Daniels

They say two heads are better than one, and when it comes to filmmaking the directing world has its fair share of successful creative couplings – just think of the Coen brothers and Wachowskis’ long list of blockbuster hits, or husband and wife team Dayton/Faris who’ve garnered acclaim in ads and features.

Sharing the workload and the limelight can be a winning formula, and now there are some new kids on the block, in the form of DANIELS. While other filmmaking partners might share genes or marriage vows, DANIELS have something equally important in common – first names.

Daniel Kwan grew up in central Massachusetts and filled his days drawing before getting into animation and graphics, eventually working for a company “that rhymes with Creamworks Manimation”, while Daniel Scheinert spent his childhood in the suburbs of Alabama and followed a path into comedy and theatre.

Now signed to PRETTYBIRD and based in LA, the duo’s first collaboration was a music video, and since officially joining forces, they’ve gone onto good things in the promo world, turning out creatively shot work for indie bands such as FM Belfast and The Hundred in the Hands.

They’ve also produced a selection of short films, including a hilarious video featuring vengeful Christmas presents. But it’s their more recent fashion film that is featured here on shots. Filmed for the Levi’s Chambray collection, a collaboration between the denim brand and US youth label Opening Ceremony, the project came about from open source agency The IdeaLists.

“They commissioned the piece,” explains Scheinert, “and so we pitched through them and wrote a script around a long running idea we’d had to build a set.” The fi lm itself moves back and forth through the specifi cally built sets and plays through diff erent characters and scenarios that are choreographed together. Light in tone yet full of action, it is punctuated with gentle comedic moments.

“At heart we’re two very serious boys in a very serious world, and we fi nd inspiration in comedy,” says Scheinert about their style. “Our work is rarely wacky comedy but it’s usually rooted in something that made us giggle.”

And there’s been no rest for the wicked – the pair have been straight back to the grindstone, shooting a film for an interactive website and a music video in Alabama, and there’s still much more they want to do: “We want to make more short fi lms,” fi nishes Kwan, “and a feature film, and a TV show about tiny tigers piloting a dead body.” We’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for that last one.