Getting Back On Track

So today is my day to get everything back on track, slowly but surely. I am going to clean up my room, give my dog a bath, and later tonight possibly hang with my friend. I just want to start getting life straight to get back on track really. These past few days have been tough and now that the smoke is clearing I can see where I need to go in life.

That being said I will be crazy busy this weekend doing the 48 hour film festival which should prove to be pretty insane. So I mean today and tomorrow are going to be back on track days, but then this weekend is going to prove to just be insane again, so I don't know what I am going to do. Just endure as Alfred would say to Batman...it is in the trailer. Anyway, yeah that is how things are shaping up for me. Hope to have more less depressing stuff soon.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Rough

It has been a rough past few days, I was supposed to go on set today again for the film I am interning on but it is my grandfather's funeral today so I am not going to miss that. I haven't been blogging much either which I apologize for. I should be back into my old routine of things again soon and I apologize for not being around much.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

It Has Been Fun

It has been a whirlwind of a week that is for sure. From losing family to graduation to being on a multimillion dollar set things have been crazy. Today is really the first day in a little while I have had absolutely nothing going on and it is a little weird. My girl is out of town visiting her father and it seems like a lot of people are busy so I don't know what I am going to do today. I want to finish up Voicebox but at the same time I want to take a break from that. I also want to do some freelance work but haven't been having much luck landing a new gig for anyone. I have two music videos to do but I still have to formulate videos for them. So we will see where today goes....

Oh I was invited back on set for the big budget film I was on last Tuesday...it looks like this coming Tuesday I will be back in action helping out, this time up in Annapolis. I am excited and nervous as always but it seems like after this next day I will be on set a lot more which is pretty exciting! This is huge for my resume and for me!

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Graduation

Today I graduated from Towson University! Shout out to my fellow class members and all the friends I made at Towson these last four years. I love you all and wouldn't be here without any of you.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Somber Day

Well after a few big developments in my career I was informed last night around 11pm that my grandfather passed away from a long battle with cancer. It was a struggle for him since about last year and things were getting a lot worse for him over the past few days and last night it was too much. I have to say I didn't know my grandfather very well and I regret that so much but I am happy that he can be at peace now. Maybe as time moves forward I will get to know who he was more but for now I am going to be there for my father and my family. I hope everyone will keep there thoughts and prayers for us as we continue to move forward amidst this tragic news.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Best Day Ever?

So I think it is safe to say that yesterday was the best day ever for my film career so far. I was an on set intern for the film Better Living Through Chemistry and I have to say it was amazing! I was at the place for call time at around 4:30 am and things started out all wrong for everyone, people weren't at the places they were supposed to be and not in the right locations it was all crazy to say the least. However after things got settled out it was just work time, I helped direct extras to the parking lot because they had close to 400 extras in one day which was insane! After I finally got to set at Druid Hill Park I was handing equipment off, talking to crew members, getting advice, and I got to see Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, and Michelle Monaghan who are all starring in the film! It was a long day since things didn't wrap until 8pm but it was a great day to say the least. It was all thanks to a recommendation from my awesome lighting professor Wade Tyree who I can't thank enough for providing me with this opportunity.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Too Busy

So this weekend turned out to be pretty intense to say the least, I think in all four years of my college experience this week/weekend was my busiest in history. Friday I helped out a friend finish up his short film for a screening that night around 7pm, we got the film in during intermission. Then Saturday me and my friend worked on my film with color grading, picture lock, and adding effects in. Sunday I wrote my final paper for English class which ended up being 6.5 pages. Today I am going to foley and get all the sound effects and music score placed in my movie. Then tomorrow from the way things are sounding right now I am going to be on set for a feature film shooting here (preliminary information as far as right now). Then Wedenesday I could be doing a photoshoot for a friend of mine that I met while at Towson (or hanging with my girl...depends). Finally after all that I gotta start work on two separate music videos, a spec commercial, and a possible third music video.

Sorry to vent but that is how things are shaping up in my world right now. I hope life is easier for you guys out there and if not that isn't a bad thing you are busy, just means you are working hard. I hope to keep working hard and finally finish my film today. Wish me luck with everything!

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Racing Towards the Finish

As of right now I am working on my friends final student film project. It is freaking intense and crazy. They have only a few minutes to get the project done and then turn it in, after all that the screening of the film is tonight. I am going to it and can't wait to see the finished film since I have not seen much of anything from it. I am excited and hoping they can get it all done.

