Dan Schaefer<\/strong> is\nan American Film director, producer and artist. \nHis primary focus has been as storyboard artist on numerous films,\ncommercials, print, and short subjects since 1986. His projects cover a wide range of genres\nsuch as drama, science fiction, comedy and animation adapting variations in\nstyle by working with filmmakers such as Gus Van Sant in drama, to comedy for\nTom McCarthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schaefer was raised in Oregon and attended Portland State\nUniversity where he took a class on animation from noted Disney animator Stan\nGreen, which would set him on course into the field of animation, illustration\nand filmmaking. After a period of\napprenticing for artist Randy Emberlin and Ron Randall, he embarked on a career\nas an illustrator for a variety of companies such as Marvel, Dark Horse and DC\nComics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1989, Schaefer was contacted by an artist in LA about a\nproject in animation that would lead him into storyboarding for MWS on the Teen-Aged\nMutant Ninja Turtles and James Bond Jr. \nThe foray into animation would then lead into a three-year stint at\nAdidas America\/International producing designs, comps and storyboards for filmmaker\nAndrews Jenkins on projects involving the New York Yankees and Kobe Bryant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Entering a broader market of advertising, he would add\nclients such as Nike, Coca Cola, Microsoft, IBM, Cadillac, Chevy, and the\nNBA. In 2003, started work on the MGM\nfilm Dust Factory providing concept art and storyboards, leading into work on numerous\nfeature films such as Paranoid Park, The Burning Plain, Management, Gone, Lean\non Pete and Timmy Failure. 2010 would\nmark Schaefer\u2019s entry into network television on Dean Devlin\u2019s Leverage and\nlater The Librarians TV series. From\n2011, there would be projects that included six seasons on NBC\u2019s Grimm,\nNetflix\u2019s American Vandal and HBO\u2019s Here and Now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From 2003 on, his focus would include directing short\nsubjects and feature length documentaries such as Mania, a film about the\nhistory of the Portland Trailblazers and Figaro: Living in the Moment of a\nCharacter about the collaboration between Kentucky and Polish music academy\u2019s. Schaefer directed and produced a TV series\nbased on Mania, called Rip City Stories for Comcast Sports from 2009-2011. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2019, began work directing and writing on the short film\/music video called Highland Home. Schaefer would bring together a group of present and former collaborators to produce the fictional film over a course of four days. The project was shot in both Portland Oregon and locations near Lincoln City and later accepted into numerous film festivals including Cleveland International and Pasadena Film Festivals, winning several awards along the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam:<\/strong> How long have you been\nmaking films and videos?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve\nbeen in the media business including print and film since 1986. I started in\nthe animation business on the Teen-Aged Mutant Turtles animated show in 1989\nafter a fellow storyboard artist in LA suggested me. I went into storyboarding for Adidas\nInternational in 1996 and working in feature films soon after with the MGM film\nThe Dust Factory for director Eric Small and have gone on to storyboard 45\nfeatures including Paranoid Park for Gus Van Sant and more recently working\nwith Tom McCarthy on Disney\u2019s Timmy Failure. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\nstarted directing my own films in 2003, focusing mainly on documentaries after\nworking with Academy Award nominated director Skye Fitzgerald.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam:<\/strong> What film was your directorial debut?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The documentary about the Portland Trailblazers called\nMania was my feature directorial debut and premiered at the NW Filmmakers\nFestival in 2008. The film took about\ntwo years to complete and I interviewed more than 50 personalities connected to\nthe team including NBA champions Jack Ramsey, Maurice Lucas and Clyde\nDrexler. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam:<\/strong> What is your recent film about?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Highland Home story was inspired by my own search for\nbackground in my English\/Cornish history. \nWhen Brent Rogers approached me about making the film I used the lyrics\nto build a story set in the 1750\u2019s. \nAfter meeting with the composer and arranger, I pitched the story with\nloose storyboards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The story is about a young girl mulling around her\nfamilies attic when she comes across a very old book with links to her families\ndistant past in Scotland. As she reads\nthe lyrics, she imagines the story of a woman who has a whirlwind romance only\nfor that love to be lost at sea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam:<\/strong> How did you go about casting for the film?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lori Lewis was approached to cast the film and brought\nseveral choices for the lead characters including Grant Gosch as the Scottish\nman. Karen had sung the original music\nand was my only choice to play the Scottish woman. The casting went about primarily on how the\ncharacters were supposed to look and relying on Lori\u2019s knowledge of the casts\nacting ability. After meeting with the\nactors and discussing their roles, I felt confident that the choices we made\nwere great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam:<\/strong> What was the most important lesson you had to learn that has had a\npositive effect on your film? How did that lesson happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As with all projects, you learn something new. Having worked mostly directing documentary, I\nhad to rely on my experience with the many directors I\u2019ve worked with over the\nyears and my time observing on set shaping a story and visuals. Jonathan Frakes who I had worked with on the\nTV show Leverage for example, had a quick style of directing that moved the\nproduction forward and resulted in a natural spontaneity. I would need that speed to get though all the\nshots and keep it looking real. Working with both the actors and the DP to get\nwhat we needed depended on trust and I never had a doubt. I had worked with the DP\u2019s John Waller and\nBen Canales for many years and storyboarded out the film with their skills in\nmind. As with the actors, I looked for\nwhat they would bring to the table personally, making sure we were telling the\nstory and allowing them to be free to express their characters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam:<\/strong> Tell<\/strong> us a bit about\nthe other films you\u2019ve made and your other projects.