We recently connected with Scout Powell and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Scout thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s talk about innovation. What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done in your career?
Covid hit in 2020. At the time, I was taking costume classes and working at a smoothie place on campus. I just got into my theater production major, and I was gearing up for spring break. The next day, I didn’t get called back into work and the entire campus shut down. Months go by, I am living at home, I am taking art classes online. I start filming my assignments instead of writing them because the form is more interesting to me.
What’s a girl to do? We start coming back from an online world, people are in masks, everything is distant, my friends in the theater department didn’t have an audience and we were all crawling to graduation. There was a gap to fill, and a few of my buddies and I decided to become the coolest kids around. LIVESTREAMERS!! The theater department and video services met together, and we designed a grant that was perfect to minimally livestream shows. I built out my cart with a video switcher, monitors, computer, all the adaptors and cables you can imagine and got right to work. By the time I graduated, I livestreamed over 5 performances for the theater department and on the side, I would work with the video services department and stream their events too.
Honestly, it blows my mind how much covid affected my life. I would have never pivoted to livestreaming or found a passion for filmed theater. When I moved to LA, my first full time job was a live streamer for the LA Film School. I got laid off from that job shortly after getting it but then I freelanced as a PA until I found my job that I have currently at Sony Pictures Entertainment as a Digital Video Analyst which I got majorly because of my livestreaming background. I run a secure corporate channel through my department on most of Sony’s events. everything happens for a reason, and I am so grateful to be on this journey now. A blessing in disguise!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Creativity in all forms started when I was literally just a kid! I would surround myself with imagination games- with my friends, playing dolls, I would film myself doing skits with my family, I would write stories or create something in my childhood art room. I would be crafting miniature objects for my doll house, and I would sing all the time.
Along the way as I started growing up, I got a little more insecure and anxious about taking up creative space. I wanted to fit in, I wanted people to like me, and I performed in school plays until around high school when that feeling was larger than ever. I then switched over to the more behind the scenes stuff in theater and actually found a joy in how production worked. I was interested in making things seamless, I tried stage managing and even got involved with our video productions classes. I loved staying after school and videotaping performances or sports games. However, because of the nature of High school, I had to take graduation requirements to prepare for college. At the time, I was involved with numerous after school activates. Choir club, drama club, interact club, I didn’t really have a clear path besides wanting to beef up my resume because my test scores weren’t doing me any favors. I was put into tutoring and tried to focus on academics. Because that’s where you’ll be able to find a “real” job.
I grew up in a town where everyone around me seemed like they were farther ahead of me- especially in school. I fell away from the pieces of myself that loved art and creation because I wanted to pretend that I was smarter and better in something more valuable to the society I was surrounded by. I went to college in pursuit of biology with a “women in STEM” scholarship.
I almost dropped out within the first quarter, stem classes were WAY harder than what I was doing in high school, and I felt more ashamed of my failure than ever. Second quarter started and I wanted to make room for something less challenging in my schedule. Theater 101 opened up where attendance of the class was literally “not required” and I went to that class every day. I sat there and read plays- it was exactly what I needed amongst the chaos of college. I started to find my love of theater and art again.
Where I’m from, there isn’t a huge film scene. There was only one film studies class (I took it, it was awesome) and there was a film club (I joined it, it was awesome) Then when I finally got into my theater production major, COVID hit. Everything went online. All my theater friends needed an audience, so I got into broadcasting with the video productions club and started recording and streaming our theater shows. Then I started doing more with corporate events and sports events around the campus. I got involved with CASCADIA the International Women’s Film Festival as a Submissions Coordinator and then met someone who would actually pay me to edit her music concerts. They started a production company and made virtual, short-formed music concerts. I became their cameraman and their editor. I started to make music videos and short films instead of writing final essays and I realized how much love I had for film.
I graduated college with a major in Entertainment Design and Technology. I moved to Los Angeles to see what would happen a few months later. I have lived here for almost 3 years now and I feel like I am still finding my way through the mission. I have met incredibly talented people, people that actually went to film school down here. I found myself in the camera department, producing, and working in all aspects of film production. Right now, I am working on sets on the weekends with friends and finding my network of people to work with. Truly, my goal is to open myself up fully, to the world. I want to be able to share my own stories and be okay with being vulnerable. I want to work with good people who love film and visual art as much as I do.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The lesson I had to unlearn is that you don’t have to go to film school in order to work in film! I have been learning everything through experience and through the people I meet. I was so afraid to try something I had never done before because I was afraid of failing. To hell with that!
I have worked with some fabulously talented students/professionals/gorilla style filmmakers all going at their own speed. There is no one right way of teaching anyone a “correct” way of filmmaking. There is no right way of filmmaking, I believe that visual art comes from the individual and how they see the world. There are techniques and easier ways of creating especially within film- since it is such a technical artform, but everyone from every skill level should be free to try it.
I would go back and time and make sure my past self really understood that.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of filmmaking is working with people. You get so close to people on set, sometimes you are in the trenches and sometimes you are holding back laughs during a shot. Everyone is tired, wired off of coffee and random crafty snacks, you talk about what projects you’re doing, and you get to tell each other stories. I love so many parts of working with others on a film set.
In terms of my own art, my favorite thing about it is my own self-expression. I get to take out my feelings and put them in a tangible box. I feel like so much of my art comes from inside of my heart and also my subconscious brain. I want to be able to express that so I can fully understand what I am going through.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://scoutpowell13.wixsite.com/scoutproduction-film
- Instagram: @scoutp13
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scout.powell.43743/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scout-p-91a495212/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2DOHs2j7iGL8buEBu3Livw
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/40u2mji5fp1bd1k04wyo49682?si=5f1499008b264918&nd=1&dlsi=83dfd161e52c4344
Image Credits
Kailee Shedeed, Xander Priddie, Maggie Sotter, Sam Barrozo