Director/cinematographer Rebecca Baehler has signed with RadicalMedia for worldwide representation spanning commercials and branded content. She had previously been handled by RSA Films in the ad arena. Baehler has to her credit campaigns for major brands including Apple, Samsung, Beats, Android and Nissan.
Baehler was drawn to RadicalMedia by its president, Frank Scherma, the company’s savvy sales team and talented filmmaking roster. Baehler feels her new roost will afford her the opportunity to continue the clean, graphic and elegant visual, product-centric, tabletop fare for which she’s known while also diversifying her into more actor performance-driven storytelling. That includes infusing her extensive automotive ad exploits with more people and lifestyle touches. She described her goal as taking “the aesthetics of the product stuff I do and bringing that to a people/lifestyle situation.” She has a track record of marrying her visual and technical acumen with a passion for storytelling and doing justice to creative concepts.
Baehler made her first major splash as a cinematographer after working as a camera assistant, most notably with lauded DP John Stanier on assorted commercials. Baehler’s initial break came when director Mark Coppos tabbed her to lens a Levi’s ad back in 1998, starting a run as a DP on numerous spot assignments, eventually dovetailing into her directing portions of Apple projects and then entire commercials. Baehler thus established herself in the directorial ranks with a body of work that now spans some 15-plus years and counting.
Meanwhile in recent years, Baehler’s camera prowess landed her DP/macro unit work on visually ambitious Marvel superhero feature films such as Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Baehler began her career as a production assistant at Amblin Entertainment where she then broke into the camera department on the comedy/horror feature Arachnophobia while still a teenager. As a film loader she worked with and learned from such cinematographers as Owen Roizman, Mikael Salomon and later Stanier as his second and then first assistant. Stanier was prolific in commercials, and an Intel assignment he shot for Coppos brought Baehler into the director’s orbit. Baehler and Coppos hit it off, striking up a filmmaking rapport. Her visual sensibilities made for a smooth transition into directing. She directed at Coppos Films and then Green Dot Films when Mark Coppos moved over there. Baehler later went off on her own to direct at such shops as Caviar and RSA.
Baehler’s preference is to shoot what she directs. “I can’t imagine ever leaving the camera behind completely,” she affirmed.
