Midnight Clear tells the story of five people facing a difficult Christmas Eve and, like “angels unaware,” crossing paths through chance meetings that help each other in simple, yet memorable ways. I had the opportunity to visit with director Dallas Jenkins and screenwriter Wes Halula to talk about the film.

Dallas Jenkins and Wes Halula:  The Men Behind Midnight Clear 

By: Deborah Ground Buckner 

Christmas Eve isn't always a happy time. For those coping with the losses and trials of life, there is no magical eraser that comes with December 24 to wipe them all away. Midnight Clear tells the story of five people facing a difficult Christmas Eve and, like “angels unaware,” crossing paths through chance meetings that help each other in simple, yet memorable ways. That sort of chance event that leads to something wonderful is almost the story behind the film as well. After meeting at the Kansas International Film Festival, I had the opportunity to visit with director Dallas Jenkins and screenwriter Wes Halula about the film and their careers.   

Midnight Clear began as a short story by Jerry B. Jenkins, author of the “Left Behind” series. Dallas Jenkins, Jerry's son, is a filmmaker who started on his path an at early age. “After I saw 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' in high school,” Dallas said, “I knew I wanted to make films. When I went to college, I was a theater major, but I did tons of video projects on the side. After college, I worked for a small production company in Louisville for three years before my Dad and I started Jenkins Entertainment.” 

Dallas saw the possibility of bringing his father's short story to the screen. “The short story was so poignant, and I loved the fact that it was a story with so little dialogue. So three things compelled me to make it: one, I thought it'd be a good exercise in visual filmmaking; two, I thought it could have an impact on people; and three, it fit into the kind of story that I love telling. Stories that don't shy away from darkness or the crassness of life but that also offer hope, are right up my alley.”  

The result was a short film, directed by Dallas, and also entitled Midnight Clear. Its focus “was on these two characters who were attempting suicide, and you find out that it's basically because they feel totally unnecessary in life. A few small moments occur that make them realize they still have something to offer, even if it seems minor.” (The short film is available on DVD as well).  The two characters are played by Stephen Baldwin (The Usual Suspects; 8 Seconds; Mercy) and K Callan (Lois & Clark).  

How does a relative newcomer land such names as Stephen Baldwin and K Callan? “I met Stephen to discuss other stuff, and we hit it off. I gave him the script for the short film, and he loved the character, so he agreed to do it, mostly because of our developing friendship. K Callan came on after I asked a casting director friend of mine if she knew of any older actresses who loved to do good work, regardless of the money involved. She mentioned K, I sent her the script, and she loved it. It really was that fast and easy.”  

Was it intimidating to be a fairly new director working with one of the Baldwin brothers? “In terms of intimidation, Stephen's very fun and childlike, so it certainly wasn't intimidating. I respect him and value his input, so I definitely appreciate his experience.  But I'm only intimidated by people who are aloof and difficult to communicate with; it weirds me out! 

The film received critical acclaim, including the Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival.  But the story wasn't finished yet. Dallas began to think about expanding the film to feature length. “The short was having some success, and I started to think about what a film would look like if we took the minor characters in the short and expanded their stories to make a film about five seemingly disparate characters. I love multi-character dramas with inter-weaving stories, and I wanted to make a quiet, more intimate drama. So one day while driving I pictured what the last scene would look like, and it made me cry, so I thought, 'This might work.'"  

Dallas recruited Wes Halula to work on a screenplay for a feature film. Wes says “I took a strange path to screenwriting. I've been interested in film, television and theater my whole life. My work experience has been in all three. I went to college for broadcasting. While I was in college, I started performing with an improv comedy troupe called Comedy Sportz. Believe it or not, my background in improv has given me an incredible training in writing. Improv is writing. It’s just writing and performing simultaneously. Improv has really honed my sense of structure and character development.”

After college, Wes “worked on both ends of the camera for many years. I worked my way up from Production Assistant while continuing acting in theatre and commercial work in Minneapolis. Eventually, I started an improv group with my wife and couple of college friends. Our group, HappyFunTime, performed all over the country at colleges, youth events and corporate functions for about 7 years. We also used my production knowledge to produce our own video sketches that we integrated into our show. We ended up selling our DVD in Christian bookstores around the U.S. and Canada.”   

Dallas and Wes working together on Midnight Clear is another instance of the importance of chance meetings.  As Wes relates, “I went to Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN with Dallas Jenkins. He and I worked on some projects at school that turned out pretty well. We haven’t lived in the same city since college but we've kept in touch and have tried to figure out how to work together for a long time. I called Dallas at one point and asked, 'I know this is crazy but is there a screenplay concept that you’re looking for someone to take a crack at?' He said, 'It’s weird that you’re asking. There is one that we don’t really have the development money for right now. But we’re looking to turn this short film that I just shot...it’s based on a short story my dad wrote...into a full-length feature. We can’t pay you right now. But if you write something that we want to shoot, we’ll pay you then.'”

