Conversations with Daniel Ruczko

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Ruczko. 

Hi Daniel, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
I was born in the northern part of Germany, in a city called Bremen. I got into making electronic music at the age of 12 years old, which eventually led to a music producer & DJ career. After over 10 years of DJing all over Europe and releasing records on numerous labels, I got more and more interested in photography and film. I won an award for a concept I wrote for a short film, the company that gave me the award then gave me six months to complete the film as well as the money to do it. My best friend and I then shot the film by ourselves, I only bought equipment with the money I received and we kind of figured everything out as we went. This movie was our film school. I wrote the script, “acted” in it (Just because I didn’t want to bother any professionals), I composed the music, did the sound design, and my best friend and I did the editing and color grading. I started submitting the short to several festivals, one of the festivals that accepted it was the New Port Beach Film Festival, before that I have never been to LA, so I saw this as a reason and opportunity to go. I instantly fell in love with the city and felt like this is where I belong. In the following years I started spending more time in LA, I shot more shorts and won more awards. By the time I decided to move out here I have won 60 awards (which was important to get my visa). Now I live here, I am involved in several bigger and smaller projects and am just grateful for all the amazing opportunities I have been given so far. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It all happened very organic to be honest, I didn’t really stop and think about it too much, just because it seemed so logical. The biggest challenge was definitely getting the visa, just because it’s so much work. But other than that, I was lucky to have amazing people supporting me, both here and in Germany. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m kind of a mixed bag and that can be very confusing to people at time, so there are time where I pick and choose what I tell people about myself. I started with music and a lot of people know me for my music, I still produce a lot, electronic music, lots of Hip Hop and I compose music for my own films. But I now see music really only as a hobby, that way there is no pressure and it stays kind of pure, without any outside influences, other than from the people I work with. My main focus would have to be film, but everyone who knows the industry also knows that it involves a lot of waiting, and I’m not really good at that. So, I am constantly trying to make things happen. Work on scripts, come up with ideas, and so on. I do a lot of video work for companies in the music technology scene and am also involved in the development of music software. And the other thing I have been doing for several years but now more again, is 3D design. My 3D art has a very similar look to my films. So even though it seems like I’m all over the place, to me it is all one thing, and they complement each other very well. It’s all me and I wouldn’t want to pick just one of these things. 

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
No one could’ve predicted how long it will be, but I told myself right from the beginning that I want to use this time to be better and more successful. A lot of my work happened from home (unless I had to shoot, when possible) even before Covid hit, so in that regard my workdays did not change too much. In a way, it brought me new jobs and I actually embraced the extra time I had, and just produced a lot of music. My “lesson” is a weird one, it kind of showed me that no matter how much I like spending time with people, being by myself and to just create something is what I love the most. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.danielruczko.com
• Instagram: For film: instagram.com/d.ruczko For Music: instagram.com/rusher.misfit/. for 3D Art: instagram.com/andrewgony/
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6kjAUNneg4vKVx3dav12Ok?si=LT24B652SWawn6wuBlU1hw

Image Credits
Phillip Steffen
Liz Napino