Danny Bourque, '01

“The most valuable thing I learned at ESA was how to write effectively," Danny shares. "The purpose of all the essays and term papers, in essence, is preparation for being able to clearly and concisely convey ideas to others. I believe that this ability has been one of the most important aspects of my professional life, and is responsible for opening many doors that would have remained closed otherwise.”

During his time at ESA, and thanks to being randomly assigned to darkroom photography classes during his sophomore year, Danny found something that he both enjoyed and was exceptionally good at.

"From approaching strangers to crawling through abandoned buildings, photography became my gateway to all kinds of exploration. Before long, this evolved to telling more complex visual stories in the form of short films," Danny says. "It’s been 25 years since I graduated and I’m still making short films, but I’ve spent all this time building up my creative and technical experiences to push the scope and ambition of my personal projects ever further. In my most recent short film Sunspark, I’ve combined the fundamentals of photography with 3D animation to be able to effectively compose, light, and render each shot cinematically, even though it’s all inside a computer. There’s a certain satisfaction in having new skills build on top of old skills."