A ‘Jill’ of All Trades
Leading from Behind the Scenes
Words by Jessica Devenyns Photos By Eric Morales and David Brendan Hall
Kristen McMurray stays off-screen but makes much of the magic at Detour Inc. happen.
“I’m honestly not a cinephile,” admits McMurray, the Chief Operations Maven for Detour Inc., Richard Linklater’s production company that is based at Austin Studios. Perhaps today she is admittedly qualified to make that judgment, but when she first stepped foot into Linklater’s studio over a decade ago, she had no basis from which to decide if she was destined for a career in the film industry. She just happened to be a student looking for a paid position. “It was fortuitous,” she remembers. “I didn’t have aspirations to work in film, but I loved it.”
For 14 years, McMurray has stood side by side with Linklater as his only full-time employee (a second employee came on board in fall 2017) and managed everything from investment property finances, to serving as an extra set of eyes during the film editing process, to even lending a hand on set during production. With so many roles demanded of her, she laughs when she concedes that over the years, she’s become a bit of a ‘Jill’ of all trades.
Although not a director herself, since she’s been a director’s right-hand man for over a decade, it’s no surprise that she’s discovered a few things about the film industry that an outsider would never otherwise be privy to. Mainly, she explains that even for notable personalities like Linklater, financing can still be a struggle. “It’s really the success of Boyhood that has made money easier for him.” Even so, she explains that with state incentives drying up, which necessitates more traveling to film, creating a movie is almost an insurmountably expensive endeavor.
Admittedly, compared to his creative life prior to his notoriety and access to funders with deep pockets, things are significantly easier. McMurray recalls an episode (or two) when Linklater bought food for his crew on his Texaco card. Despite the budgetary struggles, she insists that some of his best work came out of his under-funded period. Linklater apparently agrees. McMurray says that he always reminds himself and his crew, “Just make a movie. Don’t worry about budget.” However, she reveals that there is a little bit more to the process than mere wishful thinking.
“I don’t want to say there’s so much luck with it because it’s not. Luck comes with hard work,” she pauses to restructure the sentiment in a softer tone, but concludes that there is no other truth to success in the industry. “I know that’s probably not the answer that anyone wants to hear,” she says. The reward of creating something out of nothing is what makes the release of each production so incredibly gratifying and keeps her rolling.
Contact:
detourfilm.com
