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Eleanor Wells
184 Plays4 years ago
Eleanor Wells was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is a writer and filmmaker with an avid interest in history, art, fashion, and nature. She has written and directed two short films, Feature Presentation (2017) and Eagle Rock (2019), as well as writing the screenplay for The Harpist (2014). She lives in Milwaukee and loves Grace Kelly, Diana Rigg and Disney.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/about-a-girl-podcast-trailer-1094209/
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Transcript
Introduction
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing, creator and host Ken Vellante, editor and producer Peter Bauer. This is Ken Vellante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast and I have Eleanor Wells, director, podcaster, writer,
00:00:28
Speaker
other things, many other things. Eleanor, I just wanted to thank you for coming on to something rather than nothing. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, and I know we're reaching you from Wisconsin, a place I love and I'm very interested.
Early Influences and Storytelling
00:00:49
Speaker
in your projects and the things that you do. But first of all, I was wondering about a big conceptual question or origin story is, were you an artist when you were born? I'm sure. I don't know about when I was born, but I know some of my first memory is when I was very young, you know, about four years old. I always loved stories.
00:01:19
Speaker
you know, watching movies with my mom and my brother. I was very creative. So this one family used to babysit me and we would play dress up and I would watch, you know, Disney movies. And then I would when I was very young, I started writing my own stories. So I would say it's it's been in me for as long as I can remember. Yeah. And
00:01:43
Speaker
I'm gonna pick up on, you know, you saying stories. I mean, I love one of the things I love in my podcast is that we end up just talking about stories a lot. I mean, it's philosophy and art, you know, but it ends up being.
00:01:55
Speaker
um being about stories and you mentioned watching film i'm a film lover you make film you write film what what were you watching when you were younger that was like kind of sunk into your brain yeah um i mean there was a lot um but probably the biggest influence on me was disney um and at that time um i know i'm not that old but you know it was the the 90s Disney movies of the disney renaissance and then it was the original films that um
00:02:24
Speaker
were made during Walt Disney's lifetime. And I remember, gosh, I wanna say it was watching Peter Pan and when they're all flying to Neverland. And I remember having the thought that I want to do that. And I just, and of course there were other things too, I think, of all things, Pokemon was a huge influence on me, that original show.
00:02:54
Speaker
And then when I was a little bit older, maybe six or seven, I started getting into the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies and the original X-Men movies. And I just sort of built on the pop culture that I consumed as I got older. Yeah, yeah.
00:03:16
Speaker
And so we'll get into different aspects of the things you do and certainly with filmmaking.
Film 'Eagle Rock' and Inspirations
00:03:24
Speaker
And one of the things that kind of connects us and like how I think we end up talking besides me being very interested in your thoughts about art is I had Paige Henderson and Nicole Murray on the podcast as well, who are wonderful actresses. Yes.
00:03:44
Speaker
and in the film Eagle Rock. So I'll tell you, I really like their work and then I encountered your work and I love the story that's in Eagle Rock. And so I've been very interested in your project
00:04:04
Speaker
through contacting them and seeing all that. So can you tell us about your filmmaking just as far as with working on Eagle Rock in that story? Sure. So that my journey with Eagle Rock started about four years ago at this point. So this is 2017 and a series of events led me to become very interested in cults and particularly in the Manson family. And
00:04:32
Speaker
I wanted to understand what would cause somebody to become a part of a group like that. Because like I think many other people, I was like, oh, how can anybody fall for that kind of thing? And then the more I read, the more it made sense. And then I had this idea of the first girl, what that experience would have been like for her. Like how do we recognize a cult as a cult, you know, before it's had,
00:05:01
Speaker
a lot of the imagery or just the, um, the things that we associate with it. And that's really where my journey with Eagle Rock began. And then I realized I had a lot more story to tell. Um, so, you know, we did the short, I wrote a feature and then I wrote to, um, then I wrote two sequels to it too. So it's, um, at this point it's a three chapter overarching story about health, about three generations in
00:05:29
Speaker
this one family and how the actions of a cult in 1971 still, you know, reverberate 25 years later in 1986, and then 25 years after that, so in the present day of 2021. And those, every part of that story is really informed by the research that I did. And I just kept realizing that there was more story to tell and more story to tell. But I'm
00:05:56
Speaker
I'm pretty happy with it as a trilogy now and right now people have only seen a short film. But I hope it can be really a conversation starter and people can watch my work. And this is true of Eagle Rock and also everything I want to do in the future. My goal is for really the people to watch what I create and
00:06:21
Speaker
they maybe they go out to a bar to a restaurant or you know sit around a fire with their friends and say well what did you think about that and maybe they have different opinions about what you know a character's motivation was or what the meaning of a certain scene was but have them there and have them talking about it and recognizing these patterns in their own
00:06:43
Speaker
lives or even if it's not them, if it's people that they know. So that's really my goal.
