Nathaniel Upshaw | Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nathaniel Upshaw and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nathaniel, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
During my early to mid twenties I was obsessed with work to the point of I didn’t want to be around you if you weren’t obsessed with it as well. Doing this lead to small, but great friendships, however, I neglected my family almost entirely. Now that I’m older, I realize that you can still be obsessed with working and you can also allocate time to spend with your family as long as you’re main focus is them and not work. In doing so, you and your loved ones will truly cherish every minute that you spend with them.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
A few things set me apart from many others in the film industry, I’m super transparent throughout the filmmaking process when working with colleagues and cohorts, I’m thorough so there’s very little room for error, and I’m utterly honest even if feelings are hurt because honesty creates trust. One exciting thing during the 2020 pandemic is a short film I Produced alongside incredible writer and long time cohort Seth Wimmer. The film is called Dead Ringer and it’s about an anxious mobster who wants to be noticed by the Boss, discovers his new Soldier bagged the wrong guy and now must save face or return empty-handed. It was a difficult, yet effective & simple mobster comedy short film. The goal was to create an entertaining short film with a production budget of $2k or less while removing the defining tool of the film medium – editing. Safe to say, we’ve achieved our goal and more as it’s now available on Amazon Prime in any country that speaks English, French, German, and Spanish. We’re also entering other licensing deals across the globe well before festival submissions. Thing is anyone can do this if they’re more than willing and able to accept constant defeat, making tons and tons of mistakes, losing friendships, business relationships, not closing deals, you name it. Failure is part of the process and the biggest failure is regret because this Wayne Gretzky quote is absolutely true, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Just do it already and embrace the failures and successes because it’ll always be easy and hard. It’s the process of life.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
First thing is I would ask them what they want to see and make an itemized list. Then, I’d review the list with them and prioritize based solely on what they want. After that I’d figure out how it would take to travel to each place and forewarn them any hiccups along the way. Since I’m in the greater Los Angeles, CA USA area, I’d absolutely let them know about the horrendous traffic we have, but let them know we can still achieve their listed goals. As for my personal views on what’s fun, most would not dare to do for a couple reasons: 1.) Most stuff I like to do tends to be expensive like skydiving or taking water jetpack for a flight. I’ve done it and it’s exhilarating. Everyone should do it once before they’re dead, but you’ll burn through vacation budget fast. 2.) I love rigorous hikes to mountain peaks. They’re all days events, but the physical grueling pain one may bear will be worth it once you reach the breathtaking views at the peak. Most folks who are on vacation, just like me, want to sample of a lot things the area has to offer. That translates to easy-going days filled with lots of driving, walking, and talking. Nothing wrong with it, but truly understand the expectations you’ve set out.