Announcing: The winner of Artlist’s 2024 $100K Fund
Meet Dan Ramm. He’s a Connecticut-based filmmaker with big ideas and an even bigger heart — and that’s not an exaggeration, he has a heart condition. This is partly what inspired his winning idea — that and his wife, who works in a hospice. Today, we’re delighted to announce that Dan’s 7 Wonders series is the winner of Artlist’s $100K Fund 2024, and we can’t wait to see it.
We caught up with Dan to find out more about his winning project, the many people who inspired the concept, and how he hopes the end result will resonate with the Artlist community.
Meet Dan Ramm, the winner of the 2024 $100K Fund

Mortality has always been a part of Dan’s story. Born and raised on the East Coast of the USA, his father passed away from a heart condition before he was born. The condition was hereditary, so both Dan and his sister grew up with heart issues, something that has affected Dan’s outlook on life.
“My dad died of heart failure after getting a heart transplant,” Dan says. “So I grew up with this sense of wanting to make him proud in some way.”
Dan fell in love with film through Terminator II, and knew from a young age that was what he wanted to do. “I was obsessed with movies,” he says. “I would watch VHS tapes over and over, and when it was time to go to college, I wanted to go to film school.”
His parents weren’t so enthusiastic, and despite attempts to sabotage his entrance exams, Dan got into college to study Communications. Soon after, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, which had a knock-on effect on his entire well-being.
“It spider webs into other things, like arthritis and anemia, and a few years ago, I started getting heart episodes,” he says. “I was playing volleyball, jumped and landed, and my heart just would not turn off. It was in racing mode, palpitating non-stop for hours.”
But despite his health battles, Dan left college to become a successful marketer. “I was able to make videos, and I’d freelance in my spare time to make films for other people,” he says. He landed a role at a non-profit called Boys and Girls Club and, from there, started making a film about the inter-connected true stories of the kids, which is now in the final stages of post-production.
The story behind Dan’s 7 Wonders series
Dan had been using Artlist for his film projects for years, and heard about the $100K Fund through a newsletter. He looked at his list of ideas and found his Seven Wonders series sitting at the top of it.
“My wife Jackie works as a social worker in a hospice, and I wanted to tell her story,” Dan says. “It’s tough, she’ll get attached to a really cool client, but, like, all of her clients are dying.”
Dan learned from Jackie that working in a hospice really levels the playing field. “She has clients who are everyday people, and she has clients that are Fortune 500 CEOs,” Dan says. “She comes home and tells me about the regrets people have, so I started writing them down. There’s obviously more than seven but they all fall into a similar kind of theme, so they really boiled down to the same issues.”
This, alongside his own personal experiences of health struggles and mortality, is the inspiration behind Dan’s Seven Wonders series. Dan plans to create a 7-part mini-series exploring the seven biggest regrets people face on their deathbeds.
Each episode explores one central theme tied to a big regret people have at the end of their lives, building up to one climactic scene in which Dan himself overcomes that regret.
Why Dan’s submission stood out
Dan’s submission has it all — the sense of adventure, the personal story, and powerful messaging. His submission film and accompanying presentation showcased his personality, humor, and natural presenting abilities, which gave the team a taste for how the series will turn out. On top of that, Dan’s submission was full of interesting personal nuggets of information that made us want to learn more.
”We loved how Dan’s project is rooted in something very personal, yet universal,” says Roy Mayer, Artlist’s Social Media Lead. “We also loved how he constructed a really exciting concept out of that core idea, in a way that will work well on YouTube with content that feels over the top in a good way.”
How Artlist will help bring 7 Wonders to life
Artlist’s $100K Fund has one aim: to help creators like Dan realize their most ambitious and impactful projects. That’s exactly what happened last year with the 2023 $100K Fund winners Sent Into Space, who broke records documenting the Northern Lights from space. With this fund, Artlist can empower creators to expand their horizons, while inspiring the community to be more courageous with their creativity.
Dan will have access to all of Artlist’s resources throughout the creation of his project. That includes access to the Artlist team for consultancy and advice, feedback from the filmmaking team, and, of course, $100,000 to bring his vision to life.
“Growing up as a kid, the two words I said the most were ‘I wonder,’” Dan says. “I was just so curious, and I feel like modern generations are kind of robbed of that because we don’t have to wonder anymore. We can just say, ‘Hey, Siri, how fast is the sun spinning at any given moment?’”
The $100K Fund means Dan has the opportunity to continue to wonder while providing answers for others who are just as curious as he is.
What’s next for Dan Ramm and 7 Wonders
Each episode will explore a different regret and how to overcome it, and the first episode is all about balance — “‘I wish I hadn’t worked so hard’ is a big regret people have,” Dan says.
For this episode, Dan will team up with One Inch Dreams, a slack-line and film production team, who will accompany Dan as he attempts to break a world record by slack-lining across two hot-air balloons three miles in the air.
The episode will take place in Spain, where they will interview local people, together with Alexander Schultz, co-founder of One Inch Dreams, about their thoughts on balance. “He’s slack-lined across two skyscrapers and an active volcano,” Dan says. “Like, over a volcano spewing lava wearing a gas mask, so I gotta get that guy’s thoughts on mortality and regret.”
For his adventure episode, Dan will explore the idea of finding your purpose. “One regret people have is discovering their purpose in life too late,” Dan says. “Jackie will tell me about how someone will start playing violin at the end of their lives and be amazing at it. Can you imagine never being good at much your whole life and then, right at the end, discovering something you’re not just good at, but feel passionate about? I think that’s such a tragedy.”
The other 5 episodes will be centered around:
- Authenticity: “I wish I had the courage to just be myself.”
- Expression: “I wish I had the courage to express my feelings.”
- Connection: “I wish I’d stayed in touch with friends and family more.”
- Decision: “I wish I could be happier.”
- Presence: “I wish I hadn’t focused too much on the future and lost touch with the present.”
Although Dan will be the main protagonist, he plans to explore these themes with an ensemble cast of characters, from long-lost personal friends to new ones he makes along the way.
Each episode will have three acts: the first will consist of a raw and honest interview with real people to frame the regret, the second will show Dan and his crew discussing the theme on their way to complete the final stunt, and the third act will be the stunt itself, with Dan overcoming his fears and countering the regret.
Dan describes himself as an adventurer and believes he could have been a stuntman in an alternate universe, which is why he’ll be attempting the climactic stunt set pieces himself. As well as the highest tightrope world-record attempt, he plans to skydive from a hot-air balloon in Spain, drive a Formula 1 race car in England, fly in a fighter jet in Florida, jump from a moving helicopter in Ireland, wingwalk with The AeroSuperBatics Wingwalkers in England, wakeskate and skimboard across a world-famous black sand beach in Iceland, and jump off a skyscraper in Dubai.
Stay up-to-date on Dan’s journey
We can’t wait to see what Dan has in store for us — and we’re just as excited about the emotional journey as we are about the physical one. Make sure you stay up-to-date on Dan’s adventures through Artlist’s blog and social media channels, and we hope you feel just as inspired by Dan’s story as we do.
And for those feeling motivated to enter the $100K Fund next year, Dan has some advice: “Make your idea as fully fleshed out as possible, and break down the barrier between imagination and reality. Ideas are like a wild horse and they can seem unattainable to people who want to help you, so if you can tame that idea and show you can ride that wild horse, you’ll get the help you need.”
Did you find this article useful?