Shawn Christensen

Shawn Christensen is an American musician, filmmaker, podcaster and artist. He is a graduate of Pratt Institute, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration and graphic design. Christensen was the frontman of the indie rock band Stellastarr. In 2013, he won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for his short film ''Curfew''.

Early life

Shawn Christensen was born and raised in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Christensen's father was an engineer and his mother was a librarian, with him being their only child. Christensen professed ''The Seventh Seal'' (1957) to be the most influential film that would inspire his filmmaking career.

Christensen enrolled at Pratt Institute, where he pursued a degree in graphic design and illustration. During weekend acting classes, he befriended sixteen-year-old Paul Wesley. Christensen was the lead vocalist and lead guitar in a college band called Ghistor, composed of himself, bassist Amanda Tannen and drummer Arthur Kremer. After Christensen graduated from Pratt with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, the band disbanded. After graduation, Christensen produced and sold abstract-realistic paintings generally themed around prominent rock music figures.

Career

Stellastarr

Alongside Tannen, Kremer and the new addition of Michael Jurin - who took up the lead guitar position - Christensen formed the indie rock band Stellastarr, (stylized as "stellastarr*), in March 2000. In July, the band had their debut performance with Christensen's original compositions at Luna Lounge on Manhattan's Lower East Side. In May 2003, Stellastarr signed with RCA Records, allowing Christensen and the other band members to focus on music as their careers. Under the RCA label, Stellastarr released an eponymous album in September 2003, featuring the standout singles "Jenny" and "My Coco".

Stellastarr released '' Harmonies for the Haunted'', their second and final album under RCA, on September 13, 2005. Christensen's progression as a singer was praised, with his tone being noted for having matured and become more consistent beyond his shifting between falsetto and baritone vocal registers. Stellastarr released their third and final album, '' Civilized'', through their personal imprint label Bloated Wife Records, in July 2009. Christensen's vocals were praised, with his range noted for being able to competently deliver deep bellows and high falsettos. Following the release of ''Civilized'', Stellastarr unofficially went on hiatus.

Filmmaking

While Stellastarr was on the Hot Fuss Tour alongside The Killers throughout the United States in 2004, Christensen collaborated with Jason Dolan on a feature-length spec script for a drama called ''Sidney Hall'' - he shared it with Paul Wesley, who subsequently presented it to William Morris Endeavor, resulting in the signing of both screenwriters. Christensen and Dolan further collaborated on other spec scripts during the mid-2000s, including a psychological thriller called '' Enter Nowhere''. Christensen independently penned screenplays, including an Alfred Hitchcock-inspired thriller called ''Abduction'' and a science-fiction drama called ''The Karma Coalition''. Both the screenplays for ''Sidney Hall'' and ''The Karma Coalition'' were sold in 2008, with the former being acquired by Scott Free Productions and the latter being acquired by Warner Bros.

After a week-long bidding war, Lionsgate Films acquired the screenplay for ''Abduction'' in February 2010, with actor Taylor Lautner attached. Lionsgate hired writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff to rewrite the screenplay and the film began production the following July. In 2011, Jack Heller directed ''Enter Nowhere'', with Christensen & Dolan credited as executive producers. It was acquired by Lionsgate for a direct-to-DVD release, prior to its premiere at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival in October.

Disillusioned from having the outcomes of studios retrofitting his screenplays, Christensen rebooted his filmmaking career, to focus on directing. He wrote a screenplay in 2011 for a short film for him to direct and co-star in called ''Curfew''. Two days prior to shooting a poignant dance scene, negotiations with the artists behind the dance's song fell through, resulting in the cast members dancing to the original song, while Christensen independently composed a single to replace it called "Sophia So Far". For two weeks, editor Evan Henke edited ''Curfew'', before Christensen took over and sporadically edited the film on his MacBook Pro in his living room throughout the remainder of 2011. ''Curfew'' premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in January 2012, followed by critical acclaim, numerous festival screenings and awards for Christensen's acting, directing and writing. At the 85th Academy Awards, ''Curfew'' won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

Prior to ''Curfew'' success, Paul Wesley took an interest in the short film's intellectual property and together with Christensen and his producing partner, Damon Russell, collaborated to develop a feature-length adaptation. The film, titled '' Before I Disappear'', premiered at South by Southwest on March 10, 2014 and won the audience award for Best Narrative Feature. ''Before I Disappear'' went on to have a successful festival run, with distinctions such as an official selection at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. IFC Films was announced to have acquired the North American distribution rights for ''Before I Disappear'' in August 2014 and the following November, the film was released on video on demand, concurrent with a limited theatrical release.

Per the Writers Guild of America, East Separated Rights, the rights to ''Sidney Hall'' reverted to Christensen in 2014, after five years of no development. Christensen opted to independently produce it through Jonathan Schwartz's Super Crispy Entertainment banner, as well as his own Fuzzy Logic Pictures banner. The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, in Park City, Utah. ''Sidney Hall'' was acquired for distribution by A24 and DirecTV in April 2017, with DirecTV providing an exclusive pre-release prior to its theatrical release. The film, re-titled ''" The Vanishing of Sidney Hall"'', was released in theaters on March 2, 2018.

Podcasting

Christensen expanded his direction to fiction podcasts, beginning with '' Blackout'', the first series produced by QCode that was released in March 2019. The first season directed by Christensen was highly popular, having been downloaded over twelve million times by the time the second season was ordered. Following the success of ''Blackout'', Christensen directed the narrative thriller ''Hunted'', the first podcast produced by Wolf Entertainment's Endeavor Audio division, released in November 2019. In 2020, Christensen founded an entertainment label called Criminal Content, alongside Gabriel Mason. Christensen directed, executive produced and acted in the company's debut podcast, ''American Hostage'', an eight-part dramatization of the 1977 Indianapolis hostage crisis perpetrated by Tony Kiritsis. Starring Jon Hamm, ''American Hostage'' was released in February 2022.

Discography

Albums

* '' Stellastarr'' (September 23, 2003) – Stellastarr
* '' Harmonies for the Haunted'' (September 13, 2005 US; March 6, 2006 UK) – Stellastarr
* '' Civilized'' (July 7, 2009) – Stellastarr

EPs

* ''Somewhere Across Forever'' (May 19, 2002 UK; December 2002 US) – Stellastarr

Singles

* "Jenny" (September 15, 2003) – Stellastarr
* "My Coco" (August 3, 2004) – Stellastarr
* "Sweet Troubled Soul" (September 2005 US; February 27, 2006 UK) – Stellastarr
* "Graffiti Eyes" (April 20, 2009 US) – Stellastarr
* "Numbers" (December 1, 2009 US) – Stellastarr
* "Sophia So Far" (April 23, 2013) – Goodnight Radio

Podcasts

Filmography

Film credits

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Christensen, Shawn
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American painters
American male film actors
Film producers from New York (state)
American male screenwriters
American illustrators
American indie rock musicians
American podcasters
Directors of Live Action Short Film Academy Award winners
Living people
Musicians from Poughkeepsie, New York
Place of birth missing (living people)
Pratt Institute alumni
Screenwriters from New York (state)
Writers from Poughkeepsie, New York
Film directors from New York (state)
Year of birth missing (living people)