Conversations with Elizabeth Tran

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Tran.

Hi Elizabeth, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was born and raised in northern Virginia in a city about 20 minutes outside of Washington, DC. Growing up, I was always extremely studious and focused on school. I thought I was either going to become a writer or a psychologist. It led me to eventually explore writing screenplays, as I loved delving into creating characters and crafting narratives based on things I was working through in my life — whether it be people around me or thoughts I had around different circumstances around me. This started my journey into working behind the camera and creating films. From there, I briefly attended school in Boston.

However, after working 50-hour weeks at various cafe and restaurant jobs to afford my tuition and barely being able to afford basic living expenses, I decided to drop out of school at the advice of numerous school-appointed counselors and administrators at the time. During the rest of the year in Boston, I briefly worked as a real estate agent and telemarketer. At the height of the pandemic, realizing I was unhappy with my life at the time, I decided to move to LA with the $2000 I had saved up. From there, I bounced from different living situations and various telemarketing/ sales jobs. I knew I was interested in working in the film industry, but I had no idea where or how to start. Through meeting some people in the music industry that I still consider some of my closest friends to this day, I was able to start filming music videos and recap videos, eventually expanding it into a full-time business and getting the opportunity to work as an in house videographer for fashion and jewelry brands.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Some of the most prominent struggles I’ve faced along the way are monetary stability and creative burnout. At times, freelancing can get extremely unstable, which I’m sure every creative knows and has experienced at some point in their career. I’ve also had a lot of moments where I’ve questioned my identity as an artist — thinking about how unhappy I was with the current work I was putting out or getting tired of putting out a certain type of content and wanting to improve but feeling stuck as to how to do so. Which, again, is something I’m sure a lot, if not all, artists go through at some point in their careers.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a filmmaker — specializing in coloring, operating cameras, and writing. I am also a photographer who specializes in portraits and products. I co-wrote with my friend Larissa and directed a short film called Loop that has had the honor of being an official selection of the LA Independent Women Film Awards, Venice Shorts Film Festival and is an award finalist for Best Women’s Short at IndieX Film Festival and winner of Best Picture of the Month at the Los Angeles Cinematography Awards. I am also proud to say a recent product campaign shoot I did for a company called “The Rich Barber” made it into the advertising features section of British GQ, making it my first published work. I worked in-house as a videographer for fashion brand “Lucy in the Sky” and luxury jewelry brand “IF and Co.”.

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson I learned in my journey throughout my life has to be how important it is to be able to earnestly self-reflect and be aware of your flaws and past mistakes. I’m big on personal growth, and I think it’s impossible to grow and improve as a person without being able to reflect on your negative traits and figure out how to resolve them in a healthy way. And it requires hard work, commitment, and stepping outside of your comfort zone to be able to do this, so it can be definitely challenging.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://liztran.net
• Instagram: lizdoratee

Image Credits
Havanna Winter, Danieljohn Maramba, Chuka Torres