Dawn Under Heaven - A Halo Fan Film 

A bunch of Halo Fans can do a better job than a multi billion studio. Now this is is how you do a Halo film

I find it funny how due to paramount's failure with the handling of the halo tv show and the countless clips critizing the show, that the algorithm has added this short film to our recommended list. it brought fans to something that shows an actual attempt at capturing the halo feeling and tone, and the creators of this earns every bit of the love even after 3 years.

Huge props to the Covenant for lending their assets for a movie.

"Rosetta.. Why aren't you in human form?" "CGI Limits"

“Would you like to see the relevant data” 343 guilty spark reference.

Reach broke before the marines did.

So I found this after watching the 3rd episode of Paramount’s “Halo” series and this blows that show out of the water. Great job gentlemen, great job.

That "match starting" beep sound effects at 4:45 was genius.

This film is one of the reasons why the Halo community is one of my top favorites

Never salute a superior officer in the field. Makes them a sniper magnet ☠

It just blows me away that “ Amateurs” can put together fan films of this intense quality!! I’m 65 so I won’t see it, but the giant studios are going the way of the dinosaurs. I see a time when “ labor of love “ films will be the norm.

I miss when storytelling wasnt agenda driven, but like, story and narrative and character development. This is just beautiful for so many reasons. Even the cgi is not bad to look at

Plot twist It was a Forerunner cellphone

“We’ve all run the simulations” crouch in front of Scarab and aim

When this is thousands of times better than an official Halo TV show

Imagine a fan film being better than a studio with a $200M budget. LUL.

I think the only way Halo will ever live on is through the cheer dedication of passionate fellas, the real fans.

I've waited YEARS for this. YOU. DID. NOT. DISAPPOINT! AXIOS!!!!!

Cortana: "Halo... it's finished." Master Chief: "No, I think we're just getting started." Halo has turned into something bigger than even Jason Jones ever imagined. Fans who create these fan films guarantee that this franchise will never die. The game might... but the lore will continue. Well done.

wow this is wayyyy more entertaining than Halo Paramount show

This is proof a live action Halo can not only work but the best thing since sliced bread.

We need another ODST game

Hats off to you guys thank you for making such a masterpiece

Watching this 3 years later and want to see more!!!

This is what the halo community is. Sure, there are always people complaining over the newest game, but we are also people doing what we love, and coming together to make an amazing experience together. Great work!

Great short film, the CGI was on point, made it feel like Reach with the amount of ships. Pat yourself on the back ppl... I salute you all

I don't know what everyone else is talking about this halo fan film was great. It really shows haw evil the cavnent really was.

Gotta say, this was amazing for a fan film. After seeing the official TV show, this feels more like halo by a lot. It's amazing to see that fans can capture the feeling of Halo than a high price tag show. Amazing job!

What a fantastic fan film! A fairly standard Halo story (get the Forerunner McGuffin), but I enjoyed the Human element present. Bravo!

Congrats on the amazing premiere and fan film, from all of us at Project: Contingency! Now all we need is a sequel ;)

For a fan made, with probably a tight budget this is class

infinitely better than the official TV show

343 steals the money made from a fan made film oh wait that was Disney

"When the fans make a better movie then the original owners"

FAN MADE AND ALREADY BETTER THEN THE HALO TV SERIES!

I would like to know the budget of this, cause this was incredible from the CGI to the costumes and the acting, amazing

This scrub number straight up just jumped in front of a Scarab all by his lonesome and expected to be able to buy the Pelican time to escape, what a doof. If this film weren't so great I wouldn't have enjoyed the cheesy Master Chief and Cortana moment with Rosetta remembering her real name. Y'all started this back in 2010? I'm baffled and incredibly impressed by your guys' drive and will to complete this. Everything was awesome. I was trying to be critical throughout the whole film to try and find any moments where something looked off, but everything was spot-fucking-on. Like, I"m genuinely amazed with the work, detail, and dedication you put into this.

The acting wasn't bad but the dialogue wasn't all that special, and the relationship between James and Rosetta sadly felt rushed in. However, the assets and overall visual fidelity plus the soundtrack were pretty amazing, thank you for finishing this project and bringing a little more magic into the Halo content pool on RU-vid, proving there are truly talented people in the Halo community with a lot of love for the universe.

Why is it always that fan-made films are what the people enjoy and want to see more of? Because the people who made them put their heart and soul into their work and it's beautifull. Hollywood got nothing on these lads.

