Dreams on Spec – Mercury Productions’ first theatrical documentary – takes viewers inside the lives of three aspiring writers as they try to pursue their dreams in Hollywood. These poignant portraits of triumph and failure are intercut with wisdom from a “Greek Chorus” of superstar scribes like James L. Brooks, Nora Ephron, Gary Ross, and Carrie Fisher to create a funny and compelling look at inspiration, creativity, and solitude in Hollywood.
   
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Daniel has written and directed more than a dozen documentaries including the soon-to-be-released “Dreams on Spec,” which profiles three emerging screenwriters, and “Brilliant but Cancelled” about forgotten television

gems, which Washington Post media critic Tom Shales called “a captivating 90-minute documentary.”

Dan has also been a supervising producer of three multi-part documentary series and a producer in CNN's news magazine unit in Atlanta. Before entering the television world, he was Los Angeles Correspondent for Marketplace, public radio's business program.

He's traveled the world for these gigs, from Japan's rocket-launching facility on a remote sub-tropical island in the country's hinterlands to the opera houses of Berlin for a look at their behind-the-scenes feuding to a small town in central California where he interviewed a confessed murderer about her execution-style slaying.

Dan's education in filmmaking began when he landed a job during high school at Video Archives, the now-famous video store that employed future filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary, among others. In the years that Dan worked at the store, Quentin wrote True Romance, Natural Born Killers, and Reservoir Dogs but couldn't find anyone to make those scripts into movies. It looked like Dan was the one with the bright future, as he worked toward a degree in Communications from UCLA, but we know how that turned out!

His list of completed projects includes:

  Movies That Shook The World  - Wrote, produced, and supervised episodes of this 13-part AMC documentary series. Raved the Hollywood Reporter, “It’s a series everyone should see, not only for the background information it offers about the … films included but for the large cultural and social contexts it gives them.” (2005)
 
  Flops 101   - Wrote, produced, and directed this one-hour documentary for the digital arts channel Trio that took a tongue-in-cheek look at iconic failures in movies, television, and the Broadway stage. It looked at the common factors that contributed to historic flops like “Ishtar,” “Waterworld,” and TV’s “Cop Rock.” (2004)
 
  Plastic Surgery Obsession  - Wrote and produced a one-hour documentary for VH1 News about the surge in popularity of cosmetic surgery after the success of television shows like Extreme Makeover and The Swan. Nipping and tucking used to be something that only movie stars and the wealthy did. Today, people all over the country are going under the knife. "America the Beautiful" has become more than a national anthem – it's a national obsession. (2004)
 
  Wired For Sex   - Supervising producer of a 13-half-hour documentary series for Tech TV examining how technology is shaping nearly every aspect of contemporary sexuality. Managed a team of ten and oversaw everything from the series' look and feel to the writing, editing, and sound design. (2003)
 
  Brilliant but Cancelled  - Wrote, produced, and directed a documentary for the digital arts channel Trio about the difficult creative struggle to get sophisticated programs on television. This film served as the introduction to a year’s worth of themed programming on the network. Washington Post media critic Tom Shales called it “a captivating 90-minute documentary.” (2002)
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