Blog: Dai Cao | A Film a Day

My name is Dai Cao, but I go by the name Shipwreck Dai because most people can’t pronounce my name. I’m 23 years old, and I’m gradually transitioning from photography to cinematography.

I have been transitioning in and out of media for the past 6 years. I started out as a graphic-designer in Texas. I made skateboard graphics, flyers, and t-shirts. Filming became part of my routine to support my minor campaigns. I started these campaigns to get involve with local artists and musicians to help launch my products from the shelf into customers’ hands.

I’m currently living in San Diego, working and doing my side gigs on the weekend to progress my skills to a higher level. My side gigs are composed of either shooting photos at clubs and venues or filming and editing reality TV pilots for television networks.

I’m currently embarking myself on a 10,000 hours short-film project, weekly or bi-weekly. I stumbled upon Preston Kanak’s 3 minute short-film web-page, It completely changed my perspective on how my slow progression was compared to his flawless consistent workflow. It is very inspiring to see someone work on a short film everyday. Therefore, I committed myself to this project to help me learn from experience to be a better film-maker, editor and producer.

There are many flaws in my work at this early stage but I’m sacrificing myself to accept any criticism to learn from my mistakes. Here are a couple of projects that I have started with for the 3 minute shorts project..

This project is primarily focused on time-lapse.

This one is my first narrated project.

This montage is focused on details and shallow depth of field.