Meet Chelsea Nott

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chelsea Nott and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chelsea, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I think another word for risk is opportunity. I don’t think about my life and career so far as having taken a lot of risks so much as having taken advantage of every opportunity I was given. I think for me, some of it is honestly anxiety about what could happen if I don’t take the chance to do something, so a lot of times I do things out of excitement to learn or try new things. But a lot of it is also intuition even though that sounds weird. I trust my gut on everything, and there are definitely some things that my gut says “this is definitely a risk and maybe not a great one” versus other things that my gut says “this is worth any possible stress or chaos that may come with it because it could be an incredible opportunity”. It always comes down to trying to keep as much of a balance between those as possible, and I think as a result I’ve been able to have a really diverse and exciting career so far that has already taken me down a lot of different paths and avenues.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I think part of what sets me apart is how early I realized where my passions were, and how quickly I acted on it. My journey started all the way back in 7th grade in my middle school library making newscasts with Mr. Hayman. There was this one day where I came across SCAD as one of the top film schools in the country, and I remember going to him and saying “What can I start doing now to help me get into this school”. He must’ve thought I was crazy, but evidently he believed in me enough to coach me through the basics of film and video editing.
I took those skills to high school and continued to grow them with Mrs. Arnold who was my video production teacher, and I loved her and her class so much that I signed up for the same course two years in a row just so I could stay in her class longer. I would follow along with what she was teaching, but inevitably I would start to get ideas about something different I wanted to do with the edit – and instead of telling me to just stick to the directions, she’d step aside to teach me whatever it was that I wanted to do and then continue with the rest of the class. She did that over and over and it was so nice to feel that kind of support. During that, I was taking a lot of consumer ed / personal finance courses, and my finance teacher Mrs. Fuhrhop helped me get a position as a student representative for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. That then turned into my first internship as soon as I graduated high school, so I was 17 years old working in a federal building making video content professionally. It was such an insane experience that really taught me so much about professional communication, project management, and also a standard for how organizations treat their employees.
I took all of that with me into college, and I think having that experience going into my first year made such a huge difference when it came to being on set. I ran my productions the way that I was used to at the Fed, and I don’t think a lot of people were used to another student having that level of organization and communication. I kind of made a brand for myself without even realizing it, and it opened a lot of doors for me to take on higher caliber scripts with upperclassmen. Now I’ve made 8 films, including some with some alumni, and I couldn’t be more grateful to everyone who’s gotten me here and trusted me to help make their visions come to life.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m mostly based in Savannah now, so I’d say the first place I’m heading to is Savannah Coffee Roasters for some awesome local coffee and breakfast (shoutout to the Straw Lady latte that might still be on the menu). They have an awesome local Italian place next to them too called Frali’s which is so delicious and the staff is so nice. I’m a huge foodie so when people come in town I’m always trying to show them my favorite food spots. Sly’s Sliders and Fries is another good one that got shown to me last summer. I also have to shoutout Riverside Tattoo Parlor, I have 3 pieces from them now with more to come soon and they are singlehandedly the most comfortable tattoo shop I’ve ever been in with an incredibly talented staff. Outside of that, there’s nothing better than keeping it simple and heading to Forsyth park – especially on Saturday’s for the farmers market that hosts the best artists and chefs from all over.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There’s a list!

My teachers and professors (for which there are many), but especially Mr. Hayman, Mrs. Arnold, Mr. Neuber, Mrs. Kulupka, Mrs. Fuhrhop, Professor Andy Meyer, Mr. Gordon, and Professor Steve Stanley.
My family and especially my mom,
And my crew(s)!

Website: https://chelsean734.wixsite.com/chelsea-nott

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelsean734/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-nott/ 

Image Credits
Michelle Chwalą Louis Comitz Ziqiao Huang