The Multifaceted World of Nathan D. Myers

Matt: 00:00:00

Welcome back to the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast.

Matt: 00:00:03

We appreciate you guys joining us.

Matt: 00:00:05

Um, in the last episode, we talked to Nathan and D'Lytha Meyers about their project.

Matt: 00:00:11

aria Appleton shines a project that is really focused on providing good content, good Christ-centered content, but high quality Christ-centered content for kids.

Matt: 00:00:21

So hope you guys have all rushed out, to Amazon and check.

Matt: 00:00:25

That out, but Nathan, now we're back to talk.

Matt: 00:00:27

Uh, we're gonna get a little more nerdy, gonna get a little more into the weeds here and the filmmaking.

Matt: 00:00:32

I wanna know kind of what your background in filmmaking was.

Matt: 00:00:34

How did you get into filmmaking from the beginning?

Nathan: 00:00:37

It's great to be here, Matt.

Nathan: 00:00:38

Thanks for having me.

Nathan: 00:00:39

I started in the movie industry as an actor.

Nathan: 00:00:42

My very first soiree into film was I booked the lead in a independent feature film that was shooting in Nashville and I, I had been doing live theater.

Nathan: 00:00:51

I'd done live theater since junior high.

Nathan: 00:00:54

And I'm an actor and a singer and was always those things, sometimes worship leader, often involved in, church programs and things like that.

Nathan: 00:01:02

Over the years, my dad was a pastor and so I, you know, kinda grew up in his ministries, involved in very public spaces on stage leading worship or teaching and things like that.

Nathan: 00:01:11

Musical theater led to music direction.

Nathan: 00:01:15

It also led to scenic design and scenic painting because I was that kid in high school that was.

Nathan: 00:01:21

In the show and I'd take my tap shoes off and stick around after rehearsal to paint the set.

Nathan: 00:01:28

And when I was in high school, I was in, in a five a public high school, castle High School, Newburgh, Indiana.

Nathan: 00:01:35

Woo-hoo.

Nathan: 00:01:35

Go Knights.

Nathan: 00:01:36

And I was only really involved in arts programming, was I was not terribly involved in.

Nathan: 00:01:41

Team sports or anything like that.

Nathan: 00:01:43

The guy who would build all of our sets was this guy named Terry from Indianapolis, who was a pro, he was a union stage designer, a set designer, and he would come in and build our sets.

Nathan: 00:01:52

And so for four years while I was there, every show I would stick around and paint with him and he would show me stuff, just tricks of the trade.

Nathan: 00:02:00

And so by the time I was graduating high school, I had.

Nathan: 00:02:05

A serious working knowledge, like a mentee's working knowledge of stagecraft and particularly scenic painting, which I was very interested in, and I was a visual artist.

Nathan: 00:02:14

I was sculpting and drawing and painting, and I was just doing anything that my little artist's heart wanted to do in those days.

Nathan: 00:02:21

Post high school.

Nathan: 00:02:22

I went through a youth missions program called aim.

Nathan: 00:02:25

Uh, took me through a seminary program for a couple of years.

Nathan: 00:02:28

I studied Russian, studied Bible, ended up in Russia on a two year mission.

Nathan: 00:02:32

And when I came back from those missions, I thought I was gonna work for the church for a while, and I did a few internships and I realized I was kind of dying on the vine, so to speak.

Nathan: 00:02:44

My artist heart was not being gratified by anything I was able to do in institutional church work.

Nathan: 00:02:50

And I had this really interesting come to Jesus moment where the Lord released me, He was like, Hey, I, I didn't make you this way to keep you a prisoner over here and, you don't have to serve me over here in this particular

Matt: 00:03:03

The land of administration.

Nathan: 00:03:04

Yeah, and don't wanna get into that too much 'cause I, there are some wonderful people in that space doing really wonderful institutional church work.

Nathan: 00:03:12

The cog of my wheel, which is intensely creative and kind of wacky.

Nathan: 00:03:17

And in the cult, Lisa Arnold, director, who you guys know, looked at me one day and we were talking on a movie set and she said, that's incredible, you know.

