Presenting Elliander Pictures
As we’ve grown up in an industry family I suppose it was an inevitability that we’d eventually get the bug for filmmaking. We made our first short film at the ages of 3 and 5 (taking our toys and making them come to life!… well before Toy Story!) and haven’t stopped since. Throughout our school years we continued to produce short films with our friends, including our 20min period drama, The Price of Freedom, which focused on one soldier’s story during the First World War and utilizes the stunning poetry written by the Great War Poets to weave a story. We even worked closely with some school friends to write an original score for the film which was eventually recorded live with the school’s orchestra. Before leaving school we were commissioned to produce the school’s new promotional video.
Over the past decade we’ve tried our hardest to take our passion and turn it into a career. We’ve endeavored to secure our place in this competitive industry and currently work as freelance camera operators and editors. Having been trained by numerous experienced professionals, we’ve learned to respect and understand the industry and its structure. Since leaving school we’ve produced a multitude of projects including: 10 music videos for companies such as Polydor records and artists like Xfactor’s Jamie Afro, a series of documentaries profiling celebrities such as US hip-hop group the ‘Black Eyed Peas’, which sold over 25,000 copies in its first week of DVD release and most notably directed and produced a one hour documentary special commemorating the 40th anniversary of APOLLO 17, NASA’s final manned mission to the moon. The documentary has been represented at the world’s leading TV acquisition market in Cannes and has subsequently been acquired by several foreign territories including UK’s factual programming giant, Discovery Channel and PBS in America. We’ve travelled to Ethiopia to produce a promotional video for the local charity LUCIA and this year our footage was also selected for the Scott Free - BBC co-production “Britain in a Day”.
In 2009 we decided it was time to set about writing, producing and directing our first feature film; a sci-fi thriller intended for theatrical release. This high concept, commercially appealing film is targeted at both the sci-fi and thriller genre fanbases, giving it the greatest chance of commercial success with the broadest demographic appeal. So far, off the strength of the script, we’ve gained the attachment of a multitude of highly respected industry professionals and several world class companies who will be involved with the production of Encounter. We’re currently in the process of raising the budget for the film through independent investment with high net worth individuals and film partnerships. It’s a long process and we’re learning a lot; but we believe that filmmaking isn’t just about being creative, a large element to the film industry is exactly that, an industry and therefore we’ve spent a lot of time researching and understanding the markets, audience expectations, box office figures and production structures to give this project the best possible chance of success.
Most of all we’re crazy about films. We love movies and we love making them. For a long time we’ve dreamed of becoming feature film directors and hopefully in the coming months that will become a reality. Encounter has been 3 years in the making and we’re still in development, but we know that one day all the hard work, time, patience and effort will be worth it; when we’re standing on that set seeing it all come together. It’s incredibly exciting.
Our plan is to begin writing the screenplay for our next feature, the story for which is already in development, during the post production stages of Encounter; this way we’ll be able to repeat the fundraising formula off the back of Encounter and continue to make features. Our ultimate goal is to make mainstream, commercial movies for the cinema. We want to make movies that audiences love to go and see, the movies that we fell in love with when we were younger and the movies that have inspired us to do crazy things at a young age!”
