ELLIPSIS
Ellipsis awakens, abandoned and seeking answers in a hostile dystopian future.
A CLTV Production
Written & Directed by Greg Purcell
A CLTV production
Written & Directed by Greg Purcell.
"Ellipsis"
Starring: Ekaterina Rusnak, Caitriona Ni Threasaigh, Alice Stands, Conor Sheehan, Mark Logan, Jack O'Donoghue, with Jed Murray and Venetia Bowe
Casting by Mark Logan, Costume Design Sarah Heraughty, Editors Agata Przygodzka & Greg Purcell, Director of Photography Kenneth Adams, Executive Producer Mark Logan, Producers Georgia Kelly & Greg Purcell, Art Department Saoirse Daly McManus, Production Assistant Bettine McMahon & Esther Ayo James, Original Soundtrack Just Mustard, Sound Design Arron Faye Post Production, VFX Ross Ryder, Assistant Director Georgia Kelly, Colour Grade Patrick Corr
Director Statement
Ellipsis is the story of a fragmented humanity in a fragmented world. It is an attempt to understand our modernity through thematic distance - What does it mean to be 'Human' in a world dedicated to the erasure of humanity?
As an audience, we follow Ellipsis as they attempt to make sense of the world they have been collapsed into. This is a place where human beings have rejected their responsibility in favour of the creation of a techno-subjugated class.
The idea of fragmentation influenced a lot of the decisions that were made in the production and the pre-production: from the anamorphic dimensions of classic sci-fi, the motley costumes, language and techonology: analog elements of print media, CRT TVs and immutable architectural elements of rural and urban decay; these decisions were made to elevate the sense of temporal-displacement in the film. There was a real desire to present a world that was both recognisable - by the use of real and modern locations throughout Dublin city and its outskirts - whilst also maintaining a liminal, onieric sensitivity that the viewer could immerse themselves in.
This fragmentation also plays out in how Ellipsis experiences the world: they break from linear time in fits and starts, they move through time in a distorted, disassociative way that for me is representative of experiences of trauma, the distortions of modern existence and the demands it makes on the psyche. Particularly for those who are devalued and dehumanised under modern structures of value.
Audio plays a crucial role in the world of Ellipsis and was always front of mind during the writing of the script. I was incredibly excited to work with Just Mustard on the soundtrack, having worked together in the past I knew that they would fully understand the world of Ellipsis. What they produced is an essential part of the film, one that elevates the film entirely, particularly the thematic sense of longing for an imagined past and a lost future.
For me, Ellipsis is an attempt to reconcile the complexity of the modern world; of identity; of loneliness and the trauma of interconnection; of the perennial anxiety of hope in an hostile world.