Dave Collins

A quick story about how I got to where I am:

First, in 2003, I joined the US Army as an intelligence analyst. Shortly after returning from Iraq, I made a video with Windows Movie Maker called America the Beautiful. I enjoyed making it, and made a few more after that. I was medically discharged in 2007 for an injury 2 months before my second deployment to Iraq (and 4 months after I re-enlisted for 4 more years). I began talking college Courses at a community college for Criminal Justice, then, I met an instructor for the Digital Media department. I was originally a Game Designer and programmer, but I took a random Video Production class and fell in complete Love with Editing and production. Shortly after graduating there in 2011, I started at DePaul in the Digital Cinema: Production program, with a focus on special effects. The End.

While Special Effects are my main focus and specialty, I still prefer to work with my hands (taking things apart or putting them together), so whenever I'm not Chroma-keying or playing with After-effects I'm usually a Grip, Electric, or AC. I pride myself on my technical proficiency as well as my ability to "Get $#!& done". My background in the Army also gave me my sense of efficiency and precision (we called it "Moving with a purpose"). I've done some of my best work under a time constraint, and pride myself on being able to take someone elses vision and help them realize it (either through editing or production).

Currently, I live in Chicago, but if you ever need a spare Grip, Electric, AC, or Visual Effects Specialist, pop me a message.