Elliot & Zander Weaver
“It was at a young age that we discovered filmmaking (5 and 3 years old), using our parents Hi-8 video camera to make little films with our toys and eventually friends. We shot these in sequence and learnt to link the VHS machine and camera together for simple tape to tape editing. This playtime grew into a passion for storytelling with cameras that became an obsession in our teenage years and shaped our adult lives and careers.”
“When we were kids both our parents worked in the television industry; our Mom was a BBC Hair and Make-up Designer and our Dad was a freelance Documentary Film Cameraman. We grew up aware of the industry and had a reference that working in TV, or indeed film, was possible. They were very inspiring and hugely supportive of us and our dreams.”
“As teenagers we were both lucky to go to King Edward’s School, Birmingham and we loved the environment and every day of the seven years we both spent there. We quickly learnt that our talent for filmmaking held great currency; teachers allowed us to make mini documentaries instead of essays, often resulting in full marks and much more fun!. We made recruitment films for extracurricular clubs and even music videos for mates with bands. By the time we were leaving sixth form we were entrusted with a five figure budget to produce the school’s very first promotional film.”
“Both of us chose to not go to university, but instead jump headfirst into the industry. We knew from an early age we wanted to be Feature Film Directors and going to University felt like a delay to getting going. We believed what we could learn first hand working as runners or production assistants would be far more beneficial and exciting than studying. To this day, the decision not to go to University was the best we could have made, we wouldn’t be where we are now and achieved all that we have in our twenties if we’d have been under the pressures of paying off a student loan.”
“One of the values we learnt from our parents was that the industry respects hard work and a willingness to learn from the ground up. Although we’d been born into an industry family which undeniably gave us an advantageous insight, this made us more determined to start at the bottom of the ladder and work our way up based off our own merits, and be taken seriously in the eyes of our parents and colleagues. We knew that as directors we’d need a broad and deep understanding for all areas of production and there was no better way to get that grounding than starting at the bottom.”
“Aside from our parents, without doubt the biggest influence on our imagination and our passion for filmmaking is Steven Spielberg. Being children of the 80s and 90s it was impossible to escape his influence in movies and culture and we grew up on a steady diet of Spielbergian and Amblin adventure tales. It’s interesting how the era in which you fall in love with cinema affects the type of storyteller you aspire to be. Kids today don’t seem to be exposed to the awe and wonderment of the era we grew up in - we had Jumanji, Free Willy, Men in Black, Casper, Toy Story, The Lion King, Dragonheart and of course inherited E.T. and Indiana Jones from the 80s. As we grew up we also devoured the friday night TV movie, exposing us to more rock and roll filmmakers like Tony Scott, Jan de Bont, Roland Emmerich and John McTiernan. The 90s concluded in the immense Lord of the Rings Trilogy which promised an exciting course for filmmaking in the new millennium. But perhaps Spielberg’s Hook is the single biggest influence on not just us but our generation. Talk to any 90s kid and chances are they'll have the fondest of affection for this film and of course Robin Williams - you’ll always be the Pan!”
“I left school in 2006, 3 years before Zander. In that time I worked initially as an unpaid production assistant for corporate video companies in Birmingham, entrusted only with the kettle and the broom. After a few months I began working as an assistant then quickly a cameraman for a production company based at the University of Birmingham, specializing in films for the departments on campus. I was thrown in at the deep end, shooting, lighting and soon directing senior lecturers and professors at just 18. With multiple interview setups a day in uncontrollable locations, I quickly grew proficient and confident at putting nervous contributors at ease and getting strong performances on camera.”
“When Zander left school in 2009, we began working together as professionals and quickly became a formidable shooting, lighting and directing duo, hired as a pair and favoured for our fast-paced delivery of high quality content, working with brands such as PlayStation, Vodaphone and Polydor Records.”
“In 2010, we both became freelance editors working for a company making straight-to-DVD documentaries. In just 12 months, we cut and directed the edit of 30 one hour archive footage/interview based documentaries. It was an incredibly intense period of work but we seriously cut our teeth as editors and effectively documentary directors.”
“After making that volume of work for someone else, in 2011 we decided to produce our own speculative documentary which we ended up selling to TV broadcasters around the world. This began the next chapter of our careers as Documentary Producer/Directors. Over three years we made nine hours of factual entertainment on the subject of NASA and space science which are being viewed by audiences around the world on channels such as Discovery, Canal+ and PBS.”
“Although we had previously produced narrative shorts we had yet to make a narrative feature, so in 2013 we finally took our first steps to becoming Feature Film Directors. We wrote a 100 page screenplay for a modern sci-fi adventure called COSMOS and set about self producing and directing it on effectively no-budget. The film took 5 years to make from concept to completion, with us taking on every key crew role through production with the exception of composing the soundtrack. COSMOS is now complete and we’re enjoying the process of sharing it and telling the story of how it was made.”
“Our career goal is to be professional Feature Directors at the highest level. With COSMOS complete we are now seeking a distributor who can secure the film a VoD release on platforms such as Netflix. Beyond COSMOS we are developing a slate of new Feature projects and approaching and being approached by production companies to produce our second Feature.”