Meet Kim Dana | Director & Video Editor

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

Hi Kim, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I started shooting and editing music videos for local LA rappers back in high school. At the time, there were a lot of skeleton crews with better equipment and personnel doing the same thing and uploading their work to YouTube or Vimeo. One thing that stuck out to me were these production names that they would brand their videos with. I didn’t like the idea of crediting myself as director, editor, and so forth so I named my production KDNA. People could recognize a KDNA video. Through the years it stuck and I even added FILM at the end, becoming what it is now, KDNA FILM. Since 2010, I was freelancing as an individual but still branding all my work with the name for many years. It wasn’t until 2020 when Covid hit and many of us got laid off, that I decided to make KDNA FILM an official LLC and dedicated myself completely to the company. It wasn’t a hard choice, I had done everything as this brand and making it official on paper was a no brainer.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
KDNA FILM is a production company not constrained to any boxes. We do music videos, commercials/brand videos, skits, short films, documentaries; nothing is out of reach. Story telling is in our DNA and at the core of this production’s values and that’s something we always strive for. I believe one of our biggest projects was shooting a French documentary on a French boxer living here in Los Angeles. We were a five person crew on a tight budget and stretched every penny we could to make it look the best we could, and we did. We all kind of got emotional looking at some of the playbacks, “Like wow. We did that.” But there’s always been challenges with different shoots, but we always make it work. You can always re-shoot if you have to, hide stuff in the edit, or use a credit card. There are so many creative ways to overcome adversity. I don’t think I’d be an editor for Dick Clark Productions if not for KDNA. They saw something in my edits that caught their attention and it’s an amazing feeling. It’s also super helpful being behind the scenes of marketing in the music industry and knowing how certain content should look, so we use that knowledge to our advantage at KDNA. I believe working with your friends is a cheat code because I don’t think we’d be producing the cool stuff we do now if it wasn’t for our camaraderie. We like to make our clients feel at ease when we work with them. They feel that family bond we have and always mention how fun and different productions with us are compared to others. That’s something that I’m super proud of.

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?
If my best friend was visiting me for a weekend, I’d make them do all the things I do. So we’d start with a challenging 2.5 hour hike somewhere in the hills of Encino, because Runyon is overrated and overcrowded and we need to burn these calories for what we’re going to consume later on. Then we can get either the best bagels in LA at Courage Bagels or one of the best breakfast burritos at Wake & Late. We’d have to digest after that so we can drive around the city. Since we’d already be on the Eastside/Silverlake area I can drive west on Sunset passing Silverlake, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and ending in Malibu. You said they’re visiting, I gotta give them a glimpse of the goods in record time. Maybe get Jeni’s ice cream if we pass one. Then for the night time, we can link up with some friends of mine. Maybe hit up Jumbo’s Clown room or General Lee’s and then get some tacos from the street vendors because those are better than any brick & mortar. There are so many more cool spots but this sounds like a great day to me.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to dedicate this shout out to my KDNA crew. Ernest Lao, Luis Castillo, Axel Cubias & Sydnee Crichi. We all went to CSUN and met in the film program (minus Sydnee, she’s my cousin, but also happened to eventually go to the television program at CSUN). A big part of why our work looks so good is because our chemistry is unmatched. When you create art with your friends and really love what you do, you can tell in the finished product.
Collaborating with them is always so easy and there are no stupid ideas, everyone has a voice. There are no egos with this team and I know that KDNA wouldn’t be where it is today without them.

Website: KDNAFILM.com

Instagram: instagram.com/kdnafilm

Other: vimeo.com/kdnafilm

Image Credits
Axel Cubias Virisa Yong Deanie Chen