DHS graduate Danny Farber pursues film career

Nobody really thinks about the line producer when watching The Avengers Save New York, or about the boom operator when watching Ferris Bueller sing on the parade float. The people behind the camera who make the magic happen on-screen are often forgotten, their immeasurable contributions towards their films lost as soon as the viewer leaves the theater. Danny Farber, DHS graduate of the class of 2013, has taken up the noble craft of doing these jobs, allowing the movie magic to continue.

Currently a junior at DePaul University, the former WDHS reporter has been very busy, working long days on exciting projects. These include Bernadette, an upcoming feature film following the misadventures of Archie Kinsler and his friends as they grow up in a suburb similar Deerfield. The film is intended to be an ode to the great ‘80s coming of age comedies, specifically those made by John Hughes.

“[Bernadette] started as a DePaul project… it was a class in the spring covering the pre-production for it. [The class] was kind of a selective, it was about 15 kids… if you wanted to participate you had to apply, and once you applied and were accepted you were able to showcase what position you wanted to do within the film, and we just took it and ran from there.” Farber said.

Danny was the First Assistant Director as well as the line producer for the film, working long summer days on a 5-week shoot, for 5 or 6 days every week. Sarah Murray, who played the character of Sam in Bernadette, discussed working with Danny on set.

“Danny was kinda the one who ran the show… Whenever I tried to explain him to people I would say that he is made of gold glitter and magic because he would just make things happen that seemed impossible, and he would do it with… a blink of an eye.” Murray said.

After principal photography for Bernadette, Danny immediately entered production for another project, White Noise, as the first assistant director once again. The short film was co-written, produced, and starred in by Murray, and is meant to act dually as a PSA on modern communication and its effect on relationships and finding love, as well as an artistic short film.

“I knew that he was an incredibly hard working, extremely trustworthy guy, who would not let anything fall through the cracks, and since this is a project that would have a lot of money behind it, I wanted to make sure that it was done right, and I pulled a lot of the crew from Bernadette because I loved what they were doing … my main goal was to get a cast and a crew that wants to work together and enjoys walking together, and in order for that to be a smooth process, I knew that I needed Danny to be the guy who kept things in check.” Murray said.

After filming was wrapped for both Bernadette and White Noise, Danny began to work on yet another project. This time, it was another feature-length film, called The Year That Changed Us, which focuses on two interracial couples in Chicago, each dealing with personal demons in an increasingly tumultuous city.

“Unlike Bernadette, The Year That Changed Us was not a student film…I was really excited to work with a bunch of seasoned professionals who had been around the block and had worked on a bunch of other things before. The director, Kyle Henry, had actually gotten into South by Southwest Film Festival, and he had gotten into Cannes, and Sundance, so I was really excited just to have an opportunity to be working with him… We filmed, I would say about 85 percent of the feature, all of principal photography, in just under 17 days, and that was the end of August and beginning of September.” Farber said.

In The Year That Changed Us, Danny took on an even more technical role as the key grip, but not without assuming a directorial position as well. The key grip job entailed setting up lights on set while his assistant director duties came in the form of managing extras and keeping records for the Screen Actors Guild.

“When you have such a short amount of time for principal photography and you have a plethora of night shoots and day shoots, there’s sometimes where you’re shooting and it’s 3 in the afternoon but it needs to look like it’s 8 at night. So I would go through and tape up all the windows, and whatever the cinematographer wants in terms of lights I would set up for him, so that was my role as key grip… [As second assistant director] I was also the troubleshooter person on that project as well.” Farber said.

With all the success he has seen so far, and more seemingly on the horizon, Danny has not forgotten about his roots in film back at his alma mater. Farber cites WDHS, the DHS broadcast journalism class run by Mr. Schwartz, as helping him get the practice he needed to become a successful filmmaker.

“I’m a big advocate for WDHS, I think that program is awesome, I think Mr. Schwartz is awesome, and I think that in filmmaking, everything you can do as a student, any practice you get then is only going to help you later in college and professionally… WDHS was an amazing outlet for me to showcase some of the ideas I had bouncing around my head back then.” Farber said.

Schwartz also remembers Farber’s time in WDHS, where he saw his interest in film really begin to flourish. He has high hopes for Farber’s future in the world of film.

“It was kind of exciting to have him in the class knowing that he was coming from a different side of the camera, or in his case the stage… I was not surprised at all when he decided to pursue film, and I knew he was interested in directing, and you see now with people with Angelina Jolie and Robert Redford transitioning nicely from acting in front of the camera to directing from behind it, and I thought it was very cool that we had an opportunity to work with somebody like that. “ Mr. Schwartz said.