September 26, 2025 • 22 mins
This week on The Sounds of Film, host Tom Needham welcomes writer, director, and producer Jacqueline Christy, whose feature debut Magic Hour will screen October 4th and 5th at 5:30 p.m. at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
Starring Miriam Shor (American Fiction, Younger), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes, Never Have I Ever), and Austin Pendleton (My Cousin Vinny), the film follows Harriet Peterson, a cinephile stuck in the suburbs who pursues her dream of becoming a filmmaker after her husband leaves her unexpectedly. Inspired by Christy’s own journey of entering NYU’s Graduate Film Program in her forties, Magic Hour is a heartfelt exploration of reinvention and the transformative power of film.
Christy is the founder of Access Theater and has received support from the NYC Women’s Fund, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Hollywood Foreign Press, and the Sloan Foundation. She has assistant directed Radium Girls, Equity, and Fry Day, and her short films include Rehearsal, Other People, and The Dependents.
The Sounds of Film Podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. The Sounds of Film Radio Show is America’s longest running music and film show. For over 35 years, the program has delivered a popular mix of music and interviews to listeners all over Long Island, parts of Connecticut, and streaming worldwide on the internet on WUSB. Past guests include Alec Baldwin, Billy Joel, William H. Macy, Dionne Warwick, Chuck D, Ernest Dickerson, Hal Hartley, Peter Fonda, and Rory Kennedy.
For more information, visit soundsoffilm.com
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hi, this is Tom Needham and you are listening to the sounds of
film today. I'm joined by writer, director,
and producer Jacqueline Christie, whose feature debut
Magic Hour will be screening October 4th and 5th at 5:30 PM
at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
Inspired by her own journey of pursuing film school in her 40s,
(00:25):
Jacqueline's story is a moving testament to chasing dreams,
redefining possibilities, and finding community through
cinema. Jacqueline, thank you so much
for joining us today on The Sounds of Film.
Thank you so much for having me.I'm really excited to be here.
Oh yeah, man, this is a great movie.
What inspired you to to write Magic Hour in the first place?
(00:48):
Oh, thank you for saying that. Yeah.
I guess what inspired me is that, well, first of all, it is
very loosely based on my actual experience going to the NYU
graduate film program in my 40s.And I had an amazing experience
there. And so I wanted to write about
it. And I think specifically I
(01:10):
wanted to write about this more universal theme, which is that I
think a lot of us tend to have these cherished dreams that we
never really pursue that we talkourselves out of, or we
procrastinate, or we say it's too late or whatever excuse we
have. And I feel like we think, oh, I
have to be like the perfect version of myself before I get
(01:32):
to do that. And with this movie, I wanted to
have the character. She's like the kind of
distillation of all my most neurotic qualities.
I wanted to have the main character sort of take all that
neurosis and put it into her work to sort of tell the
audience what I learned, which is that the process of
transformation happens when you put your dream to the test.
(01:56):
Then through living through that, then you will transform
maybe into the person that is more fully actualized or
whatever it is you want. But you can't like wait until
you are that actualized human and then go live your dream,
because then it'll never happen.I don't know if that's really
answered your question, but thatwas kind of what I was driving
at. No, that it's definitely there
in the film and it is inspiring.Why is it difficult for people
(02:20):
who are older who want to go to film school?
Oh man, that's such a good question.
I think it's harder because we've lived on Earth a little
longer and we might have internalized some of the world's
messages to us that oh, you're too old for this, or your dream
(02:42):
is silly, etcetera, etcetera. And it's bad enough if the world
tells us that, but it's much worse if we tell ourselves that.
And I certainly am guilty of that.
And so I feel like it's not a bad thing to to question that.
Whether it's film school or someother dream, everyone has dreams
that that they they cherish. And I think as we get older, we
(03:07):
realize that we can't live everysingle possibility.
You know, there's always going to be some degree of regret,
some dream we didn't get to live.
But this one is about living that dream that just won't let
you go. We do this show right here on
Long Island, so people here are familiar with NYU.
(03:28):
From your perspective, what in the film best captures the NYU
experience? Oh yeah, I had such a great time
at NYU and I definitely made a point.
You know, it's a fictionalized story.
I definitely made a point to really kind of highlight what I
(03:49):
loved about NYU, which is filmmaking within a really
supportive community. Because you not only make your
own films at NYU, you make tons and tons of directing exercises,
short films, all kinds of it's nonstop really.
It's pretty intense. But you also, I think more
importantly, help your classmates to make their films.
(04:10):
And so you show up with this incredibly supportive attitude
because you know they're going to be helping you next time.
And, and I think that first of all, that got me over my worry
that like, Oh, no one's going toask me to work on their films
because, you know, I'm so much older than everyone else.
