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Meet Danny Muñoz

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Danny Muñoz.

Danny, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started from Bakersfield, CA. A small city where growing up, I thought you couldn’t leave the place, and everyone just stayed and settled. A place where agriculture was all that anybody really knew… a giant dust bowl of a county populated by a giant Latino community. A place where reaching for anything in the creative arts was unheard of because every immigrant parent thought that research education was the only way to go. To be fair, I understood them because that’s all the schools would preach to them. It was hard to navigate, especially when your parents came to this country with nothing, so now you have this unspoken pressure to be the biggest success you can be. However, with the passing of my father at the age of six, it opened the whole world to me. I was able to walk my life and dictate it at my own terms, learn my own morals, create my own ethics, ultimately choose who I wanted to be and what I wanted to learn. I could have done this with my father, but with my mother having to work long hours to maintain our family of five now, I resorted to cartoons as a coping method which I consider was the father of my upbringing. From that young age, I started drawing the characters I would watch on TV and wish to create shows like that one day.

Unfortunately, there were no resources for me to learn from and truly seek this out. I thought that for a while, at least until I discovered animation and editing in my sophomore year of high school. It was then that my dreams of my childhood could actually be a possibility now that I was learning it. That ambition led me to advance my knowledge and prep myself by going to college.

Considering animation saved me as a child, I felt it right for me to follow that career path and give back to it. I discovered USC’s animation program and made it my goal to attend there one day. However, faith had different plans. I didn’t get in, I didn’t have the talent, I had the grades and test scores that the school system led me to believe was all you need, but it wasn’t enough. It was my fault. I didn’t prepare myself well enough as I thought. So, I went with my backup plan and attended UC Santa Barbara where I unexpectedly found my true calling – film editing. It was then in my sophomore year that I learned the practice of film editing, which inevitably would be my career of choice. I took it on out of curiosity to help out my now best friend – Tinbete Daniel. He worked with me in the summer in an animation class which is where our friendship started. I saw how well his work ethic was and how he wouldn’t let me suffer long hours just because the rest of the class was lazy, so I was drawn to that ambition – the same ambition I have. So, I felt it right for me to help him out in his film like he did for me, but what I didn’t know was that I would be awarded “Best Editing” for the short I helped Tinbete on. This fueled me. From there, I took on some free roles just to gain more experience for myself as an editor while at the same time, continue to work on transferring out to USC. Since I was a child, I wanted to learn animation and work in that profession longer than I wanted to do editing. The fact that it didn’t work the first time, made me furious as I wanted to see it through and finish the goal I started. So, I got better at drawing and creating a good enough portfolio to get accepted into the University of Southern California’s John C. Hench Animation Division.

Once I transferred into USC’s prestigious animation program, I made it a goal to continue learning more about film, and editing as much as I could while having access to the film school. I didn’t want to go into the film school and put on all the hats of production – director, producer, cinematographer, etc., I just wanted to be an editor. So, if I couldn’t gain access to some of the production courses to learn more editing, I decided the best way to learn is to go into the real world and do it for real rather than continue on training wheels. By doing so, I crafted my own path to learn what I wanted to learn. That allowed me to meet and work with many students who are now friends or acquaintances of mine by targeting myself as an editor and animator. It gave me the chance to meet and learn from highly respected professors in the industry and create a relationship with a mentor and now friend of mine – Nancy Forner, ACE. Through this, I was allowed to work on new projects as an editor and by being in LA, I got the chance to branch out and network as I continued this path.

After graduation, I landed a job as a runner at Trailer Park, a role I secured before graduation due to an internship there the summer before. In a short time, I moved up as an assistant editor and that was when I learned how to cut for film trailers and short segmented TV spots. I would stay after hours and learn the craft on my own time, and speak with the editors when I could to learn what sells and what doesn’t, what works and what doesn’t, how they got here etc. It really helped me understand what was important in a film and what wasn’t, what would appease the audience more and what wouldn’t. The best learning tool was just to be able to see their timeline and understand how it all actually came together. It was another form of storytelling I didn’t know, but am happy I got to learn now. Ultimately, I enjoyed my time there, but still knew I wasn’t satisfied in the advertising world. So, I started freelancing while working there full-time and eventually parted ways to pursue freelancing and seeking other work.

