END Films: Handmade Movies For The Digital Age
Established in 2007, END Films is a full-service production company dedicated to distinctive documentaries for film, television and web-based media. We also produce Electronic Press Kits and unique bonus content for DVD releases of classic, contemporary and cult films—with the latter being our exclusive specialty.
Elijah Drenner
Producer/Director/Editor
Born and raised in the Midwest, END Films founder Elijah Drenner discovered in cinema an escapism that has since gone unmatched. Raised on a steady diet of movies that—perhaps—his parents should not have let him watch, Drenner has defied High School Guidance Counselor predictions to go on and actually establish a career. During his college days in Minneapolis, Drenner took work—unpaid—on an ambitious, no-budget, sci-fi spaghetti western called PLANETFALL. The every-other-weekend job would last the next four years, beginning in 2001 with Drenner working his way up from sound recordist to supporting actor. The film was released on DVD by Heretic Films in February of 2007. Some viewers got it, some didn’t, but the tight-knit crew and DIY approach to storytelling stuck with the young filmmaker after he moved to Los Angeles in 2005.
Upon his arrival, Drenner convinced friend and mentor Jack Hill (director, COFFY, SWITCHBLADE SISTERS) to allow him the chance to make a documentary on Hill’s first film, SPIDER BABY. Hill knocked around the idea for a while and discovered that he could re-license the film with a new and improved High-Def transfer, and include the proposed documentary on the DVD. Drenner explains:
“THE HATCHING OF SPIDER BABY documentary emerged from my proposed project on Jack’s entire life and career, but I faced that daunting fact that all young filmmakers face when trying to convince investors: I was a filmmaker they did not know, trying to make a movie about a filmmaker they did not know. My efforts bordered on futile.”
Fortunately, the "HATCHING" gig worked out, and Drenner has since continued his work on DVD supplemental projects—with a penchant for offbeat and otherwise non-categorical films.
In 2008, END Films has a most ambitious slate of projects, including an onslaught of DVD material, a feature-length documentary and Drenner’s own involvement as Associate Producer on the upcoming remake of the film that started it all—SPIDER BABY.
Dan Greene
Videographer/Editor/Animator/Graphic Designer/Webmaster
Another Midwesterner, Dan Greene was farm-raised in rural Wisconsin, trained in the deadly art of guerilla filmmaking in Minneapolis, and now calls the greater L.A. area home.
After a two-year position as Editor and Associate Producer with Transcendental Media, Greene decided to return to the freelance world, giving him more time to focus on his own projects and work closely with longtime friend and collaborator Elijah Drenner.
Working for END Films has opened Greene's eyes to an endless cache of hidden cinematic gems — which he likely never would have seen, if not for Drenner's enthusiasm for such obscure yet noteworthy titles as SPIDER BABY.
More importantly than just seeing these films, Greene has had the opportunity to meet some of the creative minds behind them and learn about their struggles and triumphs first-hand. These interview sessions have proven more valuable and entertaining than anything film school had to offer.
In addition to the full slate of projects on END Films' plate in 2008, Greene is putting most of his time and energy into his screenwriting, in the hopes of one day joining the proud ranks of the low-budget auteurs he has come to love.