I thought it wouldn't be like, cool.
But what I realized is people want to work with you.
If you work hard, you show up, you have a good attitude,
(04:31):
etcetera, etcetera, then they'relike, I want you on my set.
So I feel like that helped. But to answer your question
about the, the, the personality of NYU for me was about and
still is about that sense of community and how can we help
each other out. I feel like that in the NYU
graduate film program is, is theheartbeat of the whole thing,
how classmates, classmates that kind of help each other out, how
(04:53):
faculty helps us out. It's, it's like you can't create
a beautiful creative story that's unique in a vacuum.
You need support for that. You need collaboration.
And with that support and collaboration, it becomes a much
better movie than you could do on your own.
This film, you know, we're, we were talking about NYU, but one
(05:14):
of the things that is true for so many people today is that the
cost of college is so expensive.And I found it interesting that
one of the little moments in thefilm has the lead character
trying to decide whether she wants to keep her house or go to
film school. And that just kind of raises the
(05:36):
point about how expensive it is to pursue one's dream.
But it can be worth it. Why was that important to get
into the financial aspect of thedecision of the main character?
Yeah, so that's funny. I I, I enjoyed that scene
(05:56):
because I love the actors who played, you know, who are in
that scene. I think they're so funny
together. But yeah, I mean, I'm not
advising that anybody literally lose their house to pay for
tuition for any graduate program.
However, I did feel that I wanted to, again, exaggerate for
theatrical purposes. How, how much the main character
(06:20):
has to make a decision that's going to change her life forever
and and that she's articulating to us and to herself, this is
what I care about. My old life is broken and she
really can't fix it at that point.
And she has to abandon her old life and fully embrace the new.
And almost to fully embrace the new, she has to fully release
(06:42):
the house and everything, you know, that she used to think
about herself. And she has to kind of say, OK,
I'm starting over completely. So I wanted that complete sense
of like she's giving up one thing and fully embracing the
next. But to address to your question
more specifically, financially, it's a really tricky thing and,
and everyone has to answer this question for themselves.
My feeling was and, and is in general that if you can go into
(07:06):
a program, whether it's a filmmaking program like NYU or
some other graduate program, that's going to help you, if
it's going to give you the skills, inspiration and support
the community and essentially the earning power that will
justify the cost, then I think, you know, you can kind of do
that math. And now in a creative field like
the arts, it's, it goes beyond just your ability to make an
(07:27):
income. For me, it was more of an
existential need. I was like, this is what I this
is what I really wanted to do with my life, with my time on
earth here. And I hopefully will be telling
stories for the rest of my life.So for me, it was it was that.
Although I do think going to a school like NYU does improve
your chances of making an actualliving in a really competitive
(07:49):
field. So that's how I kind of
justified that financial expense.
But yeah, it is, it's, it's real.
The financial side is, is real. But like my main character, I
decided to take that risk. You mentioned that that scene is
funny, the whole movie is funny,and one of the things that I'm
excited about in going to the Hamptons International Film
(08:13):
Festival is to see the occasional comedy cause a lot of
the films, while great, are veryserious or dramatic.
It's rare these days to get a good comedy at a Film Festival,
and yours is definitely one of them.
Tell me a little bit about your approach to comedy in movies.
(08:33):
First of all, thank you for saying that.
I, I basically live my whole life using humor to get me
through the tough moments. Certainly in film school it was
humbling. I was a beginner, and I was
literally called The Rookie by my classmates who were much
younger than me and had a lot more experience with filmmaking
(08:54):
than I did. So when I'm in a humbling
experience, either I don't know what I'm doing or something goes
terribly wrong, even if it's just to myself.
I use humor to be like, oh wow, this is a crazy, ridiculous
situation. And some of the silly situations
in the movie are based on reality where I'm like, I can't
believe this is happening right now.
(09:14):
And in order to kind of get through it, I think a little
humor for me gives a lightness even to hard moments.
To answer your question about how how I approached comedy in
the movie, I was pretty clear with myself about certain
things. Certain scenes are played 100%
(09:34):
for comedy and I just want thoselaughs.
And I fortunately have a fantastic cast and especially in
Miriam Shore, who's hilarious. But some of the scenes are
played for real, like just for the drama.
There's no irony. They're really hard on our
sleeve, like drama. But most of the scenes are both.
They're a little drama and a little comedy at the same time.
And it's a really a tricky thingto play.
(09:56):
But Miriam just nailed it. She knew how to nuance that so
things could be hilarious but heartbreaking in the same
moment. And she's one of the very few
actors on Earth, I think, who can really, who can really do
that. So yeah.
