In just seven years, Emily Baer '92 has gone from directing The Odd Couple at Union to co-writing and directing an award-winning independent film.
Baer's first feature-length film, Chocolate for Breakfast, won a silver medal at the Houston Film Festival (a festival for independent films), and she is currently negotiating its distribution nationally.
Baer, a theater and history major, took a directing class at Union, loved it, and knew that she wanted to direct for a living. Accepted at the National Actors Theater in Manhattan as a director's intern, she assisted Broadway directors on their production. “It was a great way to learn from watching professional directors and professional actors take a production from rehearsal to performance,” she says.
After completing the program, she directed several plays before turning to film. “I really wanted to make a movie, and lots of people were making movies independently at that time, so I found a writing partner and did it,” she says. Before Chocolate for Breakfast, Baer had little experience in film. “I relied on instinct, watched a lot of films, read a lot, and had a great crew,” she says. “But I learned a lot by doing it. People are always surprised that I made a film and I never went to film school. My experience in the theater was a big help, since I had experience directing actors and I had learned a lot of what worked and didn't work.”
Film, she says, is a real director's medium. “You have the opportunity to tell a story completely. In theater, the director doesn't have as much control over the final product as in a film.”
Chocolate for Breakfast tells the story of four female friends who share an apartment and how one roommate's pregnancy affects them all. Baer showed the screenplay to countless friends and acquaintances, and the response was good. After approaching a few producers who wanted to create an expensive film with big-name stars, Baer decided to raise the money herself. “We realized that it could take years to produce the film that way, so we decided to take the script ourselves and make the film for less money.”
The result was eighteen days of shooting in New York City and Los Angeles and a film described by Variety as “a lightweight but extremely likable comedy,” praised for its “wry human and vividly drawn and well-played roommates,” its “sharp dialogue and fine performances.” Even so, as of mid-summer, the film had not yet been distributed, but Baer was still hopeful.
Since Chocolate for Breakfast, Baer has been busy with other films. Last fall, she shot a yet untitled comedy about three men in New York City, and she just completed a screenplay for a murder mystery. Showtime is scheduled to show four short scenes that she wrote and directed. The shorts, which are about a married couple and three single women living in an apartment complex in Los Angeles, may develop into a pilot if they are well received.
Baer says that she has to work at staying busy in the film world. “If you want to be working all time, which I do, you have to be constantly trying to get work,” she says. Thus she often moves between New York, which she loves, and Los Angeles, where she can find more work. “I love being able to tell a story on film,” she says. “It's a great opportunity to create something from nothing. It all starts out as an idea that you hope people can connect with.”