Schaumburg filmmaker honored for 'Mutiny'

Making the film "Drivers Ed Mutiny" was kind of like a do-it-yourself project for Brad Hansen.

He wrote it. Directed it. Produced it. He even appears in it.

He also created the animated opening credits, did the color timing, provided the visual effects and did all the stunt driving.

Wait. He was the stunt driver in his own movie?

"Yes," the Schaumburg filmmaker said. "That comes from years of delinquency in the high school parking lot learning how to control cars and reading up on stunt-driving books. In situations where I felt uncomfortable having the actors drive, I would double for them. Even when the girls would drive. That's me putting on a wig and getting behind the wheel to make the Volvo do fishtails."

Hansen, 26, graduated from the University of Iowa with a filmmaking degree. He wound up taking a job at a video postproduction house in Schaumburg. For more than two years, Hansen and his cast and crew - all volunteers to keep the budget around $40,000 - have worked on "Drivers Ed Mutiny," which won First Place this month in the Pro-Am feature category at the 10th annual Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival.

You could call "Drivers Ed Mutiny" a Craig's List movie. Hansen placed ads for cast and crew members on the Internet, then spent months auditioning and selecting people for his movie.

And what a movie.

"Drivers Ed Mutiny" opens with three Northwest suburban high school students drugging their obnoxious instructor, then stealing the school car for an outlaw road trip to Los Angeles. Each student has a reason to make this trip. Along the way, the strangers form a special bond. As the movie slowly reveals their motivations, it twangs the heart strings in ways that nonprofessional, low-budget indie pictures seldom do.

Hansen really knows what he's doing in this movie, from the editing to the crisp dialogue. His direction was so attuned to his characters' emotions, one viewer wondered if a woman had helped him coach the actors. (No.)

"About one third of the film is a silent movie," Hanson said. "No dialogue. It's something I'm really proud of. If I can get by with letting the actor and the camera tell the story, I don't need dialogue."

Early in the movie, the surly driver's ed instructor calls one of the students "Judd Nelson," referring to the actor from the John Hughes' teen classic "The Breakfast Club." No accident. Hansen is keenly aware his movie channels the adolescent vibe from the late Northbrook filmmaker.

"A while ago, I was saddened by the fact that nobody seemed to making John Hughes movies anymore, including John Hughes," Hansen said. "Movies about teens now days tend to be R-rated films all about drinking and sex. Hughes' films were about a bunch of strangers getting together and getting to know each other. The Judd Nelson reference was my way of letting people know that I know this is 'The Breakfast Club.'"