Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Hertzog
Hi Dan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I saw STAR WARS for the first time in 1978. As a nine-year-old, I was instantly hooked. Like many kids that age, I immediately started collecting action figures, trading cards, and anything else from that galaxy far, far away. Still, my fascination didn’t end there. I was particularly curious about what went on behind the scenes and became obsessed with uncovering those cinematic secrets.
Growing up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in a middle-class family with absolutely no connections to the entertainment industry made gaining knowledge and experience somewhat challenging. Nonetheless, even before I was old enough to work, I found odd jobs to support my addiction to filmmaking, eventually coaxing my parents into making the three-hour drive to New York Camera where I purchased my first Super 8mm movie camera and projector. With the means of creating my own movies now in my possession, I soon came to realize without a worthwhile or engaging story to tell, my early stop-motion film would have been nothing more than an exercise in technique.
In my senior year at USC, it was a course entitled Designing the Nonfiction Film that ironically put me on the path to a career in advertising. Likely influenced by my father’s years in education, I had previously investigated the potentially harmful effects of television advertising on children. From that initial research, I then delved further into the ad world to write a treatment for a documentary on the subject. In researching the topic, I interviewed one-time child actors, agency creatives, ad executives, educators, and the targets of such advertising, kids themselves. Simultaneously, I was toying with the traditional model of television ads in another course, shooting a spec spot for Hershey’s Milk Chocolate under the guise of an experimental film. My intention had been to see how effectively I could promote such a product merely by telling an intriguing story.
Personally, I like to think that I live life collecting stories for my grandchildren. Why? Because stories are what move us emotionally. They tie us to our past, giving us direction for the future. Since we all have our own collection of stories or experiences, no two filmmakers approach the same scene or situation in exactly the same way. As an inclination, I tend to lean more toward naturalism. I feel that the lighting and any movement of the camera should be organic and unobtrusive. As with visual effects, the art form should not draw attention to itself. Often less is more. Even in my commercial work, I’ve found that this approach places the focus on the performance, which in turn allows the story within each scene to elicit some kind of emotional response from the viewer.
While decades of producing TV commercials have granted me a vast amount of production and post-production experience, I feel it ultimately sidelined my narrative filmmaking career. After all, the opportunities for storytelling in commercials are relatively limited. That is largely why I want to shoot and direct features – to collaborate with artists equally as passionate about interpreting stories with light and shadow. It is in sharing these stories that we will continue to spur our audience to think and grow as a society. Today more than ever, we must work to bridge the gaps separating humanity’s many disparate cultures, be it by creating moving images with some socially redeeming value or those that simply serve as a means of escape from the harsh reality of today’s world.
As primarily a commercial director/dp and feature cinematographer specializing in visual storytelling, I’m eager and poised to make my feature film directing debut with the coming-of-age thriller AU PAIR GIRL.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As I move from shooting and directing commercials into more narrative projects, finding those who truly believe in you enough to support your dreams financially has been the single biggest hurdle. On New Year’s Day 2023, my wife Ganna and I made a resolution to produce and finish three short films in one year to kickstart our narrative careers as a formidable producer and writer/director team. Largely it has been us investing in our passion projects, in ourselves, our careers. That said, I’m incredibly grateful to have found at least one patron of the arts – a needle in the haystack, if you will.
I was reconnecting with a high-school friend and describing what we were working on next. At the time, we were already in pre-production on THE SNOW IS ALWAYS WHITER and looking for an executive producer to match our investment. As I shamelessly tend to do, I asked my friend, “You don’t happen to know anyone that would be interested in investing in our project, do you?” Much to my surprise, he said, “My cousin might.”
The results of our year-long endeavor are the inspirational drama THE SNOW IS ALWAYS WHITER, romantic comedy DATING AUDREY, and adventure mystery DOMINO SPRINGS, collecting a combined 92 festival wins and counting. Needless to say, we never could have finished, let alone shot, all three of these short films in one year without this one particular donor and investor. Who would like to join us on our journey?
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I originally founded In the Wee hours back in 1997, mostly to promote our incredibly popular, rapid-fire word game Thinking is Drinking®. In fact, our first home served as a place to turn to, late at night, or early in the morning, just to hang out, to explore, and discover.
Our very first commercial campaign in 2001 featured kids attempting to apply some rather puzzling facts to their everyday lives, often to humorous effect, for the New Jersey State Aquarium. That television campaign landed us three ADDY’s, including Best of Video for “Breathe”, and we’ve been winning awards for our commercial work ever since.
Centered on high creative standards, low overhead, and multifaceted talent, the next iteration of our company went on to produce first-rate narrative projects, collaborating with fresh, up-and-coming talent, as well as compelling ad campaigns for various creative shops across the country, often serving as the entire in-house production department at smaller ad agencies. Projects ranged from a single-day shoot with Ryan Seacrest for Coca-Cola and a trip to Germany to shoot Roger Federer for Wilson to an extraordinary nine-day shoot with a cast of hundreds for Transamerica and a week-long trip from New York to New Bedford, Massachusetts, to launch Joseph Abboud for Men’s Wearhouse.
Over the years, we’ve parlayed our individual expertise and collective experience into a reputation for crafting outstanding work in film, television, and digital media, with the inherent story always the primary driving force. Maintaining the same core values and guiding principles, we’ve since grown into a bicoastal creative production company able to handle everything from analytics, strategy, and creative development through production, translations, and final delivery.
While the competition in this industry is downright fierce, In the Wee hours distinguishes itself from the myriad of other companies with its deep-rooted and overarching focus on quality visual storytelling. As both seasoned advertising professionals and passionate indie filmmakers, what we bring to the table are the industry connections and global resources to fashion high-end, award-winning content across any and all media platforms.
Unlike some, we were fortunate to survive the pandemic relatively intact. Most of our post-production work had been done remotely for years, but like many others in the advertising and entertainment industries, we lost nearly 18 months of physical production. And to make matters worse, we were just kicking off our expansion in the Philadelphia and New York City markets at the beginning of January 2020. The plan was to focus on building out our East Coast team and just fly back and forth to LA for jobs as needed. With a solid team in place on the West Coast, that is essentially what is happening now, as we urge clients to take advantage of production costs outside of major metropolitan areas in order to maximize production values.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
When we expanded to the East Coast, it was always my intention to bring a little bit of Hollywood to the Greater Philadelphia area. Having lensed a number of features, shorts, and commercials in the tri-state area these past five years, we’ve built a terrific network of talented cast and crew and, in 2024, produced two significant projects in and for the region.
In anticipations of America250 celebrations nationwide, we partnered with ubiFire Video Productions to produce the historical drama THE FRIES REBELLION for the Lower Macungie Township Historical Society. After moving back to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, Kayla, a teenage schoolgirl, struggles with a local history report until her Uncle Steve, an area history professor, drives her around to the places influential in the Fries Rebellion. Through immersive visions of the 1798-99 tax revolt, Kayla experiences the protest against the Federalist government’s first Federal House Tax led by patriotic Pennsylvania-German veterans of the American Revolution firsthand and uncovers something important about herself along the way. To learn and discover more, please visit friesmovie.com.
Then, most recently, we partnered with the Tell School of Music at Millersville University to produce the holiday folk tale JÓLAKÖTTURINN. Set in Iceland in 1862, a young, widowed mother reads a bedtime story to her two daughters by candlelight. Frightened by the tale of the Yule cat, the children fight to evade the nightmarish beast with only the goddess Freya as their guide. See the award-winning short for yourself at icelandicyulecat.com.
And of course, to view our brand new 2025 showreel and learn even more about our company, please make your way to intheweehours.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://intheweehours.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intheweehourstoo/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/intheweehourstoo/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/intheweehours/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/intheweehours/