Nathan: 00:03:26

And and I said, no, you're incredible.

Nathan: 00:03:28

That's crazy.

Nathan: 00:03:28

You're just a mad genius.

Nathan: 00:03:30

And she looked at me and she said, takes one to no one.

Nathan: 00:03:33

I've always appreciated that, that there's, there's that kind of crazy that does go on in the head of, creatives that has to be expressed.

Nathan: 00:03:41

It's got to be expressed in healthy ways.

Nathan: 00:03:43

The Lord released me.

Nathan: 00:03:44

I got kind of thrown into the film space and musical theater space.

Nathan: 00:03:48

I toured with my brothers for seven, eight years music that's on iTunes at Myers Brothers.

Nathan: 00:03:55

Um, and then some of that music that never was released is attached to the Aria Appleton soundtrack.

Nathan: 00:04:01

Uh.

Nathan: 00:04:01

We opened for the, the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato and had a really fun decade of music, really, uh, leading worship and just touring around, but never really went anywhere.

Nathan: 00:04:12

It was in the years when the music industry was dying and Napster had destroyed everything and things were changing there.

Nathan: 00:04:18

And so I met D'Lytha doing musical theater, but I ended up at that particular theater where I met her... I took my portfolio to them at the behest of one of the members of our church.

Nathan: 00:04:28

I had just moved to Texas, from Indiana and she said, Hey, why don't you take your portfolio up to Casa Manana or Kids Who Care and see if they, maybe you could scenic paint or you could get involved up there.

Nathan: 00:04:38

I was 24.

Nathan: 00:04:40

So I took my portfolio to Kids Who Care and Deborah John, God bless her.

Nathan: 00:04:45

She looked at my portfolio at that time and she said, you have some incredible scenic work in here and you've the painting and all the things she said, but we really don't need anybody helping us with scenic right now.

Nathan: 00:04:56

We have a full-time team.

Nathan: 00:04:58

Then she reached in my portfolio, which at the time had a CD in it.

Nathan: 00:05:01

It was one of the records I'd done with my brothers, and she pulled it out.

Nathan: 00:05:04

She said, but we do need a music director and have you ever directed a show?

Nathan: 00:05:07

And I said, I have not.

Nathan: 00:05:08

And she said, we're about to do Godspell.

Nathan: 00:05:11

Would you like to direct music for Godspell?

Nathan: 00:05:13

And so my brothers and I actually got involved in that capacity as the band behind Gods Spell, which if you've ever seen a production of that, and uh, produced that for them.

Nathan: 00:05:21

Had a great time.

Nathan: 00:05:23

That was 2001 into two.

Nathan: 00:05:25

And by 2005 though, I and Deli and I were getting married, I did my first feature.

Nathan: 00:05:30

And so a lot of that music direction meets scenic work just kind of toggled for me.

Nathan: 00:05:37

It switched over to the film space where a friend is, producing a feature and I'm thinking, oh, well he wants me to maybe help with art department or something.

Nathan: 00:05:45

And he's like, no, no.

Nathan: 00:05:46

I want you to be, in it.

Nathan: 00:05:48

He was like, I want you to play this main character.

Nathan: 00:05:49

And I said, oh, okay.

Nathan: 00:05:51

Well that's great because, you know, as a creative, I first got interested in.

Nathan: 00:05:56

Film and everything because of acting, I was interested in acting primarily.

Nathan: 00:05:59

And so it's just that scenic and art and paint and these, not everybody's got that or is really good at that.

Nathan: 00:06:06

And so if you're that guy on a movie set, that's how I ended up art directing is 'cause you know, you get in as a PA and someone's like, somebody cut this out with somebody, use scissors.

Nathan: 00:06:15

Anybody know how to use scissors?

Nathan: 00:06:17

and I'm like, yep, I can do that.

Nathan: 00:06:18

You know, can somebody hand write this sign, you know, for me?

Nathan: 00:06:21

And I'm like, mm-hmm.

Nathan: 00:06:22

Yeah, no problem.

