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

Fortunate Day

So today has turned into quite the fortunate day for me. It is my first day back to school since spring break and I getting to ease into really easy for sure. Last night I got an email from my math teacher saying class was cancelled which was my 8am class so no waking up at 5:15 to get ready for me. I then realized I had a meeting at ten about my film but I managed to get that pushed back until Thursday. After all that I realized I had a midterm in my Film and Literature class but then got an email saying that was postponed until next week. So today has been an easy transition to get back into the swing of things for sure. I am having a pretty lucky day.

As far as plans for the film I am going to try to use Towson for my high school looking scene and then I am thinking of having a big yard sale on April 7th in order to save up more for my film. I mean I think I will have a good chunk of money from work and then taxes came back right in the nick of time but I could use that little bit more for things like food and drinks. I don't know for sure but I will see. If I do decide on that then I will post more details soon.

Also I think my DP and Sound guy get back from Europe today and I can't wait to talk to them to get everything straight for filming. I hope it all works out as far as their schedule because I can't do it without them. Finally the registration for the 48 hour film festival starts today this year and I am going to see if they want to have a group for it or not. I know I do for sure but that is just me.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

What we like about...

Daniel Hess

Everyday I see this old piece of paper that my 11th grade teacher Ms. Brown printed out and laminated for everyone in the class. It is something that I have kept all these years and it makes me smile even on a bad day. She made everyone in the class write one nice thing about every other person in the class. It was a corny thing we had to do for homework that turned into something pretty cool. I just wanted to share the comments I got on the paper.

"I like how you put a lot of energy into everything. Your hard work is noticed."

"He's smart and has pretty eyes (dun-dun-dun)."

"Dan is helpful and will explain things to me."

"Dan is very smart."

"He's very smart and won't think twice about helping out."

"Dan has a future in rapping. He makes awesome raps."

"Dan is very funny and can handle criticism well."

"Dan is very hard-working."

"Dan explains things to me when I am confused."

"He talks to everyone!"

"Dan always does more than he has to."

"He's good at being involved in school."

"The fact that Dan sits next to Marina and her laugh shows he's a strong individual."

After all that my teacher added a comment to the bottom.

"Dan - I truly appreciate your diligence, your positive attitude, and your playfulness (except the orange incident). You are my philosopher, and you will go far in life."  -Miss Brown.

This takes me back to a simpler time when school seemed hard and every day was a new adventure. Now a days it is all work and little play. I loved high school and will always miss it, I guess I can be an overly nostalgic guy but that was a time when I felt like the whole world was in my backyard. A time when I had so many friends...a time where nothing could get me down. 

Thanks for the support,

Daniel Hess

Lighting Class Final

Here is the video from my lighting class over the minimester. This was the final project and I finally got a vimeo account to put this on so YAY!



EMF 340 Lighting Final Project from Daniel Hess on Vimeo.

Finishing and Starting

So yesterday I finally buckled down and finished up the edit for my Baltimore Humane Society project in corporate video...ya know the one from last semester. Well I had it pushed back and back and back until I decided yesterday to take the whole day to get it done. It was worth it to finally get that big burden off my mind, it sucked knowing that whenever I had free time in the back of my head I would think I could be getting this project done. Well it is done! I am also almost done with Love is Undead I am hoping to somehow get it done before Friday but I don't think that will happen especially since I am going to be up all night tonight watching Start Wars in 3D with a friend of mine, so I won't be getting up early and I have work in the afternoon.

On a separate note I am officially starting the scriptwriting process for what is now titled Voicebox a film with what people have been telling me is a badass idea so I will see if I can turn a badass idea into a badass film or what will happen. I am hoping to have a DP and an Assistant Director out of two buddies of mine as well as a boom operator out of another friend of mine. If I can get those three and maybe a PA I would be set for this film. Also getting locations locked down will be kind of tricky since I really want a school setting, I will have to see. It is fun to get started on what is shaping up to be my biggest project yet but also scary at the same time.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Pictures from the Minimester

Well last night I decided to edit the pictures I took for my final project in Aesthetics of Film further to make them more appropriate for my picture reel. I know it has been a while since the last time I put up pictures so I think now is the time to do so. From my perspective I feel like the middle three are the strongest one but the first and last look pretty sweet too.

