Filmmaker Follows Cross-Country Dream, Finds It At Home

Following his 2004 graduation from Severna Park High School (SPHS), Dan Gvozden was a bundle of enthusiasm filled with unbridled creativity ready to take on the filmmaking world. After two decades that have taken him from Maryland to New York to Los Angeles and back, Gvozden has returned to a place that has always been home.

He spent his first two college years at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County before transferring to New York University’s (NYU) prestigious Tisch School of the Arts.

“I felt a little out of place, not because I was in New York City coming from a small town, but as a film student I was a complete novice,” Gvozden recalled. “I didn’t feel like I had the skills to compete with other students. Filmmaking was all very fun, but there was a level of professionalism I hadn’t been exposed to that other people had been marinating in their entire lives.”

He persisted, did well, and graduated from NYU in 2008 when the U.S. economy was in recession. He took on small projects and jobs for the next year, uncertain about his future and that of filmmaking.

“I got a call from my parents in March 2009 telling me about a rash of teen suicides in Severna Park that included a very close friend,” Gvozden said, adding he learned the SPHS administration was looking to do something, anything, to help. With no clear career path in sight, he said, “I became motivated to use my newly acquired skills, because I knew I could be doing something proactive for the community I love.”

Gvozden hopped on a bus to Baltimore, and over the 200-mile trek wrote the script for a public service announcement (PSA) called “The Empty Seat.” He spent the next several months assembling approximately 500 volunteers and putting the PSA together. “It’s still the project I am most proud of as a filmmaker,” he added.

The PSA was filmed at Severna Park High School and Severn School. It was picked up and shared by Lady Gaga and other celebrities, and high schools continue to this day to use it as a template for their own schools. It has been viewed more than 1 million times on Gvozden’s YouTube channel.

“That PSA is still being taught in at least 10 statewide curriculums for teen suicide awareness,” Gvozden said. “There are many copycats, so it’s been doing the good it was intended to do for a very long time. The community of Severna Park made it happen, and that’s what still makes it special to this day.”

Hollywood was still calling, so Gvozden decided to give Los Angeles a try. His BWI – LAX flight had just touched down when he got a call from Severn School inviting him to teach film.

“I went to college with the plans of learning about art, film, and education and combining that into a career,” Gvozden said. “I just couldn’t have imagined how that would play out.”

Without a film department, syllabus or resources, the young man who called himself a filmmaker was now a teacher just two days before the start of the school year. He spent the next five years building a strong film program at the private school.

While still trying to shop the PSA and in lieu of having the finances to make his own movies, Gvozden started to write about movies as a way to stay engaged in film culture. He wrote as a film critic for the Severna Park Voice and other publications for several years, and he was the founding programming director of the now highly acclaimed Annapolis Film Festival. But Hollywood was still calling.

In 2014, Gvozden headed back to Tinseltown to attend University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a student in the cinema and media studies master’s degree program. He continued his film criticism, which allowed him to work with Stephen Farber, then president of the Los Angeles Film Critic Association.

“Stephen Farber is one of my film critic idols,” Gvozden said. “He gave me great feedback on my writing and introduced me to all of my favorite critics.” Gvozden added that during this time, he met celebrities, watched movies before they were released, and wrote film critiques for several Los Angeles papers.

He returned to education with a faculty position at Sierra Canyon School, a Los Angeles middle and high school filled with celebrity children whose parents include accomplished filmmakers. In his seven years there, he took the small film department to the peaks of high school filmmaking both nationally and internationally.

In 2024, following the birth of his son, Gvozden and his wife heard another calling, and this time it was back to Maryland. Armed with experience in a myriad of film industry niches, having built two successful high school film programs, Gvozden had a vision to combine his skills and love for education and do something completely different.

Now residing in Catonsville, with the expectation to join his pediatrician parents and siblings in Severna Park one day, Gvozden opened The Backlot, a school for people wanting to get into the filmmaking industry.

“I want students to have access to every opportunity in high school filmmaking that I wish I had in high school,” Gvozden said, noting that there are many tools available in 2026 that didn’t exist in early 2000s.

“I loved Severna Park High School; it’s part of my DNA and still my favorite learning experience,” he added, while recalling a single film editing machine in a closet used for an entire film class taught by a Family and Consumer Sciences educator. “We didn’t have phones that could make a decent video. Our editing equipment would crash if we needed to edit something for longer than five minutes.”

Based on his cross-country experience, Gvozden knows a real hunger for filming resources and education exists. He chose Catonsville for his school due to its proximity to Baltimore and surrounding counties. His goal is to prepare talented, creative individuals for film schools so they don’t feel overwhelmed or out of place.

“Those schools are filled with kids from New York and LA, but why not Maryland, Baltimore and Severna Park?” Gvozden asked. “The tools are accessible and available. (Students) just need training and a place to go.”

The Backlot opened in January and offers private lessons, summer camps and classes for people of all ages. Gvozden hopes to partner with schools to share his experience on how to build a thriving film program.

To learn more about Gvozden’s newest endeavor, visit www.thebacklotmd.com. The PSA that started his career can be found on YouTube.