Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1543164
33 S P R I N G Q 1 I S S U E F E A T U R E directors from 2021 to 2024. He co-founded the Unscripted Alliance, an online group where editors shared their concern that jobs in reality TV were getting scarce as productions fled overseas. Now, 20 years after he became an MPEG member, Scott is on honorary withdrawal, whereby active membership is paused — hopefully tem- porarily — in hopes that steady work will return soon. 2025 was the toughest year of Scott's career and one of the most challenging of his personal life. Last year, on January 7, Scott's home, where he lived with his wife Emma and two kids, Reese and Wilder, survived the devastating Eaton Fire by a matter of blocks. Ten days later, their third child, Soleil, was born without a safe home to return to due to smoke damage. As if all this weren't enough, this came less than a year after Scott and his wife lost their baby at full term in February 2024. When the ashes settled, he found him- self searching not only for income, but for purpose. He found a way to transform his artistic skills into connection and uncer- tainty into a new path forward. CineMontage: When the work slowed to a near stop, did it feel like a moment of reinvention — or something more forced upon you? Austin Scott: For years, I made a con- sistent income editing reality competition shows, and I could always find work. How- ever, the business has been changing, and I have been searching for a sense of purpose. I've also watched my kids grow up so fast, and I've felt depressed to have missed so many moments. I have tried to mix up the genres I work in over the years, but the writing's been on the wall for a while. I've been trying to figure out how to be happier and spend more time with my family. Then the fire happened. I was unbeliev- ably stricken with grief. Our entire town burned down. We were spared just as they stopped the fire. Almost all of our friends' and neighbors' houses were destroyed, and I was dealing with survivor's guilt. My artwork came organically. I told myself, "I'm going to draw, I need to draw something." I started drawing a happy bear from Altadena. And then I drew his coyote friend and his parrot buddy. I drew them around favorite Altadena places like Side Pie Pizza (which I couldn't believe had been destroyed), Cafe de Leche, and Fox's. Iconic landmarks like NASA JPL and the Affirma- 'Our entire town burned down — I was dealing with survivors guilt.' P H OT O : C O U R T E S Y AU S T I N S C OT T IT'S A DRAW: "My artwork came organically," Scott says.