So with the comedy, I also just will say one of the thing I
think that comedy allows us to go a little deeper.
If something hits the same note again and again, again where
(10:18):
it's going to be, maybe, you know, we're going to get kind of
bored of it. But if there's some comedy and
then there's, we go deeper into the drama and then we return to
something a little unexpected, alittle lighter.
Some of the comedy you saw is pretty heightened comedy, like
Mama Mothman and some of these characters.
Some of the comedy is very grounded, emotionally grounded.
(10:39):
So I tried to create some variety but still keep it of a
piece. One comedy that I've always
loved that's also about filmmaking is the film Living in
Oblivion. And I was wondering, I, I didn't
read anything about you talking about the film, but I, I, I, I
did sense a couple scenes that reminded me of that film.
(11:00):
I don't know if you know the movie, but I was wondering, is
that a film that you've seen andany inspiration from that film?
You know, it's so funny. I did see it a long time ago.
I don't remember the details. I should probably watch it again
and find out which scenes you'retalking about.
But I do know that it's a comedyabout independent filmmaking and
and all the crazy around it. I don't remember scene by scene
(11:23):
to be honest, but I'm sure there's some overlap there
because we are playing in the same sandbox.
Well, what is funny about makingmovies for someone who hasn't
seen the movie yet? Like what?
What? What is some of the humor that
just naturally evolves any time anyone is trying to make a film?
Yeah, good question. Well, essentially you're in an
(11:44):
impossible situation. I mean, making a movie is so
crazy intense and making a movieinvolves all different, you
know, different kind of areas. So pre production, post
production, those areas are a little slower and they're not as
crazy and there's really not that much comedy necessarily
involved in those parts. But production where you have so
(12:05):
many different personalities andso many different moving parts
because you have different departments, for example, design
and the the director of photography.
And then of course all the actors and everything, all, you
know, has to work all together at once and you have to move
pretty quickly and you might have 100 or more people on set
at the same time. So invariably things go terribly
(12:29):
wrong. And that can be not fun.
You know, that can be, there aremoments in this movie that are
about the things that go terribly wrong, that aren't
funny at all, that can be kind of terrible or catastrophic.
But sometimes, you know, depending on the way you're
depicting it, it can be very funny because, for example, in
the movie, without giving too much away, the main character
(12:50):
has to kind of step in and help out her classmates and sort of
do sort of ridiculous things, you know, to to help make that
movie happen at all costs. So some of the humor comes from
people just willing to go for it, just give it up everything
they can when something goes wrong.
OK, what can we do? What can we do to make this
happen? And I think the comedy also can
(13:12):
come from personalities on set. Personality clashes on set can
be an interesting source of comedy.
But I think like anything else, part of the reason that the
production part of filmmaking can be funny, and I think is
lampooned in Living in Oblivion and in my movie and other
movies, is that you're under such an intense amount of
(13:36):
pressure and everybody on set isunder incredible amounts of
pressure. And that brings the best and the
worst out of people, and that makes it rich for comedy.
Besides just touching on the subject of making films in
college, one also gets a little glimpse into what it's like when
someone gets their first opportunity to make a film with
(13:57):
a professional company. And there's good and bad with
that. One gets the financing and a
whole big production, but one thing that's alluded to in the
movie is that sometimes a studioor a company might bring in
someone to oversee the project or work on the film that may not
have the same vision as the director or the writer or
(14:19):
whoever initiated the project. That's a very real thing.
Why was that something that you wanted to look at in the film as
well? Oh, I'm so glad you brought this
up. Yeah, this is this is one of the
important, I guess, themes for me and a major reason why I
wrote the movie and wanted to make it.
(14:40):
It's exactly as you described, basically the main character,
her name is Harriet. She wants to make her film a
certain way. And I'll talk, I'll talk about
myself actually, because this isthis is a true part of the
movie, I guess, which is this that when I was in film school,
I really felt like like like thecreative process was protected
(15:03):
by this kind of bubble of love, let's call it in film school
where we all supported each other and our faculty supported
us. And it was a really beautiful
creative, collaborative experience.
And when I moved on to the more professional film sets, other
film makers will not be surprised to hear this.
There can be some conflict on set, and it often stems from a
(15:28):
certain kind of leadership that can be expected.
I don't think this is unique to filmmaking, but on film sets,
sometimes the director is expected to be like Attila the
Hun. You know, to be out for blood,
to be a tough guy or tough gal. And I think sometimes people
like women especially, but you know, people feel like they have
(15:49):
to change their personality to be a strong leader.
And because there's a lot of money on the line and time is
short, people feel like the person who's yelling the loudest
is the one with the strongest leadership capacity.
And I couldn't disagree with that more.
I believe in the transformative power of kindness in leadership.
(16:09):
I feel that kindness and leadership is much more powerful
than bullying. And I created a world very much
on purpose where, you know, the world of the movie, where
kindness equals weakness. And by the end of the movie,
without giving away the plot toomuch, we realize, and I think
the main character realizes thatkindness equals strength.
(16:30):
And I'll, I'll give it a kind ofa more specific example of what
I'm talking about. If if someone's been a big bully
and Attila the Hun, and that's been their leadership style and
they've been kind of mean to everybody, when things go wrong,
no one has that person's back. In fact, people are happy to see
them go down. But if you're really kind to
(16:52):
people and you've been listeningto what they have to say, making
sure they have a voice, making sure their concerns matter to
you and really creating a collaborative environment when
things go wrong. And they do, especially in film
sets. Everyone has your back.
So in the making of Magic Hour, I want it was just as important
to me to make the process of making the movie a beautiful,
positive process as it was to make the movie itself, you know,
(17:15):
a good movie. And so when we would, for
example, we lost a location and one of our P as was like, I have
a room, you know, in my apartment, we can use my
roommate's room. She's cool with that.
All of a sudden people are like,how can I help?
How can I help? And I really credit that to my
team because everybody was a really like really kind of
really supportive. And I felt like that's strong
(17:37):
leadership when everyone gets behind the same idea and is
willing to give everything they've got.
So there's a theme there and it kind of, you know, when you ask
me about people bringing in different kind of leadership
styles on set, in this case, sorry, cinematographers out
there, I made the cinematographer the villain, but
his leadership style and Harriet's leadership style are
(18:00):
deliberately opposed. And I'm exaggerating both of
them slightly, but one is leading through kindness and the
other is leading through kind ofa form of bullying and that kind
of stuff. And I, you know, I made it
optimistic movie that says kindness will prevail.
Yeah, no. I I hope that answered your
question. Yeah, absolutely.
And that's refreshing to hear inthese times.
(18:23):
Jacqueline, the movie's called the Magic Hour.
That is a film term that some people may know, but maybe not
everyone. Why?
Why did you name the movie The Magic Hour?
And what is the Magic Hour when you're when you're making a
film? Yeah, so it's called magic hour
because magic Hour is the hour of the most beautiful light, and
(18:46):
cinematographers love to shoot during that time.
Terrence Malick famously shot a lot of his work right at magic
hour, which is when the sun is setting and we've all seen it.
It's just an absolutely gorgeoustime of day.
It's end of day, but it's not evening.
The sun looks golden and kind ofmagical.
(19:12):
So literally it's a very beautiful moment in in time.
And it's an important term in filmmaking, but it's also a time
of transition. And that time of transition for
for all of us who are pivoting in our lives, who are looking at
our lives and saying, hey, am I?Am I living the life I really
(19:32):
want to live? Is there a transition?
Can I pivot the The term magic hour alludes to a moment in time
where things are transitioning and we're going from, in that
case, day to night. And I wanted that to be
evocative for people who might also be in a moment of their
lives of transition or of considering pivoting, whether
(19:55):
they are getting a divorce or retiring or switching careers
or, you know, any number of major life transitions.
So that's the other, more metaphorical use of the the
phrase magic hour. One of the important parts or
part of the process of making a film is going to film festivals,
and your film is going to be playing at the Hamptons
(20:18):
International Film Festival. I imagine that you've been going
to a lot of festivals. What is it about going to
festivals for you that's important in terms of the
process? Yes, I am so thrilled to be at
the Hamptons International Film Festival.
I've gone to the festival as a as a fan, as a film lover, and
it's just a huge honor to be in the festival.
(20:41):
And the highlight for me is the audience experiencing the movie.
It's one thing to make the movie, but the movie's not
finished until the audience is sitting there experiencing the
movie. And the thing that's made me so
happy is that when people at theend of the movie, you know,
there's AQA and people ask questions, but then sometimes
(21:02):
when that's over, they'll come up and talk to me.
And a lot of people have said that's me, that's my life,
that's me up there. And it makes me really happy for
people to be talking, not necessarily about the movie, but
about themselves and their own deferred dreams and their own
desire to kind of pick up that long lost dream and finally, you
know, give it a shot. Because we're only here, only
(21:22):
here for a short period of time and we only live once, so why
not? That's been so joyful and and
such a wonderful feeling to feellike, OK, you know, you write
something, you direct something,you hope people are going to
relate to it, but you don't really know.
And in the festival experience, I've had a chance to connect
directly with audiences and that's just been wonderful.