This would be 100 times better than the freaking halo tv series. I would watch this all-day

I absolutely LOVE how you focused this around ODSTs instead of SPARTANs. It's awesome to think that at the end of the day, ODSTs are still unaugmented humans and embark on suicide ops while SPARTANs are expected to come home more often than ODSTs to continue the fight. Great work replicating that atmosphere throughout the film! Edit: clarification

This was amazing

This movie should have an official release on the big screen. It is as good as a movie made out of any Halo novel.

I expected this to be shit. It was not. Good Job.

this has to be one of the highest quality halo fan film to date

This was brilliantly done guys! I cringed a little bit at the ‘kneeling in front of the scarab’ scene but that’s about it. The rest was really good for a fan film! Just makes you wonder what the big production companies could accomplish for Halo fans if all the politics didn’t get in the way.

I, being a big halo fan since the Bungie days, find this to be one, if not the best fan made films regarding Halo. The creators of this film did their research and made an epic film. Keep up the good work.

I don’t know why this even got one thumbs down, it does say ‘fan made’ and this was so freaken good. Seriously the acting was great, the special effects were good, better than some movies these days, I tip my hat to them

*_love for halo intensifies_*

I hope they end up boarding the autumn

Who opens fire on a Scarab with Assault Rifles?! Edit: So. Many. R/wooshes... I don't even know where to begin...

Halo Reach 2: Dawn Under Heaven

This was so amazing. I wish there was more but what I watched, I’m not complaining. So goddamn beautiful and perfect. The work and love put into this clearly shows. I’m so amazed at the Halo Community and what WE can do for a game we all love. So proud of you guys and all the work you have done. Keep it up! I’ll be supporting you 100% of the time

Captain Kenneth: "We got the dawn watching our heads." The Covenant, through a fresh hull breach: "ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT?"

It warms my heart knowing that to this day people are still dedicated to halo thank you thank you very much and keep on believing

HOLY WORT WORT WORT. I can honestly say that all the effort that you put on this film, was worth. I've seen some other fan films but yours is exceptional. The CGI was amazing. I truly did not expect the Scarab to appear, on other films they recycle battle scenes/covenant animations or the even use ships that are not from the Halo Universe. I just want to say, thank you for theses 33 minutes, I really hope that if 343 launches the Halo TV Serie, they could achieve a quality like yours, THANK YOU GUYS, CONGRATS!!!!

This felt more HALO than the Halo Nightfall series...

This is Actually better than 95% of Films on Netflix Well Done Guys!

This is some dedication

Congrats on the premiere. Best fan film I’ve seen. I enjoyed this more then Nightfall!! I think big production companies should take note. You guys did this with nothing! Amazing job

Gracias por los subtítulos es una excelente película,its amazing ,good job

12:16 Nice death scream, really put their heart into that one.

As a Halo fan: this was pretty good. As a filmmaker, I must ask: what was the budget for this?

Remember Reach. This is pure gold

I wished I could have known about this fan film sooner

It’s amazing how Reach continues on after its initial launch over 8 yrs ago. Even more amazing is how many of us that are still there.

Wow, this is so much better than most movies out now. Kudos to everyone involved!

The suits the weapons the sounds the CGI animation everything is so amazing the lightning shadows and helmets and the Details in every single thing is so amazing i wish there will be more its awesome keep it up the work

I would actually love to play a halo game where you can be a marine for a while, just so we could understand what it would be like to defend a planet from a single units point of view. I think ODST did a fairly good job of this. But a marine story would be better since most squads died defending humanity and it would reflect the impossible odds presented by the covenant a bit more. I think it would be equally good if it wasn't a hero saves the day kind of story.

Great work

Something never uttered in the new Halo TV show... "Wheres my armor?"

This is absolutely magnificent. The best part about the Halo fanbase is the passion we have for the series.

Great film, but there are a couple problems with the... lore I guess, for one thing A.I’s always know where they came from and they never had another name before. And for number two, if it was such a important mission then why only send 2 ODST’s and a couple of marines? It would have made more sense to send say a team of Spartans or a whole battalion of ODST’s. But over all great film and the special effects were AMAZING!!!!!!! I do hope that you continue to make more (definitely a sequel) Oh and the Scarab would have been shooting the Pelican the whole time it had line of sight, when everyone stepped in side the Pelican everyone would have been dead before I could say Grunt Birthday Party!!! I’m not saying it’s a bad film, I’m just giving constructive criticism on what doesn’t match up

