NFS: Hey, Dylan! What first drew you to working on a project like Magic City: An American Fantasy? How familiar were you with the iconic Atlanta venue before signing on to the project?
Dylan Young: Hey, thanks for having me! Like with most docs, I’m always eager to learn about something new. I love hearing a new story or getting more history on something that recontextualizes what I already know. When you start to see something familiar with a new perspective, to me, that’s like — chef’s kiss. It’s a feeling I’m always trying to bring to my edits, and that was definitely the case with Magic City.
I think anyone who has spent time in Atlanta is at least aware of the club. I knew it by reputation and its importance to southern hip-hop, so I was excited to jump in and learn more about it. I ended up learning a lot more than I ever thought I would.
NFS: What kind of research went into your preparation and work on Magic City?
DY: A lot of digging into stories surrounding the club, and a lot of brushing up on the different eras of Atlanta Rap. We’re talking about the Gucci Mane vs. Jeezy beef, the rise of trap, crunk, Jermaine Dupri, Outkast, TLC, Lil Jon, Young Thug… just so many artists. Music is such an important part of how I capture the essence of an era in any project, and really, such an important part of this show in particular. I spent a lot of time listening to southern bangers; my stereo was getting a workout for sure.
NFS: The subtitle “An American Fantasy” lends the docuseries a really fascinating subtext. What does that descriptor mean to you?
DY: Yeah, it’s interesting because in this series, that descriptor means a lot of things. The whole club revolves around fantasy, where it itself has this larger-than-life reputation as a place where anything can happen. You might run into Nelly and watch someone make it rain $30K in the same night. It’s a place where musical artists go to try out their new tracks and sometimes find a hit that skyrockets their career, like Future or the Migos.
The dancers always talk about having to sell the fantasy on stage, but I think ultimately, for me, the fantasy comes back to the American Dream. The heart of this story is the dream of one man who wanted to own his own business, and that’s Michael Barney, a.k.a., Mr. Magic.
NFS: Can you please tell us more about your unique decision to incorporate a Soviet-era cartoon into your storytelling on the series?
DY: Hahaha! Yeah, that came about as the result of some creative problem solving and a 20-year-old obsession. Okay, so let me set the stage here…there’s a man who works at Magic City called Mr. Wolf, and he’s Mr. Magic’s right-hand man. Mr. Wolf tells the story about how they first met, where, having just robbed a bank, he ducks into Magic City. He meets Mr. Magic, and they have a couple of drinks and hit it off until the cops show up. I don’t want to spoil too much, but needless to say, we didn’t have any archival of these events.
Mr. Wolf is such a calm, cool, collected guy that when he told us this story, it was really surprising, and I felt like the presentation of it in the edit should be surprising as well.
Now, I was obsessed with a Super 8 projector I had as a kid, and would pick up any reels I could get my hands on. One in particular I had gotten from a yard sale was this old Soviet-era cartoon called “Nu Pogodi,” where the main character is a wolf who is constantly trying to eat this rabbit character. He drinks, he smokes, he runs from the cops, and I felt it would be a perfect way to help tell Mr. Wolf’s story. I was able to find hi-res scans of some of the episodes and build out a full sequence to accompany Mr. Wolf’s narration. I showed it to Director Charles Todd, and we both thought it was so funny and just worked perfectly, so that’s how a Soviet cartoon from 60 some odd years ago ended up in a show about a club in Atlanta. And secretly, I’m very tickled I got to give this film I love a new life.
NFS: As the editor on the series’ very first episode, you had the opportunity to establish the tone from the onset. What did that responsibility mean to you, and how did you work with the series’ other editors to ensure the storytelling remained consistent throughout?
DY: It is a big responsibility, but on this particular show, I got extremely lucky to work with some very talented folks who had a very clear vision of what the series was going to be from the start. Director Charles Todd, Creator Cole Brown, Showrunner Bayan Joonam – all three of them were so instrumental in establishing the tone of the series. There were many late nights, a lot of conversations had, and a lot of trying things out. I gotta say, these guys gave me a lot of leeway to experiment, let me try some ridiculous ideas, and reigned me in when it was perhaps a little too much. Haha!
