Meet Kelsey Wood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelsey Wood.

Kelsey, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My interest in the entertainment industry started as a young dancer growing up in Castro Valley located in the Bay Area, California. In my free time outside of dancing, I would make YouTube videos with my mom’s digital camera that would end up with watermarks in the middle of the videos thanks to sketchy editing sites, but I didn’t mind it. I would “cut” music on iTunes to make mixes, announce on Myspace or Twitter that I had CD’s ready with all kinds of music, and pass them out to friends at school for free or leave them in classrooms. These things I did for pure enjoyment definitely make up the blueprint for my work now and what I’m able to surround myself with in my career. I danced at a studio competitively from first grade through my senior year, and then in college on multiple hip hop teams across the Bay Area.

While training one summer at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in 2015 in Los Angeles, I decided that I wanted to back-up dance for artists and actually live there. Throughout my college education at Cal State East Bay, I was performing with local artists in the Bay Area in night clubs or bar venues and attending practice or class every day simply because I enjoyed the relationships, the challenge of balancing it all with part-time jobs, and physically being in great shape. I made the official leap to Los Angeles the following year in 2016 but about seven months in during my time training on scholarship at the Debbie Reynolds Pro Studios, I found that I had a severe labrum tear in my hip.

Right after receiving the diagnosis in April of 2017 and deciding to move forward with surgery, I went to the closest Planet Fitness and got my first gym membership. I heard the more in shape you were, the easier recovery would be, so I would use any machine that I could to gently condition other parts of my body. I’ve always had extremely high expectations of myself and evidently treated post-surgery physical therapy like training so much that if I didn’t “go hard enough” in a session I thought that I disappointed the therapist and would have this constant crippling anxiety about it. I don’t usually wear my heart on my sleeve but when it came to losing so much function in my body that I normally relied on, it was quite hard to process and even recognize myself but luckily it was temporary. This likely came from the intense dance training culture and never wanting to let anyone down.

One year after the surgery, I was signed with a modeling and talent agency in San Francisco, working as a fit model, teaching dance to kids and teens, and began my contract as a performer at California’s Great America in Santa Clara. Towards the end of the summer, the creative director of the theme park’s Halloween production “Nytewalkers” and daughter of Charles Schulz, the creator of Snoopy, saw me dancing in the show and chose me that night to perform in her production in the fall. I was also finishing my bachelor’s degree at the time, so during the months that I was dancing at the theme park I would be backstage doing schoolwork, studying, or taking exams on my laptop during breaks in between shows and rehearsals. The other performers would ride rollercoasters or walk through the haunted mazes on breaks but I would stay back to read or finish assignments.

When I moved back to LA in December of 2018, I began getting back into the dance training mode when a family member invited me onto a TV commercial set to work as a production assistant. It completely turned my world around from being on the “talent” side of the camera and I was immediately humbled and filled with gratitude at the amount of work that goes into commercials, tv shows, music videos, and feature films. I couldn’t believe anything I was seeing on the set was real, let alone that I was getting paid to be there. Since then, I’ve worked on productions for companies like Target, Adidas, Toyota, Oakley, and on film studio lots for Abc and FOX television shows. I quickly realized how much I want to continue down the filming industry path in one way or another and the role of Director was instantly appealing to me, as I’d only seen a couple of women directing or DP-ing on these huge sets.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road has been very off the beaten path from what I’d ever expected with struggles just like everyone else, but I think what made the road less daunting was always my outlook and who I chose to surround myself with. Also, I believe that having an open mind to pivoting at any given moment is key to having success in the entertainment industry. My parents have always supported me with everything I’ve ever needed in order to succeed in whatever I’m doing. They still somehow always understand what it is I’m going through, and each of them have their own way of being real with me and are absolutely amazing human beings. They’ve never doubted or questioned anything I’ve wanted to get into and I find that to be one of the things I’m most thankful for. My boyfriend and I are also both very eccentric-type people and excited about what we do in our own fields, so we definitely feed off of each other’s energy. We find balance in our everyday lives by giving our all in whatever we’re doing, and then knowing when to turn-off and breathe in all the other amazing things life has to offer. I think overall I’m very inspired by people who take what they do and push the boundaries of it to make something great or just want to achieve greatness behind closed doors for the pure sake of it.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
Right now, I’m a full-time freelance office and set production assistant in Hollywood— meaning I assist and shadow production managers, line producers, executive producers, and directors on the job. Each day I play a role in the prep, shoot, and wrap of those 30- to 60-second commercials you see in between your favorite TV shows. From Target’s “Good and Gather” pre-release promos to HBO’s “Euphoria” interviews, I’ve been able to get hand-on experience with animated stop-motion sets, filming closeups of decadent and delicious food, and to see how interviews really go down. I’ve watched barren apartments transform into lively kitchen or living room scenes, sat in on casting and selection meetings where the decisions are made on which faces you will see on those catchy national commercials. And on my best days, I get to see a director’s intentions come to light, from the point at which they imagined the story and the weeks-long game-planning process. Working as a freelancer has provided me a valuable learning opportunity, because I’ve been able to experience a plethora of work styles and methods, and witness how everything gets done in a short amount of time. I’m looking forward to wherever the journey takes me next! I enjoy shooting photos and video in my free time and hope to continue expanding on my professional collection over time. My dream is to direct commercials and work alongside stellar teams of creators to bring more out-of-the-box creativity, comedy, music, and diversity into more homes!

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I can’t think of anything I would do differently. Dancing for what feels like my whole life has given me a precise eye for knowing what movement and angles look good on camera and an ear for all types of music which are components that really make up my style of directing. The dance world and fit modeling industry gave me a real understanding of what it means to love and appreciate your body for everything it can do. You can’t move through life successfully or at peace if your mind is working against your own vessel. Self-image issues are something already common in women and young girls, but imagine standing shoulder to shoulder in your underwear in front of a table of adults, who come by with a tape measure reading out the size of your arms, hips, stomach, and legs to others who are writing it down and comparing your current measurements with your last casting.

Now, I absolutely love maintaining a more athletic and muscular physique through lifting weights, running, and eating well. It’s definitely possible to work in that industry and have a great and healthy mindset but I didn’t have or seek-out the guidance at the time to learn this. My internal dialogue took a long time to fix from the constant nit-picking to being ultra-respectful of myself and my journey. Being a director to me means taking into account the vulnerability one feels in front of the camera and aiding in the entire process with grace and humor!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kbwood129.wixsite.com/kelseywood
• Email: kwoodfilm@gmail.com

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