Detroit native Nico Swan has always had a passion for filmmaking, but now it’s time for the world to know. Whether you’ve discovered his content on TikTok or are just getting acquainted with his work, a brief encounter with Swan’s infectious energy is all it takes to leave a lasting impression and pique curiosity.
At 23, Swan is gearing up to release his full-length film Hip Hop Clowns, following his recent success as part of Red Bull’s program for emerging filmmakers. His next ambitious goal? To win an Oscar within the next two to three years.
Born and raised in Detroit, Swan turned to filmmaking as a positive outlet, using it as a means to channel his creativity and stay away from the potential pitfalls of his environment, he says.
“It’s always made me more creative because when I was growing up in Detroit, I would be scared to go outside… so I would just stay in the house and make weird shit all the time,” Swan says. “If you’re not doing stuff out of the ordinary, you can get caught up in a dangerous cycle.”
His passion grew from creating goofy skits on YouTube to saving up $15,000 to self-finance his films.
“I’ve been working a job for a year, save up 15K, spend 100% on the film, that’s what I’ve been doing for a long time,” Swan says. “If you’re trying to make films for no money, it’s not gonna be cherries and flowers, it’s gonna be hard and everyone’s gonna be stressed out.”
Right after high school, Swan did just that, rehearsing and planning out a film about Detroit for an entire year, only to lose 80% of the footage. He could have given up at that point, but instead, he used the experience as fuel for his evolving ideas.
Swan’s hard work and determination are beginning to pay off, as he recently participated in a panel discussion in Los Angeles alongside four other emerging filmmakers, all part of Establishing Shot: A Filmmaker Launch Pad, a collaboration between Red Bull and Ghetto Film School. When he flew to New York to pitch his idea, he says he received a standing ovation, securing him a spot in the program, even though he didn’t solidify his presentation until the last minute.
Soo I MADE A FILM FOR RED BULL https://t.co/S2AmF8ugfO pic.twitter.com/bRkfFbK0lF
— Nico Swan 🚀☄️ (@NiccoSwan) October 1, 2023
Through the Red Bull launch pad, Swan was given $30,000 to fund a short documentary-style film called Fly High DIY, which explores the DIY skateboarding scene during a road trip from Detroit to Philadelphia. This opportunity was a stepping stone toward his goal of making films with a broader impact, building anticipation for his upcoming Hip Hop Clowns release.
“It’s something I learned from Quentin Tarantino. He made a micro-budget feature film as one of his first films, he used that to be able to fund more projects, and it’s kind of smart,” Swan says. “The idea of something is always gonna be bigger than when it actually comes out.”
Now he thinks it’s finally the right time, and that Halloween is the perfect day.
“I really wanted to release it on Halloween because Halloween is one of my favorite holidays… I feel like there aren’t enough Halloween movies,” Swan says. “There’s horror movies, but not Halloween movies where it’s just in the background and people are just having fun. And it just fits with the theme of the film — there’s clowns, it’s whimsical, and there’s dress-up vibes.”
The idea for the film has been in Swan’s head for over a decade. In 2011, his cousin from Chicago was staying with him and came home one day to tell the then 11-year-old Swan about an interesting encounter saying, “The craziest thing happened to me, some random guy walked past me and said, ‘Hey, you look like you’d be a great hip hop clown.’”
“He was just someone who told really captivating stories, and that’s something that inspires a lot of storytellers,” Swan says. “That convo just stuck in my head for years… I never looked it up, I just let my imagination create this world in my head of what a hip-hop clown was, so it’s been a work in progress ever since.”
My first feature whatttt?!!(non union non striked film) pic.twitter.com/iTKqIdPvvV
— Nico Swan 🚀☄️ (@NiccoSwan) October 6, 2023
“I get 1,000 [ideas] a day, but not all those ideas are always worth pursuing,” Swan adds. “But those ideas that are just in your head for so long, that’s like something higher telling you to create it.”
