Craig Jacobson – Elliot (2017)

Quote:
We’re leading up to talking about Elliot, the pair’s most ambitious project to date. But first I ask them about the medium they shot it in: VHS. Jacobson explains why the pair chose that format: “We got into VHS for Cassandra’s most ambitious short, Wireboy, because it provided the look we were going for in that movie. It was important to have a dirty image due to the subject matter and it became a bit of a production element too. Elliot was kind of a further exploration of some of the same themes, but it was very different in what it dealt with exactly. Again, VHS seemed most appropriate for the story because this was another grimy world, and because the sets in Elliot were all made by hand rather cheaply; shooting the movie in HD wouldn’t have done it any favors. With VHS you don’t have a pristine image, and the medium basically becomes an extension of the organic nastiness of Elliot’s world. As far as the costs go, VHS is actually relatively cheap when compared to other formats. The hard part is finding cameras that still work. The other important thing is to get a decent digital converter that maintains the analog fidelity of VHS.”

Elliot was apparently four years in the making and cost about $8,000. At around an hour duration it’s by far the longest piece the pair have created, and seems like an extension of the various ideas in their previous movies, albeit with dialogue for the first time. It’s also a step forward in terms of narrative, although ‘narrative’ is a relative word here. Jacobson explains the story: “Elliot is a lonely maintenance worker inside a stark and mysterious power supply complex. His only interactions are with a supervisor named Face who communicates via video monitors and overhead speakers. When Elliot does have a rare moment alone he plugs into his pod and escapes into another world containing an idealised version of himself. The more he explores this alternate universe, the more he desires it, and the less he trusts his own reality.” It’s a profoundly sad film yet also an uplifting one, a vague mix of Silent Running, The Matrix, The Residents’ Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats movie and ‘Waiting for Godot.’ with a colour palette akin to falling into a box of Quality Street chocolate wrappers while out of your gourd. So how did it come about?

“Craig and I always have ideas brewing in our sketchbooks,” explains Sechler, “but there was no plan per se regarding a choice on when to dive into a feature film or use dialogue as a narrative device. It all happened naturally really. Craig was developing Elliot while we were working on our short Wireboy, extending the ideas we were playing with about technology, social media, and how it’s shaping our world and ourselves. Then while we were in production for Elliot I started developing ideas for a new film (Tearful Surrender, of which more later). It’s more of a matter of balance, practicality, budget and space.” Jacobson adds: “I guess we always knew we wanted to make a feature, we just never knew when it would happen. Even Elliot was originally going to be a short, but it grew into a feature so yeah, things just kind of happen (laughs).”

I tell them that I really liked the film and Craig seems a little nervous about audience reactions: “I don’t know if it’s ever going to really take off or anything, but it would be great if it did! Who knows if we’ll ever be well known, but again that’s not why we’re doing this. We don’t make movies with the sole intent of making money, and that’s never going to change. We currently self-distribute and try to get our work seen by as many people as possible, but that’s kind of critical if you want to keep making films. We’ll be pursuing bigger budgets for our future projects, but not at the cost of our integrity. The hard part is figuring out how to get more funding for what we do, instead of doing what’s popular to get a budget.”

Elliot.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 7 min
Size: 	2.17 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	29.970 fps
Bit rate: 	4 350 kb/s
BPP: 	0.070
Audio
#1:  	2.0ch AAC LC @ 253 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/B773ABBDF3366A3/Elliot.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None