Hagan talked to us about her most recent Oscar nomination, the 17! The film focuses on Paul and Millie Cao who fell in love as teenagers in Vietnam but were soon separated by the war.
Years later they finally reunited in California. Now, 40 years later, they are rediscovering themselves on the dance floor. Their dance studio is located in Alhambra, California. One big challenge that was fun to solve was how to film the dance sequence that appears in the last five to six minutes of the film.
I like to say that the camera was the third dancer in that sequence. We had the couple rehearse the dance steps over and over so I could choreograph the camera moves carefully around them to get the best angles and shots. Paul and Millie are not full-time professional dancers, so having them perform the dance in segments for multiple takes was difficult.
They really nailed it, though. I like to choose jobs that let me tell incredible stories with the camera, and I pour my heart and soul into my work. And Sundance is all about great stories. Camera technology has changed so much since you started film school. How do you keep yourself abreast of innovations? There is so much new gear out there. Then I just go for it.
The support of my LMU professors helped me launch my career. Ian Conner was also an influential and incredibly supportive cinematography teacher who first told me how much he enjoyed my work. Also, in my days at LMU, I loved that all students were responsible for making their own films. If there were 30 seniors, there were 30 films being made, so there were a lot of opportunities to get experience.
