Meet Emily Vail | Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Emily Vail and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Emily, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I’m originally from Dunwoody, Georgia – which is a suburb of Atlanta. Although my city has since diversified, it used to be a predominantly white neighborhood. With this came a lot of disparities between the kids in my “gifted” classes compared to my “general education classes”. My schools were almost set up to divide the white kids from the non-white kids. Although I am white, I always felt different compared to the other white kids in my classes. Whether it was their casual racist slurs or how they lived in big houses and had brand new name brand clothes all the time, I felt like I didn’t identify with them.

As mentioned before, my “gifted” classes were the ones that were predominantly white. These classes were considered honors classes and they were the ones that were focused on the specific subjects like math, science etc. Because I felt like I couldn’t identify with the kids that were in my “gifted” classes, I began to focus on my extra curricular classes where this divide did not exist. These extra curricular classes were band and mass communications. These are the two classes where I base most of my foundation for my career today. From band class, I developed my huge love for music. To this day I play 5 instruments and I make any effort to join bands or music groups. From mass communications, I developed my love for film and video. This is literally where my career lies. My end goal is to be a successful Assistant Director and Colorist of films.

As I went through high school, I realized how completely horrible it was to separate the students into “gifted” and “not gifted”. This was the first set up where I truly realized that part of my white privilege was always being able to be in the “gifted” classes just because I had more resources to learn. I take this experience with me as I navigate through the entertainment industry. On any of the projects I work on, I want them to be as accessible as possible. I want to use my own privilege to help underrepresented communities who may have less privilege make their way in this cutthroat industry and be successful.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am currently working towards being a successful Assistant Director and Colorist since that is almost unheard of in the entertainment industry – to be successful in production and post-production. As of right now I’m working on smaller projects that are primarily women based. The film industry needs more women representation – that can come from more women in powerful roles, such as above the line position, primarily women based crew, women in positions that are typically filled by males, and also stories that are about women that aren’t told from a male perspective.

I make sure to keep this in mind with every project I agree to work on and pursue.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m still fairly new to LA so I definitely still feel like a tourist. BUT, a ton of my friends from Atlanta come to visit especially since they’ve never been to the west coast before.

For a day’s itinerary we would go on a hike in Malibu – Los Liones is my favorite. Then we would go to El Matador State Beach to cool off and also because seeing rocks/caves on the beach is still a very new concept to me. On the way home, we would probably stop at a fruta stand (because we love supporting local vendors!) and get ready for the night.

One of my favorite low-key spots for dinner is a little tiny restaurant called Tokyo Cube. I would vote it has the best sushi in LA (although I’m still open to trying new places). From there, we would go to Alma’s Cider and Beer. It’s a little bar in East Hollywood/Silverlake which is an amazing area in general for more chill vibe nightlife.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Tammy Wichman! Not only does she always make me laugh until I cry, but she also was a huge inspiration for me to take the steps to apply for film school and to move across the country to California on my own. Without her constant guidance and encouragement, I have no idea what the trajectory of my life would be.

I also would like to shoutout my parents because without their support there would be no way that I would have gone to my dream college in California and been able to start my career.

Website: https://emilyrvail00.wixsite.com/portfolio

Instagram: @emilyrvail

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyrvail/

Image Credits
Hunter Colwell