ELI (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
This article needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications.
Primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of the article are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources, or discuss the issue on the talk page.
This article has been tagged since November 2007.

ELI is an award-winning short science-fiction thriller starring David Anders (Alias, Heroes ). It debuted at the Newport Beach Film Festival in April 2007 and premiered in Los Angeles on the Universal Studios backlot. The film was directed and edited by Josh Lee Kwai, written by Tyler Erskine and Ron Beyers, and produced by Erskine, Beyers, Lee Kwai and Jeff Poppen as a filmmakers “calling card.” With a budget of $40,000, ELI was financed by the producers, donations from their friends and family and a grant from the LEF Foundation. Non-profit arts organization Fractured Atlas acted as fiscal sponsor allowing donors to make tax-deductible contributions. The film was shot on HD using a Sony F-900 donated by Panavision. Shooting lasted five and a half days in five different locations in the greater Los Angeles area including Irvine, Downey and Leo Carrillo State Park.

Contents

[edit] Plot

A patient awakens on an operating table with no idea where or even who he is. He leaps up and runs from the room, struggling to get his bearings. Eluding doctors and orderlies who try to re-sedate him, he stumbles downward through the eerie building of the Mirror Corporation. What is this place? Who is he? He notices a strange tattoo on his hand that reads: ELI. A single memory flashes before his eyes - a vision of a mysterious woman on a serene beach. She opens her mouth as if to speak...

Suddenly, doctors and security guards close in around ELI. He runs deeper into the MirrorCorp labyrinth, trying to get to the ground floor and a chance at freedom. But, when he rounds a corner and catches a glimpse of the woman from his memory, he sees a chance to find answers. Forsaking all else, he sneaks after her, desperate to uncover the truth about his identity however sinister the answers may be.

[edit] Awards

Winner: Best Horror/Suspense Film at the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival 2007.

[edit] Influences

ELI is reminiscent of both The Matrix and The Twilight Zone. Lee Kwai has also acknowledged Minority Report, 300, the Sci-Fi Channel TV series Battlestar Galactica and video games like Metal Gear Solid as major influences on the visual style of the film.

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • The producers were high school friends from the Portland, Oregon area. When they came up with the idea for ELI, the four of them shared a modest three-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles.
  • During production, the crew arrived at the hospital set to discover the hallway they were scheduled to shoot in that day had been painted bright orange and covered with homicidal phrases and bloody footprints for the music video for “Best of You” by the Foo Fighters.
  • The hospital set is the same location used for the first season of the TV show ER.
  • The title of the film was originally SLI but was changed shortly before production. The character SLI now has a cameo at the end of the film.
  • A toe-tag in the morgue scene is labeled LV-426, a reference to the small moon where humans encounter the hostile creatures in Alien and Aliens.
  • The warehouse at Downey Studios used for the final scene was next door to several sets used in Michael Bay’s The Island.
  • Production designer Rob Prior made the electric night sticks used by the security guards out of umbrellas.
  • Director of photography Nelson Cragg ended up shooting some of Boogeyman 2 in the same basement hallway used in ELI.

[edit] External links

[edit] Headline text