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Producers Richard Archer, Aaron Lam, and Jeremy Major reveal the story behind the story in the making of Heartland Son...
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READ THE FOLLOWING:E words on a page - gearing up - rolling camera - director's notes
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words on a page...
In 2001, Archer was a busy actor working in television and on stage in the Greater Toronto Area and the Hamilton region. Despite his full schedule, he felt that it was time to take the next step. He wanted to sink his teeth into a challenging lead role that would stretch the boundaries of his craft and allow him to explore the full gamut of human emotions.
In Archer's case, the future really couldn't wait - a germ of a story had sprouted in his mind, and he wouldn't stop writing until he could flesh out his story on paper. With a passion that bordered on obsession, Archer isolated himself from the outside world so he could work on the screenplay. Lucky for him, his friends would drop by on occasion and remind him to eat.
Archer drew upon his interest in edgy, character-driven stories that explore human nature with an unflinching eye. His love of westerns influenced the rural setting of the story, with its lonely ranchers, moody skies, and windy plains. The setting of Heartland Son would be epic in its visual grandeur, yet very human in the intimacy of its story.
Through his screenplay, Archer wanted to explore how the traditional farming life is becoming extinct. Farmers' fields are making way for suburbia, and barns are being replaced by endless rows of identikit housing. Heartland Son deals with Champ Hannen's life at a crossroads - should he sell the farm and begin a new life with Sadie, leaving his past behind once and for all? Or should he honour the generations before him by continuing to work the land?
Ultimately, Heartland Son is a story of failure and redemption. We see Champ's life disintegrate into an existence without hope. When the horizon starts to show a hint of promise, Champ begins the long climb from the depths of the rocky bottom. It's a long and painful climb that may not bear the silver lining that he strives for. Nothing is as it seems in Heartland Son.
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gearing up...
Archer spent the next year fine-tuning the screenplay for Heartland Son and planning the production with director Jeremy Major and producer Aaron Lam.
Major had directed the independent feature film Home Spin in 2001, which starred Archer in the lead role. Lam had worked with Major as a producer or director on documentaries, such as An Artist of the Grand: Journey Through Festival Country and The Spirit of Place: Trans Canada Trailblazing for TVOntario, and story-driven educational videos like the Mission:Possible series for Tralco-Lingo Fun Productions.
Once the screenplay was ready for shooting, the issue of casting was next up on the agenda. Archer had performed extensively on stage in Toronto and Hamilton, forming strong working relationships with talented actors on a number of productions. He drafted a "wish list" of actors to portray the characters he had created, and he was lucky to get every person he wanted.
Going head to head with Archer's character of Champ Hannen was actor Stephen Black, who played the part of Champ's father Cole with a fiery intensity like that of a possessed evangelist. His ability to change emotions instantly made for a suspenseful performance that walks the tight rope of sanity.
Claudette Brundage's portrayal of Champ's stepmother, Mita, also required a great deal of confrontation with Champ. Her ability to convey great anguish and fury with the softest of voices would help make Mita one of the most compelling and unpredictable characters in the film.
Paul McGrath played the character of "Junior," Champ's half-brother, with a seething anger that radiated from every pore. Even though Junior was the brother with the successful business, the beautiful wife, and the bright young son, he was always haunted by an inferiority complex in his competitive relationship with Champ.
In contrast, actress Patti Cannon portrayed Champ's biological mother with an ethereal calmness that suggested the reassuring presence of a guardian angel. Cannon brought her own down-to-earth personality and warmth to flesh out her character, who would figure heavily in the destiny of Champ Hannen.
As bar owner Tom Mulligan, Matthew David Lupal brought a bubbling jealousy and paranoia to the role. Tom suspected that his wife, Sadie, was sleeping around behind his back. Lupal brought a great deal of pathos to this role, which was quite sympathetic in nature and doesn't fit easily into the traditional "bad guy" label.
The final member to join the cast was Jaime Luchuck, who played the part of Sadie. With her stunning golden locks and expressive blue-eyed gaze, she was able to flip between being the innocent farm girl to a scheming seductress in an instant. Luchuck brought a new level of intricacy to the character that would keep the audience guessing as to her true intentions.
The cast was set, but the real work was just beginning.
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rolling camera...
