Very seldom do you meet someone with a job as unique as Scott Hansen's. Working with musicians while conjuring music video treatments, pouring fake blood into a bathtub, urging fear into an actor, and capturing it on camera to keep a viewer on the edge of their seat.
Scott Hansen, founder of Digital Thunderdome/Scott Hansen Productions has given his personal touch to the art of music video making—rendering it as a mini-horror film saga. Hansen is refining the image of music and adding a twist to it...
Not all of his videos are spine-chilling, but he fills the void where he see's it and he fills it to the brim. An alumnus of Savannah College of Art and Design, Hansen might have begun as a comic book illustrator, but his interest in film making began at the age of five. Movies like Alien, Predator (yes, his parents let him and watch them), and Gremlins were intriguing enough for Hansen to let his imagination run away with him. His imagination has brought him this far.
His creativity is ghastly, breathtaking and has a shock value of a West Craven film. It’s also surreal, has a strong usage of lighting, and supplements the music. Working with bands such as Animals As Leaders, A Day to Remember, Impending Doom, Wolves at the Gate, and We Came as Romans, Scott Hansen has given them an engaging story line and a surreal atmosphere. Aside from the hardcore genre, he has also worked with Willie Nelson, which generated some reflective “hot box” memories. Nelson needed his dosage before shooting, and to relieve his shaking, ordered everyone to smoke up! While the list of bands he has worked with is lengthy, Hansen would hang up his 'director hat' if he ever got the chance to work with his all-time favorite band, Metallica. His job would be complete.
If there is any altruism behind Hansen and his work, it’s giving a ‘developing’ band their start, and and an image to grasp an audience. A good music video is meant to motivate listeners/viewers to buy a record or support the artist, and the industry needs a shot in the arm—BADLY! Before MTV took a backseat to reality television (and eventually YouTube), the record industry thrived in the visual aspect of a music video.
While the music world has kept Hansen considerably busy, he is moving toward crafting full-length motion pictures, and his first up-to-bat is “Project Fear” set to release in 2013. Project Fear, written by Carl Ball, takes place in Yosemite National Forrest, where an intended hiking trip turns into a senior thesis nightmare, as one of the campers has been an assignment to demonstrate fear on camera. Project Fear is a hybrid movie (traditional film making mixed with 'found footage'). You can learn more about it here.
Every director has a recipe for what their movies are made of. Hansen has always been the imaginative type, drawing inspiration from the people around him, every day occurrences, and short movies he has done in the past. When asked what he looks for in actors, Hansen will reply, “I look for people who interest me, or can even ‘wow’ me. I love actors who have a ‘LOOK,’ a strange feature that separates them from everyday people, people who aren’t “BRAD PITT” looking, people who look normal or out of the ordinary.” Every filmmaker has their preference, and Hansen is just one more of them.
There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Wanna be in a music video? Work on that ‘look.’
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