Everything in Between: The Story of Ellipse

Imogen Heap made this film for her fans to be able to be a part of her mad method of album production. She explains how the DVD came about - "It all started with a fan sending in a request, asking if I could make a video diary when on my writing trip around the pacific. So, I took it with me as my only companion and spoke daily into the camera.” Her intelligence, creativity and eccentricity make this a joy to watch and I was so impressed with not only all the above qualities but her technical ability to do it all on her own.


This film begins with Imogen (Immi to her fans) head in her hands at a mixing desk struggling to reach her deadline for mastering. She wants nothing but perfection. We are then taken back two years and three months to her journey across the pacific where she wrote the bulk of her album, Ellipse, and then to her old family home where she builds her own studio and starts recording. Her music, played along to the movie, is masterful and beautiful and a fine accompaniment to this quirky documentary.

We are shown clips of her travels, her family, friends and manager's view on her creativity and music career that gives the viewer an interesting peak into her background and life growing up. With the studio being in her old family house we are taken back into her childhood memories, she explains how she spent most of her time in the playroom creating music and playing the piano which she so lovingly etched her name into to claim as her own.

By far the most interesting parts of this documentary are when we are given a view into the actual artistic process. Watching Imogen’s progression throughout the documentary you are transported into her world and life which is all about art and creation. Her inventive techniques are fascinating to watch, she uses the sounds of the house she lives and works in, makes her friends jump up and down and clap in time and a toy piano to add to the album concept. Her drive and determination never falters once she begins making her new album.

It is testament to her complete dedication to the arts that she screened this film at the Regent Street Cinema, coined as the birth place of UK cinema when in 1896 the Lumiere brothers put on the first public show of moving pictures. An original cinema organ was conveniently used by Imogen when there were technical issues with the film to entertain and add to the ambience of the evening. The cinema is currently being refurbished by private funding and aiming to be a place where both student and established filmmakers can showcase their work.

Click here to find out more about the refurbishment of the Regent Street Cinema.

By interacting with her fans over the last three years with fortnightly video blogs and twitter updates that included snippets of the album, Imogen has created more than a documentary; it is a modern and immersive way of making film that draws the audience into the process. It may be rough around the edges, but it is real and her fans will love it.