Nathan: 00:06:23

You have beautiful handwriting.

Nathan: 00:06:25

And it's like, thank you very much.

Nathan: 00:06:26

And so you, you end up with people taking note of the giftings and what you're capable of.

Nathan: 00:06:31

And, um, so I started in, in acting and music, but then got interested in.

Nathan: 00:06:37

Art as art was a, a more tangible, direct way to make a consistent living in the film space than, than trying to be an actor all the time, which was very, very hard.

Nathan: 00:06:48

And so early on I was really blessed.

Nathan: 00:06:50

And you know, I, I was also a Christian Guy, so I was going, Lord, where do you need me?

Nathan: 00:06:55

What do you want me to do?

Nathan: 00:06:57

I had learned how to say, here am I send me early in my life.

Nathan: 00:07:02

And my dad was doing that, you know, missions taught me that and I remember doing that at some point in, uh, in 2000.

Nathan: 00:07:09

This is funny, but I ended up working at Capernaum Studios with Tammy Lane.

Nathan: 00:07:14

Because I had a Russian friend who wanted to come to the States, and she called me.

Nathan: 00:07:19

She said, I had a dream, and you are at the, the captain of the ship and you're helping me get to the seminary program in the States.

Nathan: 00:07:28

And I knew that, I knew I'm, I'm gonna fundraise for her.

Nathan: 00:07:31

Like I, I jumped into a fundraising capacity to help her get her.

Nathan: 00:07:35

Ducks in a row so she could get to the states.

Nathan: 00:07:37

The same friend I had done the feature with in Nashville called and said, Hey, I wanna move to Dallas.

Nathan: 00:07:42

Do you have anybody that I could?

Nathan: 00:07:44

Meet in the industry down there that I could work with.

Nathan: 00:07:46

I said, well, I know a couple people and I knew Tammy Lane at the time.

Nathan: 00:07:49

I just knew of her in our market, and I connected them.

Nathan: 00:07:52

Those two people, it's crazy.

Nathan: 00:07:53

They arrived at my house on the same day, two very different stories, arrived at my house on the same day.

Nathan: 00:07:59

I took Masha and my friend to seminary dropped her off at school.

Nathan: 00:08:03

And then on Monday I took my buddy to see Tammy Lane and she hired him on the spot.

Nathan: 00:08:08

I didn't have a job.

Nathan: 00:08:09

I'd literally been fundraising and working at Starbucks much to my wife, chagrin.

Nathan: 00:08:14

'cause she wanted to go back and get her master's.

Nathan: 00:08:16

In fact, she was starting her master's the following Monday and she kept looking at me in those months going, is this okay?

Nathan: 00:08:22

Is this gonna be all right?

Nathan: 00:08:23

I don't, you know, poor girl.

Nathan: 00:08:24

I like, you know this, this preacher's kid, missionaries kid who.

Nathan: 00:08:29

is also a four on the Enneagram.

Nathan: 00:08:30

Like, I'm like a little cavalier, you know, I'm gonna push the envelope if a risk could be taken, I'm probably gonna take it.

Nathan: 00:08:37

And she's like, is this gonna work?

Nathan: 00:08:39

And I'm like, Hey, just trust God.

Nathan: 00:08:40

I don't get it.

Nathan: 00:08:41

But I know that if I know anything, I'm supposed to be helping Masha.

Nathan: 00:08:43

I. If I know anything, I'm supposed to do that.

Nathan: 00:08:46

And if I know anything, I, I'm supposed to do this.

Nathan: 00:08:47

Yeah, but what about us?

Nathan: 00:08:48

What about, what about me going back to school?

Nathan: 00:08:51

What about our bills?

Nathan: 00:08:52

You know, I'm like, I, we'll, we'll figure that out.

Nathan: 00:08:54

It'll, it'll come to us.

Nathan: 00:08:55

Just watch.

Nathan: 00:08:56

So I drop my buddy off with Tammy.

Nathan: 00:08:58

She hires him on the spot and then calls me on Wednesday that week and says.

Nathan: 00:09:03

Can you come in and meet with me for a minute?

Nathan: 00:09:05

And I said, sure.

Nathan: 00:09:06

And on Friday I meet with her and she says, what are you doing right now?

Nathan: 00:09:11

And I thought that she was gonna talk to me about my buddy and be like, I've made a huge mistake.

Nathan: 00:09:15

And, and that's not what it turned out to be, thankfully.

Nathan: 00:09:18

And, uh, she said, what are you doing right now?

Nathan: 00:09:20

And I said, nothing.

Nathan: 00:09:21

I'm, I'm fundraising for a missionary that I just dropped off.

Nathan: 00:09:24

And, and I got.

Nathan: 00:09:25

You know my buddy here for you.

Nathan: 00:09:27

And she said, I need your help.

Nathan: 00:09:29

I think.

Nathan: 00:09:29

I think you're supposed to work here.

Nathan: 00:09:31

I think you're supposed to be here.

Nathan: 00:09:33

And so that turned into Capernaum Studios and Gardens.

Nathan: 00:09:37

I mean, I spent a year working with her, just associate producing some stuff that's lesser known things she was doing in those days.

Nathan: 00:09:44

I call that, you know, filmmaker sketchbook years.

Nathan: 00:09:46

You know, it's like when people are just.

Nathan: 00:09:48

Kind of getting their legs up underneath them.

Nathan: 00:09:50

And then, uh, that turned into the design work for Capernaum Studios.

Nathan: 00:09:55

We did concept drawings at the end of 2005 for the village and the gardens, well, the village primarily.

Nathan: 00:10:00

And then in 2008, I had left the company and I was back touring with the guys and I was working at Starbucks periodically, and Tammy Lane walked into my Starbucks, and that's like, no offense, Tammy, I love you.

Nathan: 00:10:13

But it was kind of in a local culture that was a little bit like Paris Hilton walking in your Starbucks to come talk to you.

Nathan: 00:10:20

And she walked in and, and she's such a lovely lady and, and beautiful.

Nathan: 00:10:23

And she smiled at me and I said, what are you doing here, Tammy?

Nathan: 00:10:27

And she laughed and she said, could you meet me at the ranch?

Nathan: 00:10:29

I need some help.

Nathan: 00:10:31

I meet her at the ranch a few days later and she is standing next to, like we had picked the spot.

Nathan: 00:10:39

If you've been to Capernaum Studios, there's a big tree out there where the village is built around that tree.

Nathan: 00:10:43

Well, we'd picked that tree the year, you know, a couple years before like this is gonna be the location someday for this village.

Nathan: 00:10:49

Why are we building this village?

Nathan: 00:10:51

We don't really know other than the Lord did put it on Tammy to do it.

Nathan: 00:10:54

It's a build it and they will come kind of venture.

Nathan: 00:10:57

And so I get out there and she's standing in front of one of those little buildings that is now part of it's quintessential Capernaum.

Nathan: 00:11:06

If you've been out there.

Nathan: 00:11:07

in fact, uh, Dallas and James have reproduced that very structure over at Camp Holi Cell on Capernaum two, which is over at Camp Hallel.

Nathan: 00:11:16

So they've reproduced this building, well, that building's standing right there, half of it.

Nathan: 00:11:20

And it's pink.

Nathan: 00:11:21

It's pink stucco, and.

Nathan: 00:11:23

I looked at it and it looks kind of awful, and she said.

Nathan: 00:11:27

Well, what do you think?

Nathan: 00:11:28

And I was like, you're building it and you're doing it.

Nathan: 00:11:30

Like she's actually like broken ground.

Nathan: 00:11:32

She said, well, this was just the first thing we did.

Nathan: 00:11:35

And she said, how do we fix it?

Nathan: 00:11:38

and I laughed and I said, well, I know what you did.

Nathan: 00:11:41

I said, you hired the guys from Rosas, or family owns the the Rosas Corporation.

Nathan: 00:11:45

And I said, you hired the guys from Rosa's and they brought all their pink stucco out here and slapped it up.

Nathan: 00:11:50

And I said, it looks terrible.

Nathan: 00:11:52

And she's like, what should we do?

Nathan: 00:11:54

I said, well, you should put palm trees in front of it and sell tacos, because that's what it is.

Nathan: 00:11:58

It looks like a taco stand.

Nathan: 00:11:59

And she said, well, can we fix it?

Nathan: 00:12:00

I was like, well, of course we could fix it, but it would be a whole lot easier if we don't fix stuff.

Nathan: 00:12:05

Let's just start, right.

Nathan: 00:12:06

Let's get it designed right.

Nathan: 00:12:07

Let's start off right.

Nathan: 00:12:09

So I jumped on the team.

Nathan: 00:12:11

We finished all of what is now Capernaum Studios at the main set but that set there for seven years before Dallas found it.

Nathan: 00:12:20

And then after we did the village, we moved into the statue garden, which if you've been out there, you've seen.

Nathan: 00:12:27

the statue garden, which was never completed really.

Nathan: 00:12:29

It's got some loose ends in the garden, but the garden is, is really beautiful in its own way, in its own right.

Nathan: 00:12:35

And has also been featured in the chosen seasons one through three.

Nathan: 00:12:38

Uh, that's a long story into itself, just like how the gardens came to be, but maybe a story for another day.

Nathan: 00:12:44

But, that was another aspect of being on that team for a while.

Nathan: 00:12:47

And I left the company in 2010 and I didn't even visit again until 20.

Nathan: 00:12:52

I think 18 when Dallas was actually speaking at content.

Nathan: 00:12:56

And uh, I went out and I started to get a little more involved in those years.

Nathan: 00:12:59

Um, in fact, Dallas speaking had just come off of the, no offense, Dallas, I love you too, but the kind of what was considered the flop of, uh, the box office flop at least of, uh, resurrection of Gavin Stone.

Matt: 00:13:10

Mm-hmm.

Nathan: 00:13:11

He was talking about that as, you know, Hey, here's where I've been.

Nathan: 00:13:15

But what we're about to do is this five loaf and two Fish Miracle of the chosen.

Nathan: 00:13:20

And curiously, I made my services available to them at the time to possibly jump on the team, but that didn't happen.

Nathan: 00:13:27

I actually ended up on the Washington's Armor team.

Nathan: 00:13:29

Tammy called me several weeks after that and said, Hey, um, can you jump on Washington's armor and help us?

Nathan: 00:13:35

Do you remember Bulletproof George Washington?

Matt: 00:13:37

But David Barton.

Nathan: 00:13:38

David Barton book.

Nathan: 00:13:39

I said, sure do.

Nathan: 00:13:40

Because that was on our bulletin board in 2005 and six.

Nathan: 00:13:44

I remember it was just a future project.

Nathan: 00:13:46

I said, yeah, I remember that.

Nathan: 00:13:47

And we did some concept art for that too in those days.

Nathan: 00:13:50

And I said, well, do you know, do you want me to get the art truck and the art team together?

Nathan: 00:13:55

And she said, oh, no, no, no, no.

Nathan: 00:13:56

I you, you misunderstand.

Nathan: 00:13:57

I want you to be in it.

Nathan: 00:13:59

And I said, oh, that's not what I thought you were gonna ask me.

Nathan: 00:14:03

And so they cast me to play Daniel Custi in Washington's Armor.

Nathan: 00:14:07

And so I got involved as an actor, and then of course, this is always the case with me.

Nathan: 00:14:11

Two weeks after they cast me, she called me, she said, Nick Burns really needs some help.

Nathan: 00:14:16

They're behind schedule.

Nathan: 00:14:17

Would you be willing to jump on Nick's team and help prevent the, the sinking ship?

Nathan: 00:14:22

And uh, I said, yeah, that, sounds pretty par for the course for my life.

Nathan: 00:14:26

So, um, I jumped on the team and helped produce several big set pieces that.

Nathan: 00:14:31

Got us through governor, then one, his ballroom mansion scene and several other things later.

Nathan: 00:14:36

I was an art director for the Lawton, Oklahoma, shoots up at Fort Lawton.

Nathan: 00:14:39

So yeah, that's kind of my life.

Nathan: 00:14:41

It's, toggling, you know, acting sometimes, but then somebody's like, Hey, you, can art, right?

Nathan: 00:14:46

I'm like, yes, I can art.

Nathan: 00:14:48

Do you need me in that position?

Nathan: 00:14:50

So I've held just about as many production designer art direction positions as I have had significant acting roles.

Nathan: 00:14:56

And so, and I love it.

Nathan: 00:14:57

I like it that way.

Matt: 00:14:58

Well, like I said, the last episode, you know, if you've, anyone who has ever directed a film, will tell you that, the unsung hero is the production designer and the Art Director.

Nathan: 00:15:06

Thank you.. Thank you so much, man.

Nathan: 00:15:08

I love you.

Matt: 00:15:09

I gotta tell you, man, so many times I'd show up on set.

Matt: 00:15:12

'cause for people who don't, know, the art director and the production designer, yes, they, they kind of work independently from everyone else.

Matt: 00:15:20

They don't get to hang out with, everybody on set.

Matt: 00:15:22

They're working at the next location and so they're getting the next location already for you.

Matt: 00:15:27

And one of my favorite moments.

Matt: 00:15:29

As a director is walking on to the new location and let, the production designer will kind of tour you around what he's done, and a, great production designer gets all excited about the details.

Matt: 00:15:40

He wants to show you every little detail and they think about.

Matt: 00:15:44

Everything.

Matt: 00:15:45

Uh, can be a, matchbook on a shelf far in the background that no one's ever gonna see, but he will have found a, restaurant that has some thematic tie to what that scene's about.

Matt: 00:15:55

And that's just an artist being an artist and you love to see it.

Matt: 00:15:59

So that's one of my, favorite moments on set is, is getting the tour of the new set that you guys, you amazing production designers build for us.

Nathan: 00:16:08

It's fun, man.

Nathan: 00:16:09

I love that type of detail and it's so fun to infuse any scene with some detail like that.

Nathan: 00:16:15

And I'll tell you, I really do believe that projects have a subconscious brain, and so I. All of that stuff's in the subconscious of the project.

Nathan: 00:16:22

And when somebody watches something and they don't, they're not aware that that matchbook is back there, but the intention of the production designer put it back there.

Nathan: 00:16:31

So for the viewer who's only paying attention to what they can consciously conceive, well, they're getting the basics of what they can consciously get, but all that other stuff that's in there, it's in there and it is affecting the.

Nathan: 00:16:46

The overall experience for

Matt: 00:16:47

Oh

Nathan: 00:16:48

whether they get it or not.

Nathan: 00:16:49

And so it brings life.

Nathan: 00:16:51

It brings life, and it brings substance to something that really helps to be perceived as real or it assists the willing suspension of disbelief factor.

Matt: 00:17:00

Yeah, a hundred percent.

Matt: 00:17:01

You're building the world that the story is occurring in.

Matt: 00:17:04

As the writer, I can make the words and I can describe the scene, but I, can't visually paint that scene.

Matt: 00:17:11

Do you feel like in, and I know we had an AI conversation earlier.

Matt: 00:17:14

But do you feel like the, the giant LED walls and AI are gonna be a threat to the real production designer?

Matt: 00:17:21

'cause then a lot of people heading that way where I can just get in front of an LED wall and get AI to make all my backgrounds and just shoot an entire film in front of that.

Matt: 00:17:30

For me, that lacks the richness of, reality, but a lot of folks are going that direction.

Nathan: 00:17:35

I don't think it's ever gonna replace what practical does.

Nathan: 00:17:39

I don't think that's possible.

Nathan: 00:17:40

There's too much soul in everything that actual filmmakers make for it to be replaced completely by an ai.

Nathan: 00:17:49

I don't believe in that.

Nathan: 00:17:50

In fact, I think that if you're in the production design space, you should educate yourself.

