Today we’d like to introduce you to Elijah Gittens
Hi Elijah, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was very young when I realized I wanted to make movies. I always loved storytelling, and even when I was three years old and couldn’t write I would tell narrative stories to my mom and have her write them for me. My whole childhood consisted of me looking for different ways to tell stories or act them out, etc. Then in middle school I started making videos with a couple friends and I learned what a director was. We shot and edited a short series of films and showed them to family and friends. I really think I’ve been completely in love with the medium since then, and as I’ve grown up and learned more about what it means to make a film and express myself through that kind of art – the more important it has become to me. We continued making short films together through high school and the quality slowly became better and better, then I started to enjoy writing scripts, and learned how to properly format a screenplay. I had help from a teacher at my high school who I took a video production class with plus three semesters of a photo course that he taught, through this I learned more about light and composition. My passion for filmmaking never wavered and I always remained confident that it was what I was meant to do, nothing else in life gave me the same feeling as making these short films. I ended up at the Savannah College of Art and Design where I’ve been studying film for the last four years, and it has been a wonderful privilege. I’ve gotten to develop my style as a writer and director and find the things I love most about the filmmaking process, while also being part of the crew of dozens of other short films here at SCAD.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I think the biggest struggle at times is trusting your own vision. There’s going to be people who don’t understand your work, or maybe critique it into a million pieces, this might be professors, peers, other artists, etc. But then you can turn around and there’s five more people who can really feel what you’re trying to do with your work. I think you have to find a certain confidence to be able to sift through all these voices and figure out what parts of the feedback are valuable and what parts of it are going to hold your idea back. With that being said – you have to have a strong vision, and you really need to feel like this is the film, book, series, painting, etc. that you HAVE to make. I think there’s something to be said for the selfishness of creating art for yourself first, and worrying about audience later, I think this lets you dig deeper and find the story you want to tell more than anything else.
I definitely struggled with that confidence early in my time here at SCAD, eventually you do develop a tough skin for critique, but it can be a challenge at the beginning when all you’ve heard in the past is family and friends who love everything you do. When you get to film school you quickly realize there’s dozens of other kids who were told the same thing. You realize you have to set yourself apart, and always be open to criticism of your work. I think it took me a couple years to really find my voice and figure out what kind of films I wanted to make. Once I got to a point of knowing that, I then had to find my footing as a director through a Directing the Narrative course here at SCAD, where I really learned how I wanted to run a set and collaborate with all these different departments. I still had a lot of room to grow and it wasn’t until my Senior Thesis film this year that I really dug deep into the style and tone of the work I want to make, and felt even more confident as an artist.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m Elijah and I am a writer-director, I would say I specialize in character driven films with a more non-traditional narrative structure. This comes from my love of directing actors and writing with actors in mind, and also my love for the medium itself and how it can be warped, how “rules” can be broken. I’d say when making a film I prioritize performance (or the actors), setting the tone of the piece, and the edit. I think these are the three richest aspects of the film, and audience is going to recognize when one is lacking. I’ve had the privilege of meeting and working with some amazing actors at SCAD, one of whom – Elliot Goulder – has become a frequent collaborator of mine and a friend, and I’ve gotten to push myself creatively through working with her. I think a lot of my style as a filmmaker has come from talking to/working with these actors and knowing how to prioritize acting even when writing the script.
When it comes to editing, I find it to be extremely rewarding to put the puzzle pieces of the film together, and really experiment with the whole thing. I spent years in high school and even my first couple years at SCAD editing my own films, which gave me an appreciation for the art of editing – which is an entirely separate thing in it’s own regard. It gave me a different brain when writing scripts because I would be cutting the film together in my head as I wrote. So I was editing my own work for awhile, and then I met Elizabeth Housey, an editor and director here at SCAD, and thank God I did because after one collaboration with her I said “I’m never doing this shit myself again, you’re going to edit everything I ever do.” Now Elizabeth has cut three of my projects (two short films and a music video), and my love for the editing process has grown tenfold as I’ve learned what an invigorating collaboration it can be to work side by side with an editor who loves the craft.
This brings me to the last thing I’d say I prioritize, which is my general relationships with all my collaborators. Whether it be an actor, editor, DP, production designer, etc. I pride myself on being able to articulate my vision and then let people do their job. This is something I don’t think everyone understands about directing, especially students. A professor of mine once said “it’s your job to have the vision, and then you have to bring on a Production Designer who’s better at production design than you are directing, and bring on a DP who’s a better DP than you are director…” etc. Giving people the inspiration but also the space they need to do their best work is very important to me. This helps create a fantastic environment on set as well, and at the end of the day I want everyone on the team to have fun making the movie.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I get a lot of inspiration from watching movies, but also seeing films my friends have made and watching them work has been a huge inspiration for me as well.
Also can’t say enough about Judith Weston’s book – Directing Actors – which has helped me immensely.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gittensgot/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elijahgittens/