(21:44):
And I want to encourage people to go out to the Hamptons
International Film Festival. Our film is screening on October
4th and 5th at 5:30 PM. Is there a place Jacqueline
online that people can go to learn more about your movie and
your work? Absolutely.
So we have a website magic hour dot US.
(22:04):
We also are on Instagram and Facebook and so we have updates
and, you know, last minute invites to special events or I,
I guess I can say this now it's I'll be doing AQ and a Saturday
morning or a panel rather about making shorts versus making
features. So that's part of the Hamptons
(22:25):
festival as well. So on our website and on our
Facebook and Instagram, you can get the, the latest updates.
So please follow us. Well Jacqueline, I want to thank
you so much for coming on the Sounds of Film and I wish you
the best at the festival. Thank you, it's been so much fun
talking to you.
Hi, this is Tom Needham and you are listening to the sounds of
film today. I'm joined by writer, director,
and producer Jacqueline Christie, whose feature debut
Magic Hour will be screening October 4th and 5th at 5:30 PM
at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
Inspired by her own journey of pursuing film school in her 40s,
(00:25):
Jacqueline's story is a moving testament to chasing dreams,
redefining possibilities, and finding community through
cinema. Jacqueline, thank you so much
for joining us today on The Sounds of Film.
Thank you so much for having me.I'm really excited to be here.
Oh yeah, man, this is a great movie.
What inspired you to to write Magic Hour in the first place?
(00:48):
Oh, thank you for saying that. Yeah.
I guess what inspired me is that, well, first of all, it is
very loosely based on my actual experience going to the NYU
graduate film program in my 40s.And I had an amazing experience
there. And so I wanted to write about
it. And I think specifically I
(01:10):
wanted to write about this more universal theme, which is that I
think a lot of us tend to have these cherished dreams that we
never really pursue that we talkourselves out of, or we
procrastinate, or we say it's too late or whatever excuse we
have. And I feel like we think, oh, I
have to be like the perfect version of myself before I get
(01:32):
to do that. And with this movie, I wanted to
have the character. She's like the kind of
distillation of all my most neurotic qualities.
I wanted to have the main character sort of take all that
neurosis and put it into her work to sort of tell the
audience what I learned, which is that the process of
transformation happens when you put your dream to the test.
(01:56):
Then through living through that, then you will transform
maybe into the person that is more fully actualized or
whatever it is you want. But you can't like wait until
you are that actualized human and then go live your dream,
because then it'll never happen.I don't know if that's really
answered your question, but thatwas kind of what I was driving
at. No, that it's definitely there
in the film and it is inspiring.Why is it difficult for people
(02:20):
who are older who want to go to film school?
Oh man, that's such a good question.
I think it's harder because we've lived on Earth a little
longer and we might have internalized some of the world's
messages to us that oh, you're too old for this, or your dream
(02:42):
is silly, etcetera, etcetera. And it's bad enough if the world
tells us that, but it's much worse if we tell ourselves that.
And I certainly am guilty of that.
And so I feel like it's not a bad thing to to question that.
Whether it's film school or someother dream, everyone has dreams
that that they they cherish. And I think as we get older, we
(03:07):
realize that we can't live everysingle possibility.
You know, there's always going to be some degree of regret,
some dream we didn't get to live.
But this one is about living that dream that just won't let
you go. We do this show right here on
Long Island, so people here are familiar with NYU.
(03:28):
From your perspective, what in the film best captures the NYU
experience? Oh yeah, I had such a great time
at NYU and I definitely made a point.
You know, it's a fictionalized story.
I definitely made a point to really kind of highlight what I
(03:49):
loved about NYU, which is filmmaking within a really
supportive community. Because you not only make your
own films at NYU, you make tons and tons of directing exercises,
short films, all kinds of it's nonstop really.
It's pretty intense. But you also, I think more
importantly, help your classmates to make their films.
(04:10):
And so you show up with this incredibly supportive attitude
because you know they're going to be helping you next time.
And, and I think that first of all, that got me over my worry
that like, Oh, no one's going toask me to work on their films
because, you know, I'm so much older than everyone else.
I thought it wouldn't be like, cool.
But what I realized is people want to work with you.
If you work hard, you show up, you have a good attitude,
(04:31):
etcetera, etcetera, then they'relike, I want you on my set.
So I feel like that helped. But to answer your question
about the, the, the personality of NYU for me was about and
still is about that sense of community and how can we help
each other out. I feel like that in the NYU
graduate film program is, is theheartbeat of the whole thing,
how classmates, classmates that kind of help each other out, how
(04:53):
faculty helps us out. It's, it's like you can't create
a beautiful creative story that's unique in a vacuum.
You need support for that. You need collaboration.
And with that support and collaboration, it becomes a much
better movie than you could do on your own.
