David Landau

David had his first publishing credit in college for an article he wrote about shooting a low budget feature film for Lighting Dimensions Magazine entitled “You're giving me Pretty Pictures, I want Speed”. David has worked professionally in film and video production for over 30 years on TV shows, commercials, feature films, documentaries and corporate videos. He has been teaching film at Fairleigh Dickinson University since 2002 where he is now a full professor and director of their cinematography program. David is the author of the book “Lighting for Cinematography; A practical guide to the arts and craft of lighting for the moving image” from Bloomsbury Press and the editor of their Cinetech Guides to the Film Crafts series. He is also the author of “Film Noir Production: The whodunit of the classic American mystery film” and co-author with David Carren on “Next Level Screenwriting” both from Routledge-Focal Press. He has also written articles for such industry magazines as HD Pro Guide, Script Magazine, Screenwriter’s Monthly and Student Filmmaker’s Magazine. He received the 2016 Teaching Award from the University Film & Video Association, has won five international Bronze Telly Awards and one Cindy Award for his cinematography on such indie feature films as “Stray” and “Dark Tarot” and the web-series “The Other F-Word” and worked several years as the lead gaffer (chief lighting technician) on the Lifetime TV series “Project Runway Allstars.”

David is also the creator of the world’s first interactive mystery theater company, “Murder To Go” which performed worldwide from 1983-2002 for which he wrote over 20 plays and 100 custom theatrical presentations. His interactive mystery play, “Murder at Café Noir” has won several awards and been produced worldwide. Café Noir and six of his other interactive plays have been published by Samuel French. David is a member of The Dramatists Guild, The Mystery Writers of America, The University Film &Video Association and the Motion Pictures Studio Mechanics union IATSE Local 52.

But David is still the proudest of selling 40 comic fortunates to the Goldberg Fortune Cookie company in 1980, more than any other freelance fortune writer.