We recently connected with Elijah Anthony and have shared our conversation below.
Elijah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
Every project I work on ends up becoming deeply meaningful and representative of the time it was made. I made a short film called Home Burial, adapted from a poem by Robert Frost that I’d read when I was in 5th/6th grade. It was the first script I ever tried to write, and many versions were written before it was produced in early 2023. Something felt different this time. I’ve always felt like the projects I shoot choose me, and attempts to speed up or manufacture something always end up fizzling out. I had just turned 19 at the time, and what started as an experiment to promote my work online was quickly becoming something bigger than expected. With that attention came money raised in my first crowdfunding campaign which translated into a workload that was nearly too much to handle. What was intended to be a small short made with friends became an $8000 project with multiple rented locations that needed complete production design, actors flying in from out of state, and more backers than I ever would’ve expected who needed things fulfilled that I just didn’t have the time for. My previous project cost a whole $180 so the jump was overwhelming. But at the end of it I was left with something I couldn’t be more proud of, my relationship with which has evolved drastically over the last year. The story of Home Burial revolves around two parents struggling to cope and connect after the loss of their five-year-old son, and the film follows them from the day they met at a school dance to their dramatic and wordy falling out six years later. I always understood that I wanted to tell the story as though it was from the child’s third perspective, rather than from one of the parents. Which in itself I never understood, my parents were together my whole life up to that point. I’d never experienced loss like the one the characters experience in the film, and I’d obviously never been a parent. In between the production and and release of the film, my parents got divorced. The experience of the two of them watching the film for the first time independently and recognizing parts of the fictional couple’s dynamic is something I still don’t really know what to do with. There are times when it feels like what I’m making is so much bigger than myself and what I understand, and Home Burial is a perfect and painful example of that for me.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
It’s funny because it still to this day feels like I stumbled into filmmaking, but looking back I’ve always been trying to get to this point, even when I didn’t understand what ‘this’ was. I grew up in a tiny town in rural Washington State, where the only ‘reliable’ cell service can be found at the town jail turned library 10 minutes from my house, and my entire journey up to last year happened in total isolation from peers, other filmmakers and any form of industry. For two years in high school I worked at a trade school training to work in construction, which I dropped out of in my senior year when an opportunity to travel to my first film festival stood in the way of passing the class. By the time I understood that college and film school were an option for me, I was already over halfway through my senior year and had no idea where to start, and just started making things with the intention of seeing how far I could get on my own. Since then this has been the only path I’ve pursued, and I guess time will tell whether or not that was a good decision.
For the last eight years I’ve been creating independently and for the last two I’ve been working as a filmmaker and creative director. I’ve become extremely familiar with nearly every aspect of the filmmaking process, including DPing, production and costume designing, editing, and coloring all of my work. I’ve had the privilege of writing, directing, and producing six short films, creative directing an album, shooting music videos, traveling the world, and working with incredible people, all while chipping away at my own personal projects. None of this would’ve been possible without the internet, where two years ago I started sharing and promoting my work and have built a following and small name for myself in the community. Coming from where I come from, there wouldn’t be any kind of path for me if platforms like TikTok and Instagram didn’t exist, and I couldn’t be more grateful.
I believe that all art is expression and communication, and that idea is something I work very hard to bring into every project I get to be a part of. The way that most prominently shows itself I think is the consistent visual style I’ve built throughout the last few years. I’m obsessed with abstracting and translating feelings and ideas visually, and if I had to describe my ‘mission’ as an artist that’s it, whatever that means for whatever the project requires. Currently, I’m about to launch a crowdfunding campaign for my next personal short film ‘Saint Helens’, in which I will be in control of nearly every aspect of production, and the deeper I get into the process the more I understand how much I love this. My creative process is one of careful curation and a lot of time spent digesting stories and ideas. I feel the best about my work when it feels like a natural and organic expression of whatever I’m trying to get across, and that takes different forms depending on the project, but the core intention always stays the same. I also love working with other creative people, something I’ve gotten to explore for the first time this last year, and plan to prioritize moving forward.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
In short, I started uploading short edits of my films to trending sounds at the time introducing myself as the artist behind them to TikTok in November of 2022. A couple did pretty well, and starting in January I went a full three and a half months shooting, editing, and posting a new video every day, ranging from tutorials and bts content to cinematic short videos and edits of my work, which translated into very rapid growth that tapered off after the production of Home Burial where I took on way too much and needed a break. Since then I’ve been able to semi-consistently post and engage with my audience, and it’s something I’ll never take for granted. All of my biggest professional relationships and opportunities came from it, and without it, I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I am now, wherever that is.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I’ve had to pivot in many different aspects of my life the last couple of years, but easily the most consequential was dropping out of trade school to work in construction in favor of traveling to New York for the first time to attend my first film festival. The people and connections I made on that trip are still very active parts of my life, and more than any other choice I’ve ever made this current version of myself would not exist if I hadn’t decided on the second day of class that I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I try not to think about it too much.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://elijahanthony.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elijahanthonyf/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elijah-anthony-668054266/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ElijahAnthonyF
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@elijahanthonyf?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Image Credits
Jaren Kerr, Sean Treacy