Besides that I have to finish up my own film project Voicebox and turn that in by next Tuesday and also turn in a final paper for my English class. After that I am all free and ready to go! I am so excited to graduate and get everything done!

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Four Things To Go

Well there are only four more tasks for me to tackle before I am all done with school, I shall list them below:

1.) Finish up my Experimental Film Class final project which is due today
2.) Take my Film and Literature final which is today at 3
3.) Write a 6-8 page paper which is due Tuesday for my Fiction since WWII class
4.) Finish up Voicebox which is due Tuesday for my Independent Film Study class

After all of these steps are taken I will be all done with college and moving on to either full time freelance (a good possibility) or getting my masters which I will more than likely start in about a year. It all depends on the cash flow situation as well as how much in financial support I can get for my masters degree program.

It has been a hectic week so sorry for not blogging more after next Tuesday things will be much better.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Last Day of Classes....Last Day of Work

Well today is the last day of classes here at Towson University. I have already gotten my first grade back which was in my Math class and I got an A- which was way way higher than I expected. I have two English classes then finals begin which is a scattered bag of times. On Thursday I have to do a final for Film and Literature which is the only true final I have...also I have to finish my Experimental final project by Thursday at the same time as well (the finals both overlap). After that I have a paper due for Fiction since WW2 and I have to turn in my final cut for Voicebox by Tuesday May 22nd which is the last day of finals. Then if things go well I graduate...

In other news last night was my last night at work which was less than climactic...it really just plain sucked. It was the usual affair of being stupidly stressful and almost everyone that said they would be there didn't come because things got switched around and those people that tried to act sincere in the past didn't even say anything to me, they just left. It was kind of sad and now things get real but I am excited to be moving forward with life. I have enough video work to fill a page and a half of paper so I will keep busy.


Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Media Arts Festival '12

Well I just got back from the 2012 Towson University Media Arts Festival with a pair of Second Place videos! Both Love is Undead and Hello! by Kane Mayfield got Second place in their respective categories (music video and shorts). Not only is this a nice step up from getting Third place last year with Spiritus it is also an accomplishment to submit two separate works and then have them both become finalists...then have them both place second. I feel strong about these videos and I am glad to see them get the recognition they deserve. I have to give an even bigger shout out to the two videos that beat me out this year I Tell 'Em Towson University in the music video category was a well put together video that they somehow got a ton of people to be in which is amazing (I know how hard that can be to pull off). Also to Do Not Duplicate in the shorts category was great too, a pretty sweet opening credit sequence and also some cool shots added in the mix as well.

Overall this year was much better than last and I hope to keep submitting as many years in the future as I can especially if some friends of mine end up going there next year...I can just have them submit works for me lol. Great night...lots of fun...can't wait for more festivals.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Updates!

Well I wanted to share with you the latest on what is going on here on my end of things. My latest short film Voicebox is coming together nicely, me and a friend of mine made the opening title sequence for it last night and it looks nice for the film. Also I tweaked more of the visual element of the film and it is tight like a tiger...now just the nightmare of sound work which I am hoping to do a lot of tonight since it will be a nice quiet environment to work in. Otherwise I am on track to have it all done by this coming Tuesday for school...then releasing it out to the masses.

In other news I have officially only two more days of work left before I am out for good and it feels nice! I am so glad to be done with that kiddie job cleaning pots and pans to move on to a more adult friendly environment. I am keeping my options open and I hope to find a job in the video field soon or maybe pen a script or something for money. Anything to avoid getting another day job is fine by me.

Tomorrow is the Media Arts Festival at Towson University and I hope that Love is Undead and Hello! can place high...I am not getting my hopes up that they will win but lets just see how things go. Whatever place they get I am glad that they were both selected as finalists because what that means to me is that I have a good talent for this. Obviously I am strong enough in the craft of making a music video and a short film to be considered as a finalist and trust me doing one or the other is very hard...I know this sounds cocky and I don't mean for it to, I just am blessed to have two works in two separate categories as finalists. If they win awesome if they don't I still have something to put on the resume.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

The Avengers Review

So last night I went out to the movies with a friend of mine and saw The Avengers finally just to see if it was any good. I will start by saying this...it is a solid film that being said I present to you my review of the film.

