Check Out Tianyu Yang’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tianyu Yang.

Tianyu, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
First I got interested in still photography during high school. I always thought I am going to be a photojournalist. Then during my freshman year at Emory University, a short I shoot with my friends won the grand student documentary prize at Tribeca film festival.

However, I did not want to pursue film because my parents urge me to study finance in the business school. I obeyed. However, after I took a short film writing class during junior year, I fell in love with the craft of storytelling. Grateful for my mentors, James Pellerito and David Barba. They helped a finance student to get into the filmmaking world. I applied to several film schools and got into American Film Institute producing tracks.

During the first summer, I was lucky enough to intern at the TV department at A24. It may not seem that hard but as an international student, this is huge. Forever grateful for my friend Sydney Coleman. Without her help, I would never have the chance to intern at such an amazing company.

After that, I interned at Media Res Studio and in Mister Smith Entertainment during AFM. Both of the experiences are extremely rewarding. It’s already one and a half years of my filmmaking career and I look forward to meeting more amazing people on the road 🙂

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?
It’s difficult. It’s never easy. Shifting career from finance to filmmaking is tough, especially as a college student. It’s also difficult to convince my parents that I’m going to apply to film schools only without any finance programs. They were worried for sure. Learning all the information at AFI is another challenge. I had my first set experience at AFI cycle project and it was crazy. Working at a company like A24 is so rewarding but so difficult as well. I cannot let them down and I have to work as hard as I can to prove that Chinese students can do a great jobs as well. English is an obstacle but we can overcome it.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Currently as a student producer, I want to take a studio route in the future and contribute to the growing international media landscape. I interned at multiple companies: A24 as a development intern, media res as a production intern, and during American film market, I worked at Mister Smith Entertainment, a UK international distribution company. After working at very different companies, I feel I have a great sense of story and know what a good story looks like. Mostly importantly, I connect with people with different backgrounds in entertainment firms.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Never forget where you come from and who helped you along the way. Without the help of my mentors, I mentioned in previous sections, I would never be able to come here and develop my career in LA.

Contact Info:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tianyuyang1025/