Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacki Moonves.
Hi Jacki, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I got into filmmaking pretty impulsively. I watched a hilarious found footage video a friend made in high school and suddenly realized that I wanted to make funny videos as a career. It was either that or follow my other passion toward the far more noble profession of examining waste management technology and policy to make it more sustainable. But since I was a teenager, I picked the goofy career path and have no regrets about it! I am, nevertheless, still really interested in garbage and have spent much of the last year writing an adult animated series about it.
I really didn’t know anything about filmmaking growing up, and in fact I didn’t get into filmmaking because I particularly loved cinema. I was drawn to it because I loved the collaborative process of making art, the adventurous lifestyle and invitations to travel, the opportunity to make new friends frequently, and — bonus! — free lunch. Luckily, I had some outstanding professors at Emerson College (thank you, Rob Patton-Spruill) who taught me what a camera was and how to use it!
I have always been drawn to comedies and action movies since I was little, so it’s only natural that my goal is to shoot action-comedies. If I had an ideal project, it would probably be a super funny action adventure movie about aliens in Antarctica with lots of explosions and a silly musical number. In the meantime, I’m here in LA shooting short films, music videos, and commercials, and I’m thoroughly enjoying myself!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It takes a while to find your people. There are some directors who may be talented but you just don’t click with them when you’re working together. It took me a while to find my favorite collaborators, but once I started shooting with them, it’s been a thousand times more rewarding to do my job. At the top of my list of career priorities is working with people I like and respect, and I don’t think that will ever change.
Women only account for 3% of DPs, and I’ve definitely encountered my fair share of sexism in all its hideous forms throughout my career. Fewer opportunities, lower pay for equal work, creepy dudes harassing me on set… All you can do in those situations is stand up for yourself and try not to work with buttheads in the future. I’m extraordinarily grateful for all the filmmakers who have treated me like a human being rather than a subordinate; those people are what keep me going when, for example, I get paid a sixth of what a man is getting paid for shooting spots in the same commercial campaign. I’m also immensely thankful to be a part of the International Collective of Female Cinematographers (ICFC), which has connected me with an incredible network of creative women in this field.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I think I’m known for being an adventurous spirit when it comes to cinematography. I gravitate toward challenging jobs that involve going on wild excursions and try to take artistic risks with my projects rather than just emulate something that already exists. I love shooting in LA, but I always have the most fun traveling to the ends of the earth for an ambitious project. My goal is never to do the same thing twice, and so far I’m accomplishing that.
In 2017, I had one of the best months of my life documenting a scientific research cruise with the amazingly talented animator Molly Murphy. We spent a month crossing the Pacific filming monumental scientific discoveries, passing through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, outrunning storm systems, and having water gun fights and BBQs with the scientists. It was one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever done, but nothing can compare to the experience of floating in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night filming neon mahi mahi swarming around a wire that is lowering scientific equipment three miles down to the seafloor.
With my most frequent collaborator, director Felipe Blankenheim, I’ve filmed on five continents in some of the most stunning and unusual situations imaginable. We’ve had some outrageous times shooting projects over the years, from getting chased by monkeys on a treetop rope bridge in Singapore to filming at 4am waist deep in the icy ocean off the coast of southern Australia in winter. I have literally followed Felipe off a cliff (to be fair, it was to get a shot of someone cliff jumping) and will always say yes to any job he offers me no matter how ridiculous because he is such a creative filmmaker and incredible person. I can’t wait for the next chapter of these wacky misadventures!
Since the pandemic has vastly reduced my on-set work, I’ve been participating in other projects that don’t involve working as a DP. Together with MPC, I recently co-organized and moderated a panel discussion between Cinematographers and VFX Supervisors. I’ve been a staunch proponent of DC Statehood for a long time and collaborated on a comic about that with ultra-talented artist Annah Feinberg for the progressive artist collective Left Cliq. I’ve also been writing a lot and developing a pitch for a museum dedicated to protest movements.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I’m sure there are plenty of people who disagree with me, but the way I operate is: always say yes to peer pressure! As long as you surround yourself with trustworthy people who respect you (and as long as you have a basic level of common sense), take the risk, whatever it is. So far, I’ve never been led astray by this attitude, and I’ve done countless things that my gut warns me against, like exploring uncharted mountain caves and eating a scorpion soaked in gin.
As it pertains to filmmaking, my favorite jobs are the most challenging ones and the ones that are so ambitious that there’s no obvious road map. They make the best memories, you learn the most from them, and you tend to do really creative work under unusual limitations. The more bizarre experiences I’ve had, the more inspiration I absorb for my work. Taking risks tests your values and assumptions in unfamiliar terrain, which is essential to understanding your identity and finding your voice. If you are going to be an artist or a storyteller, you’ve got to broaden your perspective as much as possible or else you’ll have nothing to say. Break rules. Experiment. Invent things. Venture outside your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Say yes to everything.
After all that, it might seem absurd to think that there are lines I won’t cross, but I have turned down quite a few gigs because of covid. I love difficult projects but not unsafe ones; no job in the world is worth risking your life. I had a bad case of covid last year, and the thought of contracting it again gives me chills.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jackimoo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackimoo.dp
Image Credits:
Photo credits (in addition to my own content): Mark Rosen, Annah Feinberg, Left Cliq, Sam Bardsley, and Nick Rollins.
