Today we’d like to introduce you to Zoe Taylor
Hi Zoe, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My journey in film as a designer and as an artist began as a nerdy teenager going to Comic Con in Dallas, Texas. The joy I was finding in the process almost overshadowed the excitement I had showing off a finished costume. That grew into starting university with the goal of studying costume design full time. I spent several years focusing on costume design before a student director friend that I had done a lot of work with already asked if I would consider jumping over to production design. At the time, I was completing a film internship in New York City, so I had plenty of people to ask for opinions, both other student interns and the full time employees. The overwhelming consensus was absolutely yes. And suddenly I was a production designer as well! I grabbed books, followed production designers on Instagram, and looked for resources anywhere I could find. That production went beautifully, minus a few sliced fingers, and even years and films later, I still consider it one of my best works.
I graduated undergrad in December of 2019 and immediately moved back to New York City, thinking I would work for nine months before moving to London for graduate school in September. Obviously, things didn’t work out like I expected. I moved home to Dallas in March 2020 and spent six months just hanging out with family and helping my youngest sister through online school. We threw a party when the UK began processing visas again and I finally made it to my next step.
My time studying film production, with a focus on producing, was one of the best decisions I could have made. There is a huge value in understanding processes and logistics, and in my back-and-forth roles of production design and art direction, I spend a lot of time managing people and looking at a bigger picture. As the only designer in my program of 20, I had my fingers in almost everyone’s projects. Sometimes just a text to get my thoughts, sometimes designing the title card, and often, I was pulling double or triple duty as producer, 1st assistant director, and designer. I ended up working on three dissertations and making some fantastic friends.
I found my way back home to Texas as I planned out my next steps. I worked a few little one day shoots around town and finally settled on Atlanta as my next home. January 2022 saw a moving road trip and I started networking in a city where I knew no one. I made sure I was listed in all the local crew pages, and took anything I could find. I volunteered for a crew participating in the 48 Hour Film Festival and ended up doing a lot more work with them. And then of course strikes started happening. In addition, I could feel my own burnout coming, so I started thinking about how I could keep working creatively while not being dependent on a freelance film job. I went back to school again for an education degree.
And here I am now, the newest addition to Wheeler High School’s team of art teachers, getting students excited about unique approaches to the artistic process and tailoring my curriculum to their interests. I pride myself in my ability to connect with individual students and show everyone that there is space in the creative world for all ideas.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It absolutely has not been a smooth road! But that makes it all the more satisfying. I feel like I have finally found a place that I can be happy and settled for years, both literally in Atlanta, and in my career. Every experience and every thing I’ve learned along the way has only made me better at this point in my life. There have been several times that I’ve called my mom in tears or wanted to throw an entire project out the window. But there has always been someone to call for support. Usually the beginning of that call is “when did you last eat something? Go drink some water.” And then I brainstorm a plan. There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel, even if that light is the absolute failure of a project going up in flames. Kidding. We only set things on fire intentionally here.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As a designer, I have built a reputation as scrappy and reliable. I can solve just about any problem thrown at me on set with ten minutes and a few safety pins, and I always keep a fully stocked kit, whether I’m acting as art director, production designer, or costume designer. I keep my team on track, but I can always step in a fulfill any of their roles. This was particularly useful when filming while Covid-19 was still a concern, as crew members could be out sick at any moment.
In recent years, I have backed off of my film career to become an educator. I bring a unique perspective to my classroom and introduce my students to non-traditional art careers and methods. My personal art style revolves around my experiences traveling the world, bringing international art to my students. I seek out any opportunity to learn local, cultural art styles, Paj Ntaub (or Hmong flower cloth) from Laos, batik, weaving, urban sketching, anything is fair game to introduce my students to the world.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
As an artist, I am constantly worried about a trend of quantity over quality. We see it in fast fashion, in the ways that big companies steal the work of small artists, in the way that AI takes over the work of creativity, the way that physical art in productions is edged out for post-production CGI. We saw during the height of the pandemic that it was creativity that kept everyone going, so where did that appreciation go? Why do we keep trying to push out the humanity in art when it’s the humanity that makes art what it is?
But I also see how easy it can be for people to be introduced to art with how widespread social media is. I had a student that I know used AI to write an answer, which he absolutely denied until I asked him what a certain phrase meant. It led to a little research wormhole that resulted in the entire class learning the definition as we waited for him to make a discovery. People can be exposed to so much that can lead to new interests simply because they get stuck in the scrolling.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://zoetaylorfilm.com
- Instagram: bumblingbat
Image Credits
Gregory Nichols, Robert Taylor