This is one of those films that you enjoy and it is worth a watch once and only once. To me The Avengers did not live up to any expectations I had for it going in. Director Joss Whedon took an approach that many will see is similar to his style especially in his television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Around every scene there is a touch of humor and farce which kept me from really getting into the film. The humor at times was nice but it all seemed unnecessary and actually detracted from the story. A film as goofy as this one did not make me feel something emotional, it hid behind the veil of humor. The main villain in the film is Loki who many will remember from the Thor film that came out last summer...and this was to me a great choice, although he was not used to the potential he could have been. The character could have been scary, and impending, and seemed like he was in control but there was at no point a time where I thought he was going to win. His staff of impending doom was cool at the beginning of the film and the mind control element could have been awesome but he quickly just felt week even against just a few of the superheroes from The Avengers. He even gave himself up for a strange bit of reasoning which as soon as you really started to understand it, that plan was already given up. The only time he seemed scary was at the beginning of the film like I said earlier.

As far as the film itself the cinematography was ok, a lot of it being high key lighting and the only cool lighting parts was when Black Widow fought Hawkeye and that was it. The scene where Hawkeye finally came too and was normal again had a really strange bit of color correction to it that just was bizaare and felt like the opening to a television show that the editor decided to play around with the look of the first scene. That being said I come to my next point of this working much like a television show. Joss Whedon seems to have had a little bit too much television story structure on his mind when he made this film, a lot of it felt just like that, a series of tv episodes strung together. The editing had a lot of weird jumps that felt like they were expecting end credits for the tv show to go. Even some of the shot selection felt like something from a lost big budget episode of Buffy. Mr. Whedon did a solid job don't get me wrong but The Avengers felt too much like his shows and not enough like a genuine superhero action film and I hope due to the large success of the film other superhero movies do not take a page and emulate this style because it just doesn't work.

If you want to watch a great superhero film pop in the old dvd of The Dark Knight or wait for the sequel coming out in July. If you must go see The Avengers you will probably like it but it fails to pack the punch of a smart and amazing superhero film. It could have been so much more than what it was...maybe the sequel will have more of an emotional presence about it but if not I will be highly disappointed.

I give it a 7 out of 10.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Back to Voicebox

After a few days of being swamped with applying places as well as going out for interviews things have slowed down again and now I am getting back to finishing up with Voicebox. I started fixing some of the edits yesterday and have been working on things to make the film visually more polished. I am also getting score done for the film right now and tomorrow I am going to try to do the foley work for the film. As I was sitting with a friend of mine yesterday I was commenting on how my professor said every scene has an emotional arc and he said...yeah every scene should or it is not needed. After I thought about that I was very happy with myself because I had accomplished a short where every scene is completely needed in that it had purpose. Other shorts I have done where I watch them and realize that some scenes are just filler or not needed but with this one it is not like that. I was proud of the film before but I am even more proud now.

In other news I have a funny feeling that Love is Undead and Kane Mayfield - Hello! will not place first at the Towson Media Arts Festival. Call it a hunch but I think the language and violent content will scare everyone off from picking it just because if it were to get first it would get screened and that means a film with language and violence will be shown. If that happens then anyone who brings their family will be offended and thus will lower the odds of high attendance for next year and I don't think the program wants to alienate any age group. I am also thinking this because in years past they just go for the film that is fun in a stupid way because that is just what they go for...especially in the shorts category and Music Video I just think Hello! is just too adult for them. So we will see but I have a bad gut feeling for this...don't get me wrong I am honored to just be a finalist.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

A lot on the Horizon

So as I look out today I see a lot places I can go for a long term freelance goal. Today I made a call to a company a friend of a friend said might be hiring, I called today and the owner is on vacation but tomorrow he is going to look at my email and set up a time to meet with me, hopefully this can work out. I have re negotiated things on two of my three upcoming music videos to get enough money to not lose money on everything, so essentially I am just breaking even which is still ok at this point. In addition I have this job editing which gets me a cool hundred per video I complete which is a nice thing to have as well. Also I am really trying to push the concert filming/music video production end of things here which I hope picks up soon. Finally, I got approached by a guy who does high end concert filming that I hope I can work with soon on some gigs as well.

