I RECOMMEND WATCHING MY FILMS ON YOUTUBE FOR BETTER QUALITY HERE:
www.youtube.com/suicidekingfilms
What people are saying about Daniel Lee:
"He's the Edgar Allan Poe of filmmaking." - Melanie Addington
"I just love him. His creativity is so unique." - Kat Phillips
"That man is a fu@!ng genius." - Ken Calloway/Cockfight Club
"Daniel is an amazing guy and an interesting filmmaker." - Edward St. Pe'
"One cool guy and filmmaker." - Elizabeth Pasieczny
"Who is this guy?" - George A. Romero
"..." - John Sayles
"He looks like Marilyn Manson." - Some random drunk guy
Daniel Lee is a southern-based indie auteur who specializes in producing cinema with little-to-no budget and limited resources. 'The Doctor' as he's often called has acquired a devoted cult following and base of support. He has earned the respect and friendship of many more prominent figures in the film industry. Despite having only consumer grade equipment largely available at your local electronics store and hardware retailer, Daniel Lee has beaten out literally hundreds of competing films for selection in multiple film festivals and won two film awards.
The Doctor eschews the outdated Hollywood division-of-labor habits by writing, designing, photographing, and scoring his own projects - often also composing the music and creating sound design himself. He has been known to even sew costuming and fabricate props from scratch. These habits have earned him nicknames such as 'The-One-Man-Band' and 'The Wizard'.
Daniel Lee's other hobbies include playing and performing music in his band - Dr. Daniel & The Rockabilly Vampires, collecting antiques, writing, and political activism.
The following is a partial biography in his own words:
I am a mad scientist of the cinematic arts. I have a great love for old film styles. I have been in love with science fiction and horror since my earliest memory of seeing The Empire Strikes Back (at a drive-in no less) in 1980.
My brother and I used to live in Ohio when we were children. We watched b-movies, old Universal classics, Ray Harryhausen flicks, Godzilla movies, Star Trek, anime (anyone remember Tranzor Z?), and more on a UHF station - Channel 43. Most of the movies were hosted by a local horror host named Superhost. He was supposed to be a sort of W.C. Fields-in-a-Superman-costume character. That was a bygone era. Gone are the unique localized UHF stations from the days of yore. I should mention we didn't have cable or a VCR back then. Those were still commodities of a minority of the population at that point. Come to think of it, MTV hadn't even launched when we started watching all that TV. If it wasn't on Channel 43, PBS, or one of the three networks (Fox wasn't even around back then!), we didn't see it.
We also used our imaginations a lot and played make-believe whenever there was nothing interesting on TV (which was pretty often).
This localized viewing habit provided myself and my talented brother (an amateur filmmaker in his on right) with a pretty unique set of influences which we still draw from today. The result is pretty one-of-a-kind. Even my brother's films bear very little stylistic resemblance to my own.
Some years later, myself and my brother were constantly experimenting with our grandparents' Zenith brand camcorder. We figured out a light-refraction could look an awful lot like a transporter beam. Kung fu movies were really funny if you used the built-in mic and dubbing feature. And you can do a lot of crazy stuff with GI Joes and Ninja Turtles when you start getting wicked with the stop-motion feature. Come to think of it, that was a pretty kickass camcorder. My brother still has it. It still kinda works.
So years later, as an adult, it was pretty inevitable that I would delve into filmmaking. My first attempt at film was a music video for "Graveyard Road". A song I wrote in one of my musical projects. I had a Kodak digital camera and two 16mb memory cards. This still camera had a video capture feature and I figured "Hey... If I could feed video into my computer, I can probably figure out a way to edit it. Whatever editing is."
So I set out to shoot a music video. I quickly found that this Kodak camera would only record for 30 second bursts. Moreover, only two 30 second clips would fit on a 16mb memory card! So I had to shoot 2 mins worth of footage, and drive back home from the cemetery I was shooting in, upload the footage, clear the memory card, drive BACK to the cemetery, and get 2 mintues more. This went on all day.
Did I mention I didn't have a tripod? And there was nobody to run the camera for me? And that I had to bring a portable cd player with tiny mini speakers I could barely hear so I'd know what to lip-synch to? And that I had to operate the cd player and the camera at the same time and still find enough time to 'act'?
The end result to this one-day shooting experiment was surprising. I put together a half-way decent looking music video which incorporated footage from some of my favorite horror flicks. Although I had intended to just shoot this stupid thing for the purpose of learning and didn't really intend for anybody to see it, the end result was good enough that I wouldn't be totally embarassed for people to watch it. It has since aired on multiple tv shows.
The very next day, I shot a second music video which was twice as long and way way way better than the first. "Six Feet Underground" which you can see on my youtube channel or on my band's myspace. It would eventually go on to screen in the Tupelo Film Festival.
I swore off any more filmmaking of my own until I got a proper camera and got some film ideas. That took about another two years. But now here I am, making films again!
In the interim, I have "acted" (horribly no doubt) in my friend Solomon Mortamur's epic ode to b-movies - It Came From Trafalgar! and several other indie films, donated money to film festivals, donated songs to movie soundtracks, encouraged other aspiring filmmakers, and done whatever I could to help out with my brother's projects.
I know my movies won't appeal to everyone and that everybody's a critic, but for those of you who decide you DO like my style, I hope you enjoy the ride. I know I will!
.. type="text/javascript" xg.addOnRequire(function() { setTimeout(function() { embedDiv = dojo.byId('embedRenderDiv261542555'); embedDiv... = ".."; },250); }); ..
Visit Indie Mississippi
