Dream Teams: Kindred Spirits Andrew Hutcheson and Charles Frank on an 8-Year Production Voyage

Celebrating their eighth anniversary this year are executive producer Andrew Hutcheson and director Charles Frank [left and right above, respectively], who co-founded the Brooklyn-based production company Voyager in 2015. With the best part of a decade spent collaborating as creative partners and building a roster of talent that reflects their shared ambitions, the pair sat down with LBB’s Ben Conway to discuss their joint voyage so far.

Long before Voyager was being recognised at Tribeca and other prestigious festivals for its documentary and narrative features, and garnering awards from the likes of the CLIOs, D&AD and One Screen for work with adidas, McDonald’s and more, Andrew and Charles met on Andrew’s senior thesis film at college. A “wide-eyed high school kid with a pretty decent DSLR kit”, Andrew describes his first impressions of the younger Charles - who he had hired to film the behind-the-scenes for the project - as that of amazement.

“He sat me down to watch his high school work and I was just stunned,” he says. “It was raw and had all the trappings of a one-person-band production, but I saw something in there that was lacking from many of my peers: a unique combination of passion and innate skill. I was impressed and, to be honest, a little intimidated that here I was completing film school with this ‘large’ production, and this high school kid had more of a voice to his work than anything I’d made to date.”

Charles says he was equally “in awe” as he witnessed his soon-to-be partner pull together his entire hometown, housing and feeding an army of filmmakers in rural New Jersey. One overnight shoot even saw the local fire department show up to wet down a stretch of road to enhance the moonlight. “I was like, ‘Who the hell is this guy and how did he pull this all off?’. He's the kind of person you want in your corner. When he's around, it feels like anything is possible, no matter how crazy it may sound.”

Soon after this initial meeting, Andrew realised that his true passion in filmmaking lay not in directing but in problem solving, and offered to produce a film for Charles. The film was a labour of love and did modestly well at festivals but, more importantly, set Andrew on the producer career path and brought the pair closer together as a duo. 

“Once Andrew and I believe in an idea, a person, or pursuit, we go all out,” says Charles. “He’s one of the best creative problem-solvers I know. He can operate 20 steps ahead while also considering every imaginable roadblock and solution. He makes everything seem possible if you just chip away at it one well-considered step at a time.”

Their commercial debut for Hasbro then followed, kickstarting their careers in adland and prompting the formation of Voyager.

Motivated simply by the desire to sustainably make films they believed in - without straining friendships and family ties with countless Kickstarters and maxed-out credit cards - the pair turned to commercial work to help bring their production company dream to life. Both a “wonderful sandbox” to hone their skills in and a means to fund passion projects, the pair initially started - but failed - to take the advertising scene of Boston by storm. Seeing that their “top-notch crew” invariably came out of LA and New York, they wisely hit the reset button and birthed Voyager - this time in Brooklyn.

In the wild west of early branded content, Andrew says they “eked out a foothold” in that space - all while avoiding the rapidly expanding, “rat-race” start-up culture that was rampant at the time. “Voyager has always been founded on holistic growth, never wanting to outpace our quality control or our ability to make meaningful work that we care about, with people we respect, in a way that’s sustainable for all of us.” He adds, “We continue to help remind each other of that tenet and, more than anything, it’s helped to keep everything in perspective.” 

Historically independent “self-starters”, their teamwork on this journey revealed the importance of community to both men, who embraced this new-found sense of belonging as a two-piece. “He brought me into his world, his dream of building something bigger than himself, and I immediately knew I wanted to be a part of it,” says Charles. “I am still so grateful that he let me in and was open to my ideas as to how we could rebrand, team up and start something new together. I think in many ways, we offered each other the last missing link we both needed to get to where we are today.”

Having both grown up with a wealth of positive self-made role models, they both had - and still have - a desire to succeed on their own terms. In the early years, this caused a natural friction that propelled them out of their comfort zones - but after finding themselves in a creative “funk” around 2013, Andrew says that their partnership and the subsequent creation of Voyager became an unignorable pathway to shared success.

Above: Charles and Andrew in 2013

“At the time, I couldn’t internalise it more than the idea of: ‘I just want to work with this person’, but looking back on it 10 years later, I think it was me recognising I’d found a kindred spirit. We’re very different people but where it counts, we’re the same. We’re both very driven and naturally independent, and yet we’re drawn to wanting to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.”

