"EMULATION" — 2010

Somewhere around the end of my senior year of high school, I saw an old favorite movie again: "The Fugitive." I hadn't seen it in years, and seeing it this time around was like seeing it with all new eyes. I'd always liked the movie. But for whatever reason, when I saw it at 18, I was blown away. It's a great movie. A masterpiece. In any event, it heavily inspired me. Mostly because I was looking for a "commercial" movie to make, something that would appeal to general audiences, but would also appeal to me in an artistic way. "The Fugitive" fit that cross-section.

I was on the lookout for some kind of story where a man would be chased by the police. Something like "North By Northwest." Something like "The Game," another film I was a huge fan of. Also, right around the spring of 2006, camera companies started advertising cameras that could shoot in 720p, HD, 1080i. And that was hugely inspiring as this was a resolution closer to film. At least, closer to film than the mini DV tapes I'd been shooting on.

I was in the mood to make a movie. This time, a feature length film. I was pretty nervous about doing it as I knew it would take a lot longer than any of my previous movies. I remember watching a VHS copy of the John Carpetner movie "Starman" and watching the movie go by in 20 minute increments, wondering how long it would take to film twenty minutes, and multiplying that by five. Another inspiration was Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi." Cinematographer Matt Meehan had been reading Rodriguez's book "Rebel Without A Crew" and gave me a copy to read. Very inspiring stuff in that book.

After I transferred to the University of Pittsburgh for my junior year of college, after I got more or less settled and was feeling very inspired by my new city surroundings, I got serious about writing the script for "Emulation," eyeing late 2008 to start shooting. With the twist ending (and don't read any further if you haven't seen the movie), I always knew the Emulation itself, the movie he was living through, would ultimateley be an Emulation. Much like in "The Game," the ordeal the Michael Douglas character lived through was just the game itself. But I wanted it to be a twist of a twist. Something more than just finding out, "ah, it was an Emulation all along." In my sophmore year, I had a class on persuasion and we had been talking about marketing. Sitting there in the Owen library, asking myself how they paid for the Emulations—it occured to me: it's a TV show. I had everything for the story—except the inciting incident. Which is always important, and probably the most important aspect of a movie. I'm pretty sure it came to me one day when I was crossing the street between Hillman library and the Cathederal of Learning, the pedestrian and car traffic reminding me of that opening title scene to "North By Northwest": the hero is framed for a murder that he's supposed to commit *within the Emulation. Only, it's for real. The Emulation was just a reason to frame him. This ticked the light on for me and I wrote the script throughout the fall of 2008.

The movie was shot mostly between December 2008 and August of 2009, with a lot of pick-ups sprinkeld in after. I had enjoyed Matt Meehan's first feature film "The Dark Grim," and really admired his camera work and lighting—so I asked if he would shoot "Emulation" for me, cinematography not my strong suit. He agreed and we had a great time filming the movie on weekends.

I have so many great memories working on this film. Working with Matt, Bill Lusk, his friends Anthony Pinto and Steven Chiado, filming scenes with Jocelyn Meehan, Christian Condrick, a lot of the old crew. It was a great treat to do scenes with Jeff Howanek, someone I had wanted to work with after seeing him perform in our high school's musicals and Matt's "The Dark Grim." I had thought I was a pretty good actor, but working with Jeff made me realize I had to do more. Speak more clearly, for one. Offer up more energy. He's tremendous with both and really brought something extra-special to the movie. He really inspired me to pursue a bettering of my own vocal efforts.

Myself and the crew shot the car chase on a Saturday afternoon. The foot chase a week earlier. I can't remember which was first. But they were both tense. Especially the car chase. Of which I wanted to be great. I did the driving, Matt did the camera work, and also hooked up the one car with a camera. We did a lot of filmming on both chases. I personally didn't understand how to film motion fast, learning as I went along. I didn't understand "relative" motion. Something that's important to car chases. But we managed, and the car chase is pretty good.

So much of the film was done through the help of others. Mostly Matt Meehan, of which a lot of the visual cues of the film is owed to. On this film, he really gave me an appreciation for lighting and how much it can add to a film.

I edited the movie mostly while shooting. I'd get up early, edit, then go to class. I have really fond memories of doing this, and seeing the movie come together. It was also the first film of mine that required a lot of special effects, and happily, I'd found a lot of learning resources like Video CoPilot which inspired me and helped me in the process. The rooftop scene had been filmed on a green screen entirely in my garage, and so there were a lot of shots that had to be processed to look like we were on top of the Cathedral. It turned out well. Of course, I would do it a lot better now. I'm not sure how, but I'd try and think up more clever, authentic ways to acheive the effect. The problem was I didn't know what the top of the Cathedral of Learning looked like (where the final scene takes place), and I had to guess. Again—I'd do things differently.

I was still shooting about two weeks before the premiere, of which took place at Pitt in the William Pitt Union on April 21, 2010. Here is a poster I designed for the occasion: