The developers wanted a protagonist with more emotion than Master Chief (whose face is never seen), to not only convey an understanding of the universe, but to better engage unfamiliar viewers. The director of franchise business management at 343 Industries, Matt McClosky, explained the intended audience by saying that, 'You see something that looks like a video game, you're going to get the same crowd you always get.' The live-action format was also chosen for its ability to better develop characters the series is used to introduce the character Thomas Lasky to the Halo universe before his role in the video game Halo 4. The series was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for main title design.Īfter the success of previous live-action promotional shorts, Landfall and The Life, 343 Industries, the studio in charge of development for the Halo franchise, wanted to use a live action series to appeal to an audience of people unfamiliar with the Halo games. Reviewers were impressed by the special effects and action-packed second act, but found that the plot was too slow in the first half and most of the characters were under-developed. The series also won a Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Award for sound editing. Lasky and his surviving squad mates are rescued by the Master Chief and, after the death of his romantic interest, Chyler Silva, Lasky is inspired by the Chief to take initiative and aids him in saving the remaining cadets.įorward Unto Dawn received a Streamy Award and several of the crew received awards for their work editing, producing and filming of it. Lasky is unsure of his future within the military but feels pressured to follow in the footsteps of his mother and brother. The academy is attacked by the Covenant, a religious alliance of aliens. It has just under 500 shots with computer generated imagery, approximately a quarter of what a feature film would have, but the visual effects received praise from reviewers.Ī coming-of-age story in the twenty-sixth century, Forward Unto Dawn follows a cadet, Thomas Lasky, at a military training academy set 31 years before the events of Halo 4.

Forward Unto Dawn was shot in Vancouver over 25 days in May 2012 on a budget just under US$10 million.

It was written by Aaron Helbing and Todd Helbing, and directed by Stewart Hendler. The series was produced as a marketing effort for the video game Halo 4 intended to widen the audience of the Halo series and as a stepping stone to a potential Halo film. Forward Unto Dawn consists of five 15-minute episodes released weekly starting on October 5, 2012, and was later released as a single film on DVD and Blu-ray and was later put on Netflix in 2013. Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is a military science fiction web series set in the universe of the Halo franchise.

Halo 4 armor sets