Orin and Mira visit the Hall of Insurrection where political prisoners are frozen and put on display as a deterrent to society.

One also boasts an all-original digital score. Cleveland composer Fred Croce digitally composed 29 pieces of music for the film. Because of the unusual way the dialogue was recorded, Croce could watch the movies images for inspiration, but was left without any sound. "I was scoring a silent movie. That's very difficult for a musician. I need to feel the emotions from the people and the ambiance of the settings. Most of the time I didn't have that. It was a challenge for me."

Shooting a digital movie brought its share of conflict to One and its creator. There are many film purists that refuse to take any project seriously unless it is shot on 35mm film. As the digital media production industry nears explosion, some traditional independent filmmakers have started lashing out at movies filmed on digital camcorders. Tomaric, with his highly visible movie, has become an easy target.

At the Cleveland Midwest Filmmakers Conference last March, many so-called professionals gave Jason the cold shoulder. "I was on a panel about filmmaking. When it came time for me to show the trailer for One, some of my fellow panelists got up and walked out."

“I’ve seen a lot of movies that cost ten to fifteen million that don’t look as good... and [Tomaric’s] done this all with moxie!” —David Moss, film movie critic

Ed Knuth, founder of the Digital Film Expo that held its first event in Cleveland last January, is confounded by the reaction of some independent filmmakers. "You wouldn't belittle a painter for choosing watercolors over oils. Jason is a visual storyteller and digital is the medium he chose to use." Knuth continues, "One defies the old ways people thought of movies. Jason is a pioneer in feature filmmaking. People who shoot on digital usually chose to make small dramatic pieces. But Jason decided to make a huge digital movie, gigantic in scope. No one in the industry is even trying to accomplish what Jason has done on his budget. It's exciting to have Jason here in Cleveland."

Says Tomaric, "I'm interested in telling a good story. Digital is the medium I had to use in order to tell the story I wanted to tell on my limited budget. We treated One like we were shooting on film. We crafted it."

A cloning experiment gone terribly awry.

"We lit and shot it like a film. On the set, people might not have taken us seriously at first, because they saw the small camera. That would immediately change when we showed them some footage of what we've done."

In the field of digital film, Tomaric is quickly becoming one of the media's leaders. The Viewfinder Documentary Project, sponsored by Intel, traveled America last summer interviewing digital filmmakers across the country. Jason is to be one of the featured directors in the documentary. Director David Anolik remarks, "I thought One was a wonderfully aggressive project with a really high production value for such a low budget. Great things are coming out of Cleveland.

"We are actually going to create a controversy in Hollywood because One is sending a statement that, with creativity and ingenuity, you can produce a high-quality film without spending a lot of money.” —Stephen R. Campanella, Producer, One

"We are actually going to create a controversy in Hollywood because One is sending a statement that, with creativity and ingenuity, you can produce a high-quality film without spending a lot of money. The digital age has opened up making movies to a broader audience," declares Stephen Campenella, producer on the movie.

As Tomaric and his crew stand on the verge of national recognition, it is difficult to decide which will prove to be the bigger story. Is it the science-fiction epic movie of a post-apocalyptic utopian society that is festering from within? Or will the public be more interested in how a guy in his early twenties managed to mastermind a Hollywood-quality movie out of his basement? Tomaric consistently responds to this question in a manner both forthright and evasive. He clasps his hands, leans forward, and with a steady gaze replies, "Persistence."

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