In Voyager’s honeymoon period, the duo learned that building a company is “much like a marriage”, sharing how they had to develop healthy communication and a foundation of trust to progress. “There's so much value in the way that we process and see roadblocks differently,” says Charles. “We now often joke that it's like a two-step verification process when we run problems and solutions by each other. In some instances, we can now even pause and think about problems through each other's eyes, which is a beautiful and extremely valuable thing.”

Andrew agrees, saying that adapting to everyone’s unique approach to work and communication is what fosters a successful collaboration. Reinforcing that the ‘who he’s working with’ is more important than the ‘what he’s working on’, he adds, “The best ideas can come from the most unlikely places if you’re only willing to get out of your own way and listen.” 

After building Voyager with the idea that commercials would support their filmmaking ambitions, Charles says it’s “a big win” when they find space to produce an original film they’re passionate about.

“I know Andrew feels the same whenever I get to direct original films,” he says. “He produced a narrative feature called ‘God's Time’ which was recently acquired by IFC and he's now producing a very exciting documentary feature that I can't yet share much about - but it's super cool! I'm working on one right now that Andrew has worked tirelessly to set up and protect. It's indirect, but it always makes me feel proud that our collaboration with the company has led to something sustainable and freeing.”

Above: Trailer for 'God's Time' 

Occasionally, client work and passion projects can be one and the same - a philosophy that Charles in particular has explored. One such project that Andrew is particularly proud of is ‘Junk Mail’, a film for the colour-processing equipment company X-Rite. “When it launched, the film received millions of views, got written up all over the internet and the client had a working example of how their tool was used with interviews to back it up.” He continues, “It was incredibly rewarding at such an early stage of our careers to work with a client who believed in us so wholeheartedly and I feel like I'm constantly trying to recapture that feeling with every job we take on.”

More recent work that captures this spark includes a unique production made with the Autism Society which involved keeping the crew, client and agency a quarter mile away from the set to adapt to their protagonist - a young man with nonverbal autism. “We spent time with our main subject prior to production, just hanging out without cameras so that when the shoot day came around, he was only ever seeing familiar faces,” says Charles. “It was a tricky production in many ways but it was so gratifying to work on this idea and see it through, knowing we were doing what was best for the people on screen.”

Another recent challenging commercial project saw the team’s budget and scope reduced just before filming. However, Andrew explains that they “found a way to keep the initial soul of the spot intact” by going to their documentary roots, making the community a key character in the film, and scaling back to a skeleton crew to buy themselves an extra shoot day. “That allowed us to get those magic moments that occur when people forget the camera is there and just be themselves.”

Above: 'Junk Mail' documentary short

Now living in different states, it can be more difficult to find time for the co-founders to socialise outside of work, but Andrew says “it’s just like old times” when they’re able to. “Whenever we're in the same city,” adds Charles, “we have to find the best sushi spot and enjoy an omakase together (complete with a sake pairing). One time the tuna from Shiro's in Seattle was so good that we cried.”

Over the years, the pair have shared many memorable moments such as this - not just as colleagues and creative partners, but as close friends. After taking up running as a hobby around the same time, the pair have experienced some “gorgeous runs together”, says Andrew, sharing that it’s one hobby they can find communion in even when geographically separated. “There have been some great sojourns out to Martha’s Vineyard [an island in Massachusetts] in the offseason over the years, a memorable week spent hiking in the Grand Canyon, and plenty of times seeking thrills watching horror movie after horror movie.”

For the producer half of the duo, the biggest lesson learnt along the way has been “the importance of empathy”, and learning to overcome obstacles instead of believing in their infallibility. Meanwhile, Charles looks back at the path travelled through the eyes of his high school self, with gratitude for the confidence that his partner instilled in him from the moment he showed him his early work. “Andrew has taught me that the greatest gift you can ever give someone is to believe in them.”

So be it traversing rocky terrain - in a literal sense - or rather navigating the trials and tribulations of running a production company together, the pair have inspired and learnt from each other greatly. And still, Andrew and Charles continue to develop a confident working relationship that shows no signs of slowing down after eight years of voyaging.