We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zoe Mitchell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Zoe, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?
I started my career as a musician and later switched to being a screenwriter in the film industry. I don’t regret the path that I’m on and I don’t believe there’s a “sooner or later” when it comes to a career or life path. Things happen, for good or bad, when they happen. To this day, I try to remove the antiquated thinking that I have to be in “this” place when I’m 25 years old or I have to accomplish “this” goal by the time I’m 30. Take things at your own pace and be okay with where you are right now.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am an American screenwriter and producer. I was born in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated in 2016 from Berklee College of Music. I began my career as a musician — first a classical pianist, then a funk electric bassist. After graduation, the thought of making money doing something so personal to me as music felt wrong — an invasion.
So, I began editing music videos. Then editing news videos. Then PBS educational videos. All requiring a high-level of storytelling. So, after a few years of working as an editor, one day it clicked — I’m a storyteller — I’m a writer.
I was a masters in screenwriting candidate at EICAR Film and Television school in Paris, France in 2018 but was unfortunately cut short due to the pandemic. I currently reside in Los Angeles, California where I write and produce short and feature films that focus on ordinary stories in extraordinary times via a biracial, female lens. Currently, my dramatic feature, which I wrote and produced, titled GRASSLAND, is in festival circuit and will be screened at the Manhattan Film Festival June 20th, 2023.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Supporting the arts is such a privilege. Not everybody can do it — mostly for financial reasons. But I believe if you can, you would be greatly rewarded for what it has to offer. I would generally advise people to diversify their entertainment. Maybe you’ve seen every Fast & Furious movie, that’s great, but let’s also see the LA Phil’s rendition of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1, a comedy show at the UCB, or a film on 35mm at the New Beverly Cinema. Diversifying your entertainment, the art you consume, would greatly benefit artists and audiences in creating a sustainable creative ecosystem.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
There are many but just to name a few — there’s Coverfly which is a great platform to house your scripts to submit to competitions, fellowships, grant programs, you name it. Similar to Coverfly is FilmFreeway. A great resource where they help you submit your produced film to any major or minor film festival in the world. There’s also Roadmap Writers. I’ve never personally used them but a lot of my writer friends have and they’ve had nothing but good things to say.
There are usually writer meetup’s in various neighborhoods, especially around LA. You can find those through a general online search but a lot of them use Twitter to spread the word. Writer friends are always a great resource.
Some of these resources might be obvious to a lot of people but if you don’t know and everybody assumes you know, then you’ll just be left in the dark. So this list is for people who were left in the dark.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.zoemitchell.me/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoemitchelll/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-mitchell/
- Other: https://www.scattamoochproductions.com/
Image Credits
Ben Mathews, Nicole Sevey, Jeremie Colle