Hear our interview with La Mesa director Elisha Cecil, whose movie “Amber” is screening at San Diego Film Week Nov. 14

By Heidi Hope 

November 12, 2025 (La Mesa) - Elisha Cecil is a filmmaker, screenwriter and director from La Mesa. His films have been featured in many major film festivals, including Eyes of Shadow and Amber, a short horror film showing at the San Diego Film Week  on November 14. 

East County Magazine interviewed Cecil for our radio show, which aired on KNSJ 89.1 FM.  You can listen to the full audio here, or scroll down for highlights.

“I’ve always been into movies ever since I was a kid," Cecil said. "I also got really into writing because of my dad’s background in English Literature. From writing, the deeper you get into films, you start to realize you don’t have a lot of control over what you put on paper as a writer, so I had to learn to direct to see what I put on paper comes to the screen."

Cecil then shared his movie genres of interests, which are genre pieces, sci-fi, horror movies and some action movies from the '80s. He also has some additional directorial goals. 

“Just keep creating and continue making arts and entertaining people down the line somewhere.” Cecil said. 

Cecil is having another horror movie in the works and pending to be distributed and released, The Last Job. 

“I’ve always had a passing interest in horrors, which is kind of what The Last Job is. Horror is always my pick because it’s very easily produceable, especially when you don’t have any money working in film. It’s a great genre to start out in.” Cecil explained. 

Cecil also shared advice for the audience and any aspiring filmmaker, which is to never spend your own money to make a movie. 

“Don’t ever use your own money to finance your movies.” Cecil said. “Have a budget, have someone lending you the bill instead of your own bills.” 

Cecil then explained his vision for his current movies, Amber and The Last Job. 

“Amber is named after the amber alert, which goes off when someone goes missing. The Last Job sounds like a fun, snappy title to me. It’s still a crime film with colorful characters that are kind of shady but also fun to follow, and it is the last job that also happens in the movie, not just the title.” Cecil explained. 

As he goes on with his moviemaking pursuit, Cecil still has a burning desire for his career, which is to get noticed despite the struggling industry and gathering other talented actors together to create more movies like these together. 

Amber and The Last Job also had a distinctive casting process  focused on not only the actors, but also the respective character connection and development throughout the story. 

“For Amber, it was written with the idea of a character that wasn’t human trying to pretend to be human. We both have a friend who wasn’t really an actress, she talked a lot about how she’s from Brazil and she feels like a foreigner trying to be an American and hiding exactly who she was; so that was the empathy that fell into the character.” Cecil explained. 

“For The Last Job, it was written with the 2 friends in mind. They were both actresses that were not working because of the strike, and they were willing to work as long as they liked the script. They worked out together personality wise, one is serious and dramatic, one is silly and conveying comedy.” Cecil shared. 

Cecil still continuously writes and rewrites the script even while actively filming. 

“It’s kind of a gut feeling.” Cecil said. “I don’t think a script is ever really finished. The Last Job took weeks and weeks of rewrites because it was gonna be a feature. You come across things on set where you can’t get exactly what’s on the page, so you just gotta be good at changing and working with what you’re given.” 

Cecil also shared his distribution process, which is through YouTube and movie festivals, also people working at studio companies. He also dished on the funding process to keep the movies going. 

“Amber was out of pocket. The Last Job was through self-funding, which I don’t recommend, and Indiegogo to cover food for actors and an Airbnb for actors to have a place to stay, also crowdfunding.” Cecil said. 

Cecil has some ideas for the next movie to shoot in LA, something that’s bigger and less complicated than The Last Job. 

You can catch Amber on November 14 at San Diego Film Week for the horror block and get tickets on Cecil’s website, which is ececil95.wixsite.com/cecil95 .His Instagram pages are @tokiocopfilm and @elishacecildraws.