Mara Ellison
Founder & Creative Director
Started in documentary, still thinks like a documentarian: find the true thing, then light it. Directs most of the studio's original work.
The studio
Survivors Production started in 2017 as two people, one camera, and a stubborn belief that commercial work deserves the same care as cinema. The first office was a converted darkroom; the first client found us because a wedding film went unreasonably viral. We kept the darkroom instinct — work the image until it’s true — and lost the weddings.
Today we’re a crew of eight in the Arts District, with a stage, an edit floor, a calibrated grade suite, and a sound room next door — so a film never leaves the building between the first treatment and the final master. We shoot commercials, documentaries, music videos and corporate films, and once a year we make something of our own to stay honest.
The name is a promise, not a boast. Most films don’t survive — briefs get diluted, edits get made by committee, campaigns vanish in a week. We build the kind that make it through: prepared to the frame, shot with nerve, and cut until only the true thing is left.
The crew
Founder & Creative Director
Started in documentary, still thinks like a documentarian: find the true thing, then light it. Directs most of the studio's original work.
Executive Producer
Fifteen years of making impossible schedules quietly possible. Keeps the budgets honest and the coffee strong.
Director of Photography
Shoots with one light whenever she can get away with it. Aurora Award winner for Hinterland; will trade anything for golden hour.
Senior Editor
Believes every film is remade in the cut. Fluent in rhythm, ruthless with darlings, allergic to montages set to uplifting whistling.
Head of Color
Runs the grade suite like a darkroom. Ten years of features and spots; can spot an over-cooked LUT from across the room.
Sound Designer & Composer
Records everything — factories, lighthouses, furnaces — and builds scores out of the places we shoot. Mixes in the room next to the grade.
Producer
Ran three coastal locations in five days without losing a single call sheet. The reason clients come back.
Director, Motion & Titles
Directs music videos and builds the studio's title sequences. Thinks type should move like it was shot, not animated.
Awards & press
Roll camera