Mac Eldridge, a movie director raised and educated in the Gurnee Chicago land area, having graduated from Warren Township High School and DePaul College, has found success in his craft, growing and creating from his experiences. “One shot at a time”
Growing up in a house of golf instructors, he was given a headfirst dive into that world. Learning and navigating that part of his life, his dad gave a phrase that would grow into his later life. Eldridge recounts, “He would always say…’ You gotta take this one shot at a time.’ Which just meant no matter what happened before, no matter what you think is about to happen, you have to kind of focus on the task at hand and accomplish that and focus your brain on that, on that entire moment. So when I thought more about it later on in my directing career with commercials and stuff, I really noticed I could get ahead of myself and get concerned about falling behind on time or not having accomplished the right thing previously. So I remember this thing that my dad told me, one shot at a time…So I started taking that phrase one shot at a time and putting it onto my director’s monitors and in commercials, putting it to my client monitors just to remind everybody, hey, this is the thing that we have to focus on right now. Let’s make the best shot that we can and then move on from there.”
Having found his love for movies and a goal to create them outside Warren, Eldridge found a direction he wanted to pursue inside the school. Mr. Georgatsos, a teacher at the Almond campus, in a film and lit class, was able to help. When explaining the impact this class had on his life, Eldridge said, “That was the catalyst moment for me that actually got me to go to college, because he opened my eyes to programs in Chicago that could teach me film making, where I can meet other filmmakers and build myself up over the course of four years. Had it not been for Mr. G’s film and lit class, I would have just moved to L.A. and tried to make it as a PA, and I guess I’m really lucky that that didn’t happen, because I don’t think that that would have been my path to success. So, my time and the classes at Warren really, really put me in the right direction to end up where I need to, to end up where I needed to be to make a movie one day.” Finding his path after Warren and the connections he made with other film lovers in the school gave him a start to finding his way at DePaul.
Eldridge’s time at DePaul gave him time to do what eventually makes perfect: practice. On top of the time working and developing his skills, DePaul gave him a chance to form connections with other creatives in film that he still connects with and works on projects with. One connection is his co-director and co-creator of his new film ‘Charlie Harper’. While Eldridge acknowledged how the reasons for film school have changed with equipment being easier to access, he still would find it worth it. Saying, “ DePaul University film program provided me a network of people to create things with for the rest of my life. And if you were debating on going to film school or not, I would say that the network of meeting people and meeting people you’re going to create with for the rest of your life is the number one thing that a film school can offer you that, you know, creating stuff at home doesn’t.”
In his career, Eldridge has done many commercials, most of which are sports commercials, made a few films, and gotten the opportunity to work with a handful of celebrities. Most recently, he worked on a film called ‘Charlie Harper’ which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival before being purchased and set to be released on September 25, 2026. This film idea started with a conversation between him and the now co-director of the film. “ We were just kind of talking about our past relationships,” says Eldridge, “trying to think of what could be a movie. What could a relationship movie from us be about? I said to him, ‘What is the purpose of nostalgia?’ This thing that we have inside of all of us that’s human is. Feels like it’s a defunct characteristic of evolution. It feels like you’re hurting for the past that you can’t return to. Why would we have that inside of us? And then that became the basis for what Charlie Harper is about. It’s about memory, and it’s about nostalgia.” When it comes to what aspects of his life that he drew from to drive ideas in ‘Charlie Harper’, Eldrige says, “there are a lot of romance films that I grew up really admiring. I think Blue Valentine is probably the one that people point out the most for that film…. But then it has other DNA from films outside of the romance genre in it, like following the first Christopher Nolan movie. And I love movies, and I want to make movies about movies, so they end up having some sort of conversation with movies that I grew up watching.”
In his next steps in his career, Eldridge is looking to find the ‘Charlie Harper’ audience. His goal is to get it to the people with whom it resonates and who will find something of themselves acknowledged by the film. Have people who love it watch the first and fifth watch. Outside of ‘Charlie Harper,’ he has multiple projects going at the moment. Working on a basketball movie, a Christmas film, and a horror film, Eldridge is consistently going for the next film. Working in each genre for the different facets of himself, his next and future films have the promise of the vision he brings to his projects.
While his career went down a path that went well for him and gave him the ability to do what he loves, he expressed concerns for future Warren students who might not have a class like he did to present a path he ended up loving. “My time and the classes at Warren really, really put me in the right direction to end up where I need to, to end up where I needed to be in order to make a movie one day.” says Eldridge “And the fact that the school district has axed so many of these classes that are interested in the arts, is the most devastating thing a school system, a school district, can do to its students. You could teach the classics, and you could teach the essentials, but you aren’t teaching them that you weren’t teaching a large swath of your students. You aren’t introducing a large swath of your students to something that can inspire them to do something more. And it breaks my heart that those classes don’t exist the way that they once did when I was at Warren, and I would say it to anybody, anyone who still sends her kids to Warren or pays taxes to the school district. These things matter, and it’s these art classes that matter. It’s an investment for these kids who are searching for something, searching for themselves, and they find it. If Mr. G’s film and lit class did not exist when I went to Warren, I would not be where I am today, and I don’t say that. in any sort of dramatic or overly stated way.”
Check out his website for his content: https://www.maceldridge.com/