Chris Dinan, making passion into a career

Chris Dinan, visuals editor at Hear Nebraska and filmmaker at Omaha Video Solutions

By Jordan Patt
University of Nebraska Lincoln

Chris Dinan, current visuals editor of Hear Nebraska, is curious.

He is the type of person who likes branching out; he appreciates the unknown. Dinan loves the challenge of a conquering a new skill.

“I remember when I was 14 years old and I had my first job at the Arby’s drive-thru,” he said. “I took my first paycheck and bought a camcorder. My friends and I were always messing around with it, making silly horror films and stuff like that.”

Dinan has experienced his fair share of picking up random hobbies and gradually letting them collect dust in the corner of the closet. However, messing around with that camcorder when he was 14 turned out to be more than a hobby he’d eventually lose interest in. Dinan always felt a certain pull toward the photography world and eventually bought himself a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera.

Throughout college, Dinan continued to practice photography while studying philosophy at the University of Nebraska Omaha.

He enjoyed taking videos of his friends in local bands to expand his skill and his friends got some cheap publicity out of the deal. At the same time that Dinan was teaching himself the ropes of the videography world, Hear Nebraska was just beginning to lay its own roots.

Every couple of months, Dinan would send in a video of his friend’s band playing a show to Hear Nebraska. This eventually landed him the title of Hear Nebraska’s visuals editor, which he has had for almost a year now.

Dinan wakes up each morning not quite knowing what the day has in store for him. The music world is constantly evolving. He’s always on the look out for new album and single releases and who’s playing where. Dinan uses the news to find out what is happening in the music world around him.

Hear Nebraska has two video interns, whom he assists with editing, photography and videography. If Dinan has recently gone to a show, he can be found editing photos or video footage. He strives to put out at least one music video per week.

One of the biggest challenges for Dinan is how fast paced the job can be. Dinan likes to push boundaries and step outside of his own comfort zone.

“One of my goals is to shoot all different genres of music,” he said. “I don’t want to just get caught up in the indie rock scene or the bluegrass scene. I want Hear Nebraska to encompass all music genres.”

Dinan wants Hear Nebraska to be a place where music lovers of all kinds can come to get the latest scoop. He wants Hear Nebraska to portray the big picture instead of just a subset.

Besides working as Hear Nebraska’s visuals editor, Dinan works for Omaha Video Solutions as a filmmaker.

Before landing his jobs for Hear Nebraska and Omaha Video Solutions, he worked for some smaller video companies. This allowed him to make valuable connections with actors and cameramen, and gave him outlets to rent equipment.

Dinan also said that working for smaller video companies allowed him to explore the profession and expand his skills.

As Hear Nebraska grows, Dinan plans to continue to push the business and himself. He wants to get to the point where Hear Nebraska is putting out three music videos per week.

Dinan strives to make his videos out of the ordinary. He wants to show people something they have never seen before.

Dinan’s career shows how to succeed in a media industry in a non-traditional way. He didn’t study photojournalism or film in school, but he had a passion for it. He dedicated himself and his time to the profession and has made a name for himself.