We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nathan Weidner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nathan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

As of late there always seems to be something pretty spectacular that gets the ball rolling on a project. For A Story For Winter it was simply the realization that I could shoot a film on my iPhone rather than waiting for tens of thousands of dollars that might never come. I had already waited 12 years to shoot it, but once I made up my mind to use what I had in hand I was able to finally get it done in 2021. For The Name of the Sun it was the realization that there are numerous film school students who come home for the summers who might want to work on a feature film. I proposed this idea in September of 2021, and by the summer of 2022 I was on a set staffed fully by college film students.

Chasing Glamour is a film about a prostitute who saves a man from jumping off a bridge, and he determines to pay her back by saving her from the streets. I am a full-time school teacher and usually only shoot films during the summers, but in the fall of 2022 I was contemplating shooting this one on weekends during the school year. I had all but abandoned the idea when I bumped into a woman in downtown Columbus who struck up a conversation with me. As it turned out, she was a prostitute who was in a program to help get her off the streets. When she learned that I was a filmmaker, she told me that I should make a film about a prostate. I got chills, and I knew that this was a sign that I need to go ahead and shoot the film. We released the film in September of 2023.

The most recent project, Reckless Mercy, started because I wanted to co-write with a former student of mine who was nearing the end of film school. He asked what sort of story I wanted to do, and I had him just look through my junk drawer to see if anything stood out to him. He found a story that I had started writing back in 1990, about a psychologist who befriends a murderer on death row. I had totally forgotten that story even existed, and out of the blue it found new life. What is more, that story depicts events that closely mirror a similar situation I wound up living out some 20 years later, so the film is so much more relevant to me now. We are slated to start shooting it in the summer of 2024.

Nathan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I got interested in media when I was in middle school. My sister had landed a job at a local TV station and brought me to work with her a few times, and I was fascinated by everything she was doing. I enrolled in a high school career center for radio and television broadcasting, but before long I realized that TV production was a bit too repetitive for my liking. At the end of each year when it was time for us to do a final project I always chose to shoot a movie, so after graduation I decided to go to film school.

3 years into my degree program I felt led to go into the ministry instead, so I changed my major to French and prepared to go overseas as a foreign missionary. However, my first child was born with severe disabilities, which prevented my family from leaving the country. Since French was my only marketable skill I went into teaching, but in my spare time I began to write and shoot films again. Before long the school where I was teaching had noticed what I was doing in film, and they asked that I start a video production program at the school. I have been teaching both French and Video Production ever since.

In 2021 I shot my first major film in nearly 17 years, using a lot of help from former high school students. It was during this shoot that I began to consider starting a film company that shoots movies over the summer with crews staffed by college film students who are on break from school. It would be an educational endeavor that would also provide the students with valuable work experience that could help them to land their first jobs after graduation. I incorporated PRAUS Media in 2022, and we shot our first student film that summer, The Name of the Sun. I knew it was important to continue to hone my own skills as well, so I also started Outside Hollywood Movies in the fall of 2022. We released our first film, Chasing Glamour, in the fall of 2023.

A younger version of myself would have been disappointed that I’m not in Hollywood shooting alongside my heroes, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron. However, the older and wiser version of myself who has slowly blossomed over the years could not be more happy with how things have turned out. Doing what I love in my home state, surrounded by well-established support systems, and being able to simultaneously teach it to others has been the most fulfilling experience I could have ever imagined.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In the fall of 2022 I was chosen to be part of a pitch contest where I could potentially win $10,000 for my upcoming film, Chasing Glamour. I put together what I still believe was a stellar pitch and a detailed business plan that demonstrated how I could shoot my feature film on a budget of $10,000. At the contest I did not win any money, and at least one of the people I lost to had provided no business plan at all. I was disillusioned, to say the least, because it seemed that doing the hard work had not paid off.

There is a scene in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock in which Captain Kirk requests use of the soon-to-be decommissioned Enterprise to return to the Genesis Planet to retrieve the body of his friend, Spock. Starfleet turns him down and forbids him from even hiring another ship to get there. When Kirk leaves the meeting, Sulu asks Kirk, “The word, sir?” to which Kirk replies, “The word is no. I am, therefore, going anyway.” This scene came to my mind that night after the pitch meeting, and it inspired me. The judges had said no – therefore I was going to shoot the film anyway. I determined that we would commence production within the next four weeks.

We did a crowdfunding campaign that generated just over $1,700. I bought a new camera on a credit card that I would pay off over the following 12 months, and I borrowed the rest of the equipment that I needed. I had a collection of extraordinary actors, who believed in the project so strongly that they agreed to sign contracts to receive nothing up front but a substantial percent of the back end of the film, should it make any money. In the end it cost me just over $6,100 to shoot the film, which I gradually paid for with my own money. We got the film shot over a period of 8 months, and we released it in September of 2023. It is now on Amazon Prime.

The problem with having a vision is that, often times, others cannot grasp it at all. They cannot see what you see, and it causes them to doubt. This is why TV shows like Gilligan’s Island, films like Star Wars (1977), and books like Harry Potter get turned down numerous times before they find an outlet that takes a risk and allows them to become the juggernauts that we now know them to be. Don’t ever allow anyone diminish your vision or your determination to bring it to life. There is always a way, but there will never be a way if you give up.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Where the arts are concerned, I can only speak from the perspective of a filmmaker, but I am certain that other areas of the arts would agree that one of the most important things people can do to support us is to just show up and share. One of the greatest things I have experienced after releasing a film is being approached by someone who tells me how much they enjoyed it. It is also extremely encouraging when I hear that they have told someone else about the film, and it prompted that person to watch it too. If you want your local art community to thrive, show up at the galleries, the theaters, and the film screenings, and when you see something that you like, tell others about it. I used to hyper focus on my own work, but as someone who desires the filmmaking community to grow in central Ohio, I now make it a point to show up to other independent filmmakers’ screenings as much as possible. The more we network and support each other, the better chance we have of thriving.

Ohio has been attempting to entice Hollywood to shoot films within here through tax incentives, but it has done very little to promote the home-grown artists who already live here. While we may still apply for the same tax incentives, we are not financial giants like the studio systems, and we will never be able to compete with them. However, there are more beneficial things the state could be doing to assist us, especially in the area of visibility. Showcasing local talent would go a long way to helping the arts community to grow, and a healthy arts community will only serve to improve the quality of the local culture. As a resident of Columbus, Ohio, I have a vested interest in showcasing the city in a positive manner. A large, out-of-state studio is not going to share a similar level of commitment.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://prausmedia.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prausmediafilms/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NJWeidner
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCurfx_UvVDP7rQH4Aa0o8RQ