Dan Mace is a South African filmmaker who has directed over 50 short films since starting his career professionally at age 16. He opened his own production company at age 22. Dan focuses on highlighting positive stories rather than just reporting depressing news. He uses graphic match editing techniques between shots, zooming in and out of matching objects, to smoothly transition between scenes in a way that keeps viewers engaged. This style of transition helps create a rhythm and flow to his films compared to simple cuts.
2. DAN MACE
Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Dan Mace is a
twenty-first-century director and filmmaker. First found behind the
camera professionally at sixteen, he has directed documentaries,
music videos, commercials, and over 50 short films in his career.
At twenty-two he opened his first film production company, If Not
Why Not, and successfully completed thirty plus productions. He
then served as a Film Director at the prolific Cape Town film and
production company, AVA.
Dan focuses on seeing a positive light in a Dark situation. He always
likes to drag the positives out of every situation unlike mainstream
media who constantly report depressing and sad stories.
3. AWARDS/Acknowledgements
Young Director Award - Silver Screen award in the Short Film category ( 2016 )
Young Director Award - Silver Screen award in Changing the World Frame by Frame ( 2016 )
Young Director Award - Silver in the Broadcast category ( 2017 )
Rode Judges Choice award ( 2016 )
4. Graphic Match
What is Graphic Match?
It is one of the many editing techniques used to continuously transition two successive shots. A graphic
match creates a cut between two shots that juxtapose their graphically similar images.
How does Dan Mace use graphic match?
Dan Mace uses graphic match in almost all his films, he usually does this by zooming
in on the camera to an object on one shot and then zooming out from another object
that looked the same into another shot, this helps the linking of two shots in a creative
different way.
5. Examples of Dan’s Graphic Match VS Hollywood film
transitions DAN
HOLLYWOO
D
6. Why do his transitions work so well?
Dan’s movies are always very
fast-paced and this makes
the graphic match look even
more impressive as Dan
does not give the audience
time to clearly see what is
happening which leaves an
element of confusion yet still
very impressive.
7. What makes Dans transitions more effective than a
normal cut?
- Dan’s transitions are visually stimulating which helps engage the audience's attention unlike simple cuts which
can get boring and sometimes makes the audience lose interest
- The Graphic Match helps create a rhythm and flow to his films so the reality is never broken, whereas normal
cuts can be jumpy and don’t allow the film to have that element of smooth continuity
- The audience are impressed which means that they will always be waiting for the next transition to happen
and always stay focused, whereas, in simple cuts used in hollywood the storyline has to be amazing to keep
their attention of the simple cuts used and keep them focused on the film
8. Similar DP and Editor that Dan works with
Dan is apart of Egg Films, a South
African Production company.
Therefore the same people help in on
his shoots. Dan always uses a Director
of Photography called Fabian Vettiger
who understands Dans visions and
helps him create a visual idea into a
reality and editor Stephen Du Plessis
who also helps creates Dans abstract
ideas into reality.
9. GIFT
Gift is a short fictional film about
a young man who has to dance
in public to get money so he can
support himself as he has no
family.
Dan uses lots of Graphic Match
in this, he does it to keep a
certain flow to his films, as Dan
tries to create a song in a visual
form, all his films have to have a
rhythm and have to flow and
Graphic Match helps achieve this
which can be clearly seen in this
film.
10. VODACOM ADVERT
In this advert Dan tries to portray
the life of a South African girl
living in poverty but sees her life
in a positive light. He uses Graphic
Match and sound to create a
rhythm within the film which
helps portray a story in a quick
and effective way which engages
the audience.
