Recently, director Christina Hodnet was in Toronto, shooting a music video for the Canadian band The Immigrants. "That was cool," she recalls. "It was a great song, and we shot a lot of Bolex stuff. A It was really, really fun."
It was also a departure for Hodnet, who rarely works with talent old enough to drive. "I had to learn to not talk to [the band] like they were children," she says. "When I first got there, I was like, ‘Okay. Does anyone need a drink of water? Does anyone have to pee before we start?’ "
An understandable mistakeaas a director, she has asked those questions countless times. "I was always drawn to directing kids," says Hodnet, who has elicited remarkably natural performances from children in spots like "Heroes," for the Canadian Mint, via Cossette Communications Group, Montreal, and Rogers/AT&T’s "Excuses" for Bensimon Byrne DMB&B, Toronto. (Both spots, as well as the aforementioned clip, were produced through her Canadian roost, The Partners’ Film Company, Toronto.) And, as much as she enjoys working with adults, kids remain her favorite subjects.
If Hodnet understands child actors better than most directors, it’s probably because she’s been there herself. "As a kid, I was always in front of the cameraaI did commercials, I did print," she recalls. While she won’t discuss specific spotsa"if I say which ones, people will find them and I’ll never hear the end of it,"aHodnet allows that she did "some dialogue, and a lot of toy stuff."
As a commercial actor, Hodnet learned directing lessons that she’d always remember. "I think the most important thing I learned was from the directors that treated you like you were a real person, and that you had some sort of intelligence," she relates. "They would explain to me what we were going to do that day, how many shots we had, and how each shot fit into the commercial. It made me a participant, so I became a lot more enthusiastic.
"When I worked with the bad directors that just said, ‘Just go do that. Don’t ask any questions,’ it wasn’t as much fun," she continues. "I didn’t learn anything, and my energy level died out sooner. So, when I get on a set today, I love letting the kids look though the lens of the camera. I show them the storyboards, and after we’re done with a shot, I let them take the pen and put the big ‘X’ through it."
After high school graduation, Hodnet studied engineering for a few years before she realized it wasn’t for her. "My dad was an engineer, so I thought it was a great thing to do," she explains. "Once I got into it, I thought, ‘Oh my God. This is so boring.’ "
She briefly returned to commercial acting but was dissatisfied, so she decided to become a director. She studied filmmaking at The Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif., put together a reel, and, after graduating, signed with The Partners’ Film Company. "Right away, I got to work with kids," she recalls.
Last year, Hodnet signed with bicoastal Celsius Films for stateside representation. Some of her credits in the U.S. include Mattel’s "Elmo’s World," via Young & Rubicam (Y&R), New York, and "No Place Like Home" for Sears, also out of Y&R. She also appeared in "Young Guns 3," an annual panel session sponsored by Y&R that highlights new directors.
Hodnet’s reel displays her knack for directing children. "Heroes" features wistful, black-and-white footage of kids at school and on the playground as it encourages parents to plan for their future with savings bonds. "Excuses" is a color, dialogue-based ad that depicts three children offering their teacher lame excuses as to why they didn’t do their homework. (The one that works: "We still access the Internet by telephone.").
As one would expect, Hodnet has had more than her fair share of stage mother encounters. "I’ve had a couple of them that stand behind the camera and yell at the kid: ‘No, Tommy. You’re not doing that right. You have to smile.’ I’m thinking, ‘Okay. First of all, that’s not the direction I gave him.’ I’ve overheard parents saying, ‘Do you know how much money you’re making on this? We need this. We need to pay rent.’ To put that kind of responsibility on a kid is terrible. Commercials should be fun for them. I’ll never hire a kid that isn’t having fun, no matter how talented they are."
Having fun was key for the talent on Hodnet’s latest shoot: A Pampers spot, via D’Arcy, New York, starring 23 babies, all under the age of one. "The most important thing was knowing when they were about to lose it so we could take them out of the shot quickly," she explains. "Because when one baby starts crying, they all start crying."
While Hodnet enjoys making commercials, she’d like to direct features in the future. "I’d love to make a film for the pre-teen market," she says. "To me, junior high school was the most confusing, weird time. You weren’t allowed to be friends with boys any more because all of a sudden, you were supposed to like them. It was a difficult transition. I would have loved to have seen a movie that related to something happening in my life."
