Senior communication major Sarah Barbier won the Emmy in the “Director’s” category for her short film, “Emma.” She will be starting a new film project, “Fugue” in the near future.

Senior communication major Sarah Barbier’s psychological, romantic short film won the honored Emmy presented by the National Academy of Television and Arts and Sciences’ Suncoast Region.

Barbier won the Emmy in the “Directing” category of the competition. 

“It was a short film called ‘Emma,’ and it was about a guy, Nate, whose girlfriend breaks up with him because she wants to do bigger and better things since they live in this small town,” said Barbier. “He gets depressed and goes to see this psychiatrist and starts taking medication for it. His psychiatrist tells him to go out there and explore, maybe find somebody new. He meets these two other women, both named Emma. They remind him of his ex-girlfriend. She ends up coming back in the end, but you don’t really know if these other girls were just in his head or a coincidence. It’s left up to the audience to decide.”

The concept for “Emma” originally came from her boyfriend, senior general studies major Matthew Green. They both worked together, building the story until it became fleshed out enough to become a film.

“I didn’t come up with the idea [for “Emma”],” said Barbier. “My boyfriend, Matt Green, did. He wanted to make it into a play, but he didn’t think he could flesh it out that much. So, I took his concept, and we wrote it out together to make it into a short film.”

The film was a three week process, including writing the screenplay, fleshing out the story, storyboards, filming and finding actors. It took three days of editing and post until “Emma” was finally completed.

Despite the enormous amount of time put into the film, Barbier found the true challenge in casting for the roles.

“The most challenging part was finding people to act in it because I couldn’t really find a lot of actors,” said Barbier. “I had to rely on my friends and help them with the lines and how I wanted them to portray the characters.”

In order to make the film, Barbier had to utilize many of the skills she learned from her classes at the university, such as editing film and framing.

“I didn’t have any idea how to edit anything before coming to Southeastern,” said Barbier. “That really helped me piece everything together in the end. Also, I learned just basic story writing, how to word things for film versus how you would write a book and how to frame correctly to make the audience see certain things.”

Barbier also learned trade secrets about filming that she was able to use in “Emma” to get the audience to see and hear what she wanted them to.

“In a book you have the option of getting inside people’s heads,” said Barbier. “Instead of just someone talking to themselves or letting the audience know through thoughts. You kind of have to make it seem more natural and figure out someone for them to talk to, which is why there is a psychiatrist, because Nate can’t really think these things. He has to say them to someone so the audience can get all the information they need.”

In addition to creating certain characters to get the audience inside Nate’s head, Barbier also used framing skills to get the audience to pick up on the little hints she left in the film. This included the connections between the two girls Nate comes across and his ex-girlfriend, Emma.

“For the second Emma, she’s in a coffee shop, and she has a stack of books with her,” said Barbier. “They are all by the same author, who is the author the main character’s girlfriend really liked, so there are little hints like that that I wanted to stick out.”

Barbier hopes viewers not only put thought into the twist of an ending but also appreciate it for the love story it is.

“I hope that they [the audience] find it enjoyable and see it as both an inspirational story and love story, showing that you don’t always lose somebody forever,” said Barbier.

Barbier is currently working on another filming project titled “Fugue,” which is about a young man named Percy, dealing with his friends before and after the apocalypse. It switches from pre to post apocalypse throughout the film, from him playing chess one minute to him trying to survive the next. The concept and story was written by graduate Cody Love. 

She is currently raising money for the project on Kickstarter and will be looking for actors in the near future.

Barbier hopes to pursue a career in editing and filming in the future once she graduates. While she aspires to be a director or producer one day, she personally enjoys the editing process and intends to start a career in that first.

“My favorite part is editing, just getting all these pieces after somebody has already shot them, and you’re the one who gets to put it together and create something,” said Barbier. “You are kind of the one who writes the story.”

For more information on Barbier’s upcoming film, “Fugue,” visit facebook.com/fugueanindependentfilm.