VMAN ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

THIS IS NOT HERE

We hit L.A. for a survey of cool guys who capture the new essence of Lost Angeles

Photography Colin Donahue      Styling Parinaz Mogadassi Contributing art editor Dominic Sidhu

< PREVIOUS / NEXT >

Dan Harris, director/writer, 30, standing over the 101 Freeway

Shirt Maison Martin Margiela
Pants Jil Sander

On big city vegetation:
It took me a long time to understand the circle of life in Los Angeles. There is no such thing as autumn in L.A. I don't like to hike in the mornings or lay out in the afternoon, but I now have discovered a way to appreciate the constant sun. I grow vegetables and fruit..12 months a year. My favorite thing about living in L.A. is being able to walk into my garden and pick a salad in December.

On being Van Dammed if you do:
Movies are full of crazy moments because they take a lot of crazy people to make, all locked in small rooms for months at a time. Once I was directing a film and I wanted an underwater camera to shoot the opening scene, but it wasn't in the budget—and the budget had no room to breathe. We only needed the camera for one day and the price was $8,000. So I went to the producer and told him why we needed the camera, begged my case, and he made me a deal: "I'll pay for the camera if you take home this Chinese movie I own the rights to and translate it from the English subtitles." I took the deal, took the movie home, watched it, and spent a few weeks rewriting it into a bigger script—and I got the underwater shots (all 4 of them) but then I forgot all about it. Two years later he called to tell me "The movie you wrote for me is finished. We shot it in Bulgaria and everyone says it is Jean-Claude's best work." And that's how, in the middle of two comic book films, I wrote a Van Damme movie...for $8,000.

On reading and reputation:
My defense against the stereotype of Los Angeles is having a library. A lot of people here have "weekend reading" but they don't read anything but scripts. Also, the Los Angeles river is made of concrete and doesn't have any water in it and Hollywood didn't even have a decent movie theater until three years ago! Despite its reputation, L.A. has a vibrant arts scene with seven levels of hipster. The only way to flourish in Los Angeles is to embrace the irony. And grow a vegetable garden!