Meet Daniel Santandrea | Director & Cinematographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Daniel Santandrea and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Daniel, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
It definitely started when I was a kid. I used to make videos with my sister and cousins using my parents Mini DV camera. I also did a lot of landscaping growing up and would listen to comedians while I mowed people’s lawns. I honestly thought I would become a comedian at that age, until my first class presentation and realized I hated talking in front of a crowd.

When I was in middle school I job shadowed my dad for a day, and immediately knew the cubicle life wasn’t for me. I wanted to have a career that I enjoyed and didn’t feel like I was actually working. Don’t get me wrong, working in film production is not an easy gig, but it doesn’t feel like a job to me, it just feels like I’m spending time doing something I love.

What should our readers know about your business?
I think I’ve always been the type of person with the “figure it out” mentality, but even so my path has definitely not been the easy route. I didn’t go to a big fancy film school, I went to a small school called Le Moyne College where I got a degree in creative writing. My thought was that every great movie, TV show, commercial, music video, etc always had a great script or story behind it – so I wanted to become a better writer first. Hence our slogan “Storytelling one frame at a time”.

After college I was home in Albany, NY, and didn’t find much writing work. I did a lot of camera jobs and eventually made a connection in LA. With that one connection I packed up my car and moved to LA. From there it was all just getting jobs by word of mouth. I would have random people texting me if I was available and said yes to everything. But most of the gigs I took were to be able to pay rent and survive.

I was bouncing between camera department and lighting department, and started getting union days for both. I knew that the opportunity was great, but I had a gut feeling about joining the union because I wanted to Direct. So my wife and I created our production company 1894 Pictures. Not long after, the strikes happened and the industry took a fall.

Now we’re all in this weird lull of the industry, but we keep creating. We’re in post production on our thriller short film ‘Willow’, and continue writing projects for the future.

No matter what the project or situation, there’s always a challenge to the finish line. So the one thing I will reiterate is, it’s not an easy path, and it won’t be easy at any point, but you just have to keep going if you are determined to get what you want. I think that’s the best takeaway – you have to be willing to put the work in, accept failures as learning experience, and move on from there.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m an outdoors person so I would definitely take them on my favorite hikes – Topanga Canyon or Switzer Falls. I’m a car guy so I also love the winding roads to and from those hikes. I would have to take them to Point Dume for a great beach day, and stop at one of the seafood shacks on the PCH on the way home. Korean BBQ is also a must, it’s one of my favorite types of food and it’s an experience in and of itself.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Honestly, there are so many people – it takes a village. But, specifically to film I have to give the credit to my uncle Rich. He has a marketing/design business (Shannon Rose Design) back home, and as soon as he knew I wanted to get into film, he handed me one of his cameras and said go create something. It’s fun being able to talk to a family member about the technical aspects of cameras and software.

Now, we are working on a Sci-Fi TV series together.

Website: https://1894pictures.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1894pictures/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@1894Pictures