Danny Schramm was well-known when he attended Nease High School. A Communications Academy graduate in 2012, and part of the school’s award-winning news crew, Danny turned out dozens of videos that played on Nease’s newscast, Wired. He organized flash mobs, created horror film spoofs, even picked up national awards for an original short film. Now Schramm is a resident of Los Angeles, California…and he’s firmly planting roots in the city that’s known for chewing up hopeful directors, and spitting them out.
This summer Danny led a production crew in Los Angeles’ highly competitive 48 Hour Film Project. The teams were given only a genre, a prop, a character’s name, and a line of dialog. Then, they had 48 hours to create an original film. Schramm says the hardest part of creating his film, Fiend, which was assigned the Creature Feature genre, was having to wait until nightfall to shoot. Fiend’s leading lady was played by Schramm’s grandmother, who flew out to LA just to take part in the competition. Schramm’s crew turned in their final film with just 15 minutes to spare.
The film premiered at Regal Cinemas LA Live and won two awards, for “Best Use of Genre,” and the “Audience Choice” award. It was also nominated for “Best Use Of Line,” “Best Graphics” and “Best Practical FX.”
When asked how his Communications Academy TV Production classes helped prepare him to compete in this prestigious event, Danny said: “When I came into TV production 1, I didn’t even know the proper way to frame an interview shot. What communications-related skills did I use to make my film? Basically a mix of everything I learned over the course of my 4 years in TV pro. Not to over-do it with the music levels being too high cutting into dialogue, proper shot framing and the rule of thirds, the use of angles and the effect they have on mood and story—that’s all stuff I learned in TV Pro.”
While these wins mark Danny’s first professional accolades in Los Angeles, they surely won’t be his last.