With the project we had to redo a scene from any movie we wanted and I decided to do a scene from 500 Days of Summer when Summer and Tom were talking on his bed. In the film it is presented pretty innocently but I set up to do two things very different. One was make it a lot darker, the lighting, the actions everything. Two was to change the scene to reflect the style of the whole movie and how the relationship was always in flux. I feel like I did a good job of both but you be the judge and let me know what you think.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

We Made It

Well it took all last night but somehow...someway we made it through the night with a completed short film for lighting class. We started out being very very nit picky but as the night wore on and we began getting more tired things slowly started getting...good enough lol. One take in particular was being so frustrating that I was just like alright that last one was good enough, something that is never good to say on set. However with the great job of everyone and my lovely girlfriend sacrificing her sleep as well we managed to make what should be a fun little short that at the very least is lit really really well.

I am going to be up late tonight editing it and getting it ready for class tomorrow which should be fun, but hopefully does not involve me staying up all night tonight getting it ready. I may have gotten 7 hours of sleep after we finished last night but I don't want to do that again tonight. Only this and one more project is due for my minimester classes and then it is all over. After that from the 23rd to the 30th I am taking a nice little vacation from work because I need at least a single week off before my final semester of college.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Sorry For the Late Post

Sorry for the late post everyone but I was tied up all day between school and after school projects. Class was held later in the day today but I had to get to school around the same time to work on our second lighting project. It was quick so I just chilled on campus until class time. During class we got to simulate what it would be like to have a stationary car but make it look like it was moving. It was really cool to see how it works and a good trick to remember for the next time I am shooting if I want to do driving shots.

After class I got to finish up the lighting project with my group which was fun even in the pouring rain. It is a simple little story of waking into a building but the lighting is pretty sexy to say the least. This semester is killing me slowly but I have been learning and continue to learn a lot. I wouldn't trade any of it for the world.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Working Things Out

Today I wasn't able to attend my lighting class which I thought would be no big deal but my teacher actually ended up calling my phone and asking where I was. I was shocked but it was something that couldn't be stopped since my car was driving so funky I didn't trust it going all that way. It turned out to just be transmission fluid and it is running much better right now. It was nice that things worked out that way though because it gave me more time to study for my quiz tonight and also get some much needed rest.

Also today I worked more on Love is Undead which has all the music set as of right now and the color correction is almost 100%. Now I am just working on the sound correction as well as the dreaded last step of adding the bullet/blood effects which I hope go a lot better than the last time I tried to do it, which looking pretty bad. The nice thing is that I am getting there and once the regular semester starts I will show it to some people/professors and once I get a final blessing I will send it out.

In other news I am trying to lock down this editing job which looks to be pretty basic but for each edit I do I get $100 which is pretty sweet since the work seems pretty constant. Once I get the ball rolling on that I hope to do at least one edit a week which after just a single month would be $400. We will see where it all goes but I hope it ends up somewhere nicely.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Social Experiment

So yesterday I was mainly just working all day, nothing really crazy going on until last night really.

For class I decided to go on craigslist and post something on the casual encounters not as myself but as someone completely different just to see what kind of responses I would get. The results were pretty amazing so far, I still have a few more posts to go but last night blew me away. It was crazy just to see the extreme people were willing to go just for the slim chance of certain things. The speed in which it was all received and the shear volume of responses was insane. In the end it is turning out to be a great end of year project to say the least but a little disturbing at the same time.

Other than that it was a typical long work day where I just thought about nothing more than quitting, but who doesn't have that fantasy sometimes. Ordered all the props for the samurai video shoot, but shipping could be anywhere from the 15th to the 20th, which worries me because I planned the shoot all around the 17th...

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess