THE CREW

ABOUT

Bryan answers some common questions about the film:

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• Can you give us a general overview of the project?

The Emissary is a science fiction short film set within the confines of a small ship as it voyages to a distant, icy gas giant like Neptune, only much more distant. We filmed in Atlanta, Georgia in September 2017.

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• Did you really film this in your parent's basement?

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Yes! I realize I might be living up to a millennial stereotype or two, but we did film this in my parent's basement. My approach to filmmaking has been to try and slow everything down so that the crew can be intentional in the work they do rather than having to rush about and make frantic decisions at the last minute. With our limited budget I knew we would need ample time to troubleshoot and work through the process, and that is exactly what was afforded to us by filming at mom and pop's.

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• How did you construct the set?

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I spent most of 2017 pretending I was a production designer and making all sorts of rookie mistakes! I first learned Sketchup and modeled the set to the exact dimensions afforded to us by the space, then learned some basic carpentry from a friend and spent another three months building the ship. Over two dozen people came by and helped out at various stages to get us to our shooting date.

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• How did you pull off the special effects?

We combined modern compositing with old fashioned techniques like rear projection, miniatures, time-lapse, and macro photography to achieve our special effects.

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• There have been a good number of space-set films recently, how do you find a unique approach to it?

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Films like 2001, Interstellar, and The Martian do a great job showing a speculative future of what space travel could be like and some of the challenges within that. Those were films I certainly didn't want to compete with! I wanted to look further at the human cost of space travel – the societal cost. What does it look like to have human civilization spread across hundreds of light years? How would we relate to each other? With such questions, the technology and the visceral danger of space takes a back seat. That's why you won't see Liv talking with her ship computer AI. As soon as you put that into the story it becomes about that. The Emissary is less science fiction and more of a simple human drama that happens to be set in space.

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• Do you have plans for an Emissary feature film?

Yes, but not exactly! What I have found with The Emissary is that as soon as you expand the story into a feature, it becomes massive both in scope and expense because such a story would necessitate that you leave the confines of Liv's ship and see the worlds that surround her. Thus, the feature screenplay is more of a spiritual successor to The Emissary, not a literal expansion of it. Like The Emissary, The Basilica is set entirely on a space ship visiting a distant gas giant, but concerns three characters not just one, which I think provides some more meaty character possibilities for a feature film. My hope for The Emissary was that I could prove such a film would be possible in a manner far cheaper than such sci-fi fare usually costs while maintaining a high standard of quality.