Daily Inspiration: Meet Hunter Wayne

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hunter Wayne.

Hi Hunter, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
On my way into LA, I wasn’t particularly good at any one thing. In grade school my test scores were bad and I didn’t hang out with my friends much cause I was in a struggling relationship. Never going all in on something is basically the story of my life. So I would spend the ladder half of it tapping into every weird little art form that interested me. Most of them would lead me down domino effects that trail into situations I’d never anticipate. For example, I directed/choreographed a VR-haunted-house at a small movie theater in Taylor Texas starring Edwin Neal (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Sonic The Hedgehog OVA, etc.). The story followed a veteran having PTSD in a movie theater and the VR presentation of the engagement was fully sponsored by Samsung Mobile. My time with Ed would lead a chain of people into believing I was his son which carved me a niche into the horror community. This phenomenon would finally end in me doing early development work for the current iteration of Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Between my time working briefly with Famous Monsters and Fangoria, I got burnt out thoroughly between both of those experiences and figured it would all have been a waste if I didn’t take what I learned and applied it all towards my own publication. Where I had full control of the presentation, who I’d interview, and what relationships could come from the whole thing. This would lead me to the creation of The Artech Magazine along with podcast/website companions. Most of this publication I geared to interview those who inspire me including but not limited to M. Shawn Crahan, Phil Tippett, Studio Croma (the team behind the Tribeca award winning short Playing God), Biqtch Puddin, and many more. The core purpose behind this magazine was to house my most ambitious project to date, The Ignition.

This project would entail me working with friends and industry pros across the film, video game, comic book, and music industries respectfully to create one comic that can be read along with an album that had a cinematic quality to it. Where the video game element comes into play is that readers will discover a website that houses a one-of-a-kind MIDI player that allows you to seamlessly select one of four voice deliveries without any disruption of the beautiful soundscape to come from Grammy winner Carla Patullo and sound designer Andrew Kantos. If you look into the entirety of The Ignition team (https://www.theignition.net/), this is easily my most ambitious project to date.

The domino effect to come from the creation of The Artech is definitely one of my most artistically rewarding. M. Shawn Crahan’s team sending me exclusive photography to be one of my two variant covers was certainly a major highlight. While getting invites to premieres and events is a nice side effect of the website’s presence (https://theartech.news/), Homer Flynn’s email to me after receiving his copy of the magazine truly justified the whole venture. Being the manager, spokesperson, and chief visual designer for The Residents; I would receive an email from the now 80-year-old inspiring figure calling The Artech “a thing of great beauty” among many kind words. This signals to me that my vision is one that can garner respect from those I look up to.

This now brings me to my most recent creations in collaboration with the New York based band, That Handsome Devil. I dm’d them on Instagram in the hopes that I could be considered to direct a music video for them alongside some of my friends that I’ve always wanted to work with in such a capacity. Despite having no evidence to indicate that I would be a good director, the singer (Godforbid) graciously told me that he liked my work. This is the first time someone I am a fan of would compliment my weird trajectory in such a kind way. After some phone calls, emails, and maxing out a couple of credit cards, I got to film two music videos in two days for the band. The domino effect of this choice to truly direct for film is still on going, but the results so far are that these music videos have been selected in 3 Oscar qualifying film festivals. One of which have simultaneously turned me into an award-winning director that has beat out the likes of a-list actor Jeremy Renner, who was in-competition.

As stated in the beginning, I’m not particularly good at any one thing. I don’t have any degrees. I’m not a descendant of Hollywood royalty. I just exist. When you just exist, I believe it’s your job to try everything.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My sensitivity to the reception of those around me, and wanting to please everyone has been my Achilles’ heel for the longest time. Without naming names, I created an orbit of people I worked with and loved that would take advantage of this whether they knew it or not. It got so bad at a time that I couldn’t go home without always being in the presence of someone that would craft my life choices into their image. One day I got pushed a little too far and removed everyone from my life that was mentally and emotionally fatiguing me. The lesson that I learned from directing two music videos was that if I let myself have what I want, the world will reward that. So now the question I currently ask myself is “what are you going to do with that?”

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I suppose the closest proximation to what describes me is ‘artist’ even though I don’t go all-in on any one particular form of art. VR, haunted houses, toy design, sculpting, directing, editing, game development, and many other mediums are ones that I have ventured in on more than one occasion. Most recently I drafted a bill that, on paper, could reduce homelessness in California by as much as 20%. A month from now, I got a stop-motion animated sequence I will be doing for my documentary concept reel. Truly nothing is off limits for me if my mind wonders anywhere particular. If I were to die right now, I’d say publishing my magazine (The Artech) is my greatest love. You can hold it in your hands, it is a great mental roadmap for my loves in art and technology respectfully, and it’s heart is The Ignition. My comic-album-hybrid. If the bill I drafted gains traction that would be my greatest love because it’s words on a page that have the potential to positevely change someone’s life.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Even to this point I feel like I speak a language no one understands. It’s less intense of a feeling now because living in LA has allowed me to find others that feel similar to me in various ways. Even then if I talk to anyone a little too long, the inevitable disconnect arrives. I know it’s common in life to never synchronize with someone 100%, but I particularly felt like a stranger for a very long time. The neighborhood I grew up in was an incubator of adults who were doctors and engineers with kids that went to the military or bagged groceries if they didn’t craft their life to do what their parents did. In the words of Travis Scott, who was a junior when we were freshman at the same high school, it’s a “social trap”. The Artech laid out a lot of the stuff that I loved that kids my age thought I was weird for. Stopmotion animation, masked/anonymous musicians, etc. A good chunk of the people I got to interview for my magazine I remember playing’s work on projectors in my friend’s rooms or blared in my car when I’d carpool them to school. Some artists I admired early on like Jamie Shannon, I’d get to develop friendships with. If 17 year old me got to peak their head into this moment in time, I’d think I’m pretty cool, and that’s due to getting out of a soul-sucking small Texas town to move to LA, in all of it’s beautifully-disgusting chaos.

Pricing:

• The Artech Magazine: $17. (Email [email protected])

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/HunterWaynetx
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hunterwaynetx/
• Other: https://theartech.news/