Director Emily Elizabeth Thomas joins Matt and Oren to talk about her journey from commercial success to directing vertical series and feature films.
Meanwhile, Oren’s been updating his website and shares some valuable insights on what to include in your reel, what to leave out, and why it matters. And that leads into Matt sharing some insightful data on how many views a reel gets per day.
Back to Emily—she’s all about making everything feel like a movie, even a vertical series. She shares how she fought for that vision and explains how shooting open gate helped convince producers they could save money doing it her way. And maybe even make more with some luck.
At her core, Emily is a craft-driven filmmaker with a passion for detail. She talks about her love for set design and working with artisanal couturiers to find the perfect accessories, like a custom western hat from Austin or hours spent digging through costumes at Warner Brothers.
The episode wraps with practical tips on surgically using tools like jibs, Steadicams, and Technocrane (yeah the gear producers often assume is out of budget) to maximize production value and scope on a tight budget.
You can find Emily here:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8502506/
https://www.electriccowgirl.xyz/
IG: @emilyelizabeththomas/
---
Matt's Endorsement: Letterboxd's interview with the stars of "I Like Movies" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE1kANkYGSw and the movie itself https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14913282/
Oren's Endorsement: The book "Linchpin" by Seth Godin https://seths.store/linchpin/. The subreddit /vfx https://www.reddit.com/r/vfx/. And, Filmvibes https://filmvibes.io/
Emily's Endorsement: Jean Paul Gauthier's Wardrobe design and Styling of the movie "The Fifth Element". Vidiots theatre https://vidiotsfoundation.org/. And the movie itself https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119116/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.