Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Eli Ommen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Eli, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

My journey to learning the craft of filmmaking began when I was twelve years old and stubbled upon a group of guys on YouTube named Dude Perfect. I was so inspired by their trick shot videos, that I started making my own. I would spend hours and hours trying to make some crazy basketball shot for a video because I loved the editing process. Many times I could see the final video playing in my head and every time I made a shot, I knew I was one step closer to making that idea a reality. As I continued to grow as a filmmaker with the intention of pursuing it as a career, I found myself gravitating towards editing, motion graphics, and visual effects. I ended up honing my skills by attending college at Webster University in St. Louis, MO, but my journey in learning motion graphics and visual effects, also began on YouTube. I think YouTube can get a bad wrap sometimes as a place full of people that “think” they know what they’re talking about, but there are also many people that create high quality, educational content that I learned and continue to learn from. I self-taught myself a lot of skills that launched me into the world of motion graphics and visual effects many years ahead of my high-level education.

One skill that I believe is essential to this field and filmmaking in general is problem solving. Problem solving is something that I feel has always come naturally to me and has been very important in growing my skills as a filmmaker. I like to think of editing like a giant puzzle. There is all of this footage, graphics, music and dialogue and it’s my job to figure out the best way for all those things to fit together. Problem solving has also played a crucial role in my 3D animation. Often you’re starting with nothing, maybe a few models, but there is something that needs to be created and figuring out the best way to create said thing is the challenge.

I think the biggest obstacle that stood in my way of learning was myself. I grew up watching films packed full of visual effects and sports broadcasts with motion graphics all over the screen and thought that there is no way I could create stuff like that. They have tons of expensive computers and software. They have tons of money to spend on creating those things. How could I begin to create stuff like that? I had the passion for it, but doubted if I could achieve the skills for it. It took over coming the fear of failure and the dread of the learning process to push past the obstacles I was putting in my own way. I’m really glad I did because its been a blast continuing to grow my skills and create professional work for clients.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Eli Ommen. I found my passion for filmmaking while making trick shot videos in my backyard as a kid. I decided to pursue filmmaking as a career and attended Webster University in St. Louis, MO to get my Bachelors in Film, Television, Video Production. After graduating, I did some contractual work for a video production studio in my home town of Springfield, IL called Storyteller Studios as well as working for the St. Louis Blues internal production team. The following spring, Storyteller Studios hired me as a part-time production assistant and this spring they hired me full-time as an assistant producer. We provide story-driven video for companies and causes. As an assistant producer I do everything from helping with video shoots to editing and creating motion graphics for client videos. In addition to working at Storyteller Studios, I have a personal business for my freelance work titled Ommen Productions. I’m currently editing and doing visual effects for two independent films based out of St. Louis, MO. As an employee of Storyteller Studios, I’m proud of the stories we tell that uplift and shine a light on people in our community and the communities we travel to.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I was in my last semester at Webster University, I took a senior overview class that was solely focused on creating one short-film. At this time I had dabbled in visual effects and 3D animation, but never really focused on it. After much debate with myself, I decided to have an entire CG character in my senior short-film. I think it’s also worth mentioning that I had four months to do this entire project start to finish. I’m pretty sure most of my class thought I was crazy when I pitched this idea, but my professor was supportive of it. I knew that I wanted to grow my skills as a 3D artist and I thought what better way to grow and learn than by forcing myself to take on the challenge of filming, editing and creating animations in 3 months. There were many times throughout the post-production process that I thought the whole thing was going to blow-up in my face, but the feeling of watching the final film in the movie theater we rented and seeing everyone’s reaction to film was worth it. It was not easy, but I’m glad I pushed through and saw it to completion.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

One goal that I have for myself is to never stop pushing myself to try new things or learn new skills. While it’s never easy for me to watch old work of mine because I see all the ways it could be better, I’m so thankful for those projects because without them I wouldn’t be where I am today. Being able to look back and see how far I’ve come even in the last year has been super inspiring for me to continue to grow my skills and push myself outside of my comfort zone.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @eli_ommen
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-ommen/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCod3r-5nNs_cBc27IF2cRqw

Image Credits
Chris Costello, Kevin Christensen