We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christian Hatcher. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christian below.

Christian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

In college I was a part of a project called Black enough. I was approached an asked to help direct it. This was two years before covid and the project was a Thesis project by a spoken word poet. He approached me about directing the project in December that sophomore year. He told me that he wanted to change the narrative of the way that African American’s are looked at in this country: that they must dress, act, dance…etc a certain way to be considered black. He wanted to create a show that told children that no matter what they are told in schools they are simply enough!

So we got to work! One of my other co-directors (Eric Marvel), Jahman, and I met over our Christmas break and figured out the structure of the show and what research all of us needed to do. By 3 months after then we had a full team made up of two choreographers, three directors, a lighting designer, a sound designer, an advertising team, and a documentary team. That’s not to mention the continued support of some our faculty and staff at the department.

We work-shopped the show in New York on March: 11, 13, and 14th. Ans officially opened the show in April and toured across the country during the summer.

Overall it was a blast to produce and got me started on my production grind!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Christian Hatcher, and I am a storyteller. If it involves creating a story, I have probably done it. I grew up in church, singing in the choir, helping my dad run the audio, ushering, and running the camera, among other things. I was always involved in something. It was the same at school. I was in band, theatre, multiple clubs, and would often not leave high school until around 8 pm. I loved it. And funny enough, the grind didn’t stop in college.

I attended the University of Alabama, where I received a BFA in Musical Theatre and a BA in Criminal Justice. There, I took dance lessons, voice lessons, acting, and even some small combat training. Everything was great! Until Covid hit. I lost all roles and got a true glimpse of the world outside the theatre industry. At the time, I had just created an organization on campus called The Flourish. Its aim was to help change the narrative in the way people saw Black people. We decided to do this through all mediums of art. We had a specific board in charge of every medium of visual representation and would meet regularly. My job as president of the organization was to make sure that everyone had whatever they needed to create, which, when Covid hit, seemed improbable.

So, during that “Covid Summer” (2020), I decided to work for Amazon 60 hours a week to save up money for a camera. I bought an EOS C200 and got to work learning how to use it. My friend Austin and I learned so much during that time that we even opened up our own little business by the end of the first semester of our Senior year. And because we were getting good at it, we ended up getting a few jobs around campus for filming. We became some of the go-to people to capture moments, film, and still allow people to perform, all while still being able to create content while under strict restrictions. By the time we graduated, we had received awards and won competitions based on our films and shows.

Shortly after college, I knew I wanted to go to stunt school, so I began working as a mechanic at my uncle’s shop. Both he and my father are master mechanics, and through the years, I picked up enough to make a little money to save. I did this for three months. I will forever be grateful that I was able to do this because I was making money and finally not having to worry about something related to acting. It was strange but refreshing at the same time. For the first time in over 10 years, I was not worried about a rehearsal process or scheduling a performance. The only thing that I was doing to perform was a D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) stream that I had joined in January that year.

The stream was called Ink and Lyre. I had joined in January of 2021 (my graduation year). I was invited because my cousin was in the main cast, and through some way or another, a role had opened up for another player. I jumped at the opportunity! By February, I was asked to be the Technical Director for the company and was in charge of all the equipment, editing, and uploading of episodes. At the height of my position, I was editing 8 episodes a week while simultaneously training others in the company on how to do the same. I created a technical team, and by the time I left for stunt school, I was able to breathe a little because I knew my team had my back!

Finally, I had arrived at stunt school! It was a 3-week intensive where I was set on fire, learned to stunt drive, jumped from heights, was launched in the air, pulled on wires, etc. It was the best time of my life, and I made friends that I still talk to regularly today. I was even allowed to bring my camera and practice shooting action. And funny enough, while I was also there, Ink and Lyre actually launched a Kickstarter that raised over $100,000 (I was in charge of filming and editing commercials for the project).

Understandably, I was on a high after returning! Once I got back, I found out that some of the people in my stunt class were actually in Atlanta. I began to train with one, and after a few weeks, we started shooting our own videos. Every week I would drive from Hoover to Atlanta on Thursday, choreograph and shoot the video Friday and Saturday, have it edited by Monday and sent over to our music engineer by Wednesday, and release the finished product by Friday. We called this series Backyard Beatdowns.

We did this until I moved to Atlanta! After stunt school, I decided to restart my auditioning and would do projects in Atlanta when I had time. I would do extra work, named character work, and stunt work. As I eased into the industry, I decided that it was time for me to train more! I got a job working as a videographer filming dance competitions across the country. It was perfect because I only worked on weekends and was able to train at a fighting gym during the week.

My friend and I that did Backyard Beatdowns also decided that we wanted to do a bigger film with our stunt buddies and that we should save our money and plan! By September, we had a cast, crew, and had been rehearsing for months. I was producing, editing, filming, acting, and directing. We ended up with something that was awesome! We released the film in January and had a red carpet premiere the same month.

After all that work, we took a break. I ended up going back to work for a dance company again and set my sights on a few new ventures. I opened a narrative podcasting company with my cousin, and I started to heavily look into voice acting. I also started looking into going to Japan to learn from a producer and stuntman that I met at stunt school. The only problem was I needed more money. So, I quit my job as a videographer and got a job court reporting. For the rest of that year, I learned Japanese and produced for our podcast.

As of now, the podcast company has over 24 people that contribute to the company. Its goal is to change the narrative for black people in the way they are perceived. That can literally be anything, just as long as it goes against stereotypes. At the time of writing this, we have three separate shows in production and one main DND show that releases bi-weekly.

On the horizon, I am slated to travel to Japan to start learning to produce and train in stunts yet again. I could not be more excited!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Changing the narrative. I believe that Black people are often viewed through the lens of prevalent stereotypes. These stereotypes are frequently perpetuated by the media, including art, television, and other forms of entertainment consumed by audiences worldwide. I don’t blame someone, who may never have encountered a Black person (you’d be surprised), for being ignorant of our experiences. However, in my opinion, there is an overabundance of media that portrays Black people in a stereotypical manner. My goal is to create art that focuses on the second part of Black people: the “people.”

We come in all different forms, just like anyone else, and through discussions with friends, I’ve come to understand that schools often fail to teach this diversity. Many people don’t engage with much Black media and instead rely on the sources I’m trying to counteract. So, I’ve decided to create my own media that doesn’t have a super overt message but is instead entertaining and simply showcases Black people doing something different. Anything that deviates from the same characters you see every day. Media is the most powerful driver of change, and I believe that if we can master changing the narrative, we can bring about actual change in society.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

My older cousin is a business mogul. He is two years older than me and is already on his way to taking over the world. I go to him for advice often. I think the biggest piece of advice that he gave me is that I can’t do it all. Instead of working to edit, produce, act, and more in every piece of media I make, it’s fine to just do the stuff I feel like doing and work with others to let them do the stuff they want to. He explained I would be burned out if I continued to work in the way I was, and scalability would be almost impossible.

A few years later, I now have over 24 people working for my business, and we are thriving!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: arts_and_law
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-hatcher-276180163/
• Other: Stardust and Dragons (Podcast) Linktree : https://linktr.ee/stardustanddragons

Image Credits
Diana Ward – 5th image with people holding me!