We fell in love the moment we met Ellen, a strong female director whose work centers on empowering the underdog through comedic and emotional storytelling. Ellen is smart, authentic, vulnerable, and funny, and she is incredibly talented across multiple genres, including comedy, drama, and commercial. Her work has been honored by The Emmys, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The Clios, The AICPs, Cannes Lions, The One Club and Shoot Magazine; and has been profiled by Upworthy, Elizabeth Banks’ WhoHaHa and The Huffington Post. Additionally, Ellen is now recognized as a Free The Bid director, a platform dedicating to promoting female filmmakers. We’d like to take a moment to showcase some of her amazing branded content video production work, from funny to emotional to dramatic.
Viral Commercial Video Production for Tequila Avion
As a student in the film department at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, Ellen directed this hilarious ad that won her $10,000 in a viral video contest sponsored by Avion Tequila. Avion used her viral video, starring Phillip Chorba (Silver Linings Playbook, Louie, The Knick), online and on TV. The comedic video was written up in Backstage.com, Huffington Post Comedy, and Man Cave Daily. Icing on the cake for Ellen was this quote from Avion Tequila’s CEO, Ken Austin:
“TAXMAN is a true viral video that elicited instinctive laughter and prompted viewers to re-watch to believe what they’ve just seen.” — Ken Austin, CEO and Founder, Avion Tequila
Clio-Nominated Branded Content Short Documentary Video Production
Awards and honors include: Winner, Gold ADDY Award; Winner, 1st Jury Prize in the Audience Awards’ Documentary Film Festival; Nominated at The Clio Sports Awards; Screened at Cannes Film Festival American Pavilion Showcase; Screened at The One Club for Creativity’s One Screen Film Festival and The Young Ones Awards Show; LA Shorts Film Festival | Oscar-qualifying Film Festival; Audience Awards Documentary Shorts Film Festival | 1st Place Jury Prize; Featured on Upworthy.com.
Ellen directed this branded documentary short film about Jessica Clark, a two-time USAC Ford Focus national race car driving champion dreaming of making it in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series one day. Ellen was inspired by Jessica’s story after meeting her in a yoga class in Los Angeles. Ellen and a small video production crew went to Ventura Raceway and documented a day in the life of Jessica at the races directing real people live on a competitive race day with few takes and in the middle of the action quite literally from inside the racetrack. They installed GoPros inside and outside of her race car, filmed from inside the track and above the stadium, and conducted several interviews with Jessica throughout the day and filmed her preparing for her race and interacting with her fans, as well as interviewing her biggest champion, her dad, and her car owner/sponsor Larry.
Jessica’s story has moved Ellen to tears more than once as she realized everything she’d been wanting to say was said aloud in Jessica’s triumphantly powerful speech. Perhaps it took the old familiar yoga mantra, “The spirit in me honors the spirit in you,” to find Ellen’s own spirit reflected back. Admiring the strength in Jessica has renewed her faith in my instincts, voice and conviction. We loved the video’s inspiring message to and about women, and the fact that you could slap NASCAR, Jiffy Lube, Pennzoil, or a myriad of other logos at the end and make it a branded video production.
Emmy Award Winning PSA Video Production
Ellen directed this Emmy-winning PSA starring Todd Glass (Louie, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Last Comic Standing) to take on the suicide epidemic in the LGBTQ teen community for GLSEN: The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network’s Think Before You Speak campaign. In the video, a prejudiced father has a change of heart after his teenage son commits suicide and encourages others to think before they speak.
If you’re interested in working with Ellen on your next video production, contact info@ezraproduction.com.