Welcome back to our Employee Feature series, where we give you a “behind-the-scenes” look at the individuals who make up our team. This week’s Meet Motion Source features Hunter Kallenbach, our Senior Editor.

Hunter originally hails from the bright and sunny Florida, where he grew up playing basketball, football, and tennis all through high school. “I always had a love for music and film but it wasn't until I was a sophomore in high school that I really became interested in the craft.”  In college, Hunter worked at a theater and learned how to design and build sets. However, after a friend convinced him to audition for a play, he ended up landing a lead role and spent the next three years acting in different productions. He explains, “I learned a lot about what it takes to craft a production from the ground up.” After graduating from The University of Tampa, Hunter worked for a film festival before eventually deciding to move to Chicago to attend film school. He received his Master's Degree at DePaul in 2012.  

Hunter started working at Motion Source in October 2012. He recalls, “I had just graduated film school and was working as a freelancer for a few different companies. I applied for an internship at Motion Source and was told the position had already been filled, but they did need an editor. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. Later that same day, I received a call asking me if I would be willing to go to northern Wisconsin for a three day shoot. That was my first gig with the company.”

Fun story from set: We decided to film a kickstarter video for the Motion Source shoulder rig on the hottest day of the summer. To make things worse, the video involved running around the woods in a gorilla suit. It was so hot, a person could only keep the suit on for about 20 minutes at a time. By the end of the day all of us on the crew had taken multiple turns running around and sweating up the gorilla suit. I don't think I have ever wanted to take a shower more in my life! (You can check out the video here.)

When he’s not at Motion Source: I have been playing guitar since I was 16. During my sophomore year of high school, I hurt my knee playing football and was out for the season. This gave me a lot of free time to learn the guitar. Looking back, I think that injury changed the direction of my life and got me interested in music and film. I still love playing the guitar every day.

Personal Mantra: There is always a way to make the edit work.

Favorite Movie: Alien. I don't think any other movie has held up as well as this. The set design is incredible, the acting is great, and the Alien is still terrifying.

Fun Fact: While working as an intern at a film festival in Florida, I sent a mass rejection letter out to all the applicants whose films did not make it into the festival. At the time, email was relatively new to me, and I was not aware that I could hide the names of the people I sent it to. The rejected filmmakers were up in arms that an intern was tasked with such a chore, and that it was delivered in such an informal way. The story ended up making the paper, and even inspired the rejected filmmakers to create their own fringe film festival. I was simply identified in the whole thing as an intern named Hunter. People at the fringe festival had shirts made that said "Who is Hunter?"  

And for those who don't know, Hunter and his wife, Liz, are expecting their first child (a boy!) this May, so we had to ask...

Thoughts on being a first-time dad: All the editors are my children! No, but seriously I am really excited to be a dad. It is going to be a fun adventure.