Last-Minute Leah: I'm late
A recurring character who is always late, always fine, and always on the phone. The everyday mental load of a New Yorker, played as comedy.
Creative Studio · New York
We find the story people want to watch.
Hall and Mirrors develops original concepts and character-driven films for brands, founders and the people building something interesting. We find what makes your world compelling, then write, cast and create around it. Sometimes the characters are already there.
Last-Minute Leah: I'm late
Selected work
The work speaks first.
Ideas are easier to understand when you can watch them. Here is what we are making.
Hello HavenAn original series and street interviews for a consumer app about the mental load of modern life.
Last-Minute Leah: The nephew
Two hours of sleep, a fourth coffee by eleven, and a nephew's third birthday she is not going to make. Episode two of the series.
Last-Minute Leah: Got a minute?
A question that needs a minute, asked from the back of a cab by someone who has fourteen. The product arrives as a text, not a pitch.
What are New Yorkers thinking about?
A host with a microphone at Astor Place asks what nobody wants to know. Laundry, enemies, the dishwasher, and one busy woman's whole list.
How many mental tasks are on your brain?
Washington Square Park, lunchtime. People try to count what they are carrying and find out how much is getting lost.
The worst thing you ever forgot
A girlfriend's birthday, what day of the week it is, and money, money, money. The question your brand is really about, asked on the street.
The notes app guy
How people actually keep track of their day, from a Marine's son who plans ahead to the host who has forgotten her own to-do list.
What we do
Good businesses contain better stories than their marketing suggests.
We get close enough to find them, then make something people will choose to watch.
01
Find the angle
We learn what you make, why it matters and who makes it happen. That might mean meeting the founder, talking with the team, looking at the way customers actually behave or noticing the question everyone keeps asking. We look for a specific story or tension we can build on, rather than starting with a list of generic content ideas.
What this can lead toA founder portrait, a workplace story, a documentary moment, an interview or the beginning of a recurring series.
02
Build the world
We develop the concept, write the scenes and bring in the right people. A real founder might meet a fictional customer. An employee might become the unexpected star. An actor, interviewer, comedian or creator might make a complicated idea suddenly easy to understand. The format follows the idea, and the people involved know what is being staged.
What this can lead toCharacter-driven social series, scripted comedy, street interviews, founder films and creator collaborations.
03
Make it, see what lands, keep going
We move from idea to shoot with a small creative team and trusted production collaborators. We edit for the places the work will actually live, put it in front of an audience and use what we learn to shape the next piece. The goal is a growing body of work with a recognizable point of view, not a pile of unrelated posts.
What this can lead toA focused pilot, a run of short films or an ongoing creative relationship. Scope and timing are tailored to the project.
How we work
Curiosity first. Then we make something.
We research the company, meet the people and develop a point of view. Then we write, cast, shoot and edit with the right collaborators for the idea. The first piece tells us what to explore next. We like a plan, but we leave room for the moment no one could have scripted.
Make something. Learn from it. Make the next thing better.
Andrea Waddell
CEO and Creative Director
The studio
A creative studio built around the idea.
Hall and Mirrors is led by Andrea Waddell and works with a network of New York filmmakers, producers, writers, actors, editors and creators. We lead the creative, then bring together the right collaborators to make each project real. We are drawn to people building something we can genuinely believe in.
Contact
Tell us what you are building.
It does not need to be a polished brief. Tell us what you do, what people misunderstand about it and what you think might be worth showing.