P.E. - Trailer
Writer/Director
A heavy-set teenager braves the nightmare of P.E. swim class.
An MFA thesis film at Loyola Marymount University.
Coming Soon.
Refraction (2021)
Writer/Director
An elderly woman must face her traumatic past while trapped inside purgatory as she races to replace her film projector's burnt-out bulb before her memories fade away.
That Shadow My Likeness (2020)
Written/Director/Editor
While hiking in the woods, a man's image is duplicated by a mysterious cloaked creature, determined to usurp his identity. Based on the poem of the same name by Walt Whitman.
Noise (2020)
Writer/Director/Editor
A man awakens to an unsettling reality—he's being entombed alive beneath a mountain of trophies, certificates, and medals. An avant-garde exploration of the profound emptiness lurking beneath the surface of accolades.
Grieving the sudden loss of his wife, a man seeks solace at a facility where he can erase the haunting memory forever.
Memories (2019)
Director
Modern Manhatta
NYU Sight & Sound Films (2019)
Writer/Director/Editor
This channel is a collection of films created as a visiting student in the Sight and Sound Filmmaking course at New York University.
Modern Manhatta is a contemporary reimagining of the 1921 film, Manhatta, by Paul Strand & Charles Sheeler
A visualization of the poem "Summer Storm" by Dana Gioia about two people who have a connection outside of a wedding party that remains as an intense memory long into the future.
Summer Storm (2019)
Director/Cinematographer/Editor
Unloaded (2019)
Director
During a home invasion, a husband and wife have an argument over gun control in America.
A recluse ventures out of his secluded RV in search of a match to light his birthday cake.
Created for the Hampton Roads 48HR Film Project.
The Match (2018)
Co-Director
About
Daniel Colella is an emerging filmmaker from Norfolk, Virginia. Although having had an affinity for critiquing and analyzing English Literature and Poetry, Daniel had only initially enjoyed films at surface value, as pure entertainment, never considering the multi-level meanings and elevated craft of the work. After what would be a pivotal screening of Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands in a high school film class, Daniel was asked to give meaning beyond what the film showed, to look at every aspect of the film from lighting, to acting, to set and beyond. It was as if a lightbulb went off in his head, a passion was born, and Daniel was propelled on his journey into a filmmaking career.
As an undergraduate student at The College of Charleston, Daniel earned his degree in English and Film Studies while also leading the school's Film Club in creating over 10 films in 3 years and Executive Producing productions at the school's independent media organization, CisternYard Media.
After graduating Daniel continued his journey, heading cross-country to Los Angeles, where he pursued a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Television Production (Directing Fiction) at top rated film school, Loyola Marymount University. Beside his own films, Daniel has worked as a 1st A.D., Cinematographer, Grip, and Gaffer on multiple productions during his time at LMU. With his MFA completed, Daniel has now moved back to the East Coast where he is currently working in Film Development while continuing his own creative pursuits as an independent filmmaker and videographer.
Daniel's artistic sensibilities have been profoundly influenced by the works of cinematic luminary David Lynch. He shares a profound resonance with Lynch's perspectives on striking a balance between the light and the dark and finding love and beauty within a harsh and embittered world. He has also found inspiration from the transcendental and the concept of deriving inner strength, a principle that holds a paramount place within his work.
In the words of Joseph Campbell, "The ground of being is the ground of our being, and when we simply turn outward, we see all these little problems here and there. But, if we look inward, we see that we are the source of them all." This profound insight serves as a guiding beacon for Daniel in his relentless pursuit to illuminate the human condition through the medium of cinema, no matter the genre.