Dan Covert is a man of a thousand disciplines. A talented artist and graphic designer, co-founder of the wildly prolific production company Dress Code, and a filmmaker whose work spans short branded projects, commercials, and a recent feature film profiling the art and life of Geoff McFetridge – Dan has experience and insights in spades. But the secret to success isn’t in his artistic acumen (though that certainly helps) – it’s in his work ethic.
“Nothing’s going to make itself,” says Dan. “The quickest way to build your career is just keep making stuff. Even if it’s doing a bunch of favors for friends to make stuff, that’s how you stay active as a director.”
It’s an ethos that has led Dan through an impressive career dotted with accolades from AFI, SXSW, and, of course, Vimeo Staff Picks. “Vimeo made our careers,” says Dan. “That sounds crazy, but it’s true. We never would’ve had an audience for any of this stuff. We just bought cameras and learned how to make things.”
Shortly after the release of his first feature documentary, “Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a Life,” which won the Audience Award at this year’s SXSW, we had a chance to chat with Dan about his process and his creative north stars. Check out highlights from the chat above and read the full conversation below.
You started out as a graphic designer. How did you get from there to feature filmmaker?
Dan: We started a company 16 years ago that was a graphic design company that then became a motion graphics company that then became a production company. So it’s this long evolution. And all along the way we made shorts, and a lot of them were Staff Picked on Vimeo.
We were just experimenting and learning what our voice was as a company and as directors and then I was turning 40 and was always like, “I’m going to make movies someday.” And I was like, “Maybe I’m not going to make movies unless I start.” So I just was looking for stories and this film kind of just happened.
16 years is a long time to be making stuff in this industry. What keeps you going?
Dan: It’s just genuinely fun to do this work. Even until recently, I wasn’t like, “Oh, there’s going to be this blow up moment where my career changes and I’m at the Oscars.” I don’t think about that stuff. It’s just like, “Am I having fun in the moment? Am I enjoying the ride?”
Because once a project it goes out in the world, you can’t control how people respond to it. It’s just like, “Did I make the best thing that I could? Am I hanging out and working with people I love and respect? Are we trying to be honest and authentic?” I’m always the lots of irons in the fire kind of guy. I have a business. I am a commercial director. I’ve been making this feature film. I have a pretty successful art practice. But it’s all about just slowly just doing these things that I enjoy and then like, “We’ll see where they go.”
But I’m not as concerned about the ‘where they go’ part because that can just eat you alive. Because ultimately in the end, who cares if you’re famous or successful? It’s like that’s not the stuff you’re going to remember when you’re 80.
What’s your creative north star?
Dan: We constantly are refining this, but it’s really storytelling acumen. It’s craft and visual artistry. And those are kind of vague terms, but it does have a lot of meaning. It’s like, “Can you tell a story?” A lot of times people come with a half-baked concept and we, as storytellers, are kind of pulling the story out.
The idea of commercials and art, they’re somewhat contradictory forces – but not at the highest level. It’s more about emotion and how you do that with beautiful cinematography. But we each kind of have our own voice. But the stuff that really truly excites me is character and story.
How do you work with a brand without compromising your vision?
Dan: In the beginning I always thought it was like, “Oh, they’re hiring me to do what they need.” And then over time I realized, “No, they’re hiring me because they need some help and I know what I’m doing.” So it was a big shift of trying to understand what the company’s needs were and what their aesthetic was. That’s still obviously important, but then the more and more I’ve climbed as a director, I realized that they’re coming to you for your personal voice to really sort through all this stuff and be like, “What you guys need to do is this.”
Are there any brands that you’re still hoping to collaborate with?
Dan: I think that’s tricky because I don’t really care about that stuff. It’s like, “Is it a fun, interesting project?” Some of the most boring assignments that I’ve been given have turned into the best pieces. I did a film centered around a type historian at Syracuse, it’s a Staff Pick video we did. It was like this dude who was in a basement who found this font and then Pentagram turned it into the logo for Syracuse University. That guy’s amazing. I want to talk to people like that.
Everyone wants to do jobs for Nike and all these amazing brands. Sure that is fun, but I also like finding these unique stories and kind of giving them a platform.
Can you tell us about your experience with Vimeo Staff Picks?
Dan: Our first staff pick was for “Font Men.” The film we premiered at SXSW in 2014. I remember we had the first screening. I woke up the next day and saw that the film had been Staff Picked, media had picked it up, and that was a huge deal. I was a graphic designer who started co-directing with my business partner on films about other graphic designers.
I never learned how to be a director. So it was a huge validation as a creator to have 300,000 people within a few days see this movie that we made. And it’s like, “Oh, my God.” You know what I mean? We didn’t even make it as a short film. We made it for a client project and just slightly re-edited it, and I saw this audience.
Dress Code has been on Vimeo for a very long time. What keeps you on the platform?
Dan: It just seems like the platform where all the creators are who see our work. A lot of this stuff on the short film side, we’re self-funding, kind of putting out these little trial balloons, and then other creatives see them. It’s always shocking. Somebody from an ad agency will call and be like, “Hey, we saw this thing. Can you do this commercial project for us?” It’s like a one to one. If we’re putting work out like that, the right people are seeing it and then kind of elevating it and giving us a platform.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Dan: I get the most inspiration for my work through art. I actually don’t watch a ton of videos anymore. I find that it’s kind of taxing and then I want to mimic things, so I just really try to find things that are very outside of what we do or even look at feature docs for commercials or look at fine art for framing and visual techniques.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
Dan: There’s a quote from Steve Martin where he says, “Be so good that they can’t ignore you.” I’ve always loved that. It’s just like a lot of people want this quick fix of just to make something and then one and done. Where for me it’s more about just kind of slowly putting the time into building up a body of work and then being so good that someone will find you.
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