Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathan Walters.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Nathan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In 2006, there was a popular underground film movement and community called halo machinima. Machinima is basically when you use a video game engine to create a film. This was back before YouTube was owned by Google and even remotely the dominant video uploading site. There were other sites like Putfile, Mythica, and Sharkle and most people in the community were between the ages of 14-25.
I was 15 and worked my way up the ranks of a group called Undead Movies until I became the groups’ leader along with my twin brother, Ben. We had a rival group called Pandemic Films who we hated; but through a strange series of events, befriended. It sounds a bit dramatic, but I was 15 at the time! To compete with some of the larger groups in the community, we decided to merge Undead Movies and Pandemic Films into a “supergroup,” and called it HaloUnion.
We quickly got a lot of momentum and hype built around the merger and formed an incredible and fairly large community. Bungie Studios, the makers of the popular Halo video game franchise, listed us as one of the top 3 halo machinima communities to be a part of. Eventually, the community died out. Ben and I then went into college and shifted into live-action filmmaking, realizing that the techniques are basically the same. I would say machinima even gave us a major leg up over the people around us at the time.
In machinima, you’re limited to what the game gives you, so it teaches you how to manipulate the images and fully utilize color and visual effects in order to really create the world for the viewer. So switching to live-action film in 2009, we already had a really solid foundation in color and visual effects. Plus most starting filmmakers attempt to tell comedies or dramas and film within their means. But, having worked with video games where you have aliens and guns, we thought in terms of sci-fi; and almost everything we’ve done since has had some level of science fiction.
We never felt the need to kill HaloUnion or move on from it into something else.
HaloUnion was literally a life-changing thing for us, so we held onto it and carried the name over as our branding for live action films. Because why not? It was through HaloUnion that Ben and I became who we are as people. Even today we’re often asking ourselves, “what would we have done when we were 16?” often looking back to our past success as inspiration for the values and standards we should have today.
After graduating film school at the University of Georgia, we went on to work for some pretty large clients. Such clients include Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola, Georgia Music Hall of Fame, Mellow Mushroom, PlayStation, and a large handful of others. Outside of commercial and corporate work, we work on a great deal of music videos and independent films.
This is where the real heart of the group is, as we began making films and music videos back in the day. It’s pretty special that we’re really just doing the exact same thing we were doing 13 years ago, just on a much larger scale.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has been anything but smooth. It is a highly over-saturated industry that is the completely cutthroat. I never know if that next gig will come and there is no job security. But it’s the life I chose I suppose. Or perhaps the life that chose me?
Please tell us about HaloUnion Productions.
A comment we often get when someone views our showreel is, “well that was unique.”
We have what I feel are unique influences and tastes, and I think that comes across in the work we do. We’re all over the place in that we produce videos for commercial/corporate clients, but also producing music videos and independent films. A lot of people outsource visual effects work to us, so I imagine when people think HaloUnion Productions, they think of visual effects heavy, science fiction based work.
I guess what I am most proud of is the fact that HaloUnion has existed for almost 12 years now and I’m only 27. I think we as a group have had such a long history at this point, that it is something I could never throw away. We’re in it for the long haul and have a lot more films to make.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I try not to speculate, but I guess there are two key lessons I can easily mention.
First, I think when we first started, we were a cutthroat group that was built on high standards. That upset a lot of our team as we were pretty tough on everyone. But the result was a group that everyone was proud to be of and really impacted those who were a part of it. It’s easy to want to people please, to want to make everyone happy. But by just pleasing everyone, you can’t create something that matters to anyone. I think we’ve gone through periods where we lowered our standards.
Which led to some videos that honestly had some great success but were lacking in the quality that we would want to represent us. I think that in the same way that we as people value our “word” and “integrity,” as a business, it’s important to uphold high standards of quality. You want people to associate your brand with incredible quality work. Thankfully, I think we have returned to that standard and it is our highest value going forward as a team.
Second, people say it all the time to the point it is nauseating, but it really is all about who you know. We completely banked on our ability to execute on high quality and neglected on network building, thinking that as long as we’re producing top quality work, people will come. However, we’ve definitely lost jobs where, even if we can create the higher quality video, the company will choose the person they’re more connected with instead.
We also just cut a film called To Wander Ros Cala that I’m incredibly proud of. This whole journey has been about moving closer and closer to perfection. Try to eliminate the biggest glaring flaws. I think after 11 years, we’ve finally gotten there. Once you nail down the production value, it’s really a matter of storytelling and trying to make something that resonates with people.
I think we’ve done that with To Wander Ros Cala and thanks to the incredible team we had, we’ve come up with something we can be really proud of. The film will hopefully be hitting the festival circuit soon so please look out for that.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.HaloUnion.com
- Email: nwalters@halounion.com
- Instagram: @HU_Nathan7
- Facebook: facebook.com/HaloUnionProductions
- Twitter: twitter.com/HaloUnionPro
- Other: YouTube.com/HaloUnion
Image Credit:
Elizabeth Page Photography
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