“So I flew out to LA and spent a few days with Dallas hammering out an outline. Then I went back to Minneapolis to pound out a script. I spent the time with Dallas making sure that I was writing something that he was actually interested in. I really didn't want to go through this process just to give him something he wasn't interested in. After I gave him the first draft, he read it and said, 'Yeah, let’s do it. Write a second draft and we¹ll start preproduction on this.' I was ecstatic, of course. The process from my first phone call to actually shooting was about six months. That’s unheard of in this business. It really was a whirlwind.”  

Sometimes, the success of a short film can be its own curse when the attempt to expand the story is made. I asked Dallas about the process of making this expansion of the story. “We started from the end of the story and worked our way backwards. We knew about the two main characters and where they ended up, and we knew where each of the five characters crossed paths. So we simply asked, "Where'd they come from, how'd they get there, and what's the problem they're dealing with?" The challenge was simply to avoid making it all too tidy and cute.

Wes agrees. “I don’t think expanding the script was necessarily any harder than starting with my own premise and crafting a good story from that. In this case, the premise was given to me. The short film, and the short story it was based on, were genuinely short. There was a lot of open space to create these characters. Writing this script felt like taking these pre-existing characters and figuring out why they did the things they did and why they thought the way they thought.”

“When you start answering the 'why' questions,” Wes continues, “you naturally run into the people that had an impact on your main characters. Sometimes you need to start asking the 'why' questions for those characters, too, even if the answers to the peripheral characters don’t make it on screen, it definitely flavors the movie with 3 dimensional characters. I think audiences are grateful for that. They want to see real people on screen.”

One of the important locations in the feature length film is a gas station/convenience store called “Mr. K's.” It is here where several of the characters intersect, and these chance meetings lead the characters from one point to another “I tried to make a 'hub' for the characters in this story” Wes said, “The gas station is really that hub.  Everyone intersects there. We find out a lot of history. We find that the church was a hub in the past. But in the present time in our story, the gas station connects all of these characters. That really helped give me direction when creating new situations and new characters that were not in the short story or short film.  

“Ownership” of a story translated to film can often become an issue between a director and screenwriter.  Everyone is interested in how the story will be told, and sometimes it can be like turning one's “baby” over to another. The situation of Midnight Clear had the potential to be especially complicated, since it began as a story by the director's father, then the director's short film, then the screenwriter's expanded script. Such potential complications were easily resolved in this case. Wes said, “Dallas asked my opinion on some of the casting. But I think that was because we were friends, not because I was the screenwriter. I think that Dallas was very respectful of my thoughts and opinions throughout the whole process. But, at the end of the day, he was both producer and director. I really was a 'hired gun' to write this screenplay. So I fought hard for the things that I really believed in with this story. But the final say is with the director. I think Dallas did a great job protecting the story. He cares about good storytelling. I think that shows in the film.”

Midnight Clear as a feature film has played at several film festivals this past year, receiving honors for “Best Story Line” at the Boston International Film Festival, “Best First Feature” at the Cinequest San Jose Film Festival, “Best Script” Award at the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival and “Audience's Choice Best Narrative Film” at the Kansas International Film Festival. The Kansas International Film Festival was held in the Kansas City area, giving Wes an opportunity to return home for its screening. How was that experience? “It was very surreal. I've seen the film in front of a lot of audiences across the country. I’ll admit that seeing it in front of friends and family here made me more nervous than anywhere else. I’m sure people have wondered what it was, exactly, I was doing with my career. Hopefully this went a long way to legitimize my artistic endeavors.”  

This Midwesterner appreciates Wes' views on his hometown. “I love Kansas City. I think it’s a beautiful city. I think that growing up there has infected my DNA. I’m a Midwest guy. I have a Midwest work ethic, I have a Kansas City dining palate (translation: loves barbecue!). Honestly, I wish people in KC had a better sense of what a great place it is. I think there is a pessimism there that isn't healthy, It’s a great city with amazing people.  We should be really proud of that. I am.” 

Part of that sense of Midwestern pessimism might be the result of how Hollywood has portrayed this region of America. Dallas observes: “I think that the overwhelming majority of filmmakers in Hollywood have a cynical view of Middle America, whether they grew up in it and have rejected the traditional values, or they accept the typical media portrayal of Middle Americans as unenlightened and hiding dark secrets. Because the best films usually come from the filmmakers' personal experience or point of view, I think there's a hole in film for pictures that represent a more balanced view of Middle America, and that's part of my main reason for being in film.  That said, I don't want to present a sugar-coated view that is always clean and family-friendly, but I'm certainly going to paint a more balanced and uplifting picture.”  

This influence affects the type of stories that Dallas sees as potential films. “I think there's a big hole in Hollywood, especially in the independent and/or 'intellectually driven' film world, for films that come from a Midwest-Southern, Judeo-Christian point of view. The overwhelming majority of films that address that perspective are cynical or mocking towards it. And that's fine; I just think there's room for stories from our side.  So a script that attracts me is one that has enough reality and rawness to it to be able to relate to a wider audience, but with enough hope and values from my world view to be a story I'm excited to tell.”  

