How the filmmaker and painter Dan Covert built his creative career
"Nothing's going to come up by itself by itself," says Dan. "The most effective method of establishing your brand is to keep producing things. If it's just making a lot of requests for your friends, it's a great way to keep them busy and keep you engaged as a filmmaker."
This is an attitude that has carried Dan through a professional career that is that has been replete with awards at AFI, SXSW, and the obvious Staff Picks. " has shaped our careers,"" Dan tells Dan. "That sounds absurd and yet it's actually true. There wouldn't have been a audience for such things. We got cameras, and we made things."
Only a couple of days after the publication of his first feature documentary " Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a Life," which won the Audience Award at this year's SXSW and we got a opportunity to talk to Dan about his process and his most innovative work as a north star. Look over an excerpt from the conversation above, and then read the full conversation below.
It was your first venture as a painter. What did it take to get you to the point of becoming a feature-film maker?
Dan Dan: We founded an organization 16 years ago that started out as a graphic design company that then became a motion graphics company. Later, it became a production company. So it's this long evolution. Through the years, we created shorts along with a handful of them were designed by staff. The shorts were selected to wear .
We just played around and trying to figure out what we were hearing in our company as well as directors. The day I turned 40, I thought "I'm planning to create films one day." Then I thought "Maybe I'm not going to start making movies until I'm ready." After that, I started searching for stories, that would make movies, and this one was born.
16 years can be a long period of time to make stuff in this industry. How do you keep going?
Dan Dan: It's really fun to do this work. In the past I was not thinking, "Oh, there's going to be a huge blow-up event where my career changes and I'm going to the Oscars." I'm not thinking about that thing. It's just me thinking "Am am I having fun at this moment? Am I enjoying myself in the car?"
When you've made the product, it's into the world. There is no way to know how people respond to it. This is the same as asking "Did I do my best job at creating the most efficient product that I could? Do I spend time with working alongside people I love and respect? Do we try to be real and honest?" I'm always the many irons in the fire kind of man. I own a company. I am a commercial director. I've been producing films for this film. I'm pretty good at my artistic method. It's more about slowly just doing these activities that I like and then like "We'll explore where it takes us."
It's not that I'm concerned about the " which cities they visit' aspect because it can be an absolute nightmare. Since, in the end nobody cares if you're famous or prosperous? This isn't an issue you'll think about when you're old enough.
What is your personal North Star?
Dan The team is constantly improving this. But the real challenge is storytelling. It's craft and visual artistry. These are obscure terms but it does have a lot of meaning. The same thing can be said about asking "Can you write a story?" In many cases, people are presented with an unfinished concept and storytellers, they are in the process of extracting their story.
The difference between art and commercials is both opposing, but it's not the greatest degree. It's more about emotion and how you do that with gorgeous cinematography. We all have our own voices. The thing that truly excites me is storytelling and character.
What can you do to collaborate with your brand, without jeopardizing your goals?
Dan When I first began my journey, I believed that it was like "Oh this is because they're hiring me to help them with their demands." But as time went on I realized "No I'm being hired for help because they're in need of assistance and I know that I'm able to provide." So it was an enormous shift in my thinking about what they needed as well as what their vision was. That's still an important factor, but the higher I've been promoted as a leader, I've realized they're looking at you as a personal voice to really solve all of the problems and also to state, "What you guys need to accomplish will be this."
Do you have any names you'd love to partner with?
Dan The reason I say that is tricky because I really don't pay attention to that sort of matter. It's something like, "Is it a fun and interesting job?" A few of the projects that were most tedious I've ever had to accomplish have become some of the most enjoyable works. I made a short film that revolved around a type researcher at Syracuse, it's an historian's Staff Pick video we did. It was like this dude who was trapped in a basement, and he came across this font. Then Pentagram redesigned it to become Syracuse University's official logo. Syracuse University. The man is amazing. I'd love to have people who are like him.
Everybody would love to work in Nike and every other great company. It's an amazing experience but I like discovering those stories that are unique, and of sharing the stories in a stage.
I've never been able to direct. This was such a great confirmation as a filmmaker that 300,000 people in the span of a few days can see this film that we produced. It's like "Oh, my God." What do I mean? The film never was made in the form of a film. The film was created as a component of a client's project. We only slightly edited it and then I noticed this audience.
Dress Code has been on for quite a long duration. How come you're not leaving the platform?
Dan The HTML0 platform will be the hub where creators of all kinds can see the work they've created. The majority of the work is in the realm of short films. is self-funded in the sense of releasing little tests balloons, and letting other creators are able to see them. The results are always surprising. Someone from an advertising agency may call and say saying "Hey we came across this thing. Would you be able to create the campaign for us?" It's like a one-to-one. If we're putting work out in this manner It's a good bet that people who are in the right place have noticed it and they're elevating it by giving us a platform.
Where do you find ideas?
Dan Dan: I get the biggest motivation to my work via artwork. In reality I don't watch a ton of videos anymore. It's sort difficult and then I'm often tempted to duplicate some things. I try to find things that are outside the scope of what we do and also look through commercial feature papers or at the fine arts to see frames or other visual methods.
What's the most memorable tip you've received?
Dan Dan is a song by Steve Martin where he says, "Be so good that people won't have the ability to ignore you." I've always been amazed by this. It's the same to a large portion of those who are eager to create an item that they're certain is finished. To me, it's all concerned with slowly putting the time and energy into the creation of a corpus of work. And then, you'll feel so great that people will come across the works.
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