The Chartrands: A Double-Headed Dragon of Directing
A directing couple who are married to each other, Marc and Melanie Chartrand, known collectively as The Chartrands, are a true dream team. Represented by Little Minx for commercials and photography, the pair met in college and have remained completely in sync ever since. Their shared creative journey has led them through photojournalism, fashion photography and working as DPs, before finally making the leap to commercial directing.
When they’re not finishing each other’s sentences outside of work, they’re helping each other finish jobs with a near-telepathic professional dynamic. Their directorial work, which blends their approaches together seamlessly, has included projects for top consumer brands like McDonald’s, the NY Lottery, Starbucks, Nissan and Porsche.
Speaking to LBB’s Ben Conway, Melanie says that she was initially attracted to Marc’s unique perspective that captured original, artistic layers in every story. Conversely, Marc sums his first impression in one word: “Intimidation!”
Noting how Melanie stood head and shoulders above the other photojournalists at their university newspaper, defying the cut-throat, male-dominated field to document social issues on a grand scale in the southern US and Mexico, he says, “She was peerless. Nothing intimidated her. Absolutely nothing.” He continues, “She always found the frame in a way that told the story while also being compassionate. Her work really drove home the idea that the power of a single photograph can influence hearts and minds. I was very fortunate to learn that she was an incredibly generous teacher and has a great sense of humour, so we clicked immediately.”
Their first assignment together as photojournalists was to cover a missionary group building an orphanage in Mexico. This incredible, humbling experience, says Melanie, is what makes the profession so special - the chance to “witness life unfolding” and share the stories of people they’d never imagine they’d meet. The trip also revealed their natural workflow as a duo, finding a rhythm by alternating who was taking wide shots while the other shot closer details.
“Marc could find these amazing moments that evoked the emotion and story in a single image,” she says, “while I could quietly be a fly on the wall to capture a moment of intimacy that flowed nicely with what he’d shot.” However, the trip had one more surprise in store. On the drive home, their group was run off the road and held at gunpoint. “We didn’t think we were going to make it out,” says Marc. “But we kept our heads and worked as a team to get through the situation. We’ve been glued to one another ever since.”
Above: 'Legal Reasons' for McDonald's, dir. The Chartrands
Both of their passions for photography had begun early on, with desires to capture the perspectives of other people and moments in time. Whether this manifested in recording history as photojournalists, or in exploring the world of cinema, both Marc and Melanie found the camera as the perfect outlet to connect their personal lenses with the outside world.
“Since I was quite young, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of how people subjectively experience an objective world,” says Marc. “Subjectivity is a simple idea, but astonishing to me. What better way to connect with the world around us and share the collective human experiences of joy, sadness, inspiration, loss, hope or redemption than through the merger of narrative, cinematography and music? Cinema, like life, is sculpting in time.”
An introverted child - describing herself as “a tiny female Robert Plant with a clarinet” who ate lunch in the school bathroom - Melanie would secretly raid her stepfather’s film collection at night, escaping into the worlds of ‘The Shining’, ‘Le Cercle Rouge’ and others. Enriched by these films, she says, “I aspire to tell stories that can reach out to others in the world who may not feel like they have a voice, a young girl like myself who thought that life would always be like the seventh grade. I aspire to offer them new horizons of potentiality.”
Side-by-side, the pair couldn’t stay beholden to the world of still images for long, eventually pursuing their love for film and scoring their first commercial - a glossy, slow-mo spot for RAM. Utilising Marc’s self-taught After Effects and editing skills, they transferred their highly stylised, multi-layered and re-touched print process to the world of moving image, and to this day, they’re still expanding their skillset in both mediums.
After many years of collaboration, Marc says this shared toolkit, where they build off of each other’s ideas in a fluid way, has become “a bit of a hive mind situation”. When Melanie is framing a scene, Marc will help choreograph the talent, and when Marc is discussing a sequence with their DP, Melanie will be doing the same with the agency. “So we’re a bit like a double-headed dragon… if dragons directed, instead of eating people. We don’t eat people.”
This intuitive sense of one another and a less rigid approach to on-set responsibilities is how the pair shines, adds Melanie, even if they’re operating miles apart in different units for days at a time. “Our vision and aesthetic are so enmeshed that we both know exactly how the other one is approaching directing each other’s units, which leads to the footage flowing seamlessly together as if it came from a singular source.”
While The Chartrands don’t disagree creatively all that often, it’s clear they both can approach a clash in good humour. “I’m a ginger, so I’m not 100% sure if Marc actually agrees with all of my ideas or if he’s just scared of me,” says Melanie. “We used to settle creative disputes in trial by combat,” adds Marc, “but her father owned a dojo her entire life and my hospital bills were getting out of hand, so now it’s a rock-paper-scissors situation most of the time.”
Above: The Chartrands, Melanie and Marc
Staying flexible to avoid any “pre-prescribed aesthetics” going into a project, Marc says that their working partnership and marriage has been developed around creative compromise from the start. Always very research-oriented, the pair like to nail down the approach and then build a creative, inclusive environment on set with room for spontaneity, thus leaving most disputes to be centred around problem solving, rather than investments of the ego. “It gives us the freedom to be in the moment on set and creatively improvise when we see opportunities present themselves,” he says, “When I see Mel light up with inspiration on set, it inspires me as well… Filmmaking is an intense but incredibly joyful experience.”
Passionate about work that allows them to explore creative visuals and push ideas to the next level, they highlight several pieces of work that they’re proudest of: the rebranding of Ragu with 100 period-dressed extras on a 19th-century steamer off Staten Island; a NY Lotto spot where they squeezed a robotic Bolt camera into tiny restaurants across New York City to create an uninterrupted flow of match cuts; a philosophical meditation on time for The Concours Club; and a short film about transcendence and 400mph land speed racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
“In some ways I’m proud of all of our collaborations as each one requires differing skill sets and a development of our approach,” says Marc. “Learning from one another, as well as the incredibly talented collaborators we have the good fortune to work with, has always made me proud.”
One of the biggest challenges for any directing duo is one that’s out of their control: the weather. Recently, The Chartrands faced nature’s wrath on two shoots, one for a home improvement retailer and the other for McDonald’s in British Columbia. The first saw a “veritable hurricane descend”, while a snow storm crashed the latter. Unphased, the home improvement shoot - a six-day behemoth involving Phantom cameras, cranes and more - went ahead under covers and with lighting so bright that, during the edit, the client forgot it was shot in the rain. Meanwhile, the snowy McDonald’s production involved some creatively modified flamethrowers and a touch of green-screen magic to get it over the line. “It all came out swimmingly and we celebrated with maple syrup Old Fashioneds and poutine,” says Marc.
When they’re not finding creative solutions on set, The Chartrands unwind by indulging in their intellectual curiosities - be it philosophy, psychology, history or the arts. The “typical ADHD person”, Melanie says she hyperfixates on topics and tries to learn everything about them, and says Marc is somewhat the same. “A lot of our time is exploring our various interests and then going out for dinner and drinks and discussing them.”
The couple also enjoy keeping active and exploring the great outdoors, hiking and mountain biking in nature. Marc explains that this is the perfect way to refresh the palette and have conversations about creativity and other interests. “We hiked the Colorado Trail together a few years ago and spent a decent portion of it untangling Bergman’s [1966 film] ‘Persona’, when we weren’t simply taking in the sights and sounds of the mountains.” He adds, “You experience time differently when you are disconnected from the digitised hyper-socialisation of modernity… it’s a great way to reset your patterns and thoughts and reconnect with your sense of awe the way Whitman, Muir and Emerson did.”
Above: 'Simmered in Tradition' for Ragu, dir. The Chartrands
As you can tell, there is little separation between work and home life - creative conversations flow freely in all their environments. After all, it’s this shared love for the craft that bonded the two together initially. Marc shares that new ideas are always welcome - even short film pitches at the top of the Eiffel Tower on their wedding anniversary. “We really enjoy what we do, and what we do in some ways is an extension of who we are. There is no bifurcation.”
After 24 years together, and hearing every thought possible from her husband and professional partner, Melanie adds that it still amazes her to hear endless fresh ideas. “It makes you realise that as much as you think you may know every aspect of someone’s mind, there is always so much more there. I think when we get in ruts it can be easy to take each other for granted, it’s these new sparks of ideas that pull you out of it and you realise there is so much more there to explore.”
She continues, saying that the biggest lesson she’s learnt from Marc is to keep pushing herself. Describing his fearless and seemingly limitless ambitions, as someone who writes, shoots, directs, edits, colour corrects, composites and more, she admires her other half’s ability to not just learn any trade he puts his mind to, but master them as well.
On the other hand, Marc says that Melanie has shown him how perception shapes reality, and how to listen, see and find inspiration in new, unexpected ways. “A force majeure can be seen as sullying a finely crafted plan, or it can be a doorway to an unimagined opportunity. Some of our favourite shots we’ve ever captured have been in situations like unexpected rainfall: instead of turning away, we bag the camera and adapt the narrative.”
Melanie adds, “I think a lot of us set invisible barriers in our minds that needlessly limit us to what we can and can’t do, and he’s taught me to break through those walls. He’s taught me the world is out there for me to explore and learn, and nothing but myself stops me from doing so.”
