Dan Galassini

Dan is a fourth-generation New Mexican, and fiercely proud of it.

In high school, he originally wanted to be an architect, but then realized people actually made the movies, and that sounded like more fun. Interning in cel animation and creature effects as a senior in High School lead to film school and seven years in Los Angeles. Dan eventually returned to Albuquerque because he missed the chile and the mountains.

Dan has an extensive background doing special effects, sci-fi production design, editing and camera work. He has done effects for various TV and cable shows, has been Post-Production Engineer at Loyola Marymount University, and the Theater Engineer for the DynaTheater at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. He regularly travels to the Middle East with an archaeological team and his footage from Jordan and Israel has been seen on Travel Channel, American Heroes Channel, Discovery and others. Dan has been teaching editing, introduction to production, set design and construction, and practical (non-computer) special effects courses as well as traditional animation independent studies for Film and Digital Arts.

Dan loves New Mexico and hopes to see the film industry prosper here, as well as having a competitive film school at UNM. He enjoys teaching because every student’s project is a new challenge and he loves helping them find solutions to create something no one has seen before.