I wanted to seek more work in the scripted narrative side of film-making, so I tried freelancing again in hopes of joining the guild of editors by collecting the hours necessary. After speaking with the editors at Trailer Park, and my own network, joining the union would be the next step forward in order to broaden my opportunities in features and television. So as of November 2018, I started freelancing and soon after landed a role as a Post PA on a feature documentary named “Watson”, directed by Lesley Chilcott. This forced me to re-learn AVID, which was super helpful as it would help me in my next role. Lesley thought I made a great impression and did a splendid job on her film, that she put me in touch with the right people and set me up for next role as junior editor/assistant editor for her friend’s post company – Imperial Creative. Through my time there, I worked under Jake York in the marketing/advertising side (yeah, I know, here I am again in advertising) of the company and really set myself up for success there. He trusted me and took off the training wheels by allowing me to now do some real creative cutting, and by doing so, I gained trust and more experience than ever. As much as I loved it, Jake knew I still wanted to go into more scripted work, so by being at the right place, meeting the right people around the right time, and always being ready to assist wherever needed, he helped me land my first union show as an assistant editor- “Royalties”. This was big as it would be the new starting chapter of this next phase of my career.

As it turned out, by working under Trailer Park as an assistant editor those years back, it actually credited me the right hours to be able to apply for the union and be accepted on the roster. I thought it wouldn’t, but it saved me by making me qualified to even accept my role on “Royalties”. So, without starting at Trailer Park, my search for union hours and getting on a Television Union show would be ongoing. In the end, I was happy to learn through diligence and perseverance, anything is possible. So, my tale still continues in search for my next big role and eventually, become a well-known editor and join the greats.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No, it was not easy. There have been smooth sailing moments, but definitely not entirely smooth. Why? It’s difficult to get hours for the union, let alone meet people, especially if you are accustomed as an editor to stay in and work long hours. It beats you down, but the results are what gets me through the day and the whole project. I can sit here and give you more details as to why it wasn’t smooth like the fact I didn’t major in film, but in animation and am not using that degree or even just the small things that life throws at you; but I trust that it was all a part of my learning curve and a process that I had to commit to in order to be where I am now. Overall, it was a fun ride and I am looking forward to what the future holds as i can’t predict anything but to just make the most of the present.

Editor Muñoz – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My company, which is just operated by me, specializes in film editing through all of its forms of style – long form, short form, documentary, presentations, sizzles, and more. I work with talented sound designers, mixers, composers, VFX artists, and illustrators for my work and have created a solid post team for all my needs. I am most proud of my company maintaining itself and the work I am able to cultivate with the network I have. There have been some awards, and my most recent proud one is winning TOP SHORTS 2020 in the following categories: BEST HORROR, BEST SCORE & BEST EDITING. What sets me apart from other competitors is our ability to work remotely, and give that full passion into each project. In order for me to take on a project, I have to determine if I can bring the story justice, and if I cannot, I pass it on. I do this because the client deserves to get the best from what they are looking for. If I cannot match the skills required, I work with my collaborators to get the job done and provide the client an ease of mind.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Personally, for me, success is to be happy by living with no regrets. What I mean by this is to continue to work towards your ambitions and use that determination amongst other factors to get there. Even if certain ambitions don’t come to fruition, it’s better to have tried rather than to live with that regret. I am striving for a life where I can live to work, and not work to live. By being able to do so is a success. To be happy with the outcomes of my achievements, regardless if critics don’t think so, is a success. Ultimately, I believe I want to look back when I’m ready to leave this earth, and know I did some good using my abilities and knowledge to inspire and teach others. When I get successful, I believe it will be a point when I am able to create without the fear of failure.

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