Introducing SCREENSHOT with a new Messy Woman Jessica Mackie Hunter

Who am I and what am I doing here?

Hello Messies! I hope you are all well and hydrated, if not, go grab that glass of water or an iced coffee before settling in.

For those who don’t know me, I would love to introduce myself as the newest addition to the Messy Collective. My name is Jessica Mackie Hunter (she/her), not to be mistaken for Jessica Riches, the co-founder and OG Messy running things alongside the powerhouse Isobel Bruce. I’ll be helping out with events, socials, rituals, seances…

We’re introducing a new format called SCREENSHOT where we’ll be briefly diving into the lives of the people who make up our community. I thought this would be a great opportunity to share some bits about me and mainly answer the question-

How did you come to be a Messy Woman?

I’m a Czech/British writer/director based in London. I grew up in the Czech Republic, studied film, hated it, and went off to study at a uni in Edinburgh.

There I stumbled across a screenwriting teacher who made me change my mind about film/TV writing (shoutout to Kate Davidson!). I did MA in screenwriting during lockdown (fun!) before moving down to London, where all the jobs are (haha). 

My first year in London was very depressing and lonely, but then one day I randomly posted my D&D TV series logline on Twitter and got a DM from Jess (Jessica Riches) basically saying: Hey, I also wrote a script about D&D, and I’m launching a writing community called Messy Collective, so come to my party and let’s be friends.

 What was the first project that you were proud of?

My first short film! In January 2023 my friend David Kreibich, reminded me of a short film script I once mentioned (a year prior) and asked what happened to it. By the following Valentine’s Day I had the first draft and a month after that our Kickstarter went live to make Rabbit, a short film which explores female sexuality through a neurodivergent lens. 

I sort of got roped into co-directing it with David and that’s how, in a nutshell, I came to be the elusive writer/director. We shot Rabbit at the end of May 2023 on a £1000 budget and lots of favours with a crew/cast made up of friends. We finally finished the film in March 2024 and we’re sending it to festivals now!

What is your writing routine?

I’m one of those barista writers, where I have a part-time day job and dedicate the other part of my part-time to writing or writing-related activities like networking, entering labs/competitions, applying for funding, creating dozens of Pinterest boards and making Spotify playlists for scripts I’ll never write.

I like to have a whole day dedicated to writing, instead of trying to push creative bits into the couple of hours before work. On my ‘barista days’ I try to do all the distracting, life-admin bits so that on my ‘writing days’ I don’t have to worry about the laundry or dishes. 

I usually get an oat iced latte and get in the zone until a big, pre-planned chunk of my work is finished. I like to mix it up, so if I start the day with weekly script pages, I move on to funding applications after lunch, then maybe play around with Canva pitch decks in the evening.

What projects are you working on right now and how do you juggle them all?

Last summer I wrote two short film scripts - Undressing Them and Fires Elsewhere. I took Fires to the ELBE DOCK Film Inn Story Editing Workshop, and then that sample got me into Boosting Impact: From Fact to Fiction, a European TV writing programme. I then found a brilliant producer for Undressing Them and we just applied for the BFI Short Film Fund, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Apart from these, I’m in pre-production of a micro-film, co-writing a feature film with a Czech writer/director, and I’m also developing a TV series as part of Boosting Impact.

I have a couple of other features on the back-burner too (who doesn’t). I have a dashboard in Notion where I track all the steps of all the projects I’m semi-actively working on. I can’t recommend Notion enough. It’s my lifeboat in this world of screenwriting.

I’m also a member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and a member of two committees, the TV Committee and the Equality & Diversity Committee. This year I was a WGGB delegate at the Women’s Trade Union Conference and in June I’ll be a delegate at the LGBTQIA+ one! I like to know what’s happening in the UK film industry, for which the WGGB is really helpful.

What is also helpful are short film screenings (like Girls in Film and Shorties), networking events (Rich Mix has some great ones) and following creatives on social media, mostly Instagram. It’s how I get inspired, make connections and learn about what people are up to!

What are your hopes and dreams for the future?

I hope to make at least 2-3 short films over the next couple of years while developing one of my feature scripts at labs/residencies. Truthfully, my heart is split between the world of TV and film. TV is my original love, but I would love to direct a feature one day too. 

In TV I want to explore campy, genre-bending stories, especially in the realms of fantasy/sci-fi/period drama, like Paper Girls and The Midnight Club, while in film I’m leaning much more into quietly heartbreaking dramas like Aftersun and La Chimera. But this could also change so who knows!

What I do know is that the Messy Collective has been my support system, powering my creative juices, ever since that first Christmas party in 2022, and I honestly don’t feel like I would have the strength to go on without this community. It’s a tough life out here, after all.

If you got all the way to the end I want to personally congratulate and thank you. This is just the first instalment of our new series SCREENSHOT, where we’ll be asking writers to overshare on the internet, so stay tuned for way more interesting profiles coming soon!

Big love,
Jess