🎙️ Christina McLarty Arquette on Jumping from Entertainment Reporter to Indie Producer (and Reviving Bozo) 🎬🤹‍♀️🐄

Send us a text

Christina McLarty Arquette walked away from on-air entertainment reporting to build a prolific producing career across documentaries and scripted features. In this episode, we dig into how she finished her first doc Survivor’s Guide to Prison, produced the cult-favorite You Cannot Kill David Arquette, brought film productions to Arkansas (including Jason's hometown), and why she and David Arquette are reimagining…Bozo the Clown.

Episode Highlights

• Career Reboot with Purpose: Burnout from daily news pushed Christina to produce impact-driven documentaries—while still using her newsroom instincts for fast writing, structure, and getting to the point.
• Finish the Film: Create real deadlines (festival submissions like Sundance, SXSW), back-plan delivery, and treat your doc like a job with milestones.
• Producer = “Whatever It Takes”: Indie producing spans financing, budgeting, crew hiring, interviews, music & footage licensing, legal, festival strategy, and distribution. Expect to learn on the fly—and phone a friend when you hit a wall.
• Post Is Where Budgets Break: Budget for color, mix, graphics, QC, and deliverables (the unsexy but essential tech specs buyers require). Keep finishing funds in reserve.
• Arkansas Advantage: Incentives + local talent + accessible locations = real value. Community support matters—from city halls to small businesses.
• Bozo’s Second Act: Beyond nostalgia, the work is about brand rehabilitation and storytelling that introduces Bozo to new audiences—without the “scary clown” baggage.
• Life After LA: Nashville offers family life, creative community, and space to build projects—plus a cause-driven lens on local issues.

Practical Takeaways for Documentary Makers 🎒

• Set immovable deadlines (festival calendars are perfect external pressure).
• Outline deliverables early so you’re not blindsided post-sale.
• Leverage newsroom skills: write fast, structure tight, fact-check always.
• Treat releases and licensing as day-one priorities, not last-minute chores.
• Network with purpose: today’s jail tour contact can be tomorrow’s co-producer.
• Budget for marketing: screeners, assets, DCPs, captions, festival travel.

Works & Projects Mentioned

• Survivor’s Guide to Prison (producer) — issue-driven doc that toured educationally and screened on Capitol Hill.
• You Cannot Kill David Arquette (producer) — SXSW selection; Hulu; Critics Choice nom; Adobe Editing Award.
• They Call Me Magic (team involvement referenced) — Apple TV+ docuseries.
• 12 Hour Shift (producer) — shot in Jonesboro, AR; indie thriller in a decommissioned hospital.
• Ghosts of the Ozarks (producer) — filmed in Trumann, AR.
• The First Step (EP) — on federal criminal justice reform.
• God Said Give ‘Em Drum Machines (producer) — Detroit techno roots.
• Bozo the Clown — ongoing doc + broader brand revival.

Christina McLarty Arquette is an independent film & documentary producer (13+ credits) and former entertainment reporter. She focuses on character-driven stories with cultural impact, splitting time between Nashville and Los Angeles and building a multifaceted Bozo revival with husband David Arquette.

Jason Ball is a former TV news director who’s charted his own “life after news.” On this show, he talks with journalists who jumped to new careers—an

Let Life After News inspire your next chapter. Because leaving the news doesn’t mean the story’s over—it means a new one’s just beginning.