Derek Elz

"Derek Elz is definitely a director worth watching. He's doing things with video imaging that I've never seen elsewhere."

                    – Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Film Critic

As a director, director of photography, writer, and editor, Derek Elz utilizes his talent and tenacity to create nimble projects that ring with startling visuals, teeming with authentic emotional spaces. Derek graduated from Webster University with a degree in film production, specializing in cinematography and script writing. He then moved to Los Angeles to pursue work in film and television. During his years in Los Angeles he worked continuously on feature films, television, music videos, and commercials. Elz honed his craft at Warner Brother Studios, CBS, and on programs for the Discovery Channel and Bravo, as well as many indie projects.

Since moving back to the midwest to be with family he has thrived as a freelance film maker. Elz has directed and shot five Indie feature films over the past 8 years. In 2008 Elz won Best Cinematographer at the St. Louis Film Critics Association for the feature Mosquito Kingdom. His feature Dictatorship of Taste is a cutting edge documentary on European iron curtain artists who exist beyond the "margin of the margin of culture." The documentary aired repeatedly on Hungarian National Television and other European and world territories. Elz has created over a dozen shorts and documentaries with world class artists like Maya Lin and Richard Serra for the Contemporary Art Museum - St. Louis. Elz' feature Just Shy of Being is an intriguing docu-fiction which he wrote, directed and was director of photography. Derek has worked on projects locally and nationally for clients like Google, Axe, ATT, Pepsi, BMW, Mini Cooper, Sprint, and many others. Elz has also collaborated with the NFL, directing a sport series starring Calvin Johnson and Matthew Stafford. Elz was also recently the director of photography on a children's television series. And he teaches film making at the university level. 

As a Director he is an emotional expressionist who is intent on running a set that is happy and creative. Among Elz' greatest talents is his keen visual style, one that is richly inventive and has the sensitivity of a painter's eye. Elz considers himself simply a film craftsman, one with a great work ethic who operates with an intense zeal to make each frame better than the last.

Derek's demo reel can be viewed below.