Art and Humanity
00:06:53
Speaker
And I appreciate you saying that. And for me in response to that, it's like super timely because the first time in my life I'm like,
00:07:04
Speaker
or maybe a lot of Americans, it's like this right now, but to actively interact with cult members. Like I'm having conversations that are supposed to be, I don't know how to describe it, like regular conversing conversations. And all of a sudden I'm talking with somebody, I don't know, when something become a cult, while it's in the territory that you're talking about, it's somewhere percolating in there when it becomes it. So I think interrogating
00:07:29
Speaker
Like this is philosophy, right? Like interrogating truth or like what is the story that you believe in is like right now that conversation is deeply, it's deeply important to have that conversation. So, all right. So, Eleanor, you create, you create film, you've done podcasts, you're interested in art, you create art. What is art?
00:07:59
Speaker
Oh gosh. Art is, to me, I would say it's a reflection of how we view ourselves and it's something that is immortalized or that we immortalize a bit of ourselves in our time period that we live in because
00:08:25
Speaker
to quote to quote perks of being a wallflower like this moment will be another story someday like right now we're living in the present but 50 years from now this is going to be a time
00:08:38
Speaker
or 50 years from now, I should say even, you know, 100, 200 years from now. This will be a time that people study and they'll listen to our music and they'll watch our films, our TV, they'll read our books, our news, and they'll try to understand a little bit about us. And art is really something that I think it's a piece of ourselves
00:09:04
Speaker
that lasts forever. And through art, we can explore how humans are the same. William Shakespeare lived 400 years ago. And yet his work, it still speaks to something so truthful about being human. And that's why it still resonates today. And people still put on his plays. And that's one of the most compelling parts about art for me. Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:34
Speaker
I hear it going back to stories, right? Like what it is that, I don't know, universal is a troublesome term, but just like in the sense where it feels human, where it feels human, the story still. All right, well, thank you for that. Well, I ended up thinking about your answer to what is art. And that's part of my difficulty is to continue talking. I have another big question. It's a little bit connected to like kind of
00:10:03
Speaker
where you come from and what influences you. And the question is, who or what made you who you are?
Personal Growth and Identity
00:10:12
Speaker
Oh, God, I would say that I am a product of just, I don't know if this really answers your question, but just everything that I've experienced in life up until this point, I've had experiences in my life that have
00:10:32
Speaker
shaped me. I can look back to certain moments in my life and think, well, I'm never going to be the girl that I was before that thing happened. But what I can do is use my experiences in my life and try to be a better person, to be a more informed person, to
00:11:00
Speaker
help other people, you know, oftentimes I think, you know, back to certain, you know, moments in my life and think like, well, what would have happened if I had made a different decision here? And I've realized like, you know, nobody's, well, I mean, it's such a cliche, but it's true because nobody's perfect and you can't, you can't change the past, but you can, can move forward. And I think,
00:11:28
Speaker
I think everything happens for a reason. I don't know if that answers your question. No, no, no. I mean, it gets, it gets, it gets right at it. I, um, I was, I was wondering, uh, Eleanor, I was wondering about, um, the, uh, when you're doing a period piece and this was, this is what fascinates me about what you do. I often think of like,
00:11:54
Speaker
the late sixties or seventies. I was born in 72. So I'm like, I'm at this time where like that's a little before my time, but I'm like deeply interested in the social pieces that were going, going on there. When, what, how have you gone back, uh, to look at that period and to feel like you're getting, cause I watched Eagle and I love it cause I, there's details that I know you picked up on. Yeah.