This film, you know, we're, we were talking about NYU, but one
(05:14):
of the things that is true for so many people today is that the
cost of college is so expensive.And I found it interesting that
one of the little moments in thefilm has the lead character
trying to decide whether she wants to keep her house or go to
film school. And that just kind of raises the
(05:36):
point about how expensive it is to pursue one's dream.
But it can be worth it. Why was that important to get
into the financial aspect of thedecision of the main character?
Yeah, so that's funny. I I, I enjoyed that scene
(05:56):
because I love the actors who played, you know, who are in
that scene. I think they're so funny
together. But yeah, I mean, I'm not
advising that anybody literally lose their house to pay for
tuition for any graduate program.
However, I did feel that I wanted to, again, exaggerate for
theatrical purposes. How, how much the main character
(06:20):
has to make a decision that's going to change her life forever
and and that she's articulating to us and to herself, this is
what I care about. My old life is broken and she
really can't fix it at that point.
And she has to abandon her old life and fully embrace the new.
And almost to fully embrace the new, she has to fully release
(06:42):
the house and everything, you know, that she used to think
about herself. And she has to kind of say, OK,
I'm starting over completely. So I wanted that complete sense
of like she's giving up one thing and fully embracing the
next. But to address to your question
more specifically, financially, it's a really tricky thing and,
and everyone has to answer this question for themselves.
My feeling was and, and is in general that if you can go into
(07:06):
a program, whether it's a filmmaking program like NYU or
some other graduate program, that's going to help you, if
it's going to give you the skills, inspiration and support
the community and essentially the earning power that will
justify the cost, then I think, you know, you can kind of do
that math. And now in a creative field like
the arts, it's, it goes beyond just your ability to make an
(07:27):
income. For me, it was more of an
existential need. I was like, this is what I this
is what I really wanted to do with my life, with my time on
earth here. And I hopefully will be telling
stories for the rest of my life.So for me, it was it was that.
Although I do think going to a school like NYU does improve
your chances of making an actualliving in a really competitive
(07:49):
field. So that's how I kind of
justified that financial expense.
But yeah, it is, it's, it's real.
The financial side is, is real. But like my main character, I
decided to take that risk. You mentioned that that scene is
funny, the whole movie is funny,and one of the things that I'm
excited about in going to the Hamptons International Film
(08:13):
Festival is to see the occasional comedy cause a lot of
the films, while great, are veryserious or dramatic.
It's rare these days to get a good comedy at a Film Festival,
and yours is definitely one of them.
Tell me a little bit about your approach to comedy in movies.
(08:33):
First of all, thank you for saying that.
I, I basically live my whole life using humor to get me
through the tough moments. Certainly in film school it was
humbling. I was a beginner, and I was
literally called The Rookie by my classmates who were much
younger than me and had a lot more experience with filmmaking
(08:54):
than I did. So when I'm in a humbling
experience, either I don't know what I'm doing or something goes
terribly wrong, even if it's just to myself.
I use humor to be like, oh wow, this is a crazy, ridiculous
situation. And some of the silly situations
in the movie are based on reality where I'm like, I can't
believe this is happening right now.
(09:14):
And in order to kind of get through it, I think a little
humor for me gives a lightness even to hard moments.
To answer your question about how how I approached comedy in
the movie, I was pretty clear with myself about certain
things. Certain scenes are played 100%
(09:34):
for comedy and I just want thoselaughs.
And I fortunately have a fantastic cast and especially in
Miriam Shore, who's hilarious. But some of the scenes are
played for real, like just for the drama.
There's no irony. They're really hard on our
sleeve, like drama. But most of the scenes are both.
They're a little drama and a little comedy at the same time.
And it's a really a tricky thingto play.
(09:56):
But Miriam just nailed it. She knew how to nuance that so
things could be hilarious but heartbreaking in the same
moment. And she's one of the very few
actors on Earth, I think, who can really, who can really do
that. So yeah.
So with the comedy, I also just will say one of the thing I
think that comedy allows us to go a little deeper.
If something hits the same note again and again, again where
(10:18):
it's going to be, maybe, you know, we're going to get kind of
bored of it. But if there's some comedy and
then there's, we go deeper into the drama and then we return to
something a little unexpected, alittle lighter.
Some of the comedy you saw is pretty heightened comedy, like
Mama Mothman and some of these characters.
Some of the comedy is very grounded, emotionally grounded.
(10:39):
So I tried to create some variety but still keep it of a
piece. One comedy that I've always
loved that's also about filmmaking is the film Living in
Oblivion. And I was wondering, I, I didn't
read anything about you talking about the film, but I, I, I, I
did sense a couple scenes that reminded me of that film.
