Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Kusnir.
Daniel, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I first became interested in filmmaking in the summer of 2005 when I started filming skate videos with my friends on my parent’s old VHS-c camera. Most of my friends were always better than I so I quickly started picking up the camera more and more. We would film for hours every day and take the bus all over beaver county and up into Pittsburgh to skate and film. Being from a small town in Western Pennsylvania I felt like my dream of being a Cinematographer was unattainable, however, once DSLR’s began to become more popular I quickly realized that this was false so I saved up and bought my first camera in 2010, a canon t2i. It wasn’t anything too special but with Magic Lantern installed it could do everything I needed. This allowed me to create a bunch of different skits and short films with friends that later lead me to go to Point Park University where I studied film with a concentration in cinematography.
While in school, I took as many history of film classes as I could because I always felt that I would learn the most from watching different films or being on set. So that is what I did. I watched as many films as I could and I took on every project that came my way. It was an insane time, and I didn’t have any free time but It was worth it in the end as I learned a lot working on many different sets with many different crews. Taking on all of these different projects allowed me to quickly move into working in the professional world after school, which helped me to save up enough money to move out to LA and pursue the more creative side of the industry. So far since I’ve been here I have been lucky enough to shoot some music videos for some big artists, but my goals are to keep progressing and try to shoot even more creative music videos as well as pursue more narrative filmmaking opportunities and hopefully get to bring some amazing stories to life.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My biggest obstacle had to be saving up enough money to move from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles. Being that I just graduated from college I had no savings, so I had to spend a year in Pittsburgh but I was lucky enough to get consistent enough work that I could save up enough just in time before we were supposed to move. The transition into working here felt slow at first, I would apply to 20 different gigs a day and get no responses but quickly after I got on my first few shots out here and started meeting more people I began to get fairly consistent work which has allowed me to choose gigs more carefully.
Please tell us about your work.
I am a Cinematographer, I love to create different worlds with shadows and light and play around with different camera angles and perspectives. This is why I love DP’ing music videos. It allows me to be as creative as I want and I don’t have to abide by any rules. I also love the storytelling aspect of cinematography and that is why I love narrative filmmaking so much. The camera guides the viewer through a film showing them only what it wants them to see and it’s amazing all of the different feelings and emotions a film can make you feel. As well as being a cinematographer I also work as a 1st ac as well as in the g&e department. I do this as I always learn new tricks from working under different crews.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I wouldn’t be anywhere without the friends I made at Point Park. I learned so much working along side Balint Oltvai, Raffaele DiLullo, Anthony Peduzzi, Kevin Galloway, Greg Neiser, and many more. Together we always pushed each other to do better on our next film or project trying new things and learning how things work through trial and error. We always looked out for each other and made sure that if they needed help on something we never would leave them hanging.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://youtu.be/LMkvyJchBuM
- Phone: 724-544-3152
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @DanielKusnir
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/daniel.kusnir.16
- Twitter: @Daniel_Kusnir
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