Nathan: 00:17:54

I'm an old dog in the space, so it's easy for me to look out and go, well, I don't know about that, but you know, I, you know, I'm gonna stick to my, my screwdriver and my circular saw and, uh, you know, paintbrush, hope for the best, but it's not gonna hurt anybody in the production design space to become familiar with Unreal Engine.

Nathan: 00:18:11

You mentioned a Matter of Time earlier.

Nathan: 00:18:13

It's a great example of a project where they pitched that to me and said, Hey, do you wanna work on this?

Nathan: 00:18:20

And they said, do you wanna work on it?

Nathan: 00:18:21

It's, it's Sean Aston, you know, it's a unique opportunity.

Nathan: 00:18:24

I was like, I wanna work with Mikey from the Goonies.

Nathan: 00:18:27

I, I

Matt: 00:18:27

Who wouldn't.

Nathan: 00:18:28

who wouldn't I want to do that, but I'm also.

Nathan: 00:18:31

Practical from the standpoint of, I know if it doesn't stir me creatively and I can't get really bought into the story or into the world, I probably shouldn't just because you're gonna work with a certain person.

Nathan: 00:18:44

And so I was tentative there.

Nathan: 00:18:46

I was also tentative because that movie.

Nathan: 00:18:49

Which you guys will be able to see later this year 'cause it's just premiered at the Dallas International Film Festival as of what?

Nathan: 00:18:55

April 25 if you're listening to this, but it's a very digital movie.

Nathan: 00:18:59

It's about Jeremy Snead's, kinda loosely based on his life experience as a game designer.

Nathan: 00:19:06

And then his company, media Juice produces all sorts of trailers for Nintendo and Sega and NARI and PlayStation and everybody.

Nathan: 00:19:13

That's anybody in video games.

Nathan: 00:19:14

And so they already had all of this tech behind them.

Nathan: 00:19:17

They had a lot of, uh, media juice literally behind them and figuratively.

Nathan: 00:19:22

And I said, guys, I'm not a super capable digital designer.

Nathan: 00:19:26

I'm very practical and your movie looks on paper like a lot of digital in SFX and I would be comfortable with the following things, but not these things.

Nathan: 00:19:36

and this was great 'cause they said we've got all the digital.

Nathan: 00:19:40

That we need under control, but we do not have practical.

Nathan: 00:19:44

And they said we don't have an art director.

Nathan: 00:19:46

We don't have a props master.

Nathan: 00:19:47

It's very props heavy movie.

Nathan: 00:19:49

The one of the most props heavy movies that I've ever worked on and stuff from.

Nathan: 00:19:54

You know, there's 10 pages in the nineties and very prop specific, very time specific.

Nathan: 00:19:59

We had to build a nineties era game store, your average mom and pop video game store in the nineties.

Nathan: 00:20:04

So many practical applications.

Nathan: 00:20:06

Uh, for that movie.

Nathan: 00:20:07

And so there will always be a place for practical, but the LED Walls, unreal Engine, what it's capable of, when you mesh those two, it's pretty awesome.

Nathan: 00:20:16

And so I love the idea of the merger of that, but I'm not convinced that even I, as a very practical designer would have to learn Unreal Engine right now at this point in my career in order to still be viable doing what I do.

Nathan: 00:20:30

I'm not convinced of that.

Nathan: 00:20:32

But it is fun.

Nathan: 00:20:33

Oh, the most fun thing that I got to do on Matter of Time, by the way, and this is, this wasn't the clincher, but I told them, I said, look, I'm gonna sleep on it.

Nathan: 00:20:40

Lemme pray on it.

Nathan: 00:20:41

I don't know if I should do this.

Nathan: 00:20:42

That evening.

Nathan: 00:20:43

My wife was like, you should do you like it?

Nathan: 00:20:45

I was like, it's a pretty good script.

Nathan: 00:20:47

I like the script.

Nathan: 00:20:47

It's interesting.

Nathan: 00:20:48

I said, but I'm not, I'm not sure.

Nathan: 00:20:50

I don't know.

Nathan: 00:20:51

She said, why would you do it?

