![]() |
Nathaniel Sizemore (provided) |
by Colin Moore
At age 30 Nathaniel Sizemore sat down to take stock of
his life. He’s Vice President and General Counsel of Sizemore Inc. His
professional life is good and the company has been named on the Inc 5000 list
of fastest growing companies in the US. He serves as an adjunct professor at
NKU and as a visiting professor at UC. He’s happily married with a beautiful
daughter. He’s active in the Fort Thomas Lions club and the local community.
Still, he felt like something was missing. “I
asked myself “What is it that I am not doing, that I’ll regret later in life?””
He realised that he needed a creative outlet, specifically to be involved
in film and television in some way.
A year later Nathaniel is acting and producing film and TV
projects part time and his first opportunity came through an article he read on Fort Thomas
Matters.
“Whether I make it or
not, it’s a fun ride and it’s the journey that counts. I want to show my
daughter that you can be a working professional and still have that creative
outlet.”
During high school Nathaniel played basketball and also
acted in some school plays, “It was a
great creative outlet, the school were good about letting us do both. I caught
the bug for the arts back then, although it then got put on the back burner
while I went to college and started my career.” He moved away for school
and years later found him self with the opportunity to move back to Fort
Thomas, once he did he found that working locally gave him a bit more time to
pursue other interests. As a lifelong cinephile he decided that he wanted to be
involved in film and TV.
He then came across an
article on Fort Thomas Matters about “Curvature”, a sci-fi thriller from
the Hallivis brothers which was filming in Fort Thomas and had set up in the
Hiland Building. “I literally just
stopped by their office one day and asked the production accountant (the only
person in the office that day) how I could be an extra in the film. A few weeks
later, I got the call to be an extra and the rest is history.”
Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky has a burgeoning
film scene. Large productions starring John Travolta, Bruce Willis and Robert
Redford have filmed in the area recently. There’s also an up and coming film
scene of local filmmakers who produce projects here, so Nathan says there are
more opportunities to get involved than you might expect: “Cincinnati is becoming a movie town and it’s really exciting. It gives
someone who wants to follow a similar path to me more opportunities, whether
that’s as an extra in a big production or a bigger part in a local movie.”
It was in the local movie scene that Nathaniel got his next
break. He got involved with the Cincinnati 48 hour film competition. Teams are
given a genre and then have 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a short
film. Through the competition Nathaniel
connected with people
from Brand Old Productions, who would go on to make the feature “75”, in
which Nathaniel had his first larger role.
“I’d been in a film
with a speaking line but “75” was the first film where I had a substantial
role. Others I’d done had been as an extra, or sometimes as a featured extra
with a little more time in front of the screen.”
One of Nathaniel’s roles as a featured extra gave him “one of the coolest cinematic experiences
I’ve had.” He had a role in the
foreground of the movie “Gotti” and acted five feet away from John Travolta. “It was so cool to be close to a star like
that while they’re performing.”
![]() |
This is an advertisement. |
![]() |
Nathaniel in "75"(photo: Brand Old Productions) |
He plans to keep being involved in as many different ways as
possible: “I’m just passionate about the
industry, I’ve always been a cinephile so I find it interesting to be involved in
different capacities. It just organically happened that way.”
Nathaniel says he’s still relatively early in his film
career and still learning from those who have more experience than him, “I don’t know how far along I am, but it’s
a fun ride and I’m excited to see where it goes. I enjoy my day job and this is
still a part time activity. It may take off, it may stay right where it is and
honestly either one is fine.”
At this point Nathaniel is still very happy to wear his two
hats, his professional day job and his creative output. Maybe at some point one
will be too busy for the other and he’ll have to choose but he doesn’t see that
time coming soon. In fact, he’d like to be an example to others that you can do
both, balance a successful career and a creative life, and importantly you can
do it right here in Northern Kentucky:
“I’d be remiss not to
mention how impressed I’ve been with the level of talent from actors and
actresses and crew in this area. I’ve only been involved for a short time but
it’s very positive for Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky. It takes a lot to make
these films, a lot of time and energy and dedication to make them happen. I’ve
been so lucky to be involved with them. There’s so much hard work, creativity,
passion, dedication and talent going in to one scene. It’s so fun to see that
happen.”
Nathaniel’s advice for anyone who is interested in working
in the industry is to check out the local casting groups that cast extras in
larger productions. The internet is also crucial: “There are Facebook groups based around the film industry in Southern
Ohio and Northern Kentucky. Simple networking can help, one of my producer
projects came from reaching out to a guy I went to high school with who works
in the industry in LA. Local short film festivals and competitions are great
too because they offer a chance to network with those in the film industry.”
While so much of Nathaniel’s success has come from his own
hard work and talent, he knows that without one person, none of this would have
happened: “I couldn’t have done any of
this without the support of my wife Erin. All of this takes time, some of it
takes money. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without her support.”
No comments:
Post a Comment