

A. "Return of Pink Five," I promise. Bias wins the day.

Q. Okay, a few questions about fan films: They've gotten rather elaborate these days, haven't they?

A. I think it's more that the people that started making the elaborate ones years ago are finally finishing them. I worked on the post-production crew for "Troops 2" for a few months. They've been working on that since '99.

Q. Oh, that's ridiculous.

A. But it looks awesome.

Q. How's "Star Wars Revelations"?

A. It's definitely it's Father's son. Amazing visuals.

Q. "It's definitely its father's son"? So it sucks, then?

A. The script and acting could use some help, but the VFX was where the energy went -- and it paid off.

Q. Meh. Not interested then.

A. I'm always amazed that -- considering these are usually mom-and-pop operations -- the biggest concern isn't the visual effects. It's having a strong script and good actors.

Q. Yeah, fan films have sort of evolved beyond just being, "Wouldn't it be cool if Boba Fett fought Darth Vader?" Those sorts of scenarios. Fan-filmmakers nowadays are after much bigger game.

A. People still love to wade into that territory. And we still love to snark at them.

Q. But so many of them now want to make valid contributions to the "Star Wars" canon.

A. I sound bitter, but there's been so many attempts and so many misses. But now, I have a new goal in life. Thanks to George's announcement at Celebration --

Q. Oh, I know where this is going ....

A. -- I want to work on the "Star Wars" TV show they're going to do. Making fan-films in an official manner.

Q. God, the best thing they could do is hire from the fan community. Loyal, insanely loyal, underpaid labor.

A. *raises hand* You want attention to detail? Just take your pick from any insane "Star Wars" message board. These people will nitpick EVERYTHING. I should know -- I've had to moderate them.


Q. Okay, so you also put on a Stormtrooper suit and march with the 501st Legion, correct?

A. Yes, I've donned armor and marched with the best of them -- even at Walt Disney World. We're the first costumed actors to be at Disney and *not* be Disney employees. Ever.

Q. I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry at that statement. You rode Star Tours, I presume.

A. In uniform. Not in armor. That'd be silly. *deadpan look*

Q. So where do you get the armor? It seems there's rather a lot of it floating around out there.

A. There was a friend of a friend of a friend that knew a guy that would make batches of the ABS plastic. I cobbled together the rest on my own. Undersuit, gloves, boots, gun, ultra-modified helmet including cooling fan and comm system.... Well, that last bit was in the works. Never got around to that part -- though most guys do.

Q. A working COMM SYSTEM?!

A. What -- you think these guys aren't hardcore?

Q. What, for you, was a defining moment working on the "Pink Five" films?

A. There was a shot we did that used a crane and a dolly and half an X-wing, with sand being brought in -- production value up the wazoo. We watched the first take on playback, and you could see the look on Trey's face: "What the *hell* are we doing here?!" We keep waiting for everyone to figure out we're all frauds. So far, nobody's caught on.

Q. The guy who plays Obi-Wan and the Emperor is awesome. He does fantastic mildly-befuddled-old-man.

A. And everyone's heard his voice before. He does a lot of radio ads and video games. When watching dailies, it gets said a lot: Steve Stanton is the mutha-bleepin' MAN.

Q. To me, what makes the "Pink Five" movies work are the little moments: You guys have small bits of comic timing most people wouldn't credit to a pack of geeks.

A. Trey is very passionate about making sure something works on multiple levels, or that more than one joke is going on. It pays off in huge dividends.

Q. Okay. So what have we covered here? You work on fan films, you own stormtrooper armor, you've been Darth Vader, you do special effects, you hang out with Luke Skywalker.... You're like the bestest geek in the whole wide world! What's your secret?

A. Clean living? Being a geek is something to be embraced, not something to be ashamed of. Being passionate and excited about something is always infectious -- and can open you up to a lot of possibilities that weren't there before. As in, three years ago, I was in Iowa whining about working in a mall.

Q. Too true. I was editing stories about quilting bees 14 months ago. I was interviewed by this journalism student about CulturePulp the other day, and as I was telling her how I pitched and got the strip, I said, "It's amazing what happens if you ask."

A. Yeah. I use that phrase a lot too. What's the worst that's gonna happen? They're gonna say no? Boo hoo. In that spirit: Dear Lucasfilm: Trey and I are available to help direct episodes.

Q. All this and you're, like, friends with Wil Wheaton. I'm surprised *he* isn't in "Pink Five." How did that friendship come about?

A. I interviewed him for TheForce.net a while back, and we're both into roleplaying games and poker. Talking shop is always a hoot.

Q. Is it strange to be hanging out with Wesley Crusher? At what point did he cease to be an icon and become a man? A friend?

A. The third Guinness.

Q. I would think, in your line of "work," that separating the person from their icon would be difficult. Like, how do you hang out with Hamill and get Luke Skywalker pushed to the back of your head?

A. Hamill's a bad example. I don't think I can successfully do that just yet. My very first memory in my entire existence is Luke fighting Vader in "Return of the Jedi." I think that earns me a doctor's note.

Q. So when you put the Vader suit on and are essentially re-creating your first memory on a sound stage, was that, you know, weird?

A. There's definitely a warm feeling of happiness putting that suit on. Y'know, being evil and all.

Posted: Fri - May 6, 2005 at 12:00 AM        

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