Heartland Son was shot over 18 days of principal photography in numerous locations in southern Ontario. Three different farms would actually be used to create the Hannen homestead in the movie. Shooting began in October to capture the changing of the seasons, with its dramatic skies and coloured leaves.
With so much of the production schedule taking place outdoors, weather proved to be an interesting challenge. Bright blue skies would change to brooding thunder clouds in minutes, and hail would pop up suddenly on sunny days. While shooting the funeral scene, the cast and crew could watch as the dark mini-storms would swoop over the fields. Everyone would retreat into the church for twenty minutes while the unpleasant weather passed, then they would be able to shoot for another hour before the next storm front arrived.
A beautiful century-old farmhouse in Hamilton was rented to represent interiors of the Hannen home. With all of its original antique furniture, dinnerware, and dusty old paintings, the ghosts of yesteryear seemed to be watching over everyone. When wandering the dark halls of the house during night shoots, strange creaks and windy howls would encourage cast and crew to stay together whenever possible.
Heartland Son was a remarkable bonding experience for everyone involved. Lifelong friendships were forged during the emotionally-charged production process. The intensity of the screenplay and the darkness of the characters required a light atmosphere on set when cameras weren't rolling. The actors and the production team became a family, as many of the people were spending more time on set than with their own spouses.
When principal photography wrapped, Major and Lam began editing at The Shooting Eye in Hamilton. Lam worked with fellow composers Gail Squires and Tim Alberts in creating the score for Heartland Son. Using violin, guitar, and piano as the main musical voices, the intimate score would reflect the rural setting and the dense emotional atmosphere of the story. Recording and mixing of the score took place in April at True Music Productions in Limehouse.
Handling post-production audio was the Gemini Award-Winning Sound Dogs Toronto. Audio supervisor Stephen Barden had worked with Major and Lam previously on the documentaries The Spirit of Place: Trans Canada Trailblazing and An Artist of the Grand: Journey Through Festival Country for TVOntario. Barden had won a Gemini for his work on the series Total Recall: 2070, and had worked on such Hollywood films as Requiem for a Dream, Bride of Chucky, and Dungeons & Dragons.
The completion of post-production marked the end of an intense, life-altering experience for the filmmakers. With its exploration of human emotion, spirituality, and destiny, Heartland Son is a motion picture experience that proves the saying...
Sometimes the future can't wait...
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director's notes...
Everyone is familiar with the adage, "home is where the heart is."
In the movie Heartland Son, this rather simple phrase reminds the viewer of its central theme. The heartland is home; it is the place that shapes the lives of those who love the land. The land is more than a backdrop for the activities of those who make their livelihood there. It is a larger than life character that patiently watches and waits. The vast landscape, in all its autumn splendor, observes the unfolding of the tangled affairs of those who dwell within; as they unravel with passionate feeling and heavy hearts.
Like the ripe fields about to be harvested and the threatening skies above, this is a place where people experience a wide range of emotions. Joy and hope give rise to success and great possibilities for the future. Sadness, fear and temptation threaten to divide and destroy the good life that the land can offer.
The Hannen family is in crisis. Sudden death, low self-esteem, jealousy and inadequate communication spiral viciously in a storm cloud that could tear the roots from the rural foundation upon which this family has been built. Love and personal validation are scarce and yet so necessary to bring this family into a state of harmony with the land that has supported them for so long as a friend.
Charlie "Champ" Hannen, the popular and highly revered football hero of a decade ago, acts and responds to others according to the way his father treats him. Criticism and apparent lack of acceptance begets defiance, deceit, and impulsive behavior. Life's values become blurred, forgotten, and denied. The land appears cold and void of a living future.
Is there any hope for this melancholy and seemingly possessed individual whose shining light has faded into the glory days of the distant past?
Voices of the heart live and speak to those who are ready to hear. From her deathbed, mother shares her simple words of love when she advises Champ, "always be true to you, don't let anyone decide who you are - listen to what you know in you heart to be true." And then there are funeral words that speak from the land: "love can and will defeat all evils, even temptation and fear." They offer the possibility of new beginnings, a change of heart and reconciliation.
The sun can shine once again; the harvest may be good this year. Champ admits, "I don't know how I'm gonna be happier someplace else... It's not too late for me to do the right thing for once." The patience of the land has made a positive difference. The kindness and love of the heartland has returned; hope for the future is once again a real possibility. Home is again where the heart is.
-J.Major
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