OG: Approved - Hallie Tut
Featuring the Next Generation of Storytellers Rising from the Creator Economy
Welcome to OG: Approved—where rule-breaking creators shape the future. Hand-picked by Open Gardens, they’re not following the playbook—they’re writing the next one.
Name: Hallie Tut
Instagram: 259K Followers
Tik Tok: 938.7K Followers
Youtube: 7.5K Followers
Who Is Hallie Tut?
Hallie Tut makes TikTok videos that feel like neon-drenched fever dreams, but her path started shooting concert photos at 15 to impress her friends in high school. Born in Vancouver and now based in Toronto, she photographed Danny Brown, Lil Yachty, and Post Malone before she could legally get into the venues. She got a fake ID, landed a club photography gig, and built a signature style around vibrant, color-saturated concert lighting.
She moved to Toronto at 16, lost her entire network, and rebuilt by cold-messaging Nike Canada with photos of her own sneakers until they hired her for Air Max Day 2018. On that shoot, someone from Director X’s production company Popp Rok noticed her work and put her on their director roster within a week. By 18, she was directing music videos.
Then COVID shut down music video production. She watched Hype House kids blow up and realized TikTok could give Hallie something music video direction couldn’t: complete creative control. No crew diluting the vision. No compromises. Just raw work that looks exactly like what’s in her head.
The work sits somewhere between magic tricks and personal documentaries. Characters step through mirrors into alternate dimensions. Someone literally loses their head on Halloween. She’s trying to visualize what it feels like to exist between real life and the internet, especially when you’re home alone and the persona you build online feels more real than the person making it.
Tut uses Blender to create 3D worlds from her stories, then places herself inside those environments. She shoots on iPhone, often editing on the phone too, deliberately proving you don’t need expensive equipment to make cinematic work. Tut is an Adobe partner and works with brands like Artlist. She directed a music video for KILLY using a 360 VR camera that put performers in five different spots in the same shot.
Hallie runs a Patreon and shares detailed VFX breakdowns. The work draws comparisons to Zach King, but Hallie layers in heavier themes about identity, digital personas, and the strange space where your online self becomes more known than your physical one. She thinks about how millions of people interact with the version of her that only exists online, filling in the blanks about what that world is like, while the real person making it sits alone at home. That tension drives everything she makes.
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Three Things We Love About Hallie Tut
Cinematic Visual Storytelling: Hallie’s short videos offer movie-like experiences packed into social media clips, combining creativity and advanced VFX to stunning effect.
Emotional and Conceptual Depth: Her content explores meaningful themes beneath its visually stunning surface, engaging viewers on both emotional and intellectual levels.
Open Creative Process: Hallie regularly shares behind-the-scenes insights, building genuine connections with fans who appreciate the craft behind her captivating visuals.
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