Talking To: Ella Greenwood

Ella is an incredible filmmaker hailing from London. At the age of 19, she has received national praise for her short film, Faulty Roots, which was released this year. A strong mental health advocate, Ella deals with prevalent, but often forgotten about, themes in the majority of her work. We catch up with her to discuss her production company, her other films that are in the pipeline and her film that has just been picked up for a feature!

How did you get into creating films? Is it something you’ve always wanted to do?

It’s something I’ve always thought about; it’s weird, I’ve always wanted to act, and I thought of film making as a back-up but when I turned 18, I wanted to try writing and creating my own work and since then it’s my main focus now, it’s what I’ve spent every hour of this year doing. I’ve always wanted to work in film but I just never imagined myself as a filmmaker.

What do you prefer; behind or in front of the camera?

It depends – I’m very lucky at the minute to create films that I’ve written and I’m just so passionate about and I think I’ve done roles before where I wasn’t completely in love with them. So I think if it’s a role that I love or a film that I love then both of them are equal but it depends on the project.

Are you involved with the process the whole way?

I was with Faulty Roots the short film but the feature version I’m behind-the-scenes, I won’t be acting. Similarly, with another short film I’m creating, I’m staying behind-the scenes, I’m trying to keep acting and directing separate as it was quite hard with Faulty Roots.

And Faulty Roots is your first short film isn’t it?

Yes that’s my first one – I shot it last December and finished it just before lockdown. It’s been playing at festivals so it’s been a good year. It’s interesting to see how much my life has changed since filmmaking

Faulty Roots screened at a BAFTA credited festival – it’s annoying because I’d love to visit all these festivals but at the same time, I feel lucky that they’ve been able to go ahead and the festivals have come up with a way to adapt and even reached more audiences this way by going virtual.

How long does the process usually take when creating a film from start to finish?

I wrote the script around July last year then put it off for a month then I looked into it again from the end of October and then finished it quite quickly. It can take quite a while but, without rushing it, I like to keep the process as fast as possible – maybe around 4-5 months, from actually working on it to finishing it

What made you decided to create short films?

At the start there was no way I could have made a feature film but now I’m in development for the feature version of Faulty Roots and you can see that short and feature length films aren’t really that different – obviously you need more finance but it’s really just prolonging the shoot

I decided to create another short film this year just because I wanted to get something out there and with the topic, I want this one to be around 6-10 minutes because people are more willing to watch it and it’s less of a commitment than a whole hour and a half film. I also find that to promote an important message short films are really powerful

Ella as Lola and Sani Thabo as Zack in the short film, Faulty Roots.

How did Faulty Roots get picked up for feature length?

I was getting a lot of reviews where people were saying that this topic needed to be heard and could be expanded upon and I said I’d love to do that so I wrote the feature length script. A producer reached out and said she’s really passionate about mental health and wanted to be involved with it so we went from there

When will that kick off?

We’re aiming for the beginning of next year and things are looking good at the moment!

So you’re next short film is Dreary Days, what’s that about?

As soon as I finished Faulty Roots I wanted to make something else, so this is a stop motion short film that is premiering this month at Animation Film Festival, this has definitely kept me busy during lockdown!

What was the animation like? Is this something new to you?

I’d never done animation before but stop-motion is good way to get into it; taking pictures and then I learned the computer animation. I learnt all of that during lockdown.

I’ve always loved animation, I’m a huge fan of kid’s films and Disney films. Stop-motion are some of my favourite films like Corpse Bride and Coraline, they’re such classics and such a piece of art they’re incredible.

So, what is Dreary Days actually about?

It’s quite gothic; it’s about a young girl who’s quite different to her family and you follow her and see how different she is to them. I think there’s something so interesting about the contrast of gothic that’s aimed at kids.

And then following that is Self-Charm?

That’s the one I’m shooting in December, we’re at a location in East London. It will be nice to get back out there instead of sitting behind my laptop, writing, producing and responding to emails.

Will it be different to Faulty Roots in terms of COVID restrictions?

Yeah we’ll be following all of the restrictions but I wrote this one last month and COVID has been going on for a while since then so I wrote a film that was quite easy to follow the guidelines

Is it a big cast and crew? Is it the same people as Faulty Roots?

It’s a different cast and crew – there’s 3 cast members, mainly focusing on a young girl as well. It’s quite different to Faulty Roots in which it’s about self-harm and whereas Faulty Roots mentioned a therapist but it was very much about the girl at home, Self-Charm will be at a therapists office. The characters are completely different as well.

There’s so many aspects of mental health that need to be focused on so that’s what I’m trying to do

And you’re a very big mental health advocate…

I’m an ambassador for Stem4 which is an incredible charity that do amazing work. I’ve struggled with my mental health since the age of 13 – it’s such a big part of my life and I’m glad that I’m doing something I love because of it, because of that struggle that I had

Mental illness is really under-represented in the media and also from the point of view of a young person. I think you watch a lot of TV shows and films that deal with mental illness and you can tell that it wasn’t written from a young person’s perspective so I’m trying to create something more generational to make it feel a bit more real

You own a company Broken Flames Production, can you tell us more?

I have no idea why I called it that! But it’s my company and we’re focusing on mental health based productions with the Faulty Roots feature and I’d really like to do an animated short on mental health too - we’ve got a few more projects lined up.

We were incorporated this year as a business and I’m looking forward to creating more projects with it.

Is creating films your primary focus at the moment, you don’t have anything else alongside it?

This is my full-time job; I’ve been so busy this year but I do love to be busy so I am really enjoying it!

To find out more about Ella’s work, click here: https://ellagreenwood.com/