Finishing up...Starting up

Things are really rolling along nicely over here. I am so close to finishing Voicebox I can taste it and that feeling is amazing! Also this Sunday coming up is my first official music video since finishing up Hello by Kane Mayfield back in January. The video is for a song called Three Beers Later by Wesley Spangler. It is a fun country song that will make for a cool little video. I am excited to be filming a video which is more light hearted in nature as compared to my past work. The song and video are intended to not take themself too seriously which is great to say the least. We will be filming at Pop's Tavern in Dundalk, Maryland on Sunday starting at 5pm. If you want to come out to the bar and be an extra in the video you are more than welcome to stop down. Everyone is welcome to be in the video! Thanks guys!

Random Movie Fact: In the 1989 film Road House, the car that Dalton buys at the used car dealership was a 1965 Buick Riviera - the only year that Buick used the "clamshell" headlight covers for the Riviera. The other car that he drives near the beginning of the movie before picking up his Mercedes Benz and leaving for Missouri is a 1964 Buick Riviera.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

For Today

So today I am trying to be more productive than have in a little bit, mainly because of being in between gigs. So what I am thinking of doing is first and foremost working on a demo reel for myself/To Tony Productions. Something to encapsulate my experience as a director, videographer, boom operator, and editor...it is going to be hard but I think I can make it work, I already have the song picked out for it and everything. So that is the first piece of business to attend to. Next up is formulating a rough sketch for a country music video we have coming up to do, once I get through that we can really start moving on dates for shooting, location scouting, etc. Next up on the agenda is washing my car, which I have been meaning to do but I actually want to get done today. After that I want to talk with a past client of ours about pricing on a new music video. Maybe I will cut the grass today if it is looking like it needs it. Finally if I have any time left in the day I will sit down and watch The Royal Tenenbaums today at some point since I am on a bit of a Wes Anderson kick this week. Other than that I don't know, we will just have to wait and see what the day brings.

Random Movie Fact: In the comedy classic Animal House, Meat Loaf was the second choice for Bluto in case John Belushi dropped out of his role.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Interview Today

So yesterday I was supposed to have an interview with a local production/post house in the Towson area, however it got postponed until today. So today at 2pm I have my interview which I am happy to have the opportunity for and also excited to see what happens. So wish me luck on that today.

Yesterday melted down into a full on basketball kind of day. It was so nice outside so things just seemed right to play some pick up games with a friend of mine. My skills are improving and I am feeling a whole lot better with the level at which I am playing at (compared to just 5 years ago). I hope to keep getting better and maybe one day I will even be able to play in a little adult league or something.

So my car has been leaking engine coolant for a little bit now and I have been dreading getting it fixed since I know it is going to cost some money, and with no available income it is a bit of a dive. However, yesterday my dad comes up to me and is like I will fix it but you have to cut the grass the entire rest of the summer. So I am like score, not only will be cutting the grass again which is good exercise but I will get my skills back up since I haven't cut the grass in like 2 years. Now I am not dropping any cash and my car will be running like new, chalk one up for the barter system!

Still catching up on sleep....still keeping busy over here, I hope life is treating you as good as it is treating me right now.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

In My Head

Today has turned into another day for figuring out my film. I believe I have the cast and crew 80% nailed down at this point which is getting rid of a lot of stress that I had at one time, and now that the stress from that situation is coaxed I am focusing in my shots. I have been toying with the possibility of making the prom scene a long take or not and after seeing Silent House I really don't want to do it handheld, so I am thinking of doing a tracking shot. Yes...a tracking shot close to the end of the film, I know it is going to be a huge pain but worth it if the footage is beautiful. I am just having trouble with it because I am trying to think of how to keep it one long action or trying to sneak in a cut somewhere along the way. I am just going to keep trying to visualize it in my head and see where I can take things. Other than that once I get my actors I will have to buy wardrobe for all of them and also find a few extras to sit in the squatter house.

In other news I have an experimental short film to get done by March 29th and I finally found inspiration from an unlikely source yesterday. I downloaded the album Want by 3OH!3 just to get all nostagilic. As I was listening I heard a pair of lyrics that really stuck to me for some reason, those lyrics are here:

Kill the lights,  
These children learn from cigarette burns, fast cars, fast women, and cheap drinks, 
It feels right,  
All these asphyxiated, self-medicated; take the white pill, you'll feel alright, 
Kill the lights,  
These children learn from cigarette burns, fast cars, fast women, and cheap drinks, 
It feels right, 
All these asphyxiated, self-medicated

For some reason I love this statement and I want to make a whole experimental video based around it. I think I am going to use a combination of film scratching, metric editing, and tint mixing to make this video pretty cool. I just want to see a visual to go along with this statement.


I totally failed my math test today...that is all.


Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Silent House Review

Yesterday I saw the film Silent House and it was one of those films that I am going to defend against all the negativity I am hearing from people. This film is 88 minutes of one long take that being said for a horror style film this is pretty remarkable especially considering the limitations of lighting for video. The story is seemingly simple but at the same time not at all, especially in the end which is something I will bring up in a second.

Anyway back to the main points first of all is lighting which as I said earlier I think was done fairly well in this movie although some of the points where there is pretty much no light was just a tad bit too dark and almost created a feeling of serenity for viewing which didn't help the tension build. The next point is score which to me was way too campy and kind of ruined the effect of the ambient sound. This film would have been way more engaging with just ambient sound, however I guess the filmmakers felt it would make the film boring for viewers or something. Next up is the acting which at times was good and bad, the worst point was the crying scenes for Elizabeth Olsen it almost seemed as though she was laughing which kind of makes sense if you take into consideration the ending but I feel is a small detail no one will really pick up on. The camera work of the film was a bit too handheld at times and instead of feeling engaging was a bit too jarring for me they could have used a preset in After Effects or something to help make the footage a little less shaky. Now time for the ending which is the most frustrating point of the film...not because it is bad but because so many people are not going to catch onto it. The ending is super duper pyschological and so much so that they average viewer is going to not understand it which will lead people to hate it. As I was walking out of the theater so many people were talking about how dumb the ending was...it is not dumb just as a heads up it is just something you will have to think about for a second, if you aren't willing to do that then don't go see it. Overall I don't think it is a must watch but is an enjoyable film with a good twist ending that to me makes the simple nature of the film even better. Check it out but be prepared to think about the ending.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess