September 4, 2002

Filmmaker focuses on capturing vivid vignettes

Daniel Glass screens short films Thursday at Horizon Books

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
       Capturing vignettes of planned spontaneity on film, videographer Daniel Glass is looking for like minds in the area who want to have fun with cameras.
      With a showing of his short films at Horizon Books Thursday evening, Glass is hoping to create a film community in the area. Taking a have camera, will travel attitude, his ideas range from music videos featuring local bands to documentaries of interesting people or places to science fiction.
      "The reason I'm doing this show is to meet some neat people and becomes friends with them, others who think the way I do," said Glass, an award-winning commercial producer for TV 7&4. "I hope to meet other actors, writers and musicians and get a group together to make movies on the weekends."
      "Just shoot a movie in one day and then show them," he noted.
      A native of Rockford, Glass graduated from Grand Valley State University three years ago. Always a movie fanatic, he studied film and video production at what he terms is one of the better schools for it in the state.
      Glass now has nearly 20 short films to his credit, inauspiciously stored in a box in his closet. Encouragement from a friend and his sister spurred him to contact Horizon Books about showing some of them and the young filmmaker is excited about this opportunity.
      "They don't have to be perfect," said Glass, who shoots and edits his work using equipment from tctv2. "I'm not going to let them sit around gathering dust. I'm still learning, it's all about learning."
      "I'd rather shoot ten six-minute movies that are completely different than one feature-length film," he said.
      But the real entertainment lies in bringing friends together to have some improv fun - Glass' idea of a great time. While he starts with a rough concept of what he wants in a film, the unexpected events that happen during filming create the magic.
      Glass spent last Saturday shooting his latest project: a 20-minute film about a local ketchup lover, Matt LaVack of Traverse City. The offbeat topic coupled with a mock-serious documentary style illustrate Glass' wry humor and willingness to let the story tell itself.
      "All my movies have all my friends in them, it's crazy," he said. "What I like is people who are ready to do anything: they'll be stupid, they'll be wild and do crazy things we can't predict."
      As for the ketchup guy, being filmed eating a bowl of his favorite food was a new experience for him.
      "I've never been one to attract attention to myself," said LaVack. "I spent years in church choir never moving my lips once."
      However, when it comes to ketchup, LaVack comes out of his shell. He spent Saturday morning with Glass and his friend and helper, David Johnson of Kalkaska, shopping for ketchup, eating ketchup and conducting blind taste tests of five different brands.
      "I've always wanted to do commercials because I figured I could be a true spokesman for Heinz with all my testimonials," LaVack said.
      Glass has been furiously editing his ketchup tape so he can include it in Thursday night's showing. Other films on tap include "The Snowball Sniper," a film he made in college that won second place at the Grand Rapids Arts Festival a few years ago.
      Another recent local production, "A Time for Me," will also be shown. Glass came up with the film's premise - a henpecked husband who gets fed up and goes on a shopping spree in drag - after he heard a song he liked. Two hours and one phone call later, he was filming.
      "This guy is shopping downtown dressed like Mary Tyler Moore," Glass said. "We were totally open to whatever happened and we got some good shots and some funny, funny sound bites."
      Another idea for the future is "110 Things You Can do Besides Watch TV." Science fiction shorts Glass imagines could be having giant, remote-controlled spiders maraud through downtown. Another would feature a man who finds a time machine. Instead of traveling back to view some historical event, he heads to a party he missed years ago because of work
      "When he comes back into the future, he is a bum because he lost his job after going the party," Glass noted.
      A showing of short films by Daniel Glass will be held at Horizon Books on Thursday, September 5, at 7 p.m. For more information, call Horizon Books at 946-7290.