We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Scott Woods. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Scott below.

Alright, Scott thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I first moved to New York City in the Spring of 2021, a month after I graduated college, I had one close friend/roommate and a desire not to move back to my mom’s house. I met a few local writer/actors, one of them being Isabel Monk Cade who’d later star in a feature I’d make, and their lives expanded my idea of what was possible. We’d pay our rent waiting tables, go out after our shifts late into the night, and entertain each other telling stories. And we were adults! Professionals, by my standard.

I think the work (or path) comes with time. Which is to say that pursuing the arts professionally is a lifelong endeavor, one in which the artist contends with the ebbs and flows of discipline, inspiration, and luck. I don’t think there was a moment where I committed to this endeavor as a whole, but I think that first moment, where I realized it was possible to pursue the arts and not be miserable doing it, showed me something underneath the world that I hadn’t seen before. And after seeing that, it became easier not to embrace the path as an artist, but to embrace each project or pang of inspiration or punchline that occurred to me. If others trusted their artistic instincts, why shouldn’t I?

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a filmmaker and playwright based in Brooklyn, NY.

My debut feature, BEARS, is currently on the indie film festival circuit, with festival screenings in NYC scheduled through summer 2025.

I’m a writer first, untangling narratives I find complex and original, and a director next, relinquishing my neuroses as a writer in pursuit of capturing truth on camera.

Film & theater, I believe, are the lifeblood to any civilized society: tragedy reminds us of our mortality, comedy pokes fun at the ignorant (reminding us to read!), and good drama reflects our problems back to us. I majored in Political Science and I call it getting a degree in narrative world-building. Who can tell the better story to whip votes to your side? How do you present a series of lies but retain an image of honesty? Politics, as corrupt and power-wrought it can be, is a thoughtful endeavor and I believe it’s impossible to make good art without being thoughtful.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I filmed BEARS, it was my first time directing anything, and I thought directing was about keeping as much control as you can. I stockpiled it, inadvertently encouraging rote performances in rehearsals, thwarting the instincts of the talented actors I was working with. Over time though, I realized that directing is just helping. If anything it’s an invitation for other artists to present their work. And when they get it wrong, you apologize because you’re the director. You say “oh jeez, I put the wrong address on the invitation, I meant to write this” and you go in for another take. I think a lot of writing is about being thoughtful and finding variables to control but directing is about releasing that control, and letting the story move through the artists you’ve trusted to tell that story, and taking accountability if you screw that up. If the artists you work with can’t trust you, then you’ve got nothing.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

There are several people in my life who pursue a less creative profession than filmmaking/theater, but they get to be creative when they’re lying to their bosses about why their spreadsheets are late, for one example. I’ve recently been enraptured by YouTube videos of people playing an RPG called Blood on The Clocktower, watching them lie and problem-solve in a more complex version of Mafia, operating on a creative level I can’t even fathom, most of whom I’m sure would say they’re not pursuing a creative profession.

I think as people if we aren’t creating, whether it be for profession or for hobby, we’re adding to our mental distress. My grandmother raised four kids, helped raise my sisters and I, used to work at Macy’s (FKA Filene’s), but now makes quilts for “the less fortunate.” I don’t think she’d name that as a creative profession, but despite that fact, she has this beautiful improvisational and technical creativity I aspire to.

If “non-creatives” think that because I’m on this journey professionally it makes me different, I’d challenge them and ask them to see how similar we actually are.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://scottmwoods.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bearsmovie/