{"id":1910,"date":"2025-11-03T21:31:40","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T21:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/?p=1910"},"modified":"2025-11-03T21:31:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T21:31:40","slug":"kalyn-elizabeth-wood-screaming-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/kalyn-elizabeth-wood-screaming-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"How Kalyn Elizabeth Wood Turned a Two-Day Shoot Into a 25-Time Festival Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kalyn Elizabeth Wood never intended for \u201cScreaming Silence\u201d to be anything more than her master\u2019s dissertation project. The haunting, dialogue-free film follows a woman (Wood) who isolates herself while processing a traumatic event and an unwanted pregnancy. Shot in just two days with a skeleton crew after COVID-19 sidelined her original team, the short has since won over 25 festival awards and connected with audiences worldwide. Wood says that making the film taught her invaluable lessons about the industry\u2014and about herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The filmmaker learned flexibility by doing, not (over)thinking.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Although filming \u201cScreaming Silence\u201d commenced under less-than-ideal conditions, Wood didn\u2019t let the initial roadblock waylay her journey; instead, she adapted. She sent her script to director-editor Hal Waghorn, who was immediately on board, and they shot the entire project in under 48 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI kept saying to myself: It\u2019s going to get done because it has to get done,\u201d Wood says. \u201cI think anytime I overthink something, I try to control it, and it never goes to plan. And in this circumstance, the film is so intimate and we had to shoot it so quickly.\u201d This meant Wood and Waghorn had to build trust quickly\u2014which ended up making all the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI truly believe when you do the work and then you just leave it and you walk on set, it\u2019s there,\u201d Wood continues. That philosophy of preparation followed by release became crucial to bringing \u201cScreaming Silence\u201d to life.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

She took a leap\u2014and found her audience.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Once the film was complete, Wood submitted it for her degree and considered that the end of the story. But after her mother, agent, and producer friend all pushed her to do something more with it, she found herself asking Waghorn: \u201cWant to submit [the film] to festivals? What do I do? He was the one who said, \u2018You need to get FilmFreeway.\u2019 I was like, \u2018What the heck is FilmFreeway?\u2019 \u201d Wood says with a laugh. \u201cAnd he goes, \u2018Well, every festival is on there. You have to go through it to submit it.\u2019 And I was like, Oh. I didn\u2019t know what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, submitting to festivals was \u201ca seamless process,\u201d Wood says. \u201cI uploaded everything. It told me if my aspect ratio was off, and then I just spent about a week, maybe two weeks, looking at all the festivals and saving them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wood started small with experimental festivals, then got bolder, submitting to events like Wildsound Feedback Film and Screenplay Festival, IndieX Film Festival, and Phoenix Rising International Film Festival. The results exceeded her expectations. \u201cWe won, which was great. I now have a bunch of trophies,\u201d she says. More importantly, she connected with other filmmakers and was even asked to serve on the judging board for the next Phoenix Rising fest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her advice for filmmakers when it comes to festival submissions is: Do your research\u2014but also just go for it. \u201cBe like, \u2018I\u2019ll just do it,\u2019 \u201d she says. \u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among Wood\u2019s many festival experiences, one that stands out the most is the response she received from a blind veteran documentary filmmaker. \u201cWhen I get down to the Q&A, this man is in pieces. He is just so emotional,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd he\u2019s the first one to ask me a question\u2014or it wasn\u2019t even really a question. It was a statement. He said, \u2018I\u2019m blind, and all I had to do was listen. And I am torn to pieces by what I heard.\u2019 That moment as an actor, but also [as] someone who just simply created something\u2014that someone can be moved like that without even seeing it, I kind of was like: I can be happy with this and go home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She received similar reactions from assault survivors of all genders. \u201cHaving women and men who\u2019ve experienced any form of assault coming up to me and saying, \u2018Thank you, you captured it, you get it,\u2019 always makes me so emotional, because that\u2019s why I do it,\u201d Wood says. She believes that the authenticity of these responses stems from her creative intention for the film. \u201cI wasn\u2019t making it for anyone else but myself,\u201d she explains. \u201cI wasn\u2019t making it with men in mind, not even other women in mind. I was just making it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She realized the importance of self-trust and perseverance.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For years, Wood heard from agents and casting directors that she was \u201ca tough sell\u201d due to having a unique look. Although she initially tried to conform to what she thought the industry wanted, making her own film changed that. \u201cIt gave me authority over myself,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd what I mean by that is not in terms of who I am, but in how I want people to perceive me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt reinvigorated something inside me from when I was a child, of just doing<\/em>,\u201d Wood continues. \u201cAnd it drove me to have more confidence on the business side of everything.\u201d That confidence led her to self-submit to a manager and get signed, and to advocate for herself in ways she hadn\u2019t before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBe yourself and sell that,\u201d she says. \u201cDon\u2019t sell the version that you think that they want because if they pass on you, they pass on you.\u201d And if you struggle finding your footing in the industry, she advises, \u201cDo it for yourself. Make the thing. Write the thing you want to read. Because if you can\u2019t find it out in the world of what you want to read, write it. And then that hole will be filled. But you\u2019re going to be filling it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wood\u2019s final piece of advice is to remember that when things are tough, say to yourself, \u201cThis too shall pass.\u201d \u201cKeep going,\u201d she says\u2014because you never know what wonderful, unexpected opportunity is just around the corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The actor-filmmaker talks about trusting the process and creating for yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":1931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKalyn Elizabeth Wood Talks Trusting the Process and Creating for Yourself<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The actor-filmmaker shares how she shot an award-winning short film in just two days and navigated the festival circuit.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/kalyn-elizabeth-wood-screaming-silence\/\" \/>\n<meta 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