Nathan: 00:20:52

And I said, well.

Nathan: 00:20:53

The one thing I want to do, there's a magic ring, a quantum time travel device.

Nathan: 00:20:58

In that story that's, uh, kind of a play on the idea that we had Sean Astin.

Nathan: 00:21:03

So we've got one of the hobbits from the Lord of the Rings.

Nathan: 00:21:05

And so we're gonna have a precious in our own.

Nathan: 00:21:08

We have our own precious, and I and I I want to make that

Matt: 00:21:12

Yeah, you do.

Nathan: 00:21:13

Yeah, you do.

Nathan: 00:21:13

And so that was a lot of fun for me.

Nathan: 00:21:16

That was one of the reasons that I would, it's like, I wanna make that ring for Sean.

Nathan: 00:21:20

The real reason I did it was I woke up one morning designing in my head, and that's usually the clincher for me.

Nathan: 00:21:27

If I wake up, somebody's pitched a project to me and I go, maybe let me pray on, let me think about it.

Nathan: 00:21:31

I'll read it a couple of times.

Nathan: 00:21:34

If it doesn't turn my crank, if I can't get through it, like if I can't finish the script, I'm just like, I probably not for me.

Nathan: 00:21:39

But that one I got through.

Nathan: 00:21:41

I read it twice, and then I thought about it for several days and then woke up one morning going, oh, it's happening.

Nathan: 00:21:48

And then I called them back and I said, I think I might be your

Matt: 00:21:50

And you are already working on it.

Matt: 00:21:52

Once you start working on it, that's

Nathan: 00:21:53

Yeah.

Nathan: 00:21:54

'cause it's like, and, and, and, and your brain just starts doing it, and then you're like, oh no, the 3D printer is at work.

Matt: 00:22:00

A hundred percent.

Nathan: 00:22:00

So that's how I ended up there too.

Matt: 00:22:02

That is amazing.

Matt: 00:22:03

Well, you've done a lot, man, and you're only maybe one fourth, one third done with your career, so you got a lot to go still, I'm sure.

Matt: 00:22:10

So,

Nathan: 00:22:10

I, I hope that's true.

Matt: 00:22:11

not to curse you with that, but man, if we, if we can all only keep making

Nathan: 00:22:15

Yeah.

Nathan: 00:22:15

Right, right.

Matt: 00:22:16

Absolutely.

Matt: 00:22:17

Well, Nathan, uh, Nathan Myers, it was, fantastic chatting with you.

Matt: 00:22:20

I appreciate it.

Matt: 00:22:20

Um, how can people find you and follow you and keep up with what you're doing?

Nathan: 00:22:24

Thanks.

Nathan: 00:22:25

I am at Nathan D. Myers everywhere, so if Nathan d myers.com is my primary link tree out to everything and that'll link to Aria Appleton Shines on Amazon.

Nathan: 00:22:36

It'll link to several o other things I'm involved in.

Nathan: 00:22:39

it does link to a portfolio, uh, where you can see some of my past.

Nathan: 00:22:44

Uh, work in the production designer art space, but of course it links out to IMDB if you wanna see actor reels and other things too.

Nathan: 00:22:52

Aria Appleton Shines is my first feature directorial debut.

Nathan: 00:22:56

It's the first thing I've directed in the feature length narrative space, but I hope to be doing a little more of that down the road as well.

Nathan: 00:23:03

We have some things I'd like to sit in the director's seat for down the road.

Matt: 00:23:07

Having just watched the trailer alone of Aria, I predicted you're gonna get to do a lot of that.

Matt: 00:23:12

It looks like a project that's gonna lead to a lot more projects.

Nathan: 00:23:15

I hope so.

Nathan: 00:23:15

I'll, I'll accept that You can put that one on me and I'll take it.

Matt: 00:23:19

Yes, sir. Ethan, great.

Matt: 00:23:20

talking to you man.

Matt: 00:23:21

Thanks so much.

Nathan: 00:23:21

You too, Matt.

Nathan: 00:23:22

Thank you.