Who are Nathan & Ben Walters, the award winning duet.

Welcome Nathan and Ben, we are very excited to have you today with us to discuss about your work.

Who are the directing twins Nathan and Ben Walters and how did the passion for filmmaking begin?

We began with the first generation of filmmakers that were birthed from YouTube in 2005 (creating machinima films (machine + cinema; ie using video game engines as a 3d engine for filmmaking).

As the result of using video game engines from the beginning; the stories we learned to tell were built around science fiction and not limited to the resources most young filmmakers are held to starting off. For example, if we wanted helicopters and aliens in our stories, we could do that. So in that regard, it holds a lot of the same benefits of animation in that you are able to tell these often bigger concept stories without being limited to tight budgets. The machinima scene was reminiscent of a mini Hollywood with vibrant communities and directors that had built audiences around their work with their distinguished style of filmmaking technique.

We’ve stayed consistent with our personal style that we established back then as well as taking from the style and techniques of machinima auteurs like Brian Smith, Mike Rouse, and others. Over the years, we’ve also fallen in love with the bold visual styles of live action filmmakers like Nicolas Winding Refn, Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergio Leone, and Quentin Tarantino. With every project we do, we’re looking to combine the styles of these filmmakers and others that have influenced us and convert it into a hopefully visually stimulating experience for audiences.

Can you tell us about your previous work?
We began collaborating and shooting action heavy content with stunt teams around the South Eastern United States. After several successful projects, we were introduced to Liberian filmmaker, actor and stuntman, Diezie Sahn. Caring so much about the visual side of storytelling, we often find ourselves as director of photography on other people’s projects. Diezie had us come out and shoot some action content on his film, “Forced,” then that lead to being the official Director of Photography and co-director on his next film, “We.” Lastly, when he approached us to read the script for his next film, “Uncle Ivan,” we bid to direct and steer the ship; and the rest is history.

CONVERSATION ABOUT: UNCLE IVAN

Can you share some key inspirations or influences that shaped the concept of ‘‘Uncle Ivan’’ ?
One surprising inspiration for the film was the Metal Gear Solid video game franchise. That series has always stuck out with their larger than life characters and storylines. It feels as if every character in those games has such a richness in background and goals. We also looked heavily to the western genre, from the shot composition to the rhythm of editing, specifically taking influence from the style of Sergio Leone. We also looked at these films when thinking about theme and ideas behind vengeance, but brought forward into a more modern setting..

Could you discuss the collaborative process between the two of you as twin directors? How do your individual strengths contribute to the filmmaking process?

Uncle Ivan was a treat for us because it was one of the select times we both got to focus on directing, together. Usually, Nathan and I will sort of split responsibilities. Sometimes, I’ll be focused on directing, and Nathan will be more in the cinematographer seat, but on this project, we brought on an amazing director of photography, Shani Varner, who was able to really man the camera and the lighting alongside gaffer, Joseph Tova, based off of our storyboard and give us results we were really proud of. This allowed us to both be focused on directing the story and the actors. It was also a wonderful collaborative process with Diezie Sahn, who was the star and original visionary of the project. We produced everything together from the wardrobe, props, to even digging the hole seen in the film a few days prior to shooting. But when it came time to step on set, he really trusted us and our creative vision for the film and we’re thankful for that. It led to a wonderful collaboration.

The plot of ‘‘Uncle Ivan’’ involves a choice between revenge and maintaining innocence. How did you approach the character development to convey the internal conflict faced by the protagonist ? 

This has been an important topic in my mind as of late as I just had my first kid this year. Having a baby, I’ve reminded myself of what it’s like to be so young when your view on the world is so innocent and pure. And at some point, the world forces people to be colder; to have a harsher and less optimistic viewpoint on life. And I think it’s a real shame in a lot of ways. I think humanity for the most part should fight to maintain a viewpoint of innocence and where life is grand and full of wonder and possibilities, and not be molded into the harsh realities of our fallen world. I don’t know if maintaining that optimistic view is totally realistic, but I do think it’s worth fighting for. In the film, Zhevi, does face these harsh realities that push her away from innocence and towards a path of becoming an eventual avenger. But she still fights to do the right thing, because she knows there’s some things you can’t really come back from.

The film’s plot suggests a blend of emotional drama and, given your background, potentially some science fiction elements. How did you approach the visual and cinematic style to enhance the storytelling ?

Uncle Ivan is a heightened drama full of emotion and high stakes. But being that most of the setting takes place out in the woods, we knew we had to make some key creative and technical decisions to help it feel less mundane and more surreal and larger than life. So we shot on the Red Epic Dragon with one 40mm Atlas Orion anamorphic lens. We wanted to shoot anamorphic, because of not only the transformative nature of the image, but the horizontal flares, the wide field of view with edge distortion. All of this contributed to the desire to create a filmic, yet unnatural image to help transform the viewer into another world. We also liked the retro associations with an anamorphic look, plus the fact that we shot entirely exterior meant we could take advantage of anamorphic without needing to pump in a ton of light. We furthered tried to push into a retro, yet surreal look in the digital interface, where director of photography and colorist, Shani Varner, pushed the look towards a saturated film emulation invoking films of the 1960s and 1970s and even the technicolor era.

How do you balance entertainment value with the exploration of deeper themes in your filmmaking? 

Nathan and I live by the idea of first and foremost, make it entertaining. And second, make it meaningful. Most people are looking to just be entertained, and we want to create that experience for them; to have people on the edge of their seats in suspense of what might happen next. But on the other hand, if there’s not meaning or a message behind the content, it’s not a story we’re interested in telling. A script we take on needs to have a strong message; with themes people in the world need to see and feel. Our ultimate goal is to make meaningful art through cinematic mediums that both entertain audiences and yet still carry artistic and thematic weight.

How do you handle disagreements or creative differences during the filmmaking process, considering the unique dynamic of being twins with potentially similar tastes?

We’ve definitely had our creative disagreements over the years. Whether it’s a difference in the blocking, or the movement of the camera, or even how an actor should approach a line. We’ve managed to avoid those disagreements mostly, because we are extremely preproduction heavy with storyboards, and we go through a heavy analysis process as to who major characters or even smaller characters are in our projects. When we get to set, we are in major agreement on what our story is, what our themes are, who are characters are, what their background is, and what is motivating them. We are also in agreement on the best cinematography style to capture our story whether it’s handheld and gritty or smooth dolly moves, locked off, etc. But even so, any time you are on set, new problems are going to arise and there’s going to be disagreements on how to attack those problems; even for Nathan and I who think extremely similar. The way we usually decide on the solution is purely who is more passionate about their opinion. We’ll both usually have an opinion, but one of us often is passionate enough to be like “Hey, I feel so strongly about this that I refuse to go the other direction”. And then the other has to respect that.

Can you give us a glimpse into any upcoming projects or collaborations that HaloUnion Productions has in the pipeline?

We are extremely excited about the next year, as we are set to begin production on our first feature film. We can’t wait to move into the feature film space where we can push our style onto more in-depth stories. We’re also working with Diezie Sahn to develop Uncle Ivan into a feature film concept. We want to dive deeper into the plot and characters of Uncle Ivan and let audiences see where Ivan and Zhevi’s journey takes them.

This marks the conclusion of the interview featuring our esteemed artists, Nathan and Ben Walters. Our community is growing steadily, with a continuous influx of skilled filmmakers and screenwriters joining us. Explore our other interviews, and consider scheduling one for yourself to showcase your creative endeavors.

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