Meet Danni Ma | Filmmaker & cinematographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Danni Ma and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Danni, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
For the film industry, the one thing that shocked me the most when I was still an outsider was the long working hours. The standard film industry takes 10 hours a day and the most of production I was involved with are usually 12 hours or even more. When I was a production assistant in a commercial production company in China, we call 16 hours a day. Even in America, over 12 hours is not unusual in the film industry. It is longer than most other industries and in the film industry, we include a lot of physical work. Working 12 hours a day, five days a week is physically and mentally challenging. A lot of outsiders don’t know how hard we work in the film industry.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I graduated from SCAD in May 2022. It’s only been six months since I graduated, but I have had two indie feature film experiences already. It’s like a dream comes true that I was the cinematographer for one of the feature films. I moved to LA when I graduated and met a director. He writes and directs indie feature films all the time and I was lucky enough to work as 1st AC on one of his films. I got a chance to show him my cinematographer reel and that show him my ability as a cinematographer. He loves what I did before and he’d love to have me as his cinematographer for his next film. The thing I learned from it, is not to be afraid of promoting yourself. When I was a kid I was told being humble is good quality, so I was too afraid to promote myself and waited for people to find my ability by themself. But after graduating from college, I understand to tell everyone what you are able to do is the most important thing.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’d like to bring them to Melrose for a shopping trip. They have a lot of cool thrift shops and fashion shops. When the sun goes down the sunset view of Melrose is stunning. It will be an amazing and chill one-day experience in Los Angeles. Also, I have been to Malibu for shooting a few times. I think it is a good choice to bring them to Malibu and spend the whole day there. Just keep in mind we will need a jacket when the sun is about to go down. It is cold during the night!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Dedicated to each of my classmates and colleagues who have worked with me over the past three years. I learn a lot from everyone around me. Thank SCAD for accepting me when I had no experience or knowledge about film. Special thanks to the producer of my thesis film, also she gives me the opportunity for this interview, Xiangwu Xie.

Website: https://grayma1018.wixsite.com/website

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danni.ma.338

Other: https://vimeo.com/user75777488