František "Frank" Daniel (April 14, 1926 – March 29, 1996) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

screenwriter, film director and teacher. He is known for developing the sequence paradigm of screenwriting, in which a classically constructed movie can be broken down into three acts, and a total of eight specific sequences. He served as co-chair of the

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

film program, and as a dean of FAMU, the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Lead ...

and the

USC School of Cinema-Television The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for S ...

. He was also an Artistic Director of the

Sundance Institute Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers fr ...

Life

Czechoslovakia

František Daniel was born in Kolín, Czechoslovakia. He earned a master's degree in music before studying film at

VGIK The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (russian: Всероссийский государственный институт кинематографии имени С. А. Герасимова, meaning ''All-Russian State Institute of Cinemat ...

in Moscow. Daniel was a member of a production unit Feix-Daniel at state-owned

Barrandov Studios Barrandov Studios is a set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe. Several major Hollywood productions have been made here, including '' Mission Impossible'', ' ...

. In addition to that he wrote screenplays and taught screenwriting at FAMU. Among his students were

Miloš Forman Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (; ; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech and American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the United States in 1968. Forman ...

Věra Chytilová Věra Chytilová (2 February 1929 – 12 March 2014) was an avant-garde Czech film director and pioneer of Czech cinema. Banned by the Czechoslovak government in the 1960s, she is best known for her Czech New Wave film, ''Sedmikrásky'' ('' ...

Pavel Juráček Pavel Juráček (; 2 August 1935 – 20 May 1989) was a Czech screenwriter and film director who studied at FAMU. Juráček started as a screenwriter for many Czech New Wave movies until he became a director. He worked in Prague at the Barran ...

. In 1959 he had to leave Barrandov after the movies he worked on were criticised for having "liberal tendencies" by František Kahuda. In 1956, Daniel and

Miloš Kratochvíl Miloš Kratochvíl (born 26 April 1996) is a Czech footballer who plays for Jablonec as a midfielder. Career Senica Kratochvíl made his professional debut for Senica Senica (; german: Senitz; hu, Szenice) is a town in Trnava Region, weste ...

published the screenwriting textbook ''Cesta za filmovým dramatem''. In 1965, he produced ''

The Shop on Main Street ''The Shop on Main Street'' ( Czech/ Slovak: ''Obchod na korze''; in the UK ''The Shop on the High Street'') is a 1965 Czechoslovakian film about the Aryanization program during World War II in the Slovak State. The film was written by Ladislav G ...

'', which won an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

for the best

foreign language A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at school ...

film. In 1968 he served as

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of the Faculty of Film and Television – FAMU, part of the

Academy of Performing Arts in Prague The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague ( cs, Akademie múzických umění v Praze, AMU) is a university in the centre of Prague, Czech Republic, specialising in the study of music, dance, drama, film, television and multi-media. It is the larg ...

United States

Daniel first toured the United States at the behest of

W. McNeil Lowry Wilson McNeil Lowry (February 17, 1913 – June 6, 1993) was an American businessman. He served as the vice president of the Ford Foundation. Lowry was honored the Special Tony Award at the 17th Tony Awards. He died in June 1993 of esophageal c ...

of the Ford Foundation, who commissioned him to do a survey of film education in the United States and make recommendations for its future development. Daniel subsequently immigrated to the United States in 1969 after the

Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

. In 1969 he became the first

of the

, where he taught

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

and

Terrence Malick Terrence Frederick Malick (born November 30, 1943) is an American filmmaker. His films include ''Days of Heaven'' (1978), '' The Thin Red Line'' (1998), for which he received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay ...

. Daniel left the Institute in 1976 to become Henry Luce Professor at

Carleton College Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowlin ...

in Minnesota. In 1978, he moved to

, where he was reunited with

, his former student, with whom he co-chaired the Columbia University School of the Arts Film program. When

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award from four nominations, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, the Cec ...

founded

in 1981, Daniel was recruited by Sundance Executive Director

Sterling Van Wagenen Sterling Gray Van Wagenen (born July 2, 1947) is an American film and stage producer, writer, director, and convicted sex offender. He is a co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival, and, in association with former brother-in-law Robert Redford, ...

to be the Institute's first

Artistic Director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since th ...

, a guiding post he held for over a decade. He taught at Columbia University until 1986. After Columbia he became the dean of

, a post he stepped down from in 1990, continuing to teach screenwriting in the Graduate Screenwriting Division. He continued to develop

scripts Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...

. He was an advisor to the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropy, philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, aft ...

, consultant to

David Rockefeller David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, ...

, member of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

and the

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. It is a 501(c)(6) non-prof ...

. He was married twice and had two sons. Michal, a photographer, and Martin, a film professor. Daniel lived in

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by lan ...

until his death on March 29, 1996. He was 69 when he died of a heart attack. He is buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in

Cathedral City, California Cathedral City, colloquially known as "Cat City", is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. Situated between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, the city has the second larg ...

Books

* 1956 ''Zlatá zeď (Golden Wall)'' – novel based on his experiences in China * 1956 ''Cesta za filmovým dramatem (The Path to Film Drama)'' * 1957 ''Stručný přehled vývoje evropských dramatických teorií (The Compact Overview of European Dramatic Theories)''

Filmography

* '' Není stále zamračeno'' (1950), Screenwriter * '' O věcech nadpřirozených'' (1958), Screenwriter * '' Kam čert nemůže'' aka ''

When the Woman Butts In ''When the Woman Butts In'' ( cs, Kam čert nemůže) is a 1959 Czechoslovak comedy film directed by Zdeněk Podskalský. It was entered into the 1960 Cannes Film Festival. Plot The study of Dr Frantisek Prucha, who bears the nickname Faust ...

'' (1959), Screenwriter * '' Spadla z Měsíce'' (1961), Screenwriter * '' Hledá se táta'' (1961), Director/Screenwriter * '' Prosím, nebudit'' (1962), Screenwriter * '' Deštivý den'' (1962), Screenwriter * '' Letos v září'' (1963), Director * '' Dva tygři'' (1966), Screenwriter * '' Last Rose from Casanova'' (1966), Screenwriter * '' Přísně tajné premiéry'' (1967), Screenwriter * ''

'' (1968), Producer * '' In the Wee Wee Hours...'' (1987), Producer

References

* 1983 "The Czech Difference" in ''Art and Commitment in the East European Cinema'', edited by David W. Paul, pp. 49–56, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Daniel, Frank 1926 births 1996 deaths Czech film directors Czechoslovak film directors Czech screenwriters Male screenwriters Czech male writers Czech film producers Film producers from California People from Palm Springs, California USC School of Cinematic Arts faculty Carleton College faculty Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography alumni 20th-century American businesspeople Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States American people of Czech descent Writers from Kolín Burials at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City) 20th-century screenwriters