Now for something completely different! The delightfully infectious CBC competition series Best In Miniature is back. Season 3 of the Canadian Screen Award-nominated series features 10 new miniaturists competing to put together their mini dream homes all while navigating challenges from the judges. The always affable Aba Amuquandoh is back as the host and she’s joined by returning judges UK miniature expert Emma Waddell and famed Canadian interior designer and entrepreneur Micheal Lambie. We had the amazing opportunity of sitting down with Elliott Langford, a contestant on this season. The British miniaturist channels his love of all things dark and horror through his miniatures. Join us as we delve into how Langford got into miniatures, the horror content that inspires his work, and what it was like being a Brit on this Canadian competition series. Season 3 of Best In Miniature is out now with all episodes available to stream on CBC Gem, followed by daily back-to-back episodes on CBC TV beginning December 26 through December 29.
Jeromme Graham: Elliott, how did you first get into miniatures?
Elliott Langford: I’ve always liked miniatures. As a kid, I used to paint Wargames stuff and the scenery and stuff for that. I kind of didn’t really do anything with it since then. In lockdown, I started doing it again as I had all the time in the world.
JG: How did you start incorporating your love of all things creepy, horror, and dark into your miniatures?
EL: I do that with everything. Anything I do that’s creative. I think horror is my main personality trait and it always seems to inject into the things that I do. Art, paintings, drawings, tattoos, music. It always ends up going down the horror route.
JG: You mention on the show that you come from a tattooing background. Has that had any influence or inspiration on your miniature work?
EL: No, I wouldn’t say so. Just because, for me, tattooing is a job. It’s a money thing. While I do enjoy it and respect it, it is a money thing and not a passion thing. If I had to choose one or the other, I would choose miniatures and I don’t think tattooing would impact it in any way. I’m very financially driven with tattooing, whereas that’s the opposite with miniatures.
JG: That makes sense. It’s more of a passion with miniatures. We’re a pop culture website that definitely loves a bit of horror. What are some of your favorite creepy/dark movies, books, or shows that have influenced you?
EL: That’s a hard question to answer because there are loads. Artistically, my biggest horror influence is anything backcountry. The Hills Have Eyes. Wrong Turn. Texas Chainsaw Massacre. That’s the kind of stuff that really influences my miniatures. The director Guillermo Del Toro is a huge influence on me, as well. Pan’s Labyrinth and that dark fantasy stuff. Plus, anything gory. The Saw franchise. Stephen King books. Anything monster-related. Love Korean horror TV shows, like Sweet Home. All of those things are big influences. The darker, the better. The more that content pushes the boat out, the more interested I am.
JG: What materials do you mainly work with?
EL: A mix of everything. I would say my main material is PVC foam core. It’s like a very hard condensed foam that’s sandwiched in PVC layers. It grooves. It indents. It sands. But otherwise, wood, plastic, metal, all of that stuff plays in. Whatever I need gets used basically.
JG: How did Best in Miniatures get on your radar?
EL: A miniaturist that I’d been following for a while was on the first season. I found out about the show that way and watched it because she was on it. Since then, I watched the second season and knew someone on there as well. By the time the third season was coming around, I was like “I want to get in on this.”
JG: You were one of a few non-Canadian contestants on the show. What was it like filming for you?
EL: It took some getting used to. But overall, just everyone there was so nice. I felt a little bit at home there which was nice. I could sit here for hours trying to think of someone I met that pissed me off, but I don’t think I could think of anyone. Canada isn’t that much different from Britain if I’m being honest. It’s quite similar. It’s just bigger and better and a friendlier place. A lot of the customs are the same.
JG: At least watching the show, the series definitely doesn’t come across as being as cutthroat or intense as a lot of other reality competition shows. It’s good to know that it really was as wholesome as it appeared.
EL: It really was. There were no hidden agendas or anything like that. It was just having fun. No one was trying to push to make you appear as the bad guy. Obviously, there were questions about whose work you liked or whose you didn’t, etc. I was pretty diplomatic about all that. There were no tricks or things to make you come off bad. I say that, but I haven’t watched it back yet to see how I came off. From what I’ve seen in the past, no one has really come off badly. Let’s go for the hat trick on that and hope that I don’t come off bad as well.
JG: Lastly, I’m sure a lot of people will watch this season of Best In Miniatures and get inspired to start making minis. Do you have any advice for beginners?
EL: The best advice is to go straight in doing it the way you’d think of doing it. Learn from mistakes. Remake things over and over again until they look the way they do in your head. Be critical, but enjoy it. Just do it. For me, the main thing is to always keep the scale consistent. That is the one thing that won’t let you down as a miniaturist. If the scale is wrong, it won’t look right regardless of how well you’ve done it. Just get your scaling down and after that, you’ll keep getting better and better.
Follow Elliott Langford: Instagram
