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

In A Car

So I finally have some new content for everyone. This is my latest experimental video that I made for my Experimental Film Class at Towson University. It is not for everyone and my girlfriend thought it was down right boring but that is the whole point. There is a message in this video and that being the repetitive nature of life...that is what I am trying to show with this video.

In A Car from Daniel Hess on Vimeo.

Thanks for the support,
 Daniel Hess

Making Moves

So yesterday I had my meeting with the principal from my old high school Sparrows Point. The meeting was fine, I was clean cut and dressed up, super professional. He was more than willing to help in any way that he could but as far as nailing down the school for the weekend things were completely out of his hands. As soon as I got into the fact that I would need extras and filming on the weekend it moves into a category that the county has to deal with. Apparently they would need to have custodians on duty to clean up any messes we make while filming even though I offered to clean up after all that stuff. He is going to contact the county and get back to me but things aren't looking too good as far as right now. That leads us to the past 24 hours...

Last night was total breakdown mode which happens with every production but this time especially because of the location trouble so far. Well I had to work and just was not in a good mood, because as a student filmmaker I hate the fact that I have to limit my visions because of not having money. I am a firm believer in making great work but the things trying to stop that are numerous. It is sad because if I had a million dollars to throw around the schools wouldn't hesitate to have me film there even if the project was shit. On the flip though if you have a great story but no cash to throw around no one wants to be around you.

So to the present day, I went crazy emailing every school I could think of and didn't hear back from anyone except Dundalk Elementary who told me to contact the communication department in the school, then when I did the second I said anything about filming they immediately transferred to the guy who runs the department. I left him a message and haven't heard back yet. I can see myself fighting this guy because whenever I say I want at least 50 extras for the film and want to do a little bit of decoration the conversation takes a left turn to nowhereville. Sorry I don't want to just settle anymore, and making a believable film takes some set decoration and extras. Lets see how it goes.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

ClusterF*ck of a Day

Today has been anything but boring given this whole last day of classes sign up crap at Towson. I mean I did it to myself really, deciding in my last semester to take 3 upper level English courses in one semester. I should have realized it was going to be bad when I was signed up for writing ficition when I had already taken it like 2 years ago and just forgot (which I didn't realize until 3 days before the start of the semester). Then taking a class on shakespeare was a terrible idea and after less than a week of being signed up for it I dropped that class next. Then today rolls around and I realize I could have been taking an internship class here and didn't think that through either. Today as well I was trying to make sure that I could get into my directed study class which I thought was a shoe in but it became more complicated than I thought it would be. Also today I found out I missed the online registration date to apply for graduation so now I gotta call the school and see if I can get in at all, if not I am just going to drop my Modern Fiction class and take something in the summer. Screw it all man this semester sucks and there is no one to blame but myself. I just hope I can salvage it enough to make it through.

In better news I got through from start to finish my first batch of headshots from the weekend and with the actors blessing I will be posting them online shortly. Also in better news my finances are back to order again thanks to my camera saving my a$$ once again.

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

Last Day of the Minimester

Well today is the last day of the minimester for me here at Towson University and I couldn't be anymore excited to be honest. After today I have all week off of work and school which it seems is already getting booked up with film jobs and hang out times lol. It is crazy that I have to schedule hang out times even if I have been doing it for a while it is still pretty crazy to me. I remember when I could get outta school and everyone would just hang out and do their thing. Now it is like hey what you doing tonight followed by either oh working or nothing lets chill or we figure it out days ahead of time. It sucks and it is irritating at the same time that our lives are dictated by such a thing as a job. I guess these are the questions everyone asks around this time in life. I think we question and question until due to lack of responses we just accept everything.

Sorry for that side conversation with myself. Yeah today in about 20 minutes I am going to turn in my final project which was the same thing as the last one but I had to create stills instead of finding them. Then after that I take the final quiz which will be 20 questions, maybe hear some lecturing in between or after and that is the end of that. From there it is a week of freedom! I can't wait.

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