AUSTIN STEPHENS
“If you’re going to have a story, have a big story, or none at all.”
A long time ago…
I’ve been passionate about storytelling and film since middle school when I figured out how to press record on my dad’s video camera and import footage into Windows Movie Maker. It started with just a camera on a tripod and my friends and I acting out scenes from our favorite movies or shows. There was some improv in there (some very bad improv) but I slowly learned how to make something watchable.
I took creative writing classes to hone my storytelling. I watched tutorials of how to edit cleaner and more efficiently. I studied great movies to learn how to setup and frame great shots. And eventually, we made a full movie. And oh, it was bad. But it was ours, and it planted the seed in me of what I could do.
I went to Greenville College for film, did a semester in Hollywood, got an internship at a real movie studio, and soon after graduating landed a job at the Daily Wire working on their daily video podcasts.
I spent 6 years in the production department, doing basically everything there is to do on those shows, helping build it into the internet Goliath that it is today. I worked on the Ben Shapiro Show, produced the narrative podcast Another Kingdom, moved to Nashville and assisted in the company’s transition there, and launched the sports show Crain & Company.
Even though most of what I did at Daily Wire was news and politics, I never lost my passion for storytelling. I continued to write on my own, sharing my stories with peers and entering contests. Some I actually won! And of course, I had to have some fun and create a production company for my work. That’s what filmmakers do, right? And thus, Dark Nebula Entertainment was born. I’ll continue to write, shoot, edit, and put out fun content.
I’m ready to continue my journey and am excited to see what my next chapter is.