00:12:20
Speaker
Show and how did you get how do you get that stuff from that time?
Research and Historical Accuracy
00:12:25
Speaker
I'm consuming everything I possibly could from that period and not just from you know, the isolated period of 68 to 71 but I
00:12:35
Speaker
stuff from the mid-50s when Alex, you know, would have been a child in growing up. And I guess I should say mid to late 50s, early 60s, talking a lot to my grandparents because they were alive in that time, asking them what they remember. But I watched shows, I read books, I watched movies, I looked into the news, just everything that I possibly could. And just really absorbing what it would have been like to be in that time.
00:13:05
Speaker
And I think that is what helped me. And, you know, there were some like modern day period pieces that I watched, you know, Mad Men as a show is just a huge, huge influence on me as a creative person. But even just random, you know, movies that were made in the sixties, because that art was, you know, that was a product of its time. And I think I've been able, even if I haven't been able to put my finger on it,
00:13:34
Speaker
Exactly. I've been able to gather something from every every piece of media that I consumed from that time Yeah, something like it comes down to like something like the vibe, you know Audio a lot of time is like what's what's what's the vibe? Right? Um, we talked about uh, I love your Response of what is our another question related to that though. I was wondering is What do you think the role of art is and is it different?
00:14:03
Speaker
now in our times 2021, what have you, than it has been? I think the role of art is for us to understand reality. And I don't know that it's ever been different in human existence. I think that's always been its role because
00:14:28
Speaker
You know, it's funny. So I don't know if we mentioned this when we were, I mentioned this when we were emailing. I'm in, I'm acting right now. So I'm in our town, which is a great, great show because it's, it was written in 1938 and it's about a memory of 1901 to 1913. And it's so interesting as we're going through rehearsals, like the fact that this is a memory of a pastime, but we're also portraying
00:14:58
Speaker
the 30s in 2021 and that it can still be relevant today is I think what gets at a lot of your question because there's some really beautiful monologues in the text about how the purpose of the show is to understand people who lived in the past. And I think that's so, so interesting. And it's one of the reasons
00:15:26
Speaker
I love the show and I think that it gets at a lot of, like I said, a lot of your question about the purpose of art and has it changed? And I would say that it has not. Yeah, yeah. I want to just ask a question. Sometimes in the show, I try to kind of check in with kind of like local art scenes. The show is like international. And so I like try to get a little bit of a vibe.
00:15:54
Speaker
going into Milwaukee, people always cringe when you mention Milwaukee as like in our town. There's that Milwaukee image in our head. And I've always found when I lived there and was around there, I found
00:16:07
Speaker
Milwaukee to be a vibrant art scene for me. I deeply adore the music, the metal, but also the formal arts and things like that. So what's your take on clunky Milwaukee in art?
Milwaukee Art Scene
00:16:22
Speaker
I think that there are a lot of really talented, really wonderful and passionate people here. And I've noticed that just from doing shows since I've been here. But I think it's something that I've always been aware of.
00:16:38
Speaker
Yeah, and I know one of the things I've talked about, even musically, the differences between Madison folk music and metal that you find in Milwaukee. One of the additional questions I have, and like a big one, and I'm gonna ask you a couple others, but one of the things that I've started to ask, Gess, is your thoughts on this.
00:17:09
Speaker
There's like, it seems like events are moving fast. I don't know, it's like pandemic, social upheaval and things like that. Analogous to the time, you know, that you're depicting in the film, the sixties into seventies. One of the questions I've been thinking about is how do we, how do you think we derive meaning or understand what's going on when times are like this?
Pandemic Reflections
00:17:37
Speaker
That's a great question. You know, it's funny because I remember, I remember when like the lockdowns first started. That was like March, 2020. I had, I had planned previously planned a trip to Colorado to see a part of my family and shit hit the fan when I was there.
00:18:03
Speaker
Um, so I was already there and I remember just everybody was really scared because we didn't know what was going on at the time and how things were going to end up. And I didn't know if I was going to go back to my job ever. And I just remember thinking as I was in the car with my family and. Wait, like, even if I never go back to my job, even if this all goes horribly, horribly wrong, I'm with.
