Ball State University senior Dan Finnen has been more than willing to sacrifice his mental health for his love of filmmaking.
"[As] a director you sacrifice your sanity," Finnen said with a laugh.
The telecommunications major has made more than 50 short films and two feature length films.
He recently directed Ball State's student production "Bloody Good Movie," which took more than a year to make and involved about 150 to 200 students.
"You learn so much from doing a project like this because it's really an emerging experience," said Finnen. "It's the first time a lot of us have ever worked with a full crew."
"Bloody Good Movie" was Finnen's second full-length feature film. His first was "Run Hollywood Summer," which he wrote, produced and directed.
With $2,000, an inexpensive camera, clamp lights, a two-person crew and about 20 actors, Finnen was able to create "Run Hollywood Summer."
"It was ghetto-tastic, but anyway, a film came out of it," Finnen said.
Finnen started making films after he befriended a film fanatic in high school. After he made a 40-minute film his senior year of high school, Finnen started to think seriously about filmmaking.
Many filmmakers might admire Steven Spielberg or George Lucas for their directing skills, but Finnen admires directors of not so popular movies, such as "Troll 2."
"Just watching these films and how passionate these poor filmmakers were about these terrible films - somehow that really inspired me," Finnen said of his reoccurring themes of zombies and comedy.
Finnen also finds inspiration from his professors at Ball State. Although he admits that there are almost too many admirable professors at Ball State to mention, Elizabeth (Betsy) Pike and Roger Young were both very motivating to him.
"TCOM has a lot of really wonderful directors; Betsy Pike has worked with me since my freshman year, really encouraging me," Finnen said. "She's the one who encouraged me to do my first feature length after my freshman year on my own."
He also said that Roger Young was the first professor to teach him how to direct film, rather than theater.
Pike says she sees incredible potential in Finnen and that his drive and passion for filmmaking is obvious in his work.
Finnen brags about the advantages of being in the telecommunications department at Ball State.
"What's nice about this program is that it isn't a filmmaking program per say, it's a broadcasting program," Finnen said. "What really attracted me to it is this full array of opportunities and you get to go out and pick what you want to do."
Finnen also said that he is at an advantage because of the open labs and the good equipment the university offers.
Working with actors and discovering the hidden emotions behind each scene is Finnen's favorite part of directing.
"People really have to put their heart and soul into making a movie," Finnen said. "There is so much work that goes into it. It's not something that just happens. So even the worst film, there is people that gave their life to that film."
Despite his obvious love for filmmaking, Finnen insists that his first love is writing.
"I've always known I'd always be a writer," Finnen said. "I always say I do film and theater because the only way I can get people to read my writing is if I have someone perform it."
The first script he wrote was in seventh grade and was a political parody using Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Finnen replaced the stories characters with political figures of the time.
Finnen said that if you want to be a director, you have to independently direct your own films before you start directing major Hollywood films. He also said that many of the people attracted to the idea of directing don't realize what the job truly involves and the few people that do understand what directing entails, no longer want to pursue it.
"Directing isn't about controlling necessarily, it's about collaboration," Finnen said. "It's really about working with people and coming up with ideas."
Being both a college student and a filmmaker, Finnen's schedule keeps full. He is currently in post-production festival distribution with "Run Hollywood Summer," in the beginning stages of post-production for "Bloody Good Movie," in pre-production for a Webisode series he's creating, starting the funding phase for a documentary and is in the writing phase for his next feature-length film.
"You have to be really self-motivated," Finnen said. "A lot of people think someone's going to walk up to them someday and be like 'you've paid your dues, now its your turn to be director,' where as it really doesn't work like that. Someone won't hire you to direct until you've already directed something."
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