(11:00):
I don't know if you know the movie, but I was wondering, is
that a film that you've seen andany inspiration from that film?
You know, it's so funny. I did see it a long time ago.
I don't remember the details. I should probably watch it again
and find out which scenes you'retalking about.
But I do know that it's a comedyabout independent filmmaking and
and all the crazy around it. I don't remember scene by scene
(11:23):
to be honest, but I'm sure there's some overlap there
because we are playing in the same sandbox.
Well, what is funny about makingmovies for someone who hasn't
seen the movie yet? Like what?
What? What is some of the humor that
just naturally evolves any time anyone is trying to make a film?
Yeah, good question. Well, essentially you're in an
(11:44):
impossible situation. I mean, making a movie is so
crazy intense and making a movieinvolves all different, you
know, different kind of areas. So pre production, post
production, those areas are a little slower and they're not as
crazy and there's really not that much comedy necessarily
involved in those parts. But production where you have so
(12:05):
many different personalities andso many different moving parts
because you have different departments, for example, design
and the the director of photography.
And then of course all the actors and everything, all, you
know, has to work all together at once and you have to move
pretty quickly and you might have 100 or more people on set
at the same time. So invariably things go terribly
(12:29):
wrong. And that can be not fun.
You know, that can be, there aremoments in this movie that are
about the things that go terribly wrong, that aren't
funny at all, that can be kind of terrible or catastrophic.
But sometimes, you know, depending on the way you're
depicting it, it can be very funny because, for example, in
the movie, without giving too much away, the main character
(12:50):
has to kind of step in and help out her classmates and sort of
do sort of ridiculous things, you know, to to help make that
movie happen at all costs. So some of the humor comes from
people just willing to go for it, just give it up everything
they can when something goes wrong.
OK, what can we do? What can we do to make this
happen? And I think the comedy also can
(13:12):
come from personalities on set. Personality clashes on set can
be an interesting source of comedy.
But I think like anything else, part of the reason that the
production part of filmmaking can be funny, and I think is
lampooned in Living in Oblivion and in my movie and other
movies, is that you're under such an intense amount of
(13:36):
pressure and everybody on set isunder incredible amounts of
pressure. And that brings the best and the
worst out of people, and that makes it rich for comedy.
Besides just touching on the subject of making films in
college, one also gets a little glimpse into what it's like when
someone gets their first opportunity to make a film with
(13:57):
a professional company. And there's good and bad with
that. One gets the financing and a
whole big production, but one thing that's alluded to in the
movie is that sometimes a studioor a company might bring in
someone to oversee the project or work on the film that may not
have the same vision as the director or the writer or
(14:19):
whoever initiated the project. That's a very real thing.
Why was that something that you wanted to look at in the film as
well? Oh, I'm so glad you brought this
up. Yeah, this is this is one of the
important, I guess, themes for me and a major reason why I
wrote the movie and wanted to make it.
(14:40):
It's exactly as you described, basically the main character,
her name is Harriet. She wants to make her film a
certain way. And I'll talk, I'll talk about
myself actually, because this isthis is a true part of the
movie, I guess, which is this that when I was in film school,
I really felt like like like thecreative process was protected
(15:03):
by this kind of bubble of love, let's call it in film school
where we all supported each other and our faculty supported
us. And it was a really beautiful
creative, collaborative experience.
And when I moved on to the more professional film sets, other
film makers will not be surprised to hear this.
There can be some conflict on set, and it often stems from a
(15:28):
certain kind of leadership that can be expected.
I don't think this is unique to filmmaking, but on film sets,
sometimes the director is expected to be like Attila the
Hun. You know, to be out for blood,
to be a tough guy or tough gal. And I think sometimes people
like women especially, but you know, people feel like they have
(15:49):
to change their personality to be a strong leader.
And because there's a lot of money on the line and time is
short, people feel like the person who's yelling the loudest
is the one with the strongest leadership capacity.
And I couldn't disagree with that more.
I believe in the transformative power of kindness in leadership.
(16:09):
I feel that kindness and leadership is much more powerful
than bullying. And I created a world very much
on purpose where, you know, the world of the movie, where
kindness equals weakness. And by the end of the movie,
without giving away the plot toomuch, we realize, and I think
the main character realizes thatkindness equals strength.
(16:30):
And I'll, I'll give it a kind ofa more specific example of what
I'm talking about. If if someone's been a big bully
and Attila the Hun, and that's been their leadership style and
they've been kind of mean to everybody, when things go wrong,
no one has that person's back. In fact, people are happy to see
them go down. But if you're really kind to
(16:52):
people and you've been listeningto what they have to say, making
sure they have a voice, making sure their concerns matter to
you and really creating a collaborative environment when
things go wrong. And they do, especially in film
sets. Everyone has your back.