When the other two editors started, Genéa Gaudet and I were office neighbors, so it was very easy to pop over and have a conversation whenever. She is absolutely fantastic; we chatted a bunch about the people at the center of the stories, and I spent a lot of time sitting on the couch in her room with her dog Joey, just working on some of the bigger puzzle pieces of the series. She’s so good at finding that heart and bringing it forward that it was so easy to work together.
Matt Michener, who cut the final episode, was working in New York at the time, but we had worked on a previous iteration of this show together, so he was already very familiar with the material, and I had full confidence he was going to knock it out of the park, and he did.
NFS: Magic City is often outrageous and funny, but also quite heartfelt. How did you navigate these various tones in the edit?
DY: The same way I approach any project, which is by listening. I find that each scene is unique, and by listening to the interviewees (what they say, how they say it, what they’re feeling, what they share, what they don’t share), the tone of a scene will reveal itself.
In Magic City, many of the stories are fun, exciting, over-the-top, and bombastic, but at the heart of the show are very human stories. A lot of consideration was given to how to lay those feelings out in a way that wouldn’t have too drastic of shifts. We wanted to keep moving through time from past to present, but the structure of having interstitials gave me some wiggle room to throw in breaks when needed. They became a great way to share info, give emotional breaks, and keep things fun and light when necessary.
We bring you in with the wild allure of the club and everything it has to offer, and once you’re comfortable and invested, that heartfelt dial starts getting cranked up.
NFS: You also have an impressive background in sports storytelling with credits on Greatness Code and NFL Draft Stories. What are the similarities and differences between those projects and a show like Magic City?
DY: Well, I saw a lot of familiar faces. There are interviews with Shaq, Dominic Wilkins, Lou Williams… It honestly felt like a sports doc at some points! No, I don’t think they’re too different at the end of the day. What’s always the most interesting to me is the people at the center of a project. We’re all empathetic creatures that can relate to and find ourselves reflected in the stories and struggles of others. Every story is personal, and whether it’s about winning a gold medal at the Olympics or dancing at a nightclub to support your family, it’s the people that matter the most, and that’s always my approach for any project.
NFS: How does your creative approach differ when telling the stories of so many famous and public figures?
DY: Not too much, honestly. Sure, there are some considerations in terms of public image and brand identity or whatever, but at the end of the day, we’re all human, and I find that if you can get past that facade of public presentation and really connect with someone, that’s never a bad look. Nelly is a great example of this in the third episode. He really opens up about something very personal, and it gave me a lot of respect for the man. We approached that scene in the same way we would’ve if it were anyone else.
Dylan Young Credit: Impact24
NFS: Are there any other genres or formats in which you would like to work? Or documentarians with whom you would love to collaborate?
DY: I’m a doc guy for life; I love this genre, and it’s so much fun to me that my job is basically putting puzzles together every day. Recently, I’ve really been into projects that bend what you would typically expect from a doc. After watching Pavements, I’d love to work with Alex Ross Perry. Big fan of how he blended staged elements played for veritas but still used them to advance the story. That’s the kind of genre-bending that’s been really inspiring to me recently. Though honestly, anytime I get to work on a project that’s a brand new topic to me, I’m pretty jazzed about it.
NFS: Thanks, Dylan! Is there anything else you would like to share about Magic City or any other upcoming projects?
DY: This was a very fun project that I am grateful to have worked on. A subject like this is very interesting because, as you might imagine, a place like Magic City is steeped in legends, myths, exaggerations… In a broader sense, I believe everything is true. Like, if you believe in ghosts, their existence is something that’s true to you. Whatever someone feels or believes in a moment is going to be true, and I’m always listening for that in interviews. Being able to approach the myths of Magic City and tackle some of its stories from multiple perspectives was very fun, and I had a blast cutting on this series.
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