Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Ast.
Dan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve loved storytelling my entire life, from begging friends to tell me another iteration of a “Bloody Mary” tale to slowly typing out my own stories on an electric typewriter as a kid. In high school, I brought a few of my stories to the head of the video department in hopes they could be turned into movies. That teacher, Mr. Brunning, still a friend today, chuckled and said, “These stories are nice, but no one is going to do it for you. You have to do it yourself.”
In that moment, I was immediately transformed from an aspiring novelist to an aspiring filmmaker, and that offhand bit of advice has guided my efforts to this day. Filmmaking became my passion — the single most collaborative form of storytelling requiring skillsets from every other art form. For better or worse, I’ve been biting off way more than I can chew ever since.
I moved to Los Angeles in 2006 after graduating from the film school at Florida State University. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to work with a small, talented, and unwavering group of friends. First, on my feature film Claire, which was produced by one of my closest friends, Michelle Cantor, and then on various other projects— all scrappy, low-budget, high-aspiration affairs. My favorite cinematographer, Austin Lee Smoak, and producing partner David Schatanoff, Jr. have been constant companions on these journeys, and I’d be remiss not to point out how incredibly supportive my mom has been every step of the way.
I’m a fiend for location scouting. The long drives brainstorming to music and sweeping vistas is my therapy. I’ll drive off into the desert for hours searching for properties and businesses willing to let us film for free or cheap. The further away from L.A., the more we can afford, and the scale, authenticity, and character of these locations drive our production value through the roof.
Our most recent undertaking, the second season of the digital series L.A. Macabre, was a long haul monster of a project — a 300+ page script shot over two years — 12 episodes creating three features’ worth of story and character with a skeleton crew for the budget of a short film.
In the time since finishing L.A. Macabre, I’ve turned my attention back to screenwriting in hopes of generating momentum for new projects. Would I love a bigger budget to make the production a less harrowing, more comfortable experience for myself and others? Absolutely. But I will always seek out and thrive on the challenge of doing more with what’s available.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Creating indie film in Los Angeles is trickier than it seems. While there is a large, diverse, and talented pool of artists to draw from, the logistics of filming in a city that societally and institutionally evolved to financially benefit from the film industry puts indie films at a disadvantage. I absolutely feel that people should be paid for their work whenever possible, but I’ve also heard people say, “If you can’t afford it, you shouldn’t be doing it,” a notion that strikes me as a financially privileged position and tone-deaf gatekeeping. I thrive on the challenge of finding high production value with little-to-no budget. When they say, “Time, money, quality – pick two,” this is why L.A. Macabre Season Two took two years to film. We needed time to find low-budget workarounds without sacrificing production value.
It’s why my prop-buying excursions and “Home Depot selfies” on social media are the source of amusement for friends and family. It’s why I sit on my couch every night for months creating fake, stunt-safe barbed wire from stereo wire, or tea-stain aging VHS labels and adding Thomas Guide-accurate coordinates. It’s why David cuts a half dozen barrels into pieces for props or dresses his garage as a snuff film dungeon. It’s why Austin or Jill or Natasha join me for a six-hour drive into the desert for drone footage. It’s why I stand in my kitchen for three days to create 28 crockpot meals to feed the cast and crew on the next week-long location shoot. $400 for dump meal ingredients or $6,000 in per diems and catering in a small-town location that had resources for neither. Guess which option fit our budget? On set, it’s “What’s the best we can do with what we have available right now?”
It’s not something you can do alone, but that doesn’t stop me from taking on too much and then dragging so many talented, gracious, endlessly patient friends along with me. It can be overwhelming, and I’ve learned you can’t focus on the whole picture at once. Break it down, solve one problem at a time. One bite at a time, chew ’til you can swallow.
This is my oxygen. When friends ask me for advice for aspiring filmmakers, it always starts with, “If you can be happy doing anything else, go do that. You need to need this and you need to love this, because it’s not going to love you back.” If it were easy, everyone would do it.
Please tell us about the business.
Half Ast Productions is a relic of a high school inside joke, which means I’ve been calling my films “Half Ast Productions” for about 20 years now. I incorporated as Half Ast Productions LLC in California in 2009 before the production of my first feature Claire, because, apparently, I can’t let a good joke die, no matter how dubiously it reflects on me professionally.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I think honesty and integrity go so much farther than people realize. Being honest about what you can and can’t do and about your expectations for yourself and for whomever you’re working with. An air of confidence is important in this town, but that’s not the same as “fake it ’til you make it.” Do what you say you’ll do. Have that integrity and represent yourself truthfully and accurately. It’s important to me that people trust me and trust in the project. I won’t start something I won’t finish, even if it takes years.
Passion is contagious, and when you care about what you’re doing, others care, too. On L.A. Macabre, we worked with a skeleton crew averaging four people who wore multiple hats. For some of the bigger sequences and locations, we were fortunate to find additional friends willing to help. My childhood friend Jenna Hellmuth, a stuntperson who acted as our stunt coordinator, kept the cast and crew safe even with our limited resources. Malia Miglino made damn sure every bruise and blood smear tracked across every character for two years.
Ryan Hellquist stayed on set and hauled gear a full day after his character was wrapped. Corsica Wilson made sure the crockpot meals were started on time while we were on set. Joel Bryant paid for a day of our location filming when a shady local shook us down after filming began. It’s why people like Martin Walker Brown and Doug Divine found us and, along with Jenna, chipped in some extra funds to get us over the finish line.
Despite all I’ve learned in my “you have to do it yourself” approach, working with these people is one of the most rewarding parts of the experience. Enriching old friendships and building new ones over the course of the shoot speaks volumes, I think, to the nature of the set we run. For some of us, the hardest shoots on this project were some of the most fun and memorable experiences of our lives so far, and you can’t do that without trust. While many film sets can be high-stress, high-drama, fractious experiences, we built a new family. (Pun semi-intended.)
It makes shared success even more rewarding. L.A. Macabre has been fortunate to draw a committed following online, and our crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter was a wild success that allowed us to raise our microbudget. The show has received accolades from various web and film festivals including Vancouver Web Fest (Best Mystery), The Indie Series Awards (Best Drama), and Hollyweb Fest (Best Mystery/Thriller), along with various “Best Actor” nominations and wins for the cast. Ultimately, the success of these projects is the shared community we’ve built through them, and, for that, I am incredibly thankful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1745831/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dan.ast/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LAMacabreTV
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dan_Ast
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/lamacabreseries/
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