5 Minutes with Rami Hachache

TSS: What sparked your passion for filmmaking? Is there a moment of inspiration you can point to where it all clicked and you decided this was the career you wanted to pursue?

RH: It all started at the tender age of three when my father gifted me an 8mm Bolex camera… just kidding. That did not happen.

My family and I are refugees from Lebanon, and we moved to California when I was a toddler. Everyone’s early childhood memories are fuzzy, but even through that fuzziness I remember always being on the move, always packing, always unpacking, always stressed out, always crammed into tiny apartments with extended family members or friends. Amidst this chaos, I definitely used television as an escape.

I’ve always loved TV and all things comedy since as far back as I can remember. As a kid I was glued to the screen watching Nickelodeon and sitcoms.

Those cartoon intros and cheesy one liners were transformative.

Growing up in an Arabic-speaking household, that’s how I first started learning English and was my first real exposure to American culture. It resonated with me and even then I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to make things like that.

My love for filmmaking hit a new level in high school. During the summers, a friend and I would sneak onto the Universal Studios backlot nearly twice a week. We’d watch crews shoot features and commercials. We’d spend hours watching art departments build and strike sets. We even got invited to live tapings of TV shows. (As I type this, I realize how lucky I was to have done this in 2004 as I’m sure a chubby, unannounced Lebanese teenager who could pass for a grown man would probably be received differently nowadays). Anyway, this all lit a spark in me. I started writing, filming, and editing my own videos—and I never stopped.

Could you give us a little insight into your creative process, where would you usually start when pitching on a job?

In the commercial world, it really all starts with the agency. I realized pretty quickly that I’m jumping into the process months after the scripts have been written, then pitched, then re-written, then wept over, and then re-written again. So when I get my hands on creative, I first focus on trying to get to the bottom of what makes the concept tick from the creatives’ POV. Then, hopefully, I can add to it and make it better. It’s a team sport for sure.

What is your favorite piece of work to date, and why is it a stand out for you?

That’s a tough question! Of the things I’ve made, it’s kinda tied at the moment between two projects: a Converse advertisement that starred my real-life dad, Pierre, where he plays a shady tattoo cover-up specialist who works out of his basement, and a scripted dark comedy series I just shot the pilot for (vague I know). Of the things I did NOT make, I’d have to say the 1999 comedy Bowfinger starring Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin. Classic.

Check out Rami's work here.