Today we’d like to introduce you to Andy Hansen.
Andy, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Believe it or not, I didn’t get into filmmaking until my last two years of college. Even crazier, I graduated college without ever imagining I would ever become a wedding videographer. How does that happen?
I have always loved the arts and storytelling. The first movie I ever saw in theaters was Toy Story. I was 5 years old and I instantly identified with the main character “Andy”. As a high schooler and young college kid, I was obsessed with song writing. Jury is still up on whether or not I was any good – but I didn’t care what people thought. It was a form of expression for me and I was always trying to push the medium and experiment with new recording techniques. But, song writing and audio production never really took off for me. It was a hobby and that’s what I told myself. Meanwhile, I was finishing my sophomore year of college when everything changed.
I started a program at my school that was a two semester intensive look into the purpose of work and vocation. It was designed to help us think bigger about our place in the world and how we could better utilize our gifts and passions to build into society in even greater ways than we had previously imagined. It was at the beginning of this program I asked a profound question… “could audio production be more than just a hobby for me?”
Fate had a few lovely cards to deal me – and I found myself in a Tennessee music studio for 2 months that summer working for a producer. It was one of the best summers of my life. I worked in the studio all day with bands tracking their new music and at night, I’d sleep on the music studios couch as that was the cheapest way for me to make the internship happen! I left those two months realizing something I didn’t expect. It wasn’t that I loved music production… I simply just loved production!
With a week or two before junior year began, I did something crazy. I emailed my professors and switched into being a Communications major. My school didn’t offer anything in the realm of audio production but they offered a few courses in video production. And suddenly, everything clicked. Video was the final piece of the puzzle for me. For years, I was editing sound and music and suddenly, I added video to the mix and it felt like an awakening. I spent my last two year of college pushing myself to learn as much as possible and then I graduated. And I was scared. Were the best years already behind me? Was I too late to the game? I had no leads on jobs in the video production world and college loans were now tapping on my shoulder.
I took a job doing data entry at my college after graduating. Not exactly where you though this story would go right? Data was as far away from media production as possible. And I hated it. But, it paid the bills and allowed me to explore freelance work in the evenings and weekends. What was great about working data was it didn’t deplete any of my creative energy. After sitting at a desk all day, I was just dying to get out in the world and create things! Not two months into starting as a data specialist I had a friend ask if I would consider filming her wedding. I, of course, said yes, but I had never considered the idea of filming a wedding before. Well, it was the best job offer I ever accepted. That wedding was August 18th, 2013. Two years later I was so swamped with wedding videography inquiries that I was pretty much forced to leave my data job and walk into the scary world of full-time freelance. It was a rocky start filled with the highest highs and some of the lowest lows. But now, I am three years into this full-time lifestyle as a wedding videographer and they have been some of the best years of my life. I share office space with a few other creatives in Beverly, married my own sweetheart just under two years ago, and I’ve been awarded Editors Choice and Readers Choice awards in Northshore Magazines BONS. I say that all because I am so lucky to be where I am. And, I say that to encourage other creatives too- because again I had no idea this would ever be what my life looked like. But I trusted my gut and followed my hobby’s until they became my life work. And, I am so glad I did.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I am a wedding videographer but I also love making music videos and other short form videos. I am focused on finding the story in every moment. I value real authentic moments and try to capture those as beautifully as I can as they are happening.
Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
Patience. It’s never been more accessible for artists to acquire the tools they need to create their vision. Whether you are a painter, carpenter, photo/videographer, musician, etc. We live in this beautifully frustrating time where we have the tools to create and distribute our work with ease – but more often than not it can feel like no one is listening or paying attention. And that can be discouraging. There is so much beautiful work being created and it’s so hard to keep up with it all. Learning how to be patient with the work you love doing while you search for the right audience who can enjoy and appreciate that work can take a lot of will-power. The audience is out there but in a media saturated world sometimes it just takes a little longer to break through the walls and reach the people your work is made for.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
You can view my work on my website or you can check out bite sized clips of my work on my Instagram @filmsbyandy
Support my work by following my pages and sharing my name with any newly engaged couples – or with bands looking for fun and creative music videos! 🙂
Contact Info:
- Address: 163 Cabot Street STE 204 Beverly, MA 01915
- Website: www.filmsbyandy.com
- Phone: 978-473-0483
- Email: hello@filmsbyandy.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/filmsbyandy
- Facebook: facebook.com/filmsbyandy
- Other: vimeo.com/filmsbyandy
Image Credit:
Films by Andy/Andy Hansen
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