“I am interested in the eccentrics that are often in plain sight,” says Lyn Elliot, filmmaker and professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “So often there are people and objects that are part of our daily landscapes and daily lives that have something unusual, strange, or absurd about them, but we don’t stop to notice it.”
With short films, Elliot has discovered a means to share these treasures. In her latest short film, A Good Match, she explores what happens when a couple breaks up, but the young woman, portrayed by local actress Liz Golson, in the relationship still wants to be around her ex-boyfriend’s mother. Actress Nancy Marcy who plays the ex-boyfriend’s mother sees a hopeful message.
“What I wanted to do was take a character getting out of that narcissistic stage and realizing she is not going to be 25 forever. Instead, she starts noticing older women who have something to offer rather than simply being someone’s mom,” Elliot says. “This young woman realizes that she has found a woman who is satisfied with her life and could learn from her. Unfortunately, that can be tough when other relationships change. The joy is the connection the younger woman Ann has to Carol as the audience can see Carol as a person who is well-rounded. She’s a teacher, a church choir member and a friend.”
Elliot’s favorite scene comes in the park as the two women are sharing a walk and a conversation. “Ann asks Carol about how she decided on marriage. Carol says her life was good before marriage as a young woman starting off on a career. Hopefully the feeling conveyed
is that happiness does not hinge on being married, but that happiness comes from all sorts of positive connections made in life,” she says.
For Elliot, this short film marks her first film in Kansas City. She had almost the entire cast and crew from Kansas City. “I moved here almost two years ago for the job and found lots of outlets for my art.” She found the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City. A call for short films that might be featured at the annual arts luncheon spurred her to submit Another Dress, Another Button. The charming short stop-motion animation film drew attention earlier this year at the luncheon. The short can be seen at her website, www.lynelliot.com.
Another Dress, Another Button looks at the charming lives of spare buttons. “I wanted to give these forever-waiting buttons some activity.” Three women also share brief narratives about why they keep the buttons and what they mean. The film received awards at the Black Maria Film and Video Festival; James River Shorts; Humboldt Film Festival; and Kansas City FilmFest. There were also selected screenings at Maryland Film Festival, Florida Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and 2012 Black Maria Film and Video Festival Tour.
“I also applied for an Inspiration Grant through the Arts Council. I used the funds for sound mixing, color correction and final touches to A Good Match.” The short film should make its way around film festivals. “I also plan to enter it into some of the regional festivals such as Tallgrass and the Kansas City Film Festival. The curated festivals are tough, but if you make it, you know your film had the right qualities. As a filmmaker, you start creating a positive reputation. That can help with future collaborations and future funding opportunities. For some, the creation of short films means you might think about a full-length feature. I don’t know if directing a feature is in my future, but I would like to write one.”
She also met some of the actors and other artists at the Artist INC program. This program focuses on coaching teaching artists in business skills such as marketing, finance, grant writing and more. Artist INC is taught by artists for artists and is appropriate for generative artists of all disciplines. Visual artists, musicians, film makers, dancers, performers, and writers come together for intensive work on the components of a viable and sustainable arts practice. “I got involved quickly when I moved to town. It has been such an inviting community,” she says. “I also joined the Kansas City Women in Film and Television and the Independent Film Coalition.”
Elliot grew up in Wellesley, Mass. Initially she jumped into English as a major. She read voraciously and wrote short stories. Then the filmmaking bug bit. She took a screenwriting class and then a video production class. After growing up and attending undergraduate school out east, she moved to the University of Iowa for graduate school. While working on her English degree, she started taking film production classes. She was treated basically as an individual working artist. “I suppose another way to say, I learned to value short-form filmmaking as an end in itself,” she says.
Because of her background with literature, Elliot starts with a script. “I have loved short stories since I was a kid. I have written many since my youth. None are published, but I see the start of the story that way. Sure I took screenwriting in college, but I look at describing the images first and foremost. Then I aim to surround myself with actors and crew with good visual imaginations.”
She taught undergraduate film and video at Penn State and since 2011, she has been a film and media arts professor in the communication studies department at UMKC. Elliot describes herself as an academic filmmaker. “I am fortunate to be in a university setting. I identify being an educator. I like to teach. I have been working on films for 15 years and I have evolved. I teach them about the skills that work for me, but I want them to make their own mistakes.”
Inspiration still comes from books and the little things around her that are often overlooked by others, Elliot says. “I still aim for the humor in life. I may think about examining something important, but it might be in the context of the little moments.”
Elliot’s next project will be a short animation in collaboration with co-director Nina Frenkel. “We are even creating a Kickstarter for the month of July that will help us employ some animators here.” The short animated film is called I Was a Teenage Girl, Apparently. “A found diary leads a grown woman to journey back in time to talk some sense into her former teenage self. It should be fun,” she says.
