Elena is a short character sketch exploring the complexity and sustainability of love as a choice through the lives of two student artists living in LA.

Anthony Frederick created a film that really carries us through with its shear simplicity. Elena is a character based film that explores the complexity and sustainability of love as a choice through different relationships.

Do you believe in perfection?

The story unfolds through a singular conversation between Elena and her boyfriend in the quiet of their bedroom. Throughout the film we are gradually introduced to various scenes of Elena’s life, all culminating in a decision that re-establishes the significance of the film’s opening question, “Why do you love me?”

With everyone constantly looking for a bigger picture and the next big special effect, it’s films like Elena that remind us that true beauty and cinematic comfort can be found through basic simplicities. Stripped down to essential writing and elegant character development , a well directed progression can make us forget about the big budget needs.

This film was an experiment in minimalist filmmaking. We produced and shot the film with a budget of less than $100 and a skeleton crew of about five people at any given time. The film was shot entirely with only 2 Canon T2i DSLRs and all natural light.