So in the making of Magic Hour, I want it was just as important
to me to make the process of making the movie a beautiful,
positive process as it was to make the movie itself, you know,
(17:15):
a good movie. And so when we would, for
example, we lost a location and one of our P as was like, I have
a room, you know, in my apartment, we can use my
roommate's room. She's cool with that.
All of a sudden people are like,how can I help?
How can I help? And I really credit that to my
team because everybody was a really like really kind of
really supportive. And I felt like that's strong
(17:37):
leadership when everyone gets behind the same idea and is
willing to give everything they've got.
So there's a theme there and it kind of, you know, when you ask
me about people bringing in different kind of leadership
styles on set, in this case, sorry, cinematographers out
there, I made the cinematographer the villain, but
his leadership style and Harriet's leadership style are
(18:00):
deliberately opposed. And I'm exaggerating both of
them slightly, but one is leading through kindness and the
other is leading through kind ofa form of bullying and that kind
of stuff. And I, you know, I made it
optimistic movie that says kindness will prevail.
Yeah, no. I I hope that answered your
question. Yeah, absolutely.
And that's refreshing to hear inthese times.
(18:23):
Jacqueline, the movie's called the Magic Hour.
That is a film term that some people may know, but maybe not
everyone. Why?
Why did you name the movie The Magic Hour?
And what is the Magic Hour when you're when you're making a
film? Yeah, so it's called magic hour
because magic Hour is the hour of the most beautiful light, and
(18:46):
cinematographers love to shoot during that time.
Terrence Malick famously shot a lot of his work right at magic
hour, which is when the sun is setting and we've all seen it.
It's just an absolutely gorgeoustime of day.
It's end of day, but it's not evening.
The sun looks golden and kind ofmagical.
(19:12):
So literally it's a very beautiful moment in in time.
And it's an important term in filmmaking, but it's also a time
of transition. And that time of transition for
for all of us who are pivoting in our lives, who are looking at
our lives and saying, hey, am I?Am I living the life I really
(19:32):
want to live? Is there a transition?
Can I pivot the The term magic hour alludes to a moment in time
where things are transitioning and we're going from, in that
case, day to night. And I wanted that to be
evocative for people who might also be in a moment of their
lives of transition or of considering pivoting, whether
(19:55):
they are getting a divorce or retiring or switching careers
or, you know, any number of major life transitions.
So that's the other, more metaphorical use of the the
phrase magic hour. One of the important parts or
part of the process of making a film is going to film festivals,
and your film is going to be playing at the Hamptons
(20:18):
International Film Festival. I imagine that you've been going
to a lot of festivals. What is it about going to
festivals for you that's important in terms of the
process? Yes, I am so thrilled to be at
the Hamptons International Film Festival.
I've gone to the festival as a as a fan, as a film lover, and
it's just a huge honor to be in the festival.
(20:41):
And the highlight for me is the audience experiencing the movie.
It's one thing to make the movie, but the movie's not
finished until the audience is sitting there experiencing the
movie. And the thing that's made me so
happy is that when people at theend of the movie, you know,
there's AQA and people ask questions, but then sometimes
(21:02):
when that's over, they'll come up and talk to me.
And a lot of people have said that's me, that's my life,
that's me up there. And it makes me really happy for
people to be talking, not necessarily about the movie, but
about themselves and their own deferred dreams and their own
desire to kind of pick up that long lost dream and finally, you
know, give it a shot. Because we're only here, only
(21:22):
here for a short period of time and we only live once, so why
not? That's been so joyful and and
such a wonderful feeling to feellike, OK, you know, you write
something, you direct something,you hope people are going to
relate to it, but you don't really know.
And in the festival experience, I've had a chance to connect
directly with audiences and that's just been wonderful.
(21:44):
And I want to encourage people to go out to the Hamptons
International Film Festival. Our film is screening on October
4th and 5th at 5:30 PM. Is there a place Jacqueline
online that people can go to learn more about your movie and
your work? Absolutely.
So we have a website magic hour dot US.
(22:04):
We also are on Instagram and Facebook and so we have updates
and, you know, last minute invites to special events or I,
I guess I can say this now it's I'll be doing AQ and a Saturday
morning or a panel rather about making shorts versus making
features. So that's part of the Hamptons
(22:25):
festival as well. So on our website and on our
Facebook and Instagram, you can get the, the latest updates.
So please follow us. Well Jacqueline, I want to thank
you so much for coming on the Sounds of Film and I wish you
the best at the festival. Thank you, it's been so much fun
talking to you.
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