Dan Hopkins: Different Ways Of Working For A Filmmaker

Dan Hopkins got the symposium off to a exciting start, talking students through his filmmaking. Once the crazy business of our first day is over we'll put up some of the audio files from the presentation itself.

Dan charted his development as a filmmaker by discussing the journey he has taken since his first film 'Driven' (2000).

Driven

Dan described how this film marked his first 'official' foray into filmmaking, being funded by a variety of institutions and budgeted at £17,000. Dan had been experimenting with film from an early age and had attended University in Newport (South Wales) where he described the experience as 'great for networking' and 'working with others'. After a stint in the industry working upon Welsh programme making, Dan began to develop his own strand of visual video and film, outside of the so-called 'mainstream' broadcasters.

Plastic Decay

Plastic Decay was created on film and edited with Avid. Even at this early stage of Dan's filmmaking he developed a strong visual style and a break from conventional narrative storytelling. Discussions arose about the music, which was composed by Dan himself, despite having no formal musical knowledge or history of playing instruments. Dan described how 'the punk' in him meant he doesn't want to learn an instrument as it means he'll start to sound like everyone else. It is certainly this iconoclastic streak that comes through in his work.

There'll be more on Dan, his films, and his music, once the symposium closes and we've had a chance to put all the information together. Please revisit us soon!