News/Press - Oliver Hunt of Gorilla Film Magazine interviews Justin Hannah about Consignment movie

Oliver Hunt of Gorilla Film Magazine interviews Justin Hannah about "Consignment"
Posted April 25, 2014

"Consignment" has officially reached the United Kingdom! The excellent Gorilla Film Magazine, based out of London, recently interviewed director Justin Hannah about his film, 1950's suburbia,
the difficulty in making a period piece, ambition, influences, ebay, vintage fonts, and other topics.

Filmmaker Justin Hannah Consignment movie - Photo by Jerry Hannah II

Justin Hannah: Consignment
By Oliver Hunt

One unwritten rule for any novice filmmakers is to never tackle a period piece. Why is that? With the cost of props, costume, and even obtaining an authentic location – any production budget can inflate to unimaginable proportions. It isn’t often that a filmmaker can pull it off so effortlessly without having to compromise the scope of their project. Music video director Justin Hannah is that exception – capturing a slice of 1950s suburbia and blurring the lines of reality with his latest short film Consignment.

GFM: Consignment is a terrific short film debut that has picked up a ton of good press and flashy reviewer quotes, but I wanted to begin before all of that. On your official Vimeo page I noticed you have predominantly worked on music videos – from a colourful explosion for ‘Good Vibrations’ by The Beach Boys to smaller lesser-known bands (each video still retaining a personalised element to them). What I’m curious about is if you feel that these music videos have helped you hone your technical proficiency leading up to you writing and directing (amongst producing and editing) Consignment. With that in mind, how long have you been planning, or should I say writing, Consignment?

JH: First off, thank you so much for the kind words! I’m thrilled that you liked the film. As for your question, you’re totally right: much of the work I’ve done prior to Consignment has been in the realm of music videos. I do think that working on music videos helped develop the skills needed to make films.

For me, the goal has always been to progress in terms of ambition – a music video (at least in theory) is a bit easier than a short film; a short film is typically easier than a feature. Of course, with Consignment being a period piece, there was so much preparation involved, and care taken in that preparation, that it sometimes felt like we were working on a feature. To that point, Consignment took around a year to produce, from start to finish. Maybe a little more.

GFM: I feel as if I have to ask this question, but I am curious myself. What training or experience did you have that has awarded you the writer/director role? Did you attend any film schools or did you grow up shooting little shot films with your friends? How did you get to a point where you have short on IMDB with the impressive score of 8.6?

JH: I didn’t know Consignment had an 8.6 on IMDB, that’s really great to hear. I’m honestly not sure how that happened!

As far as training… there’s a book called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron that talks about creativity in terms of audacity. Her thought was that audacity is what separates an artist from a non-artist. All it took to be an artist was to proclaim it, and believe it. I honestly think that is how I ended up in the writer/director position; I just decided that that was what I was going to do, and the universe started moving with me to help make that happen... continue reading >>

"Consignment" is a stylish period drama written and directed by Justin Hannah, starring Abbra Smallwood, Margaret Wuertz, Jake Gilliam and Jessica McGill, with cinematography by Lee Clements and music by Robert Casal.

Described in reviews as "an alluring, multi-layered film experience" and "a beautifully realized, thought provoking short film," the movie has drawn comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch. "Consignment" won awards for Best Cinematography at the 2015 Blaquefyre Independent Film Festival, Best Kentucky Short at the 2014 Autumn Shorts Film Festival, Best Short Film at the 2013 World Independent Film Expo, and Most Original Film at the 2013 Floyd Film Festival.

Justin Hannah's "Consignment" is now available for instant streaming on Hulu and Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Vimeo On Demand, and IndieFlix.