Today we’d like to introduce you to Fiona Mackenzie.
Hi Fiona, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Well, I didn’t start out as a filmmaker. I was on a different path at first. After graduate school in D.C., which included an internship at the Wall Street Journal in NYC, I realized I wanted to go into a more creative field. So I ended up applying for and getting a starter job as a writer at British Vogue in London. It was there, within the Conde Nast building in London, that I was suddenly surrounded by a fantastic world of writers, editors, photographers, stylists, essayists and filmmakers. And it was there I felt I sort of finally fit in, professionally. After about six months, I started trying to get hired by newspapers and magazines based out of Paris (quite challenging as most of them were not in English!). I eventually moved there and started working almost immediately for US TV production companies based in Paris. I was fluent in French and pretty good in Spanish and Italian too, and I was soon sent all over Europe, producing stories for US, UK and European TV.
After about two years, it made sense to open my own production company, which I did, based out of Luxembourg and Paris. And then I was on a busy streak for the next five years producing shorter feature stories and thought pieces, as well as longer-form investigative and documentary stories all over the world. And just as I was ready to back to the US, feeling a bit homesick I guess, I got a job offer out of the blue to work as the assistant to the executive producer on a new, American dramatic television series being filmed in Paris. So I delayed my departure and took the job, which was on The Highlander, a supernatural action series that became a long-running hit. During that year, we produced a new, one hour episode every ten days, and I learned an incredible amount at a rapid pace about production, storytelling and working with actors. I just fell in love with the entire process. So when I did eventually go back to the States about one year later to New York City, I kept my TV journalism job for my main client out of London but started moonlighting so to speak at all kinds of New York based feature film companies.
During that time, I also wrote a few scripts that companies really liked. They started flying me out to LA to pitch them, and it turned out I was pretty good not at just writing the stories but also pitching them, as that had been very much a part of my journalist life up to that time. You never got to go do a TV news shoot, for example, in Brazil or Cambodia (places I shot several projects while living in Paris) without a major pitch to convince your Executive Producer that the story, and the expense of the trip, were worth it. So I had kind of honed the skill of “pitching” in a room, which I think for many writers is quite terrifying. I actually always kind of liked pitching. I always tried to make myself feel like I was just “telling a good story to a friend” to make the jitters go away. As it’s very often just you, the writer, solo, facing anywhere from two to five Execs telling them your story. It can be nerve-racking for sure!
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?
Well, changing careers, from journalism to film and entertainment, was a huge challenge for me. I didn’t go to film school (my parents would never have supported that idea) but I also already had hundreds of hours of production already under my belt, had launched a successful production company in Europe and had a year of working on a complex, visually effects driven TV series. But even with that, I still found it really hard to get a job in NY, working full-time in film or for a film company. So instead, I just kept being a TV reporter and producer for my UK clients and still plugged away freelancing, or doing script analysis or whatever I could do to get my foot in the door in the film industry in New York. Finally, I decided if I wanted to learn how big, studio-sized movies are made, I really needed to move to Los Angeles. So a few executives who had read my screenplays and writing helped open some doors, and I got my resume out to a few production companies in LA. And to my huge surprise, I got several very interesting job offers. So I took the job-based at Sony Pictures as I loved that studio, as well as the producers I would be working for, and that was that. On to the level of learning all about this fascinating and crazy industry.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Now that I have launched my own company, I really try to focus my writing and projects on stories that have a female focus and an international perspective. That doesn’t mean the stories don’t also gave Male co-leads or a US-based storyline too, it just means that there will probably be a component of the story (and cast) that would draw in international audiences as well as US, and the story would also give as much to the female Lead to do, as to the Male. Right now, I’m very actively putting together several projects with exciting partners. One is an international espionage thriller, with a female lead, called Alpha Numeric. The other is a murder mystery, called The Club, set in my hometown of Carmel and Big Sur. In both instances, I’m working with some amazing women (Producers and Actors) who have come on board and are helping move these projects along. I’m also working on several things that have a human rights issue or some kind of “crisis” embedded in the storyline. So I guess I just can’t shake those journalistic roots!
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Hmm, interesting question. I think of luck as being prepared, very prepared, and getting yourself at least into the orb of people who can help, collectively, make something happen. But luck is also sometimes just very random. Missing a subway puts you next to someone you never thought you would be next to. A chance encounter at a restaurant may lead to your next job opportunity. I was in jury duty once in New York and spent a week meeting people I would never have organically come to know. Several of them became friends and business associates. Random? Luck? Maybe a bit of both? I’m a very optimistic person in general, so I pretty much always see the upside of a situation, even if at first glance, it might not seem that way.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.ascentmedia.co
- Instagram: @fionamackenziemedia
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fionamackenziemedia
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRuhoAxGmAuOvmEBad2BgCQ
- Other: www.imdb.com/name/nm0533301
