EliteProductions

Cai Williams

**EliteProductions** is a British film making group on YouTube. EliteProductions was founded by Will Evans and Rhys Griffiths in 2013.

They are mainly known for creating Minecraft films. Their most popular series being the Herobrine Origins film series started in 2014.

## Early history

The channel started in 2011 under the name HDSpiiDerzZ and was Will Evans' personal channel where he posted gaming videos. After deciding he wanted to create films using video games (machinimas) he started working with Rhys Griffiths to create machinimas, their first being a *Call of Duty Black Ops* film called *Zombie Hunters*. After releasing the film, they moved to Minecraft machinima, where they created *Herobrine* and its sequel *Herobrine 2: Return of Darkness* in 2013. After the release of the two Herobrine films, the two decided to turn the channel into a group channel and in 2013 they officially renamed the channel to EliteProductions. Sometime later Cai Williams joined as the team's technician.

## Machinima

#### *Herobrine Origins*

After watching the 2013 remake film *Carrie*, Evans, who was working on *Herobrine 3* at the time, thought it would be interesting to create a film based off the *Carrie* story, but with the popular Minecraft character Herobrine. After a few days of brainstorming, the plot for the film was found. EliteProductions then looked for a writer to write the film, then found Shea Winter on the Minecraft Forums. After a month of writing, they began filming which took roughly 2 months, then a month of editing.

The cast for the film was found on different forums. DaneDimension, who plays Steve Briggs was found on the Minecraft Forums, Paul Giannotta who plays Robert Briggs was found on YouTube. Marv Gatehouse was already casted for *Herobrine 3*, but after the film was cancelled, he joined the cast of *Herobrine Origins*.

After the film was released in April 12 2014, it blew up. It quickly became one of the most popular Minecraft machinimas of all time. Its popularity spawned 2 sequels with another in the works, it also spawned 3 spin offs. In 2016 EliteProductions announced the ORIGINS Universe, which is the shared universe for the Origins films.

## Other machinima

EliteProductions are also known for their horror short machinimas. The first released was *Room 209*, since then the team has released many other shorts, and in 2017 announced that their horror shorts are all a part of the same shared universe, *The EP Horror Universe*.

In 2015 EliteProductions announced that they were working on a *Grand Theft Auto 5* machinima called *The SuperTards*. It is the teams first feature length GTA 5 film and was release in October of 2017.

## Live action

EliteProductions released their first live action short film in 2014, called *Don't Look Back*. Evans has said he hates the film, as it was rushed. As time was constricted at the time due to school, filming schedules were tight. So Evans and Griffiths set a date to film. On the night of filming, it rained hard, got dark very quickly. The film's script, which was saved on a phone at the time, wouldnt load, so they had to improvise based off what they remember from the script. The camera they were going to use ran out of battery, so they had to use an iPhone.

In 2016 they announced another live action film, *WHEN THEY ARRIVE*. This time it was much more planned and scheduled. The script was written in two weeks. Filming started in the summer of 2016 over the course of two weeks. The team are very proud of the film, with it being their first "proper" attempt at a live action video. Evans and Griffiths have said that it isnt perfect and would like to change the second half of the film, as they think it was weak. A sequel to the film has been written and is planned to start filming late 2017.

Another live action project the team have announced is *Spider-Man*. The script for the film is written but a filming date has yet to be announced.

## Members

*EliteProductions* have had a few different people join and leave the team since starting in 2013.

In 2014 Cai left the team after Will and Rhys decided he wasnt needed for future plans (at the time they were planning to quit machinima). However he rejoined in 2016.

## EliteProductions Podcast

EliteProductions announced they would start a podcast in 2016. The podcast was named "The Update" and was planned to be streamed on Twitch weekly. However only one episode was filmed and the podcast was cancelled, with the team unhappy with the podcast.

A new podcast is set to begin in 2019, announced on the EP Discord. With Stratagem (EP Discord Mod) set to host the podcast.