Q & A
Inside Survivor: Pallisades
Many fans of the reality show Survivor dream of one day competing on the island. For Emmett, dreaming wasn’t enough. When he was twelve years old, he organized and filmed a season of the show in his very own home with his friends and family, before editing it together and posting it to YouTube.
Eight years and five seasons later, Emmett is now a student at Boston University, double majoring in international relations and film and television production. He believes Survivor sits at the intersection of his academic pursuits, combining production and storytelling with social politics, nature and culture.
He shot his fifth and final season in his hometown of the Pacific Palisades, just six months before wildfires devastated the area and its community. Though most of the physical community is gone, he believes a part of it lives on through his work. He sat down with me to reflect on his experience, his unique relationship with the Palisades, and how the project reshaped his perspective on loss and his sense of home.
Q: Where did the interest in Survivor come from and how did it start?
Whitaker: I was just watching TV as a child one time, it was like season 27, I was like 10 years old and I just loved the show. And I remember my mom told me, “don't keep watching TV, go do something with your time.” And I was like, “okay, I'll make Survivor” because I enjoyed it. So I took eight people, my family and another family, and then my best friend and I made them play Survivor against each other over five hours with four cameras, watching their every move.
So, as you can imagine, parents voting off their children is not the best recipe for success. So we took that and we learned from it. After the first season, it became only children who participated or, at some point, adults in their 20s. And we just kept doing the show, so we did a season two, a season three, a season four, and then most recently, almost two years ago, we filmed season five, which was “all-stars”. And as the show progressed, it became more technological. So, instead of four cameras, we had 22, and instead of five hours for the day was a 15 hour shoot. So we went from, as I said, a four person crew to about a 60 person crew. And that was for the last season. That was filmed right when I graduated high school, so that was June 15, 2024, and we started airing season five in September 25th, 2025. So it took about a year and four months of editing.
When you started at twelve years old, did you know this was going to become such a large part of your childhood? Or was it just something you did for fun that turned into five seasons.
I think it just sort of turned into five seasons. The ultimate end goal had always been to do an all-star season because that's like the culmination of all your work. But I don't think I was twelve years old thinking, “I can't wait for my freshman year of college,” you know what I mean? I think deep down, I sort of knew that I was going to spend a lot of time doing this. Like how someone likes playing the piano and they spend all their hours combined doing that throughout elementary to high school. It's really just that, just a very niche thing. It's very similar, it's just a different sort of niche.
Location seems to play a big role in your work–what was it like to have such a connection to the Palisades before the fires?
We filmed our last season, June 15, 2024, and about six months later, January 7, 2025, The LA wildfires happened, so the entirety of the Palisades was basically, like obliterated. I believe 11,000 structures burned, the entire neighborhood basically turned to dust. So filming the season was very special and very surreal because we have all this footage from this beautiful Southern California enclave of mountains and wildlife, and the juxtaposition of the ash and charcoal was very stark. And so it's very interesting when you have something like that to edit and hold onto. Because I was basically spending all my days editing something that no longer exists.
It's a really interesting construct of how you deal with something. For me editing it, I don't know if it deflected everything that happened, but it definitely shielded me because I could still hold on to and physically see the place that I grew up in and that made it a very special process. And I think the most special thing for me was to premiere the season. I spent a bunch of money renting out a 150 person theater where residents came in and watched it. These are people who have been displaced, basically all across the county. Everyone came together for the first time in a little less than a year to just see each other and laugh and celebrate.
How has it been, now that you're out on the other coast, finding that sense of home?
It's been difficult. The fires happen during winter break for me, during my freshman year. So I came back to Boston during my freshman spring into this cold environment where everyone walks with their head down and is super work oriented. No hate to Boston, but it was a very different environment. It was definitely pretty lonely to come back to that when you can't really go home and go to a community there. I have so many friends and great people here, but experiencing that in the moment was definitely surreal, it was difficult to make that adjustment.
It's a hard thing to talk about, right? I think no one wants to step on my toes or make me feel uncomfortable or trigger me. And so it's a hard thing to bring out because there really isn't a silver lining. But as time has gone on, things have gotten better. I have such a great community of people here from so many different walks of life, organizations, social groups. That made me feel, at least in spirit, like I had a place to call home. It's a complicated thing. Home is an interesting concept and I feel like I learned that. And having been able to go back time and time again has made it easier. Everything is rebuilding, and there are sunflowers growing on my house now that I planted with my mom. It's just an interesting life experience and you learn a lot from it.
What is it like when you go back and visit?
My family right now, we live in South Bay Los Angeles, more specifically Hermosa Beach. So that's like 45 minutes from the Palisades with traffic, and a few other families or people I know live down there. LA is just so huge anyways that it's just difficult to be around your friends anyways. We are rebuilding, I don't know, life is great. I was a volleyball coach all summer, which is one thing that always makes me feel at home. Like the same feeling I get with Survivor I feel like I get with volleyball. It's this unbelievable high of warmth and community.
There are some interesting things about the way that the process of rebuilding works. Right when it happened, the National Guard swarmed in and basically closed off the Palisades for a month or two because people were looting the houses because no one was there to guard them. When I first came in in March to see it during spring break, we had to bring our IDs and our pass and the National Guard had AK-47s. It was a weird thing. About 100 days after the fire was when spring break happened. And it still smelled like smoke. We were wearing masks when we first went up because everything was tarred. But I feel like just every time I've gone back, it has just gotten easier and easier.
Is there anything that I'm missing that you think is important to your story?
I guess the silver lining that I guess I've tried to give is, in like a few words, “ashes blow upwards”. So everything will be okay. But Survivor in and of itself has been the most amazing thing. It's so weird because it went from it being something I do six to eight hours a day and now it's over. It's just fun to talk about and bring up. It's a happy memory. So I'm really happy that I did it and I went through with it because I almost didn't make a fifth season. I almost stopped at four. I was pretty sure I was going to stop and I was like, “you know what? You gotta do one more season.” And it turned into this. And so I'm very grateful that I have it.
The latest season of Survivor Palisades can be watched on Emmett’s Youtube channel, Pacific Productions.
Inside Survivor: Pallisades
Many fans of the reality show Survivor dream of one day competing on the island. For Emmett, dreaming wasn’t enough. When he was twelve years old, he organized and filmed a season of the show in his very own home with his friends and family, before editing it together and posting it to YouTube.
Eight years and five seasons later, Emmett is now a student at Boston University, double majoring in international relations and film and television production. He believes Survivor sits at the intersection of his academic pursuits, combining production and storytelling with social politics, nature and culture.
He shot his fifth and final season in his hometown of the Pacific Palisades, just six months before wildfires devastated the area and its community. Though most of the physical community is gone, he believes a part of it lives on through his work. He sat down with me to reflect on his experience, his unique relationship with the Palisades, and how the project reshaped his perspective on loss and his sense of home.
Q: Where did the interest in Survivor come from and how did it start?
Whitaker: I was just watching TV as a child one time, it was like season 27, I was like 10 years old and I just loved the show. And I remember my mom told me, “don't keep watching TV, go do something with your time.” And I was like, “okay, I'll make Survivor” because I enjoyed it. So I took eight people, my family and another family, and then my best friend and I made them play Survivor against each other over five hours with four cameras, watching their every move.
So, as you can imagine, parents voting off their children is not the best recipe for success. So we took that and we learned from it. After the first season, it became only children who participated or, at some point, adults in their 20s. And we just kept doing the show, so we did a season two, a season three, a season four, and then most recently, almost two years ago, we filmed season five, which was “all-stars”. And as the show progressed, it became more technological. So, instead of four cameras, we had 22, and instead of five hours for the day was a 15 hour shoot. So we went from, as I said, a four person crew to about a 60 person crew. And that was for the last season. That was filmed right when I graduated high school, so that was June 15, 2024, and we started airing season five in September 25th, 2025. So it took about a year and four months of editing.
When you started at twelve years old, did you know this was going to become such a large part of your childhood? Or was it just something you did for fun that turned into five seasons.