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n After finishing Mania in 2008, threads from that film\nturned into my film Kings of the Road. \nKOTR was the story of Portland Oregon\u2019s most popular professional hockey\nteam in the 60\u2019s and early 70\u2019s spurred on by the eventual creator of the\nPortland Trailblazers, Harry Glickman. \nMy interview with Harry Glickman for Mania also painted a picture of an\namazing team in the Buckaroos and I was inspired to do a film about their\nstory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My third film, Figaro: Living in the Moment of a\nCharacter began after my wife Susan Sittko Schaefer was brought onto the show\nas their Hair and Make-up designer, to what would be an international\ncollaboration between the Louisville School of Music and the Szymanowski\nAcademy of Music in Katowice, Poland. It\nsounded like an incredible opportunity to catch this story that would turn out\nto be a fantastic journey between two cultures. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n My\nforth film, House By the Side of the Road dealt with the Abbott family and\ntheir experience living on family’s farm in Morrison Illinois, including\nstories of settlers moving west, the Underground Railroad and developments in\nfarming that changed the culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides\nworking in documentary I work as an illustrator for advertising including\nclients such as Nike, Adidas, Dr. Pepper, Microsoft, IBM, Cadillac, Nintendo\nand many more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My\ncareer started out in print, working for publishers like Marvel comics, Dark\nHorse, DC Comics, Beckett, and Golden Books drawing stories in pen and\nink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam:<\/strong> What role have film festivals played in your life so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n All of my films have been involved in film festivals and\nhave been a useful tool to reach a wider audience. You also get to get to know other filmmakers\nand trade filmmaking tips with those filmmakers. Networking is the most valuable resource you\nget in the festival experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam:<\/strong> Is it harder to get started or to keep going? What was\nthe particular thing that you had to conquer to do either?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a good question. Resources allow a project to move forward and\nblossom, whereas a project you start on your own takes more concentration and\nendurance to see it through. Maintaining\nyour motivation without a network takes a lot; so realizing a project will take\ntime requires patience and a solid achievable plan. Have a plan and a list of things to do and a\nvision for your final project and you can do it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam:<\/strong> How has your style evolved?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The more you do the more you learn. The more you learn the more tools you have to\nachieving your goal, whether that be a film, book or anything else. Every project has the seeds of resources you\nwill need in the next one, so keep expanding that list. My style has changed with the experiences\nI\u2019ve had working with other filmmakers and artists. For example, most of the crew that I invited\nto work on HH I had worked with on a variety of other projects, so that\ninfluenced how I went about creating the video. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam:<\/strong> What has been your personal key to success?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Have a few goals and be persistent.\u00a0 Learn a skill and hone it the best you can as tools for the future.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam:<\/strong> What are you thinking\nabout doing next?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve\njust finished two screenplays that I want to develop as well as a sci-fi short\nfilm I want to produce. I\u2019m always\ninvolved in advertising projects and film projects, so the next film that I\u2019m\nexcited about is The Water Man where I was the visual consultant working for\ndirector David Oyelowo. Hopefully it\nwill be out in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam:<\/strong> Where does your studio want to go from here?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Although I work with a lot of productions around the\ncountry, I often work with my friends here in Oregon on a variety of cool\nprojects! The film industry here in Oregon is like a family, so I always look\nforward to working with them again on something new.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Exclusive interview with Dan Schaefer – Filmmaker Dan Schaefer is an American Film director, producer and artist. His primary focus has been as storyboard artist on numerous films, commercials, print, and short subjects since 1986. His projects cover a wide range of genres such as drama, science fiction, comedy and animation adapting variations in style […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19274,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8516\/revisions\/19274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}