Today we’d like to introduce you to Mai Amalie Bak.
Hi Mai, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to Danish parents who were living in The Netherlands at the time.
When I was five years old, my dad got a job in San Francisco, and my parents were able to get me on board with the plan by telling me we were moving close to Disneyland (“That’s where Cinderella lives!”). In their defense, they had never been to the US, so they didn’t realize what a lie that was – it really does look close on a world map.
I was pretty excited to start school until I showed up on my first day of kindergarten and realized I didn’t understand a word of what anyone was saying to me – they were all speaking English and I only spoke Danish & Dutch. I learned to speak English within five months or so, but I was very shy at school for most of my childhood after that. Since I didn’t talk very much, I became really great at observing people and the ways in which we all interact. This, combined with an overactive imagination, love for stories, and stubborn determination to be really great at English, made reading and writing absolutely integral things in my life from a pretty young age.
I went on to live in the UK for middle school and finished high school in Denmark. By then, I was sure that I wanted to tell stories for a living, and since my writing skills were in English, I wanted to come back to the US to pursue that.
I ended up going to the University of Oregon, where I got my B.A. in Journalism with a Certificate in Film Studies. The journalism school and film studies program are closely connected at U of O, so I took any chance I got to take classes on things like video production, film criticism, and screenwriting.
After finishing undergrad, I went to Chapman University (which IS close to Disneyland), where I completed my MFA in Film & Television Producing in May of 2020 – a truly incredible time to graduate.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Making the decision to pursue a career in the entertainment industry definitely wasn’t an easy one. I’m the only person in my family who has gone a creative route in their career – my parents and siblings are all very business- and numbers-minded. No one I knew had ever worked in film, so a lot of my dreams were really speculative – as in, this is what I THINK I can be good at and what I THINK will make me happy. I had never seen it up close or had anyone to ask questions about what it’s really like or which way to go, and there’s only so much you can learn from reading books, doing research, and (of course) watching 30 Rock.
I ended up choosing to go to graduate school, which isn’t everyone’s path and certainly isn’t something I would have been able to do without a scholarship. After I accepted my offer, I was so worried that it would end up being something I was hopeless at or made me miserable. I always like to have a plan and uncertainty about something that big was difficult to deal with. Now that I’m here, I’m so confident (and, if I’m being honest, relieved) that this is what I want to do; having invested my time and resources into my education, built a network, and learned about the business from the inside.
Of course, there are day-to-day challenges, a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of times when things don’t work out the way you want them to. People aren’t lying when they say this is a tough business. But I’m happy to be here, excited for what’s to come, and confident that I have the skillset to take it on.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Another scene required a live beetle, and because the story involves the main character crushing it in her hand, we also needed a preserved version, since we obviously could not and would not harm the still-living beetle.” It’s about seven Jewish siblings who were hidden by a Christian couple in a small town in Germany during World War II. All seven siblings survived and emigrated to the U.S. after the war, which is unheard of. Beth Lane, the daughter of the youngest sibling, has spent the past three years making this documentary about it. It has been so rewarding and exciting to work on different methods of outreach, especially because a huge goal is to make the documentary a teaching tool for educators.
I have also produced five short films of my own. My most recent one, “Etana,” has been selected for some film festivals, including the Cleveland International Film Festival, which was back in April, and the Sedona International Film Festival, which is coming up this month and will be the first in-person festival we get to attend. I was lucky to work with the most talented and hardworking team of kind and wonderful people, and I’m proud of the film for so many reasons.
From a producing standpoint, it was an extremely challenging shoot, and so many of the scenes required us to get very creative as to how we would pull them off on a low budget. We spent the first three days of filming in a tiny town by the Salton Sea, where, in order to save money, my amazing director Marian de Pontes and I slept in the freezing RV, which we used as a holding area during the day. The day after we returned from the desert, we had to shoot an underwater scene at an AirBnb with a pool. Since it had to look like a lake and not a pool, we had to get these massive black tarps to line the bottom, and Marian and I volunteered to be the ones to get in the water. It took hours to make it work, but laughing out of a mix of frustration and feeling ridiculous is one of my favorite memories from the shoot.
Another scene required a live beetle, and because the main character crushes it in her hand, we also needed a preserved version. I spent days calling up entomologists (that is the name for bug experts, as I learned) from all over, trying to find this specific beetle that isn’t native to the U.S. and only lives for three weeks during a certain time of the year. I finally found someone who had the beetle we were looking for, but he couldn’t promise that it would still be alive for our shoot. It had to be that beetle, though, so we took a chance, and thankfully, that little beetle lived to give the performance of his life.
I think that the main asset I bring to a team is that I take the trust people give me very seriously. We all rely so heavily on each other’s strengths and skillsets to work towards our common goal, and on a really great team, there is no room for people who do things half-heartedly.
I was drawn to producing because I’m good at thinking creatively, whether it has to do with the content of the project itself or the logistics of getting it made. When it comes to the development side of producing, I think that my background as a writer is helpful in a lot of ways. I understand the writer’s mentality and have a good sense for what does and doesn’t work in a story.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
This isn’t one specific memory, but something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is how much I wish I still had the absolutely boundless imagination I had when I was a kid.
I don’t think any of us really appreciate it enough when we are kids – how could we, really? – but kids’ minds are so weird and awesome. Back then, I could spend a whole day just making up stories and dialogue for my dolls or playing games with my friends where we would all pretend to be different characters in made-up scenarios.
Recently, my best friend from growing up’s mom found a big binder full of papers from this fake wedding planning business she and I started around age eight or nine, after becoming obsessed with a book called “The Wedding Planner’s Daughter” where we would make up two fake people who were getting married and plan their “weddings.” I love the idea that we read a book, thought it was awesome, and decided to spend our time making up all these backstories and characters and plans for an event that we knew would never happen, for no purpose other than having fun.
Now that I’m an adult and I use my imagination professionally, sometimes I’ll hang out with the kids in my life and watch them play, and I’m like wow! I wish my perception of what’s possible was still so effortlessly limitless.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://www.maiamaliebak.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maiamalie/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/maiamalie
Image Credits:
Andrew Wilson; Emily Timmer