00:18:34
Speaker
the people that I love and that matter to me. And I think, I think not that work isn't important, not that, you know, all of our social obligations, not that those aren't important, but I really think we derive meaning from our, not only our passions and what we're good at,
00:19:01
Speaker
but the people around us, the people that we love, the impact that we make on others. And that was just a really almost like an epiphany I had when I was there. Not that I wasn't aware of it before, but I really think
00:19:21
Speaker
the people that we love and our vocations in life. For some people that can be their career paths, maybe somebody's a doctor and they're passionate about saving people's lives and they're really good at it. Or maybe somebody else's calling in life is to be a mother and to take care of her children. I mean, it's different for all of us, but
00:19:47
Speaker
It's all valid and it's all important to that person, as long as that's where they really want to be. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that. Now, one of the things I wanted to ask you is you've done some podcast work, Joe, about a girl.
Storytelling in 'About a Girl'
00:20:10
Speaker
And I wanted to ask you about your storytelling through audio and just using the podcasts for Medium. I listen to those stories, and it's about a male artist figure and the women in their relationship and how they were submerged back behind.
00:20:40
Speaker
What I wanted to ask about your storytelling, because I love those stories and you're a visual storyteller as well with video. When you're going into telling that story with podcasting and the sound and such like that, do you feel it as a really distinct project or way of telling a story or is it not as different as I'm thinking?
00:20:58
Speaker
Well, the medium was definitely distinct and I'm getting used to the medium. I definitely think was a challenge and one that I found very, very rewarding. But at the end of the day, it was a story, like any other story that I was telling. And that was just such a wonderful experience because it was something that I was passionate about. And this could be a story for a whole other podcast. But I tend to get a little bit frustrated with
00:21:29
Speaker
certain media makers in today's day and age who say the only way for a female character to be strong is if she wheels a gun and goes to fight with the boys or whatever. And that can be great if it's done well, but there's also a lot of validity to being in love and loving someone and something. And that is powerful in its own way.
00:21:58
Speaker
And I wanted to honor that and I wanted to honor those women who I feel like haven't really gotten their due. And I was just so, so grateful to Jake Brennan and Brady Sadler of Double Elvis for just giving me a chance and believing in me. And I'm so happy to see that it's, you know,
00:22:20
Speaker
Brung off into a life of its own. Um, and the other person I have to shout out is uh scott janovitz who did the music and a lot of the um That he did the sound effects and such for it and just I i'm so so grateful to those guys for Giving me a platform. Um and that I think a lot of people have resonated with Well, it's it's fantastic work. Eleanor and distinct distinct works of art and the subject matter for me is um
00:22:47
Speaker
deeply fascinated with because it's so astounding once you see and go back into the female artists and those who are around what they were doing and what stories, right? Back to the story. What story hasn't been told there. So I want to ask the big question to make sure they put it out there and have it out there, which is the
00:23:16
Speaker
Why is there something rather than nothing? Well, to go back to our town for a minute, there's a great monologue at the very end of the show that the stage manager gives and he
00:23:41
Speaker
he or she in our production we have two. So I guess the stage manager as a character muses about how earth may be the only place in the universe where there's life. And I don't have any strong feelings either way. My sort of belief on that is I wouldn't be surprised either way.
00:24:08
Speaker
Um, whether that they're, you know, earth was the only place where there was life or earth wasn't the only place.
Search for Meaning and Contribution
00:24:14
Speaker
Um, but I think, I don't know if I can give a concrete answer to that question, but what matters is that we are here and we shouldn't take that for granted because every life has value. Um,
00:24:37
Speaker
And we all have something to contribute to the world and a legacy to leave behind after we're gone. And I think that's, that's very powerful. I think the answer to your question is that we have to, we have to search for our meaning. Yeah. If that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, I feel that, um,
00:25:04
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. Oh, man. Thank you so much. So one of the one of the things I wanted to one of the things I wanted to ask you about, and maybe a quick answer, if you feel so.