First of all my congratulations for the entire Dawn Under Heaven crew! It is truly incredible that you guys finished your 9-year project, and the outcome (in my opinion) is a brilliant visual masterpiece, with a strong cast and a decent story. (I'm a Finnish Halo fan and an aspiring filmmaker, currently attending a media high school. My dream is to write/direct the first awesome video game film [I think that there have only been okay ones so far], and make it about the series which played a huge part in my childhood... Halo.) I wish to clear out that: 1) I totally enjoyed this film, and would give it 7-8/10. 2) *I by no means am an expert or a professional in film making or reviewing. I just wish to provide my constructive feedback to spark like minded conversation and new levels of awesomeness to everybody's next piece of work!* I think that the Dawn Under Heaven Halo fan film is good, but not quite excellent. *I wish to explain my humble and fully subjective opinions of what was great, what just fine and which aspects could have been improved upon... again; only in my opinion! ;)* (And one more note before I start my unofficial review, I totally roger that this production did not have access to even a fraction of the budget that the modern "Hollywood level productions" have in feature length film making. And if I were to judge this movie relative to it's recourses compared to for example Forward Unto Dawn, I would give DUH an automatic 117/10!) So with that out of the way, I'm going to go through the things in chronological order. - The opening credits in space are nice, but a bit generic. To fully utilize this part I would have had the credits take place around the corridors of the ship or just shooting close ups of the ODST armor. A valid counter argument could be that this was too unrealistic, could very well have been. #stillwouldhavebeenworldbuilding - The name of the movie and the *ARTSTYLE* xD heavily implies to the Forward Unto Dawns kind of "grey militaristic tale", for my vocabulary lacks the better explanation. You guys do you, but I would have surely centered the story around an ODST, but I would not have made the theme so strongly resembling of the FUD, which to many Halo fans felt like a disappointment. + The Halo 3 ODST kind of briefing of the universe is cool and it summarises the most important points! + I love the allegory: "...the planet Reach, our bastion of military might on Earth's doorstep." + I absolutely love the transition from "slipspace" to Reach's orbit (still I think that it could have been included with a different beginning credits scene, example: from a window of a corridor) + You have imitated the Halo Reach "info font" very well! + The transition from the actual planet to the hologram is neat! + This is one of the strongest elements of the film, and retains it's awesomness all the way through: The armor pieces look absolutely 117% real, awesome work there! +- 1:32 The sound effects and the lighting: really hits Halo feels for me! The few wider shots later on in the conversation break the feel for me but over all it's retained fairly well. - Salutes in the movie feel a bit underwhelming. They are not quite as snappy and loud as I'd like. This could be because the costumes are delicate or something...? - 50% of the time the acting sounds and looks a bit unnatural. Actors seem like they are trying to remember their lines and they change the tone of their voice very little. + 2:47 this shot of the ODST pod really sells it for me! - 3:14 instead of this relatively clumsy scene in both visual and audio I would have shot this scene of my man James talking from his POV, like in the beginning of ODST. Then his speech would not have sounded so filtered and the scene would play out visually smoother. ? Rosetta's "bubble" form is my preferred one, it looks nice. Fine if they change it but why does it change? Did I miss a thing? +- Scene with ODSTs looking down at Reach is absolutely gorgeus! Still I would have shown an exterior shot of the pods getting ready at the belly of the DUH so we had a better understanding of the sitsuation. - When James visor first shifts to black, I would have had him have a pause and then say something after the visor blacked out to symbolize that he is still the very same dude + The whole scene of crashing into the Covenant ship is gorgeus, no complaints. + As I talked about the lack of expressions with the actors, it's so refreshing for me when the slightly awkward tho nice private burst into the tent, the personality levels just rose greatly! - This is the point when there should already begin to be heavy character development between James & Rosetta for the dramatic scenes later on to work. Make James get really mad at her at first, thinking that she was the fault to the crash. Then have the private tell him that Rosetta actually saved him. Something like this. +- 10:49 This dynamic (moving) just feels good! I know that they are harder to shoot, but in my opinion this film does itself a disfavor by using too many stills and wide shots. + 10:54 James in the background just looks right! + 11:01 *WHAM!* Just gorgeus! (Tho the actors could have had some sort of a stronger reaction) ? 12:31 Beautiful! Tho isn't Reach supposed to be glassed? I could be wrong... + 12:37 Absolutely adoring the ODST helmet! Tho I would have added a stronger release pop when removing it. +- 17:46 "My seat could have used some more padding..." classic and in my opinion hilarious marine humor. There really should have been a lot more of it and humor in general. +- 18:35 The hologram effect is nice, Rosettas slightly robotic voice is nice, the actress isnt bad at all, but I don't get why she had to be a bubble in the first place? Also I find it that they should have over exaggerated her body language, as it is typical for the AIs in Halo. - Rosettas fit is never explained? + 19:37 Loving the shot behind the cables. + 20:54 The following scenes really feel like Halo, and the H3 flashback is real! +++ 22:10 [Halo theme intensifies] - Sorry guys, but for me the drama between James and Rosetta didn't work. There should have been more focus on their character development earlier. + 26:27 A Scarab!? Didn't see that coming in a fanfilm! :D It sells it self for me in both visual and audio... Than you for this. ? For me it first felt wierd that they shot it, but then I realized that they didn't play H3. They don't know how powerfull its armor is or its weakpoint. Also later on I see that it's a scaled down version, seems reasonable for me. + 27:56 Awesome job with the burn makeup! +- Visually I love the CGI Scarab leg and how the tanks plasmagun is so bright it even shines through an ODST visor, but other than that I wasn't able to enjoy James martyr moment. :/ Mostly because what was he going to do? He did not know about the bubble shield (which was nice tho), and didn't even fire a shot... Did I miss a thing here too? + 29:14 Isn't it funny that almost every single piece of Halo media ends in air/space? xD It's kinda a tradition really. + 29:50 And that's how armor abilities were invented! xD I'd just like to say thank you for reading and I am fully aware of that: A) it's easy to critique but far more difficult to create something from a scratch. B) It has to be truly challenging to maintain a stable vision through 9 years of hard work with limited resources. C) If I was set out to make this film, it would have never even happened. xD LOVE - A fan from Finland

