Head Count brings the Burghart Brothers to the big leagues

Courtesy of Jacob and Ben Burghart

Jacob and Ben Burghart are ready for their breakthrough. 

The locally-based filmmaker brothers started their ascendancy in (believe it or not) 2020, when their short film Suspense was selected as part of the shorts block at Fantasia, a renowned genre film festival in Canada. The short, about a paratrooper who gets stuck in a tree while an unknown creature tries to hunt him from the ground, was a masterclass in doing a lot with very little—you’d never guess it was shot on a farm outside of Lawrence.

Three years later, the brothers are ready to premiere their first feature, Head Count, based on a previous short film. The movie follows Kat (Aaron Jakubenko of The Shannara Chronicles), a prison escapee who finds himself at the receiving end of his own revolver, held by an unknown assailant. As the gun clicks through empty rounds, Kat tries desperately to remember how many bullets are left in the gun, leading to a series of vignettes telling the story of what happened to each piece of ammunition.

Head Count also stars Melanie Zanetti (legions of grateful parents know her as the voice of Bluey’s mum) and always-welcome genre presence Ryan Kwanten (True Blood, Glorious, Creepshow and Kindred).

The film, released by Shout! Studios, will premiere at a special screening at the Screenland Armour theater Sept. 27, followed by the official theatrical and VOD release Sept. 29, and an appearance at the Tallgrass Film Festival in early October.

We checked in with the Burgharts on what they learned in the process of making their feature film dreams a reality.

Abby Olcese, The Pitch: So, this film is based off a short you did over a decade ago. What was the development process for turning it into your first feature? What made you decide this was the one you wanted to do?

Jacob Burghart: The original short we made during Wild West Film Fest back in 2010 or 2011, which was a 48 hour film festival in Lawrence. We met a lot of filmmakers there, and it was a great incubator. For the last 15 years we’ve been trying to get another movie, Follow the Leader, or any movie made really, and it was extremely difficult. 

We got hooked up with Continuous Pictures from Australia, who helped us promote our short Suspense, and that movie got into Fantasia. They encouraged us to write something smaller and more doable than Follow the Leader. Ben was the one who spearheaded Head Count, and thought we could make it a feature because we could use the same locations and build the movie around what else is available beyond that. He knew we could write the script around what we know we can do now that we have this experience and crew and ability.

So, we were set to shoot a low budget version of the movie, but then Ryan Kwanten, the patron saint of the film, was given the script and really liked it and wanted to be part of it. That’s what helped us kick the movie into gear and get it made in the sweltering heat a year ago.

Courtesy of Jacob and Ben Burghart

Ben Burghart: Previously we had all these people cast who were non-SAG. Ryan had a connection with Continuance, and when he got involved that meant we had to use SAG actors and change the whole cast. That got us Aaron (Jakubenko) and Melanie (Zanetti). That trio helped us get funding to make it happen. They’re all from Australia, cast and producers.

Jacob: They all did great midwestern accents. We were never planning on that.

Did anything about the process surprise you? Did any challenges come up that you didn’t expect?

Jacob: We were always prepared to shoot. We had it storyboarded to death, pre-shot and edited to death, rehearsed to death. We’re extremely prepared because we knew we were trying to get 40 shots a day, which is twice as many as normal, and that only happens if you’re prepared. The actual making of the movie didn’t change for us at all.

Ben: We’re both graphic designers and we do a lot of pitch decks and lookbooks, rip-o-matic trailers, stuff like that. All those visual materials excite actors and investors. We don’t just give someone a script, we give them lots of visuals, Jake makes playlists in Spotify to communicate the vibe. Any extra media you can give people helps them understand you’re serious and what you’re after.

Jacob: I think what surprised me, with actors and this getting bigger, was how down to earth and willing they were to come out to the middle of nowhere, go to these locations and play ball with us. They’d all been on bigger productions, and I was surprised and grateful they were able to get down and dirty with us and the budget we had. No one was hard to work with at all. You get an actor on board because they want to be there, they like the project. They saw Suspense, and thought, “they know what they’re doing.”

Ben: A huge challenge was scheduling. All these actors and locations, everything had to fit in this three-week period, and it’s not easy, especially if an actor has something bigger come up and you have to shift around that. It’s devastating because you’ve laid all the groundwork down and then one of your main actors is like “I have another thing I’m working on and need to go out for.” It’s not done until it’s done.

Jacob: COVID was still kind of happening, so that was tough. It was hot as hell, that wasn’t fun. Otherwise we got pretty lucky with weather and locations and finding places for people to stay, the support of the community and people wanting to help. There were daily fires we had to put out, but that’s what directing and filmmaking is. 

Courtesy of Jacob and Ben Burghart

What did you put on your Spotify playlist?

Jacob: The movie is set in Kansas, but we’re nonspecific about the time period. I love that approach in movies. I think someone once asked Jared Hess, the director of Napoleon Dynamite, when that movie takes place, and he just said “Idaho.”

So, with that in mind, we used everything from gunslinger ballads to country, pop, folk revival stuff, Austin bands and some local bands. Elvis’ “If I can Dream” was in our rip-o-matic trailer, and that helped people wrap their heads around it. If I remember right, there’s some Walker Brothers and some dad-core bands. We’re trying to create something something nerdy film kids might like but also something that Bob Seeger Dads can watch and go, “Oh yeah, that’s a movie.” Americana retro is the vibe, ideally.

That’s a pretty good aesthetic to aim for if you’re working around here. Where did you shoot?

Jacob: Mostly in this area, KC and Tonganoxie. We had one set built, everything else we found. We used a midcentury ranch house in Prairie Village, and the Campbell Dome House in Overland Park. We also got to shoot at Stockyards Brewing because we’re friends with the owners. 

We also shot at two different lakes. At the Wyandotte county lake, there was a guy shooting his semiautomatic weapon into the side of a hill and scaring all the producers. We had to come back the next day to shoot and everyone was nervous. The Sheriff showed up later and he wasn’t very helpful. 

On the whole, though, we got so much production value out of unique locations and real places, and we really tried to squeeze that out. Like, if we’d tried to build Stockyards on our own, it would’ve been insanely expensive. That’s why other movies cost so much to make. We did get to use Kansas City film incentives on this project, and that was really helpful, too.

Courtesy of Jacob and Ben Burghart

How do you go about expanding a short film into a feature from a screenwriting perspective?

Jacob: The short was conceived as these little mini-vignettes for each bullet in the gun. We thought it might not be so hard to attack if we considered it like five different short films. Like, what’s a weird, crazy, funny situation and how do we reverse engineer that so it makes sense for the story? Now how do we weave that into a character arc? How do we weave all that into a movie? We don’t start at page one. We start with the outline, then work with Josh, our writing partner, and we take a crack at different scenes. As everything is disparately built, we find different ways to smooth it all out.

Ben: We were inspired by early Coen brothers movies, Sam Raimi, Shane Black and Edgar Wright. Cool Hand Luke and Hud gave us character inspirations. The pacing and confidence from 70s movies resonated with us, too. We pitched it as Blood Simple meets Memento. 

What do you think was the biggest lesson you’ve taken away from this project?

Jacob: Ben and I worked on a lot of commercial shoots, previously, and Suspense was a big shoot for us, so we weren’t concerned with the actual production of Headcount. We’ve learned much more in post production. Now that the movie’s finished and edited, I feel like I know how to edit a movie.

Ben: Shout! Studios coming on board to distribute was the first time we’d worked with a bigger company overseeing our work. There’s that Bill Hader quote where he says if a studio gives a note and a suggestion on how to fix it, you should take the note, but find your own way to fix the problem. We found nine times out of ten that’s the way to respond. 

Being able to creatively solve problems is a big part of filmmaking that, if you don’t have anyone above you saying what works and doesn’t, is a big thing to learn when a lot more is on the line. People put money in and want a product that will sell. Once it’s out of our hands it’s no longer a film, it’s a product. You have to work together to make that real.

Film schools should really include business classes, because there’s so much we had to be smart about and pay attention to. We had to set up bank accounts, credit cards, an LLC, lawyers, all that. That’s nothing you see on the screen but it’s all essential when you start getting bigger. That’s all unavoidable, but as filmmakers we just want to be on the creative side, not get sucked into all these other aspects.

Also, we’re used to doing everything ourselves, but as you grow, you learn as a director to do your best to describe what you want and give it to someone else to accomplish. Cinematographers, costume designers, if they’re good they’ll get what you want done and do it better than you ever could.

Jacob: That was a great lesson to learn, to let go and trust. Chris Commons, our director of photography, and Corey Hinesley, our production designer, made this movie look so big. Looks like it cost more than it did. Elizabeth Bohannon, our costume designer, did a great job as well. 

We also got a lot of good, grounded advice from Simon Barrett (screenwriter of You’re Next and The Guest), who came on board as an executive producer. When Suspense was at Fantasia, he was a judge for the short film block. We talked a couple of times and connected online. He read the script, liked it, and had a few more meetings with us. He told us, “Not everyone’s gonna like it, but do everything you can to get it made.” 

Courtesy of Jacob and Ben Burghart

What’s next for you guys as you get ready for the film to come out? Where do you see things going?

Jacob: Head Count is out September 29 on VOD and in some theaters, and we’re doing a premiere at the Screenland on the 27th. After that, we’ll be at the Tallgrass Film Festival in early October, and the movie will be on DVD and Blu Ray later in October. We’re so grateful Shout! is putting it out. It’s so hard to get this far and we’re so, so grateful.

I’m really proud of the movie. I think Ben and I might sound cynical, but we are proud. I`m so grateful for the whole crew and everyone’s so talented and passionate, and flew across the world to help us bring our first movie to life. So much trust had to go into that. It’s really magical and we’re so lucky. It took us a while to get here, but we got here.

We’re very prepared for whatever’s next. We have five movies ready to go, it’s just a matter of the right person or right actor seeing it and getting into it. We just need to like, bump into Dino de Laurentis at Wendy’s or whatever.

Courtesy of Jacob and Ben Burghart