Wes is attracted to similar elements in a story. “I want to be a part of projects that resonate with truth. If there is something real, personal and tangible about a story, I’m attracted to that. I think all of us are. When we see a story about people that are very different from ourselves and yet we still think, 'Yeah, I¹m just like that'...That’s when a story is working. Those are the projects that attract my attention.”

Lion's Gate picked up Midnight Clear for distribution (on sale December 4), a goal of many film festival entrants that isn't always realized.  How does a relatively new production company find a distributor? Dallas has this advice: “If your film is good enough and is getting a good response from associates or festivals, and you don't get into Sundance (where all the distributors go), go ahead and set up a distributor screening. Invite every acquisitions executive in town and show the film. Their job is to make sure they don't miss anything good, so usually someone from each company will try to check it out. 

Midnight Clear isn't the first production for Jenkins Entertainment to have in distribution. Their very first project, Hometown Legend, starring Terry O'Quinn and Lacey Chabert, was picked up by Warner Brothers for distribution. That is a big achievement for a new production company. To what did Dallas credit this success? “I think we made a good film. I wish we would have made a GREAT film and had an opportunity for a nice theatrical release, but I'm proud of the fact that we made a film good enough for Warner Brothers to want to distribute it. The film has played all over the world, aired on CMT and ABC Family, and has sold 300,000 units. I was 25 at the time, it was our first production; I actually think that helped a bit. Our ignorance allowed us to take chances that experience might have kept us from taking!”  

What can we expect in the future from these two talented filmmakers? “Assuming Midnight Clear succeeds, Jenkins Entertainment is very passionate about making the film we've been developing for a few years, 'Mountain.' It's based on the true story of a preacher from the 1920's mountains of Virginia who civilized an entire mountain range. We've got details at our website (http://www.jenkins-entertainment.com). We're also developing a film based on my Dad's best-selling book, 'Soon,' which is generating a lot of heat.”

For Wes, “I had written a play in the 90’s with Rich Kronfeld. Some people would remember him from his show 'Let’s Bowl' on Comedy Central. Rich and I have been friends for a long time. We wrote our play 'Shut Up, Little Man' based on the underground hit recordings of the same name. The play was really well received in the Minneapolis press.  So we wrote a feature script based on the play. We worked with a local producer and director team for a while. But it became clear that we were not on the same page at all about how SULM would translate to film. It was disappointing but I think backing out of the project was the right thing to do.

Rich and I have recently written another script together. It’s a look at the Mega-church subculture in America.  I’m a Christian and Rich is Jewish, so we really tried to blend together the insider’s view and the outsider’s view.  It’s not vicious and it’s not blind, glowing praise. It’s a look at real people. We think it’s pretty funny. We’re shopping it around right now. We’ll see how that goes!

I’m also in talks with the estate for Flannery O’Connor. I’m working at securing the rights to her short stories.  There is one of her stories, in particular, that I want to turn into a short film. I’m working on writing the screenplay for the Flannery O’Connor short story and continuing to drum up support for the script about the mega-church. Both of those projects, I think, take us to a place that most of us would find unfamiliar. And both stories resonate with familiar truth. I’m excited about both stories. So we’ll see what happens next.

Both Dallas and Wes can already claim that Hollywood status title of “hyphenate,” Dallas as a director-producer and Wes as an actor-screenwriter. What hat are they most comfortable wearing?

Wes doesn't “ever want to have to choose between performing and writing. I've directed a lot of smaller projects and I don’t really want to give that up, either. I think all of those experiences inform each other. I think it¹s important to have a wide range of experiences as an artist. I think my improv acting has helped my writing a lot more than my other acting experience. On the other hand, it is important to know what words sound like when they’re said out loud.  That might be a lot harder to do without doing some acting. But improv is such a great platform for learning about what makes a successful scene work. I need to be able to bring different perspectives to whatever I’m working on. So, Lord willing, I’ll keep writing, performing, directing, speaking, editing, and whatever else is in front of me. Life is too short to only do one thing.”  

For Dallas: “Director. I just love the whole process of marrying the story to the actors. I can't write a script from scratch, and I'm not a big fan of all the business stuff; creating the story visually on set and working with the actors is where I'm most at home.”  

In film history, the names of certain directors instantly create an association. For example, Michael Curtiz means action and adventure; Frank Capra evokes an Everyman character taking on a challenging world and prevailing through love and friendship and faith; Martin Scorsese brings to mind epic gangster films. What does Dallas Jenkins hope his name will mean to future film scholars? “What a great question, I've never been asked that before! I hope that I make enough movies that there will be a recurring theme. If I do, that theme will likely be, 'Hope and faith emerging from the darkest circumstances.' Funny you mention Capra, as I'd love to do some of the kind of stuff he's done, but with a little P.T. Anderson or Quentin Tarantino thrown in.”

TO READ THE AnEVIBE 5 STAR REVIEW OF MIDNIGHT CLEAR click here