Damn, this was great! It's not perfect, but I can really feel the passion for the franchise watching this. This is way better than anything Bungie/343 has produced. I really hope some day we (the fans) can get a big budget movie. There's so much lore to explore. Thanks for reminding me why I love this game & community. ❤️

Personally I wasnt a fan of the story but I was very impressed with the props and art for being fan made.

I mean not the best quality and we didnt get to see any real fighting but the dedication put into this film is great!!!! If only a huge amount of funding could be put into halo movie with a great visionary style like this one.

I’m really glad to see this masterpiece. Halo fans are the only people how really appreciate this franchise, please don’t watch the garbage Paramount’s tv show, I didn’t and I won’t, they only care about money, and never wanted to bring us a good history.

My God, this is one of the best, if not THE best fan films ever. Thank you so much for this.

Glad I saw this in my recommended

Give these Guys An Oscar please. 👏👏👏👏👏

How is this better than the show, and the show had a 10 million dollar per episode? Oh, I can tell you the answer. Passion. These guys had more passion and respect for Halo than the entire Halo series leadership and 99% of the cast.

Reach events inspiring film makers to create amazing projects like this, THANK YOU GUYS!

High five from all of us at Dance Nocturnal. Great seeing Tom Ringberg in action!

Impressive. Great job. Good luck with Netflix. You made a great movie. Really enjoyed this.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for putting this together. It's incredibly inspiring to see halo fans do what they do best!

This will be on my list of best fan films I have had the pleasure of watching! Great job, hope you guys don't stop with just the one.

I'm really glad this was in my recommended

Thank you dawn, very cool.

I know it's been a year, I'm watching this again and you guys still have my crying like a baby. "Good Job"!!!😭🤧

Dang it 343, just give these guys 10 grand to make your Halo TV show, it'll be better than any crap Paramount minus can chuck out.

This is EPIC!!! I LOVE the Halo community so much for this and for all of the amazing fan projects it puts out!! Spielberg can keep his false promises for a Halo TV series, give me more great fan content like this and I will be more than satisfied

Excellent job! The work shows. This is why halo and it’s fans are so great.

The prop and sound people are worth every penny

I love this film, however, when deployed you don't salute officers; easy way to get an officer killed is to identify him on a battle field and an easy way to get your ass chewed out if you do so, always assume a sniper is watching

Truly a masterpiece for a fan film. You guys really have a talent

Bro i used to watch reach machinimas and make them in game but ya'll really put together a movie give yourself a pat on the back

The interaction with the scarab was dumb. Other than that, I actually enjoyed this. It was a pretty good representation of the Halo universe and military in general

This film proves that Halo exists in a microcosm of Sci-Fi where countless stories are left to be told.

I approve of this film, it was indeed made by a Halo fan with a lot of talent.