Humans in hej hej - Charlotte
Full Name: Charlotte Evans
Introduce yourself in one sentence: Filmmaking mother of twin girls and George the dog.
How and when did you get into directing and film production?
I studied Marketing and Biology at the University of Canterbury and a few days after my final year of Uni finished, I moved to London where I met an amazing Film Editor called Rick Waller. He specialised in high-end fashion commercials making TVC's for D&G, Kate Moss, Mario Testino etc and needed to train someone up as his assistant. Back then everything was shot on film and the budgets were immense (pre-financial crisis!). Having no idea what film editing even was, I took the job and never looked back! I continued to edit for years after I returned to NZ and then randomly fell into directing when I was pregnant with my twin girls. My dear friend Liv Young (who was Aldous Harding's manager at the time) asked if I wanted to direct 3 music video's for Aldous. I remember at the time having terrible morning sickness and vomiting a lot but I managed to pull it off and fell in love with directing and that side of storytelling. Making music video's is incredibly hard work but also really rewarding in that you can really push creative boundaries which you often can't do in other areas of filmmaking. It's weird that I was never interested in film growing up and never studied it as looking back now, I always had a video camera and was documenting everything. I have ALOT of horrendous home videos I made back then....
What have you been working on this year? What’s your award-acceptance speech?
This has been a year of project development for me, I am working on 3 feature documentaries at the moment as well as developing a dark comedy TV series. I recently started a Sundance TV writing course which I'm loving. It's nice to use that part of my brain again! I also recently signed with Collider for commercial representation in NZ and Aus and am looking forward to being able to film again when we reach level 2!
HA award acceptance speech hmmm.....I would have to thank my partner in crime producer extraordinaire Letisha, My partner Sam and my girls Lillian and Odette for supporting me on this crazy journey, as well as thanking anyone who took a chance on me in a working capacity and trusted me with their story.
It can be a pretty lonely and conflicting path navigating filmmaking alongside trying to earn a living and raising a couple of kids. Not to mention being a female filmmaker which has it's own challenges, but I think you just have to stay true to yourself and your values and trust that the hard work will eventually pay off!
You work with a lot of musicians creating incredible videos (see here, here & here). What your personal debut music video be like? Location / time / and theme.
I love surrealism and artists like Magritte and Dali, so if I was a musician I would love to do a music video that fully embraces this movement, challenging convention in a thought provoking way.
Like Alice (from hej hej) you have twin girls! Which one is your favourite?
Depends on who's behaving at the time! Ha no I don't have a favourite, they are like chalk and cheese and I love them equally. Although one is definitely easier to manage than the other....
You’re wearing the She’s Wrapped Up in Pink Daisy, don’t you just love it? Tell us why you love it.
Firstly I LOVE linen. It's such a great soft fabric to wear. Secondly, I love the embroidered flowers and the fit of the dress! Oh, and I love the puff sleeve which is so soft and feminine. It's a winning combo really! It's also a great dress to cover the lockdown diet of wine, cheese and chocolate which has been gathering momentum over the past 9 weeks or so!
Would you rather fight one cow-sized pigeon, or one hundred pigeon-sized cows?
Definitely one hundred pigeon sized cows! As long as they couldn't fly. I have a massive thing about birds flying around my head, I hate it! It all stems from a time in my childhood where I let my grandparent's budgies out to fly in their glass-enclosed sun porch....the poor birds just flew around my head smashing themselves into the glass. HORRIFIC! One died after that and since then I've hated birds near me! So yes go the baby cows.
You can follow Charlotte here and check out her work here – we highly recommend watching acclaimed documentary “OK Chloe” and the beautiful music video for kiwi pop queen Benee – Happen to Me. Thank you Charlotte for joining our hej hej community and sharing how you hej in Piha.