I think it just sort of turned into five seasons. The ultimate end goal had always been to do an all-star season because that's like the culmination of all your work. But I don't think I was twelve years old thinking, “I can't wait for my freshman year of college,” you know what I mean? I think deep down, I sort of knew that I was going to spend a lot of time doing this. Like how someone likes playing the piano and they spend all their hours combined doing that throughout elementary to high school. It's really just that, just a very niche thing. It's very similar, it's just a different sort of niche.
Location seems to play a big role in your work–what was it like to have such a connection to the Palisades before the fires?
We filmed our last season, June 15, 2024, and about six months later, January 7, 2025, The LA wildfires happened, so the entirety of the Palisades was basically, like obliterated. I believe 11,000 structures burned, the entire neighborhood basically turned to dust. So filming the season was very special and very surreal because we have all this footage from this beautiful Southern California enclave of mountains and wildlife, and the juxtaposition of the ash and charcoal was very stark. And so it's very interesting when you have something like that to edit and hold onto. Because I was basically spending all my days editing something that no longer exists.
It's a really interesting construct of how you deal with something. For me editing it, I don't know if it deflected everything that happened, but it definitely shielded me because I could still hold on to and physically see the place that I grew up in and that made it a very special process. And I think the most special thing for me was to premiere the season. I spent a bunch of money renting out a 150 person theater where residents came in and watched it. These are people who have been displaced, basically all across the county. Everyone came together for the first time in a little less than a year to just see each other and laugh and celebrate.
How has it been, now that you're out on the other coast, finding that sense of home?
It's been difficult. The fires happen during winter break for me, during my freshman year. So I came back to Boston during my freshman spring into this cold environment where everyone walks with their head down and is super work oriented. No hate to Boston, but it was a very different environment. It was definitely pretty lonely to come back to that when you can't really go home and go to a community there. I have so many friends and great people here, but experiencing that in the moment was definitely surreal, it was difficult to make that adjustment.
It's a hard thing to talk about, right? I think no one wants to step on my toes or make me feel uncomfortable or trigger me. And so it's a hard thing to bring out because there really isn't a silver lining. But as time has gone on, things have gotten better. I have such a great community of people here from so many different walks of life, organizations, social groups. That made me feel, at least in spirit, like I had a place to call home. It's a complicated thing. Home is an interesting concept and I feel like I learned that. And having been able to go back time and time again has made it easier. Everything is rebuilding, and there are sunflowers growing on my house now that I planted with my mom. It's just an interesting life experience and you learn a lot from it.
What is it like when you go back and visit?
My family right now, we live in South Bay Los Angeles, more specifically Hermosa Beach. So that's like 45 minutes from the Palisades with traffic, and a few other families or people I know live down there. LA is just so huge anyways that it's just difficult to be around your friends anyways. We are rebuilding, I don't know, life is great. I was a volleyball coach all summer, which is one thing that always makes me feel at home. Like the same feeling I get with Survivor I feel like I get with volleyball. It's this unbelievable high of warmth and community.
There are some interesting things about the way that the process of rebuilding works. Right when it happened, the National Guard swarmed in and basically closed off the Palisades for a month or two because people were looting the houses because no one was there to guard them. When I first came in in March to see it during spring break, we had to bring our IDs and our pass and the National Guard had AK-47s. It was a weird thing. About 100 days after the fire was when spring break happened. And it still smelled like smoke. We were wearing masks when we first went up because everything was tarred. But I feel like just every time I've gone back, it has just gotten easier and easier.
Is there anything that I'm missing that you think is important to your story?
I guess the silver lining that I guess I've tried to give is, in like a few words, “ashes blow upwards”. So everything will be okay. But Survivor in and of itself has been the most amazing thing. It's so weird because it went from it being something I do six to eight hours a day and now it's over. It's just fun to talk about and bring up. It's a happy memory. So I'm really happy that I did it and I went through with it because I almost didn't make a fifth season. I almost stopped at four. I was pretty sure I was going to stop and I was like, “you know what? You gotta do one more season.” And it turned into this. And so I'm very grateful that I have it.
The latest season of Survivor Palisades can be watched on Emmett’s Youtube channel, Pacific Productions.