Swan describes Hip Hop Clowns as an “indie, dramedy musical” that’s around an hour and 20 minutes long, featuring six original tracks and an array of emotions.
“I want people to feel inspired,” Swan says. “I think things can be funny and fun, but also have a message. I love films that feel upbeat, I always say my films feel like music, and most of them have music.”
He shares that every film he writes is a reflection of his life, believing that creating work personal to yourself in an abstract way can captivate audiences more effectively. In this case, he tells the story of a character named Vox the clown.
“When you’re making an autobiography, you don’t want to be too on the nose or it’ll be boring, so I put it in a world of clowns,” Swan says. “Vox, he just lost his brother, and his art, his clown work, is in honor of his brother and in remembrance of his brother… Clowning is as big as rapping in this world and our main character Vox is trying to be the best hip-hop clown there is.”
When Swan was ready to bring Hip Hop Clowns to life in 2021, he searched casting websites, musical rosters, and social media to find actors for the roles. For a musical like this, finding people who can sing, dance, and act can be difficult.
Happily, Swan ended up getting an actor from one of his favorite musicals, Broadway’s original Spring Awakening, to star in the film. He looked at the production’s cast and realized that Johnathan B. Wright, known for his roles in Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist and Spring Awakening, was from Michigan. So, he reached out to Wright’s agent and got a response that the actor would be down to audition.
“The character he’s playing is Hendrie the Dancing Clown and it has this ’90s, early 2000s alt-indie rock kind of sound to him,” Swan says.
Some of the other actors, such as local comedian Diana Graham, are from the Detroit area as well. “I love hiring people who live in the city, I love being able to empower people to live around me, that’s what I do with most of my projects,” Swan says.
For the film’s music, Swan also worked with Detroiters and wanted to trust his collaborators to help build his creative vision.
One of the first musicians he contacted to help with music was Sean Mackillop, who was a part of the Detroit band Who Boy.
“He produced for this indie band and was part of the indie band and played keyboard but he also made beats as well, and that’s something I’m really attracted to, knowing live instruments and indie music, but hip hop as well,” Swan says.
Originally, Mackillop was set to work on all of the songs but ended up needing to take a step back due to health issues. But, he did produce the opening song titled “Vox’s Intro,” as well as “Hendrie’s Song,” which Wright sings.
“Every song’s a different genre, the film as a whole is very happy, sad, it’s very intense emotions. Our main character Vox is really manic, he’s either like really up or he’s really low,” Swan says. “The opening song is kind of rap, Hendrie’s song is very Y2K, alt, indie, and the rest of the songs are classic musical songs.”
When it comes to producing micro-budget films with limited resources, precision is very necessary. Filming took about two weeks total, and Swan says he barely ate and was taking melatonin to be able to sleep during production, but it was all still worth it to him.
“It definitely was a hard process, but still I look back and it was some of the best times I’ve had in my life and everyone in the cast would say the same,” he says.
After the release of Hip Hop Clowns, Swan hopes he is soon able to make a studio film.
“I’m ready to make a film for real, like a studio film, I got scripts,” he says. “At the [Red Bull film] premiere that we had in Santa Monica, I met some real deal people, so real deal I can’t even say who they work for, but I’m talking like maybe Warner Brothers, maybe Marvel, maybe Disney, maybe Paramount… I think I can win an Oscar in like two years, maybe three.”
With his love for Detroit, Swan says he would like to make one more film in the city before moving to New York to reach further career goals.
“I like stuff that feels exciting, fast-paced, I like stuff that’s different, so everything I make is gonna be really different,” Swan says. “Hip Hop Clowns, it’s nothing like it, it’s a very unique piece of work. If you like small-budget indie movies, it’s definitely cool to check out.”
Swan has been releasing promo videos for Hip Hop Clowns all month on Instagram. When the film is released, it will be available to watch on YouTube.
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