00:25:20
Speaker
on those stories in the place of about a girl and women who are supportive male artists, the industries, how's it feel now? I mean, are those stories just, are those stories abound now or do you see
00:25:37
Speaker
Like, are times different for, you know, women creators in that situation in a patriarchy? I mean, does it feel different? I think it does to a degree. I think it's not perfect, but I will say that we've come a long way from, you know, the sixties where somebody like Jane Asher can be this really wonderful actress.
00:26:06
Speaker
with a really solid career, but only be known as Paul McCartney's girlfriend. I think we've come a long way from someone like a Peggy Lipton having to give up her career to be married and have kids at the request of her husband. Obviously there was a lot more to that story, but that was an aspect of it. And I think,
00:26:34
Speaker
Part of the reason, one of the reasons it's called About a Girl, not just because the title fits, but as a tribute to Kurt Cobain and I think a lot of the ways he was very progressive and you hear him talk about how women and people of color and other marginalized people are treated and I'm like, I'm listening to him talk and this is 80s, 90s and he was a really cool,
00:27:02
Speaker
And I think things definitely had to change to make way for somebody like him and all the people that have come since. And, you know, obviously we did the episode, which was one of my favorites to do about Kidata Jones and Tupac Shakur. And that was the most recent one we did in the first season. I guess to answer your question, I think things have changed.
00:27:32
Speaker
in a good way, but I don't think the issues have really fully gone away because sometimes you still hear people, unfortunately, talking about these women just in terms of how they relate to men. And I wanted to give them a little bit more of their own identity. And I hope my podcast is helpful in that regard. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks. Thanks. Thanks for mentioning that. I was wondering about your
Film Company and Disney Inspiration
00:28:02
Speaker
film company, which I understand to be named Cinderella Pictures. What's the story behind Cinderella? Yes. So as I mentioned Disney earlier and Peter Pan, but the other movie that was really influential to me and I always liked it as a kid, but it's a movie that's grown more and more in importance for me as I've gotten older is Walt Disney Cinderella. And I love the story.
00:28:31
Speaker
And I love the character. And to me, I find Walt Disney's version to be the definitive telling. But I think a lot of it came from this narrative that, oh, she just sits around and waits for a prince, which is not what that story is about at all. It's a story about a girl trapped in a bad situation who
00:28:59
Speaker
by virtue of being a good person gets the life that she deserves. And I think that there is something very powerful about that. It's certainly something that I have connected to in the past and during more challenging times in my daily life and to how I feel then to how I feel when I get to be either on a film set, on stage, writing, sharing my art with people. It very much feels like Cinderella and I remember
00:29:29
Speaker
the first time I was ever on a film set, I got to go be on set that day. And then I had to, because I was still in high school, so I had to go home, get up and go to school the next day. And then I remember saying something to the effect of like, oh, I just, I feel like Cinderella at the ball. And I think movies can have that power. And I think I,
00:29:56
Speaker
Not only do I get to live my dream, but I hope that through the work I make, I can make the dreams of lots of other people come true. And of course, I'm, I'm very, I'm very sensitive to what's going on with IOT right now. And I'm in full support of what they're doing. And it's very important to me as a creator to create a healthy environment on site.
00:30:24
Speaker
And I guess the other thing I should add is the feminine aspect of things. I want to tell stories that are, again, divergent away from what mainstream, a lot of mainstream Hollywood tries to say is a strong female character. I want to see more types of women. And I think, you know, men are great.
00:30:54
Speaker
Um, there's lots of good men out there. Um, there's lots of great stories that have been made with male lead characters. And one thing I think those, a lot of those stories resonate is they're, they're written in a universal way. I love Luke Skywalker. I, Luke Skywalker is a character that anyone can relate to. It doesn't matter who you are.
00:31:16
Speaker
And I want to be able to create some of that for female lead characters because that's my experience. And I want, I think in a lot of ways, of course, there's so many aspects of the human experience that are universal. And I think the more that our culture, our society can see that from different lenses, the better off we'll be. And that's part of my goal with the company as well.
