Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathan Agin.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Ever since I was a young kid in New Jersey, I was always driven to create something people could experience. I tried all kinds of things. Like, trying to make flash games, animations, design websites, businesses, etc. I just wanted to create something.
Throughout my childhood, I always would play around with video editing software. At a very young age, I would edit silly video clips from older video games like Toontown, Mechwarrior 3 and Wizard101 using Windows Movie Maker. Ah, the good ol’ days.
I would do this on and off, until I discovered the montage editing community of the video game series, Call of Duty, back in 2011. The editing styles blew me away. A lot of people may not know this, but the new trendy editing styles that we see today with all the flashy zoom transitions and fast editing really started with the Call of Duty editing community. It happened way before travel montages.
So, as you can image, 12-year-old me was completely hooked to this editing style. I would spend a couple of years engaging in this community and developing my video editing skills.
In 2015, I started editing real life footage and I got my first DSLR camera, only because I ran out of footage to edit! Little did I know, that I would fall so in love with cameras.
It wasn’t until 2016 that I finally got serious about this. That was the year I decided that I wanted to succeed in filmmaking no more matter what. My life was completely changed. Life had a new meaning. I started my YouTube Channel and Instagram, Agin Visuals by then, and I started growing more and more every day.
Fast forward to now, currently 19 years-old in 2019, now living in Florida trying to make the visualizations of a career in documentary filmmaking become a reality. The last two short documentary films I directed, “ENA.” And “Nehrling Gardens” were both finalists in the Fusion Fest Film Festival in Orlando, Florida, and “ENA.” went on to win the Best-Student Film Award!
I’m also in the post-production process for my new short documentary with Lipstick Lex, an incredible lipstick artist based in Sarasota, Florida. It’s going to be my best work yet and I plan on it being entered in a lot of local film festivals in Florida, as well as other national festivals!
Has it been a smooth road?
Just like any other road to success, it’s very challenging. Chasing ambitious goals in life will always require some form of sacrifice. Everything has an opportunity cost.
For me, I’ve been practically giving up my adolescent years to fully pursue this better future for myself. A lot of other ambitious kids my age deal with this same issue. When you’re not conforming to the societal norm of partying every weekend, hook-up culture and avoid being around complacent people in pursuit of an ambitious goal, it can really take a toll on you.
For me, this has constantly lead to loneliness, depression and especially anxiety, contemplating if I’m living my life right. It’s sometimes hard not to question if you should just be a normal kid and try to fit in. But, that isn’t to scare ambitious people away from their goals! The struggle and challenge of these ambitious goals are what creates meaning in our life. Creating meaning in our lives through pursuing our dreams will always be more gratifying then chasing the next pleasure.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I’m a young documentary filmmaker working on breaking into the industry. I love telling the stories of people who are making a difference somehow. For example, I’m working on a documentary with Angela Withers, President of The Henry Nehrling Society, Inc. D.B.A. Angela and her partners help to preserve Dr. Nehrling’s historic home. This is very significant to Florida because Henry Nehrling was the one who brought and introduced many of the tropical plants we know and love in Florida today (including the beautiful palm trees that tourists love).
The best part about what I do is the support I receive from others. On my YouTube and Instagram, I get hundreds of comments and messages telling me how my work has impacted them or inspired them and that’s really the best part about all of this. This is why I strive to tell powerful stories, hoping it’ll have a positive impact on someone’s life. Then, hopefully, they’ll go out and positively impact others too! That’s what creates true meaning for me.
What’s your outlook for the industry in our city?
Miami is a great place for filmmaking and photography. So many beautiful views to capture and interesting stories to tell. I would highly recommend to anyone starting out with filmmaking and photography to start in Miami. You’ll never run out of things to capture!
Contact Info:
- Phone: 614-929-4815
- Email: nate.agin@moribundstudios.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/aginvisuals
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/c/aginvisuals
Image Credit:
Nathan Agin, Sohpia Perez, Alexis Fraser, Donna Agin, Bianca Arteaga
Getting in touch: VoyageMIA 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.
