Emi Ellis is an actor, producer, and writer from Virginia. After her graduate internship with the PFO, she moved to Los Angeles where she is currently working on writing and producing her first feature film.What was it initially that drew you to the film industry? Did you always focus on acting and producing?I feel like I got into film the way most people do, which is just watching a lot of movies and being like, ‘wow, this is such a magical experience.’ My dad was really into Netflix before streaming, when it was a mail order system. So, he would get three DVDs, and he’d always have them on rotation. And we watched a lot of movies growing up. And then we’d always watch award shows. I always identified with the acting piece, but I was an athlete in school. I’d always audition for plays, but I was never available because I did soccer and track. But in undergrad, I started taking classes and venturing into it more that way, through film clubs and whatnot. The producing part came about more practically. It is notoriously difficult to do the creative side of things, so I decided to focus on the producing side, which I did for graduate school and my internships in Los Angeles. But I used the practical side of producing to help my acting career. I’ve always loved the artistic side of writing and acting the most.What was your favorite role to play in a film or show?I’ve made some short films with friends who are filmmakers, and those are always the most fun when you can work with the actual writer. The writer has an intent behind it or a vision for it, and the way the characters are developed is very intentional. So, it’s fun to be able to work with a person who conceives the character. Bigger jobs that pay better or people might be more likely to watch are for the experience and the atmosphere. Going on to a big set is always really fun and exciting. But I’d say creatively, it’s the most fun when I can work directly with the writer and director in a meaningful way.
What projects did you work on at the Pittsburgh Film Office?I mostly focused on the Lights! Glamour! Action!® gala. That was the year that the La La Land and Moonlight switch up happened. I was working at the gala and there was a golf cart we were riding around on because the venue was so huge. We watched La La Land win. We were driving away and someone said they messed up. We got in the golf cart and sped back. That’s a core memory of being at PFO. We had some fundraiser events and a lot of event planning. I think Fences, the Denzel Washington movie, had just wrapped. But there was also Mindhunter. They were having background casting issues because it was [an] enormous background cast that they needed. Because it’s a period piece, they only had 1970s outfits in certain sizes. So, they specifically needed background people of a certain size. I remember random kind of like things like that coming up and having to figure out how to find background people. After graduation, how did your experience help you get your first job in the film industry?I was in the Carnegie Mellon program, Master of Entertainment Industry Management, and my second year was in Los Angeles. And part of the requirement is that you must have an industry-related internship. I got an internship at Independent Creative Management, Ltd (ICM), which was the biggest literary agency at the time, but it’s since been acquired by the Creative Artists Agency. I interned for acting talent agencies. And then, after that, somebody who worked at ICM used to intern at Amazon Studios, and she helped me get an internship at Amazon Studios, one semester in their casting department and then the second semester in their film production department. I had to go through budgets for the film production internship. Looking through those was eye-opening to see. You really see how certain components of the budget will affect the final output. I’ve seen a lot of low-budget films, like $200,000, $300,000 budget and compared to a million, it’s just drastically different in production quality. It was useful to see what components seem to affect the outcome of the final product. When I graduated, I just wanted to focus on acting. You have to produce your own audition tape. You have to produce things you want to act in. And you can try auditioning, but honestly, without an agent, there’s so much you have to wade through. I started auditioning first by self-submitting, and then you show up to auditions, and you quickly learn, oh, this is a student film that’s not going to meet a certain production quality level. It’s not going to help my reel. I realized my time is better spent producing my own stuff so I can have quality control over what I put in my reel and what roles I play. That’s what I focused on for the first several years until I could get an agent and then was able to start auditioning more. As a producer, what do you do? Do you write your own films and craft around character to get what you want? How do you find people that you trust to deliver the product you want?So it really started out as a practical thing to build my reel. I want to get into SAG-AFTRA, and it was just a means to an end. And then the more I did it, the more I really enjoyed the creation, the behind-the-camera side of things. So, I would say now, as a filmmaker, I do a lot more writing and producing. I produced an online series with a cinematographer friend, which challenged us to create something that requires $0, like literally $0. So, we made 25 short, two-minute vertically shot films. Usually if it’s my own, it’s a practical purpose. But if it’s somebody else’s, it’s helping them with their creative vision. And then in the background, I’m auditioning for things that my agents send me. Right now, I’m working on a feature. I’ve acted in a feature before, but I’ve never produced and written one.I went to a University of Virginia for undergrad, and there’s a very small group of people from Virginia who want to be in movies or work in movies. And all of my Virginia friends and I created this community. And one of the people in this community had some family money and decided to make something. So that really was the genesis of this network where we all created our first small film together. Everyone has their own day jobs, and they’re meeting people through that. Then we start bringing people into the community that we meet out in the world. And honestly, it was important for me to find this community. My thesis in graduate school was to interview women directors. A lot of studies are showing why women aren’t able to break through and we were trying to find out how the women who do break through do as directors. We interviewed a lot of directors and so many of them talked about having a community of people that they trusted, that you can meet with and kind of talk, daydream about things with, and strategize. One piece of advice I got from a professor was that you always have contracts around things, even if it’s with your friends. And sometimes that feels a little awkward. But honestly, anything that requires money really should have a contract. It just clearly defines things. I think having a friend group that you can trust, but then also when you’re switching into professional mode, having boundaries and being clear about expectations has been helpful. And, of course, the most important question: do you prefer movies or TV shows and why? (then) And on that note, what is your favorite [movie or show] filmed in Pittsburgh?Movies for me. I think it feels sacrilegious to say as an actor, because every actor wants a TV show for stability and exploring your character. And of course I feel that. I like that movies have a purpose. There is a beginning, middle, and end, and that’s how much time they have to communicate the theme. My favorite Pittsburgh movie is Silence of the Lambs. I didn’t realize that was filmed in Pittsburgh. It’s a classic!
The Internship Alumni Spotlight campaign aims to highlight previous interns who found their start in the film industry at the Pittsburgh Film Office. If you would like to learn more about the Pittsburgh Film Office internships and applications, go to pghfilm.org/pfo-internships/! If you would like to check out some of Emi’s work, you can find her here:IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8982646/Instagram: @emi_ellis_
