Born in Thailand, Danaya’s family moved to the states in August 2000, just before her seventh birthday. They settled in Dallas, Texas, where her mother and sister still live. Always a creative type, she studied film at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. She laughs, describing how her first job came from someone she met on a dating app. “I was in college, and Tinder was brand new. Coming from chat rooms, I was comfortable making friends and talking to strangers on the internet. It was 2013, and I decided to swipe right on people who had cameras in their photos because I knew I wanted to be in the camera department. I became friends with a 1st AC who taught me a lot of what I know now.” Her plan was successful, and after graduating, she began her working as a camera PA on Disney commercials in Orlando, where she worked consistently for a little over a year.
Like other industries, many of us in the TV & film world experience a career plateau, where you reach the highest level you can reach within a certain job or organization. The only remedy is to pursue other opportunities elsewhere. Sometimes this happens because the potential position you want is filled by someone who likely won’t leave the company, and other times it’s because your employer – or a producer/director of photography/director – is unable to see you in another position. In Danaya’s case, it was both. “It was really hard to grow in Orlando, since the jobs were so limited, and no one was looking to give up their spot. They would train you to a certain extent, but it was a very fine line of wanting to teach you but knowing you could start taking their jobs.” It can be a difficult decision, but ultimately, no one else will advocate for you in this industry besides you. As Danaya says, we have to take control of our professional futures. “I felt this loyalty to them because they trained me, and they were the first crew I ever worked with, but from a business standpoint, they never gave me what I thought I was worth. When I eventually stopped accepting that, they stopped hiring me. It wasn’t a situation that was going to improve until I walked away.”
And she did walk away. After working on her first TV show La Voz, the Spanish version of The Voice, Danaya decided to officially make the move to Los Angeles, after spending a year couch-surfing and feeling it out. As soon as she arrived, she was ironically busy working on a Tinder commercial when she got a call to do a job out of town. “I was doing over-nights, when I got a call that this TV show needed someone to come to Alaska for three months right away. I’m 21 and had never been to Alaska. I thought, ‘Three months at $350/day?! I’m going to be rich! That was before I learned how those shows operate.” Those shows operate by run-and-gun guerrilla-style production work, in which the days are very fast-paced with minimal crew members on set in order to maintain a small footprint, often requiring the crew to be multifaceted. As a camera assistant, you’re more likely to manage multiple cameras by yourself while also doing other things like media-managing and, in some more rare cases, production assistant tasks. When you factor in how remote many of these locations are, it can become even more challenging. In addition to hauling equipment by boat and through a forest, most shooting locations likely don’t have a bathroom nearby, and your living conditions make it difficult for personal hygiene. “We shot in this small town of about thirty people, and our crew alone was ten to fifteen. There wasn’t enough well water in the town to do showers so everyone had to take baby wipe showers. The nearest bathroom on set was half a mile away so you’re hiking a mile to pee. So, now we’re doing baby wipe showers, and I’m also not drinking enough water because I can’t step away from the cameras to take a bathroom break. I ended up getting a kidney infection on that shoot. I didn’t know at the time that it was a kidney infection. I’d never had one before. I just got really sick – I had a fever and was vomiting – but pushed through because I didn’t want to let anyone down, and I didn’t know any better.” A lack of awareness about hygiene, and specifically female hygiene, is a common problem in our industry. Most of us have stories like Danaya’s, where we put our needs last and the job first. It’s really common to run into these situations early in our careers, and it’s also much more common in non-union jobs, which is why union work can seem more appealing.
Danaya joined the camera union (IASTE Local 600) in 2018. Our paths first crossed two years later on the second season of Making The Cut for Amazon Prime during the pandemic. We were ladies of the camera department together; she was on the morning crew, and I was on the late crew. At the time, we were both working as 2nd ACs, though things have changed for us both since then. “I definitely wanted to be an AC and saw myself eventually becoming a DP (director of photography). I think that was my initial goal,” says Danaya, reminiscing. “I wanted to AC on big projects, but the more I did it, less I felt like a part of the creative process. The bigger the shoots get, the less relationship you have with your operators and DP. When you’re doing smaller features, you get to soak up so much knowledge because you’re right there in it with your operators and your DP.” For Danaya, working in the camera department was intriguing because she isn’t as technical as some other ACs and utilities, which meant she had to work hard to figure a lot of things out. “If something felt like a challenge then I wanted to do it even though it wasn’t the thing I enjoyed the most or was the best at, and that kept me interested for a while. But because I was always naturally a very artsy person, I eventually stopped enjoying it. I’m not a technician; I’m an artist. It took me a long time to learn and accept this about myself.” It’s in these moments where, if we listen, we can really push through to the path we’re meant to be on.
Danaya has always been a photographer at heart, even begging her uncle to take her to buy film for her pocket Polaroid camera at eight years old. At thirteen, she saved up to buy herself a Sony Cyber Shot, and then in 2012 she bought her first film cameras (Polaroid Packfilm Land Cameras). Photography has a very personal meaning to Danaya. “My family moved here from Thailand, and all throughout my childhood, teachers would ask me to bring baby pictures to school, but we didn’t have anything. There is only one photo album, which is very small, and that’s all the photos we have of my whole family. So I got really attached to creating new photos.” She began taking photography more seriously at Full Sail, seeing it as practice for becoming a DP someday. Since then, she’s worked with models, clothing brands and other artists, capturing their work on her film cameras.
In 2022, Danaya planned a family trip to Thailand in the summer with her mom, brother and sister and decided to create a project out of it. Her mom has seven siblings, her dad has eleven, and they are all married with children. Assuming three rolls of film per person, she packed her two carry-ons with all of her camera equipment and sixty rolls of film. “Imagine flying internationally and begging them not to send your carry-on through the x-ray. Then, when you get to Thailand, you have to fly everywhere. I was going to the airport every other day and begging them not to x-ray my film.” She planned on being in Thailand for three weeks, but between family time, her mom having surgery, exploring and taking photos, somehow an entire month had gone by. However, because of a family issue, some on her dad’s side ended up not being available for the project. “I wanted to take all these photos and use them to make a book or a gallery, and it would have been my first large project. But I ended up only shooting fifteen rolls of film, which is a fraction of what I thought I was going to shoot. I came home and had these photos that I really liked and were very special to me, but it wasn’t a large enough body of work on its own to be a book or be a gallery. I had this project that felt incomplete, and I didn’t know what to do with it.”
Summer of Something Special is an annual photo book by Something Special Studios. Each edition features a group of photographers from around the world, and all the proceeds are donated. “It’s funny because it’s another dating app story, but I went on a Hinge date back in February 2022, and I took him to one of my favorite photo book stores. While we were there, I saw the Summer of Something Special photobook, and I bought it. When I went home and read it, I realized the proceeds went to charity, so I followed them on Instagram.” Months later, while showing Thailand photos to a friend, Danaya saw an Instagram post from them that they had one more available photographer slot for the next edition of the book, asking submissions to have 14-20 photos submitted by the end of the month. “I submitted twenty-four photos, and then I didn’t hear from them for about a month, so I assumed I didn’t get it. I ended up publishing my website thinking I’d just post my photos there. The next day, I got an email from them saying they’d love to make me part of the book. It’s cool because my goal last year was to print something, whether it was a zine or a small book. I just really wanted to print some photography, and this was a way for me to do it. To have published printed work is so special, and it all goes to charity, so it was a double win.”
Over the holidays, Danaya started working on a new project that she’s calling “Intimacy v. Isolation.” The main concept of the project is centered around Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, in which the major internal conflict centers around forming intimate relationships between the ages of 18 and 40. “This is something I’m currently experiencing so I wanted to put this concept under the microscope. I think a lot of people my age are either committed to their relationships and thinking this is going to be the one, or they’re parting ways to figure out who they are and what they want out of a partner. Covid made me really comfortable with isolation to the point where being around people is sometimes intimidating. Every single person that I talk to is experiencing something similar.” Her plans for this project are loose as she allows it to unfold, but she’s proud of the way things are going. “The best thing about my work right now is that it’s starting to feel cohesive. Before I would take a good picture here and a good picture there, but now I feel like when I see my work there’s a look. It feels like I’ve established my identity as a photographer.” In our professional lives, finding our voice and identity is crucial to feeling successful. It’s an artist’s dream.
It’s been almost a decade since Danaya entered the industry as a camera PA in Orlando. The industry has changed almost as much as her goals have. Looking back on her career and everything she’s accomplished, it’s no surprise that she has big plans going forward. “I think my goal this year is to move into directing, maybe more fashion-related things and taking stills alongside that. There’s a lot of creative freedom in that world. I would love to have creative freedom and make a living, and that’s what I’m building toward right now.” When I asked if she had any advice she would want to give to someone just starting in the industry, she kept it simple. “Always stand up for yourself. If you are feeling uncomfortable about any situation you’re put in or if you’re wondering why you’re making less money or wondering if you should speak up about something, the answer is always yes. I think that we tend to make ourselves small and that we don’t want to make waves. We feel so grateful for the opportunity that we don’t stand up for ourselves because we don’t want to be this squeaky wheel, but that’s the only way that you will grow. Obviously, there’s a time and a place, and you’re there to do a job to the best of your ability, but saying the things that you want in the right places can get you very far.”
Over the years, I’ve also wondered where my future lies in the camera department and how to focus on my personal goals without losing out on the camera work that is also important to me. Danaya’s ability to balance her work in production – the bread and butter – and her work as a photographer and artist is inspiring. It’s also crucial to know yourself well enough to make career decisions that support your future self. Danaya does that by prioritizing her long term goals to direct more often and by shifting her attention to the fashion and print worlds. And she’s right: standing up for yourself – personally and professionally – needs to be the main goal, always. We are too often scared of what might happen if we demand attention and respect, but life is too short to be a watered down version of ourselves. There needs to be some risk for a great reward, especially if it means getting what you deserve and what you want out of life. Listen to that voice inside of you that’s screaming for what you really desire. It takes practice, but it will always be worth it.
To see more of Danaya’s work or to connect with her online, you can follow her on Instagram or check out her website.
The Lady AC
Industry Terms 1st ACs (also known as firsts and focus pullers) are responsible for maintaining focus on the right subject during each scene. 2nd ACs work the clapper board – or the slate – that marks the beginning of each take and keeps footage organized for post-production. They record info for every shot, including camera settings, which ensures things stay consistent. They also maintain and organize camera equipment. ACs (camera assistants) are another way to describe a 2nd AC. In the world of reality television, there aren’t many situations where you’d need a 1st AC, since operators pull their own focus. The ACs in these jobs perform the tasks of a 2nd AC.
Camera PA (production assistants) are similar to interns in the sense that they are there to be helpful and learn the pace of the job and the equipment.
A DP (director of photography) is at the top of the camera department. They work closely with the director to determine the style and visual look of the film.
Operators (camera operator) are the ones who run the camera (on a tripod, dolly, handled, etc), including keeping the shot composed and at the right angle. Sometimes, operators are also responsible for maintaining their own focus.
Production assistants (PAs) provide support with general tasks on a film, television, commercial or digital media production.
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