Guest speaker follow-up

I think that having Lance McDaniel here in class was a wonderful opportunity for our students. First and foremost I think they gained exposure to the film community that exists in Oklahoma which gave them hope that they can be a part of that community! And they had access to someone who could straightforwardly answer their questions about careers in film and video.

That being said, they still have more questions. So here you go, Lance!


1. What inspired you to start in the film industry?

2. Have you ever been discouraged in the industry, and how did you keep yourself motivated?

3. Is there a specific genre of film that you prefer to create? What is it, and why?

4. What is the best advice you would give to beginning filmmakers from your experiences?

5. What steps would you recommend taking to be more involved in the film community in Oklahoma, even for someone who doesn't have much experience?

6. Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years? How do you see the deadCENTER Film Festival evolving in the next 5 years?

7. What is the best field in the Oklahoma film industry for a recent high school graduate to go into now, and how long will it take to start in that career?

8. What college or university in the Oklahoma City area would be the best choice to further my education in film and video production?

9. What exactly does a Script Supervisor do? How do you go about becoming one?

Meet Lance McDaniel, Executive Director of deadCENTER Film Festival

Lance McDaniel
Executive Director, deadCENTER Film Festival

Executive Director Lance McDaniel joined deadCENTER this year after volunteering for five years in programming, event planning, marketing and education. As an independent filmmaker, Lance screened three films at deadCENTER: a narrative short, narrative feature and documentary feature, Widowbago, which won Best Oklahoma film in 2007. Lance has worked on nine feature films in Oklahoma as a writer, director, producer and 1st Assistant Director, including 5 movies produced by Oklahoma Oscar winner Gray Frederickson, Heaven’s Rain, the Brooks Douglass story, and Pearl, the first film by the Chickasaw Nation. In Los Angeles, Lance worked as Producer's Assistant for Oscar winner Al Ruddy on Million Dollar Baby and a beach volleyball movie starring Burt Reynolds. Prior to working in film, Lance spent 15 years as VP of Creative for an Internet Consulting Company in London, New York and San Francisco. He provided strategic direction, implementation and management of websites for Levi’s, Starbucks, Star Wars, McDonalds, Harley Davidson, British Airways, Virgin Airlines and Walt Disney World.

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Lance will be a guest speaker in our class on Monday, November 22. He will talk about short films and storytelling, and then you will have an opportunity to talk to him about production jobs in Oklahoma through the blog.

In the Beginning...

Hello everyone and welcome to our Reel Training Blog. We are going to be posting all sorts of great information about video production. We want to make this an interactive site and build a community around the educational process of learning how to create quality visual stories.