00:31:44
Speaker
Yeah, I really appreciate that. You know, obviously a great name. So I really like, I really like you kind of filling in like, you know, the thinking that is, you know, that is behind that. And, you know, I think with, you know, the
00:32:01
Speaker
the talented women that you work with as well, of course, you know, with Paige in the lead of Eagle Rock, having somebody help you tell those stories and get out that piece, I mean, it's just, it's noticeable and it speaks for itself. So thank you for letting us know more about
00:32:27
Speaker
Cinderella pictures. All right. So, Eleanor, I want you to be able to, however you feel like, kind of like let listeners know and be able to connect to like what you're working on or how they can or where to look for it.
Where to Find Eleanor's Work
00:32:46
Speaker
Well, Eagle Rock is available to stream on Amazon with an IndiePix unlimited subscription. You can get like a free trial, I think for a week, or you can purchase or rent the film. I think it's like a dollar to rent and like five bucks to purchase. You can listen to About a Girl wherever you get your podcasts. Of course, on the off chance anyone's in,
00:33:13
Speaker
Wisconsin. My show, Our Town, opens next week. Well, I'm not sure when this is going to air, but it runs October 8th through the 10th and October 15th through the 17th. And follow me on Instagram. I'm at ebrinw and Eagle Rock movie for news about the film. And I really hope that I can have a fruitful and productive
00:33:40
Speaker
2022 of making content that is important to me and that matters. Yeah. Well, it, it, well, I mean, it definitely does. And I, I, I like, um, like for me as like my receiving at some of my, uh, areas that I'm interested in, in, in, in the work that you develop, um,
00:34:02
Speaker
I really enjoy it and I really appreciate your efforts in doing it. I wanted to ask one question, it's kind of like a separate little hanging question too, is I know you've worked on
00:34:16
Speaker
you know, you've done screenplays and such. I haven't asked the question of folks who write in that manner, how different is it as far as creating something, creating a piece that's in that format, a screenplay format, what's that like? Like different as opposed to like writing a novel? Yeah, I mean, just like different in the sense of where you're trying to bring in like maybe the sensory aspects and the dialogue and just like,
00:34:46
Speaker
Just creating that to give that its vibrancy. I guess just having a really clear vision in my head of what I want the story to be and making sure that that comes across. Like it's definitely different. You know, in a way I find novels more challenging than screenplays because you have to paint a complete picture.
00:35:10
Speaker
for the audience. And with film, you can just kind of show everything. And when I imagine the stories that I'm writing, it's a very vivid picture, I think of sounds, including music, ambient noise, smells, looks,
00:35:29
Speaker
And I just find it easier sometimes to suggest a lot of that or what, you know, what the characters are wearing. And then in novels, you just have to be so, so thorough. Um, and in, in screenplays, you definitely have to be more concise. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for that. I've been trying to, um, like I'm dabbling myself and like,
00:35:49
Speaker
I find like different ways of creating. Like I see my brain trying to adapt to how to get the story out. So like my brain thinks like that. And it's just, I always kind of just think of a different way to depict prior to being shown. Absolutely. The other thing I forgot to mention is during the pandemic,
00:36:14
Speaker
or when we were, you know, locked down and couldn't do anything. I did a couple of stage readings of some of my scripts. So I did the one I loved, which is the first sequel to Eagle Rock. And then I did The Good Life, which is the second one. And then I also did a stage reading of a pilot that I wrote for an unrelated series that I think is kind of be my next project once I get a couple of these films in the cans. So
00:36:42
Speaker
if people could, you know, wanted to take some time to watch them and there was just some great work and I had some very talented people involved and, you know, just kind of a fun little way to watch things. And their own motion pictures is YouTube channel. Oh, great. And subscribe and I'll be putting content up there as well, just in the future.
00:37:07
Speaker
Wonderful. Thank you so much for that. And the thing is, not only are you talented, but the projects I've seen you work on are inhabited by other talented people. So that goes a long way in creating some nice art. Eleanor, it's been so great to meet you and to learn about your creativity and your thoughts on art and creativity.
00:37:36
Speaker
I just want to thank you for making the things that you make because I really enjoy them and for spending the time to like get into your head a little bit and learn about, you know, how you do your stuff. So I really wanted to thank you deeply. Yeah. Yeah, it was. Yeah. Thanks again for having me and hope to put more out into the world very soon. Thanks so much, Eleanor.
00:38:08
Speaker
This is something rather than nothing.