There are also some other things that are just in talks right now so I don't want to give out too much before I know more. However I think things are moving along nicely and with the money I have gotten selling stuff plus my last two paychecks at my job I think I will be safe at least for a little bit. I just have to spend like no money for a while.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Finding Happiness

I think things are getting better and better right now for me. I am finally getting happier just because I know I only have another week of work left and I have a lot of things popping up that can be potential opportunities for me. Today I got the number of a guy who may be looking for an editor from a friend of a friend so I am going to call about that tomorrow. Plus I finally managed to sell my Redrock Micro adapter for a little bit of cash, I took a huge loss on it since I paid a lot more for it back in the day but it wasn't moving any time fast and I need the extra cash so it was worth it.

In other news it looks like I have a team for the 48 Hour Film Festival, I am just a boom operator but it will let me get more on set experience and you never know it could be another really good short film to have under my belt. At the very least things will get done and it is another credit to have on my resume. I hope to also start penning a potential feature length film script to do next summer, if I can get it done soon I can raise funds to make the film. We will see though this is very early in the stages. I have to make it through editing Voicebox still so that is my first priority.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Time is Coming Near

The time is coming near where I will not have an ordinary day job anymore and will have to rely on my freelance work to support me and that time would be May 14th to be exact. I am excited to be leaving my day job but at the same time almost extremely scared just because I have no idea what the future holds for me and the bills don't stop rolling in. Lucky for me I have some things in the works like a few music videos which I am hoping to get a little bit of money out of and I have an editing job which looks like I can make about a hundred a vid on which is kinda low but I will take what I can get right now to be honest. In the long term I am hoping to be able to get another day job that is either full time or offers just more to it. I mean I love video work but I also need to have a reliable pay check...but who knows maybe I will get enough video work in music videos or weddings or concerts to make a living off of. We will have to wait and see.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Interview Today

So I had an interview today for a part time photo/video assistant job and it went pretty awesome! It was a very informal occasion since I met the guy at a Starbucks up in Ellicott City but it was a great experience. I am not sure if I got the job or not but that doesn't really matter because I got handed out a lot of great advice that I think is amazingly invaluable to say the least. I mean we talked for about an hour and a half so it is a lot of ground that we managed to cover. He told me about the industry, where I should go for career choices, what I should do from here, all kinds of awesome stuff. I am so happy to just have had this experience getting the job would just be icing on an already delicious cake.

In other news both my music video for Kane Mayfield and Love is Undead are guranteed to place in the top three of their categories in the Towson Media Arts Festival so at the very least I placed in individual categories. Where things go from here is completely different but I am so proud that two pieces of my work made it so far in the competition. I will know exactly where things end up from here come May 12th but until then I am eagerly awaiting results.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Hey

I got into the finals of the Towson University Media Arts Festival for both my short film Love is Undead and my music video Kane Mayfield - Hello! so if I make it to the next round I will place in the top 3 of these two categories. If I am really lucky then I will make it into the top three for best of fest for one of these videos. We will have to see but either way I am really happy! In other news I got through another week of editing Voicebox and I am a good chunk of the way through doing foley work for the audio end of things. From here I have to add a musical score and then from there it is titles and then color correction...then I am all done, I can't wait to show everyone.

I saw The Cabin in the Woods today and it is great and weird and funny so go out to see it for sure! Also yesterday I saw Drive which is incredible so if you get a chance please watch that too!!!!! It is amazing!

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

I am Gone!

Well last night I made the brash decision to finally put in my two weeks at work. I was hating going back and dealing with that craphole place as it was, but I was willing to make a compromise and just work three days a week or whatever. However last night I get pulled into the office to get bitched at for having too many call outs, mind you this is the first time I have ever been pulled into the office at all for such a thing in 5 years I have been working there. So they are talking to me about that and then they start to bring up the 20 days I had off for making my movie (yes they kept count of the exact number of days) which I had people either cover for me or I just plain had off for so there is no reason to be bitched at for it. But alas they still decided to get on my case about it. They were acting like my career was at this dead end job and I should take it so seriously so after that I was really pissed, but ok whatever...then my supervisor informed me that they were actually trying to get me in some kind of trouble for it, yes get me in trouble for taking too many days off? What kind of bullshit is that, all I did was take off time to make a movie which is my career, the thing I love to do. So I was like screw it, so I got a blank piece of paper filled out my two weeks and handed it to my supervisor at the end of the night.

I know as of right now I have no other job lined up but I am hoping to kick back on some freelance work for a while and start looking for a full time day job somewhere. I don't know really what will happen at this point. All I know it is time to restart my life and start fresh somewhere. Film makes me so happy I just wish I could do it all the time somewhere...but the problem is finding that place.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess