Behind The Scenes With Guillermo Del Toro
Filmed behind-the-scenes on Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio, primarily capturing Guillermo working with Ewan McGregor and Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things).
The end result — "Guillermo Del Toro's Pinnochio: Handcarved Cinema" — was released on Netflix in 2022.
WATCH: Guillermo Del Toro's Pinnochio: Handcarved Cinema (Trailer)
Dr. Strange And The Multiverse Of Madness (Marvel)
An hour-long behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of Dr. Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. Released by Marvel in 2022.
Writer: Steve Elkins
Edited By: Charlie Visnic, Nathan Aceves, and Steve Elkins
WATCH: The Making of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness (Trailer)
Behind The Scenes With Martin Scorsese
Recruited as behind-the-scenes cinematographer on Martin Scorsese's film "Silence" during production in Taiwan, which unfortunately interfered with directing "Echoes Of The Invisible" in Ethiopia. In the end, worked for Marty editing promos of the film for Paramount Pictures in 2015.
WATCH: Promos For Martin Scorsese's "Silence" (2015)
Edited by Steve Elkins for Paramount Pictures.
Michelle Obama's "Waffles + Mochi" (Netflix)
Served as behind-the-scenes cinematographer on Michelle Obama’s puppet cooking show from 2021 - 2022. From indigenous kitchens, to bakeries in Beverly Hills, to farming collectives in Compton, one never knows where each episode will take you. Set for release in 2023.
Star Wars At NASA
Filmed official promos for Star Wars in March 2016. Captured BB-8’s visit to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to meet the real robots JPL is building to send to Mars and ice caves on the moons of other planets. With a little help from MTV's Amy Pham.
WATCH: BB-8 Meets The Robots Of NASA
Filmed by Steve Elkins and Charlie Visnic.
Sensel Artists
Below is a compilation of videos produced while working as videographer for Sensel (2017 - 2019), a Silicon Valley company that invented a rare touchpad technology that expands the possibilities of what artists, hackers, robotics developers, musicians, lighting designers, and gamers can do. Known as the Sensel Morph, it is designed to be customized for purposes its inventors never conceived, so the job involved documenting how a wide variety of creatives had reimagined this pioneering technology.
Madame Gandhi + Drum & Lace
Artists featured in the videos include M.I.A. drummer and activist Madame Gandhi, Henry Strange (music director and programmer for Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Drake, A$AP Rocky), and hip hop composer Jae Deal whose collaborators include Janet Jackson, Lady Gaga, Snoop Dogg, Diddy, and George Clinton.
WATCH: The Sensel Morph
Some videos above were shot and edited by Steve Elkins.
The rest were shot by Pete Nyboer and edited by Steve Elkins.
The Silly Symphonies Collection (Walt Disney Records)
Produced and directed a short film for Disney in 2015 on the history of Disney's Silly Symphony cartoons (1929 - 1939), which not only trailblazed new animation techniques, but broke new ground for music. Composers such as Carl W. Stalling and Frank Churchill pioneered some of the earliest and most radical attempts to wed classical, jazz, folk, and experimental music. The Silly Symphonies were the first animations to be created around music, rather than the other way around, paving the way for later milestone innovations such as Fantasia.
Disney launched the film in 2015 in anticipation of a first-of-its-kind limited edition box set release from Walt Disney Records featuring the complete restored soundtracks from all 75 Silly Symphony on 16 vinyl LPs. This was an incredible opportunity to sit down with legendary Disney animators, historians, and restoration engineers, and explore the Disney Archives to document this incredibly innovative decade in early sound cinema.
Filming At The Walt Disney Archive (Burbank, California)
Working on The Silly Symphonies Collection film at the Walt Disney Archives, with Dave Bossert (visual effects animator on "The Black Cauldron," "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" + co-producer of Disney's collaboration with Salvador Dali), Disney restoration producer Randy Thornton, and historians JB Kaufman and Russell Merritt (bookended in the photo above by executive producers Neil Schield and Jesse Obstbaum).
Behind The Scenes On Disney's "Mufasa: The Lion King"
Served as behind-the-scenes cinematographer on the making of Disney's "Musfasa: The Lion King," primarily capturing Academy Award-winning director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) working with actors and new VR technology.
Produced interviews with lead cast and crew, including an especially memorable conversation with legendary production designer Mark Friedberg (Joker, The Life Aquatic, Coffee And Cigarettes, The Whale), whose work for Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmusch, Darren Aronofsky, Charlie Kaufman, Mira Nair, and Ang Lee has long been an inspiration.
Set for release in 2024.
Behind The Scenes With Robert Zemeckis
Directed and filmed Blu-ray bonus features of Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future, Forest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) at work on various projects at his studio in Carpenteria.
Released in 2021.
WATCH: Moana Easter Eggs + Beauty And The Beast
Edited by Steve Elkins for Disney Blu-ray bonus features.
Disney's "Launchpad"
Produced and directed behind-the scenes documentaries for the second season of Launchpad (Disney+), a collection of short films from a new generation of filmmakers of underrepresented backgrounds, such as Aqsa Altaf (pictured above, right) who was raised in Kuwait. Interviewed main cast and filmmakers during production of each short.
Set for release in 2023.
Netflix
2022 was a very full year working with Netflix, filming behind the scenes with talent from a wide variety of their shows, including rapper Redman, Saturday Night Live's Beck Bennett, Wayne Brady (Who's Line Is It Anyway?), blind actress Malaika Mitchell, Karissa Valencia (showrunner for the first all-native American animated show "Spirit Rangers"), and many more.