My 2015 Demo Reel
I have been incredibly fortunate to have work on some really exciting projects over the years. Although this reel is a bit dated it will give you an idea of many of the projects I’ve worked on. If you are interested in working with me and would like to see more of my work feel free to shoot me an email.
First off, if you are reading this and are a fan of the series - from the bottom of my heart, thank you! This has been one of the craziest chapters of my life and we couldn’t have done it without you. “Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope” is hands down the most ambitious project I’ve ever worked on. For nearly the last 7 years LoH has been a huge part of my life and from it I have gained many of my closet friends, and most memorable experiences. Our team has gone on to grow a massive social media following, do meetups, attended numerous comic book conventions, meet the voice actors of the official anime, and travel across the country to host screenings and panels for fans, but most importantly it’s taught us (the hard way) how to overcome the challenges of independent film making.
After many failed blockbuster adaptations of anime films we decided to make the series as a way to show Hollywood that anime could be adapted into a live action film if only the right people (as in actual anime fans) helmed the project. The series was crowdfunded by fans who believed in our team after we released a proof of concept on YouTube, and in order to make the most of the funds raised all of the money raised went directly into production cost. Our team was comprised of very small but incredibly talented and dedicated group of people who loved DBZ, believed in the project and was passionate about bringing the series to life. Since the cast and crew didn’t get paid and most of us had full time jobs we were limited to only shooting on the weekend. It only took us a few months of filming, but once we wrapped on set we collectively spent years (literally years) in post production. This is where the biggest challenge took place. By default, when you make a live action Dragon Ball series, with a small team for free you know that you will be doing an unreal amount of VFX work, but what’s hard to account for is the challenge of continuously keeping yourself and the rest of the team inspired to keep going. I won’t go into the details of all of the hurdles we ran into here just know that we had many... I suppose I’ll save some of those stories for another blog however miraculously we managed to stay driven to finish, and I’m so glad we did! After we finally released it, and saw all of the positive feedback suddenly all of the late nights, and early mornings that went in making the finished product was worth it. As a creator all you ever want to make stuff, share it with the world and hope for a positive response. We accomplished that, and I’m forever grateful to the viewers. If you haven’t seen the series you can watch it down below.
Best,
DM
Hi, if you are reading this you have found my very first blog post. I apologize in advance ;)
This site will be dedicated to not only sharing the latest news about my work, by also place where I share tools, presets and products that I create to make life as a creator easier. In the very near future I will be releasing an amazing Adobe Premiere transitions pack that will help speed up our workflow, and make you a more efficient editor.
