Back in April, Pip Piper caught up with Midlands based director and producer, Holly Elson and to talk New York and vikings...
PF: Holly tell us a bit about yourself.
HE: I’m a Midlands-based director and producer and I run Hark Pictures, an indie production company in Birmingham with my business partner Matt Hale. We make documentaries, cross-platform projects and promotional films for brands, arts and cultural organisations (everyone from Pizza Express to Imperial War Museums).
Matt and I have been working together for about 10 years, ever since we were both at Eagle Rock Entertainment. A few years ago we thought it was about time we did our own thing so we formed Hark to make feature documentaries outside London. I’ve been working in broadcast, independent and commercial content in a variety of roles since I left Cardiff University. I’ve directed and produced documentaries for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Discovery and UKTV History [credits include The Tie That Binds (BBC Scotland, Scottish Documentary Institute); Pauline, Sheila and Joan, (nominated for a Royal Television Society Award); Recycled: History of Recycling, supported by Britdoc].
As a filmmaker, I love working with archive content and combining it with contemporary observational documentary, to tell unique personal stories. The kind of stories that interest me are those that once you’ve heard them, you just can’t shake them and you feel compelled to share them with an audience.
PF: You are involved in a really interesting documentary "The Viking of 6th Avenue" all about a great character of New Yorks streets , Moondog, tell us more about that and your involvement.
HE: I’m directing and producing the project. I came across Moondog’s story a few years ago and was immediately captivated. I soon learned that the initial feeling I’d had - that personal and sort of instinctive response to Moondog and his story - was one that a lot of other people had experienced and this strange-looking guy had a big and really loyal following. Then of course I had that sinking feeling that someone else must have made a film about him.
He was blind and lived on the streets of New York for 30 years dressed like a Viking but was in fact a multi-album recording artist and composer who had worked with everyone from Julie Andrews to Elvis Costello. When I found that no one had made a film about him, I thought we’d better go for it and so we began working with his estate (sadly he died in 1999) and the official biographer and started pitching the project.
From our first trip to New York, I knew we wanted to work with a New York based company on the project and specifically Lori Cheatle’s company Hard Working Movies (Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart, 51 Birch Street, Kids Grow Up). Lori and I met at Hotdocs and hit it off and they became our co production partners. Passion Pictures (Searching for Sugar Man, Listen to Me Marlon, Tillman Story, One Day in September) have also recently come on board as Exec-Producers. We’ve pitched the project internationally and have support from Creative England and international broadcasters. We launched a successful Kickstarter campaign last year and exceeded our target, raising $107k in 30 days. We had some great coverage including New York Times, Vanity Fair, USA Today, Boing Boing, Gothamist, WFMU and BBC 6 Music. Moondog has a big international fan base and the response to the campaign was overwhelming. We’ve also had invaluable support from those who appear in the film including Jarvis Cocker, Blondie, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Phillip Glass. As well as raising money we wanted to use the Kickstarter to spread the word and find new contributors and archive material and we got some very cool stuff as a result. We’re in production at the moment and we’re filming in New York, Germany, Sweden and the UK during this year and begin editing in April. 2016 is Moondog’s centenary year so our aim is for a festival run and theatrical release to coincide with what would have been his 100th Birthday.
PF: Did you find it hard to get into the industry? Where did it start for you?
HE: At first yes - I took a year out before University and wrote to literally hundreds of production companies all over the country - in fact I came across all of the “thanks, we’ll keep your CV on file" replies when I was clearing out the loft recently! It was a tough year but the persistence paid off and I worked in a feature film production company who were in pre-production on a narrative feature, an animation company who were making TV commercials and a TV production company making a motoring series - so it gave me a pretty good insight.
My first real break was joining the crew of Teletubbies back in its very first year of production. It was essentially a summer job during my degree but it was well paid and the crew were a real mix of people just starting out and some real old pros so I learnt a great deal and went on to work on another three series and later joined Ragdoll as a script editor and writer on Brum.
I think my personal breakthrough though came much later when I started working in documentary - for the first time I got to hear all of these incredible stories and I found that interviewing people was a real privilege. I knew that this was what I wanted to do.
PF: For those just getting started what advice would you give?
HE: Don’t give up! Learn as much as you can and be willing to muck in. I knew pretty early that I wanted to produce and direct but I worked in different departments across TV and film to learn as much as I could and find the genre that really interested me.
Be persistent but bear in mind that the people getting your email have probably had another 10 asking exactly the same thing that day. We get a lot of people writing to us hoping to gain some experience and we can’t always help but we do our best to reply to as many as we can.
Try to learn as much as you can about what the production company is working on and be specific about what you’d like to do and what skills you have - that way you’ll stand out from the crowd.
PF: What is next on the horizon or on the slate?
HE: Most of the rest of this year is devoted to the Moondog film and accompanying cross-platform project but we have got another couple of projects in development right now - one TV series and another feature. Alongside this we’ll continue to make promotional material for brands and arts and cultural organisations. We’ve just delivered half hour film for Birmingham University and we're making a series of short films for local awards-winning art gallery Compton Verney, including a film about the arts and crafts movement.
It’s going to be an interesting and busy year.
For further information on Moondog and the film, "The Viking of 6th Avenue" then visit the Kickstarter page.
This article first appeared in the April 2015 Newsletter
An Archive of previous Newsletters can be found at http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/home/?u=4a23fd5acbcc0d2c93735b669&id=7fa4d4166c
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