Finding the Best Sequences and Shots with Daniel Morcos

The Carbon Films director on living across the Mediterranean, being a storyteller at a young age and the power of moving image in all forms, writes ��’s Nisna Mahtani

Living in many different places as a child makes you grow into quite the chameleon and this was certainly the case for Daniel Morcos. Living along the Mediterranean with his South African-Egyptian-American parents, he resided in three different countries before the age of seven. Finding himself in South Africa many years later, he reflects on what it was like to grow up in different locations, how it shaped him and what keeps him doing what he’s doing today.

“Describing my cultural background is always interesting because my home had a hybrid culture of its own,” says Daniel, referring to his heritage spanning across South Africa, Egypt and America. While he grew up in the Mediterranean, it wasn’t till he was 23 that Cape Town would become his home. He says, “There are challenges that come with this kind of background, such as an acute feeling of not belonging anywhere, but those of us who share this kind of upbringing get to develop some unique abilities too.” Describing himself as both “a nomad and a chameleon,” it’s no surprise that he’s collected different experiences from each place he’s lived and visited.

With his unique perspective, Daniel is able to “make connections between ideas in contexts when other people can’t; a different way of explaining this is that you are quickly able to get a nuanced sense of what connects people around you to each other.” With that understanding of what brings people together, he was drawn to being a storyteller from a young age. “I had carved this role for myself because it made me useful, but more importantly, it made me feel like I could belong somehow. Though I never felt part of a place or culture, I found a way to connect to people: telling stories that resonated with them.”

Through his exploration of storytelling, motion pictures are what captured him the most. He reflects on how the format “seemed to brush aside barriers,” and continues to say, “Films could capture anyone's imagination, irrespective of what language or culture the story was set in. I had limited access to films in the places I grew up in, but the late ‘80s and ‘90s provided me with a handful of cinematic gems to obsess over.”

“As a kid, I remember playing out scenes and characters from the movies I watched, over and over in my head, imagining how they would turn out differently if other creative choices had been made.” A particular request for Daniel always seemed to be “what if Maverick had to take on Cyrus the Virus in downtown peak traffic?” and it all came down to him to recreate this out of LEGO. “I suppose that’s not a bad way to start your directing career,” he says.

While immersing himself in motion pictures, Daniel came across a behind the scenes featurette for an Egyptian action movie, and that was the first time directing crossed his mind. “Within minutes of watching it, I knew I had to try and make a film. A few months later, after begging a lot of adults, and finally finding one brave enough to lend me a camcorder, I directed and edited my first homemade ‘action’ film, with a rag-tag group of friends. It ‘premiered’ to a captive audience of 300 or so teens at a summer camp – they loved it. The thundering ovation at the end sealed the deal,” it was a formative moment for him, “I knew what career I wanted.”

Attending Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida, it was there that Daniel’s career really began as he took on the major of cinematography and post production. “It was an incredible experience, there was so much hands on training,” he says, “I wanted to direct, but I knew I had to understand much more about filmmaking before I could do that job well. From a technical point of view, I felt if I could shoot on film stock, I could probably do anything, but it was only after cutting what I had shot that I realised that editing would be the most accessible way to learn about directing.”

When he finished his degree and gained experience assisting on sets in the US, Daniel then moved to South Africa to make the most of the opportunities there. “A thriving film service industry, particularly in Cape Town, meant I got my first gig as a production runner, but eventually made my way back into the editor's chair, cutting music videos, short films and commercials.” He ended up doing a postgraduate degree in motion picture editing and writing, saying, “I got to work with a diverse group of collaborators to produce a short film that ended up being nominated for a student Oscar at the academy awards, and premiered internationally at the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival. Working closely with the director, as well as cutting the film, had a huge impact on my understanding of what makes people connect with stories.”

The industry, however, isn’t always smooth sailing. Daniel says, “Breaking into directing work is tough,” and delves deeper into his experience, “For me, the most sensible approach was to tap into a medium that I loved, but that was still accessible, at least more so than making a feature or trying to get into pitching for commercials without a reel. So I started with music videos. I directed a couple of things for Cape Town based bands, each of which was a great experience – terrible budgets, but provided plenty of creative freedom.”

Early on, Daniel learnt that the industry is tough, as he did vacation home videos, archival work and pro-bono NGO projects. But these were defining moments, “I learned an important lesson about storytelling: even the most austere of subject matters can resonate emotionally with an audience if you care enough to find a way for it to be so… Somewhere on that blank page, or in that viewfinder, or on that time-line, is a sequence of shots and sounds that will captivate your audience.” With this mentality carrying him through, it’s no surprise that he sees every collaboration as an opportunity to create something great.

Able to reflect on the most useful parts of his experience, he says, “To this day, I often look to music videos for inspiration, it caters to experimentation and creativity, which is why I think a lot of big names got their start in that medium. From there, producers started to take an interest, and briefs started to trickle in.” Taking it back to his editing days as well, it’s the one aspect of the process that Daniel can’t recommend highly enough. Describing it as “a front seat to the entire filmmaking process,” he expands on how it allows collective results, from art direction to cinematography and client service management, he says, “you, in essence, are re-directing it into the best version it can be.”

Back to his passion for storytelling, the key to Daniel’s work is his ability to be “fearless” in conveying a story to the audience. “Courage is needed to take creative risks, but I am 1000% convinced that your audience will always engage if they sense there’s an authentic effort to engage them in honest dialogue.” With the industry recovering from covid and many people to appease in the process of creation, he makes a conscious effort to tackle everything with a sense of gusto, to combat the worry of risk taking. He mentions, “A producer asked me last week if there were any particular brands I’d like to work with, my answer was very different to the one I would have given at the start of my career: I want to collaborate with clients and creatives who choose to be bold with their brands.”

Having lived in many different places and experienced various cultures, Daniel is passionate about keeping on top of new ideas, trends and generally mixing things up. “Without diversifying what you take in creatively, I think one runs the risk of becoming creatively stagnant. The pandemic restrictions highlighted this for me when I couldn’t get access to the normal routines and activities that I got so accustomed to.”

Part of appreciating the access to his passion and hobbies resulted in him finding an old favourite. “I’ve gotten back into LEGO building, two and a half decades after I last did that as a kid. It’s been so fun reconnecting with this hobby.” While he rekindles this aspect of his life, he also looks to the future, in particular with Epic’s Unreal Engine, which has him spending time learning more about the gaming software and seeing how he may be able to implement aspects of it into his filmmaking.

He leaves us with a few more of his passions and inspirations, as well as why he has a continued love of moving image: “Comics have also been a huge source of inspiration lately. At the moment I’m reading Christophe Chabouté’s Moby Dick, it’s beautiful. Between all this, and revisiting films and music videos I’ve always loved, I am reminded of the power of the moving image, in all its forms: creating shared experiences, facilitating both connection and conversation. In today's world, I think this is a worthwhile endeavour.”

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