Today we’d like to introduce you to Yang Qian.
Hi Yang, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Last summer I just graduated from my undergrad school, being probably the most energetic and hopeful group of people in the world. I studied media and arts back then and what I did was mainly cross-disciplinary media arts research. My undergrad school is the first liberal arts college in China. We were the inaugural class so we had many opportunities to shape our program ourselves.
I have to say such an unconventional program really pushed me to explore unconventional art forms and ways of storytelling. New art forms like interactive art or virtual art excite me a lot. However, as a classical music enthusiast. I’m always compelled by traditional forms, patterns, and rules. So I could not help wondering what it’s like to make narrative fiction films in such a world where there’re so many ways of visual storytelling.
For me, narrative fiction filmmaking is the most basic but pure approach to visual storytelling. when we speak of movies, we’re generally referring to narrative fiction movies. So now here I am, as a producing fellow at the American Film Institute, where people put a lot of effort into telling a clear story through moving images.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been many obstacles along the way. The biggest one probably is my first one. My first step into filmmaking was not easy. Before my first short film, I made conceptual visual shorts and documentaries but all on my own. The transition from working on my own to working on big sets was not very smooth in the beginning.
Back then I was in Beijing, China, hoping to make the first short film in my life. However, I was not in a film program nor did I know people who work in the film industry. The filmmaking community in Beijing was a very enclosed one, I guess it still is. If you’re not a film school student or working in the industry, you won’t get people to help you.
For many film school students, they always exchange favors by working on each others’ sets. However, for my first film, my relationship with my crew was more like a “boss-employee” relationship because I paid all of them industry-level rates.
That was tough, but that first step helped me break into the filmmaking community and become a filmmaker. I get to be friends with my DP, PD, and 1st AD ever since.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a producer. I make films or any kind of visual content. Producing is a demanding job. You have to be good at a lot of things at the same time. For me, I’m most proud of having the ability to be empathetic enough and distant at the same time. This sounds hypocritical but this is actually a valuable skill. As a director, you can be all in but as a producer, sometimes you do need to be less sentimental and be able to take a step back and say, “ok we need to do this in order to make this happen, do you still think this is necessary?”
I search for stories that speak to me strongly and always try my best to understand why they have to tell them. I still remember the moment when I was developing our thesis film with my director. We were sitting on a garden bench, having lunch. We talked briefly about the story and some notes from various people. And she paused for a moment. She had the idea of adding a new background story to our protagonist. This new detail is about losing her father at a very young age. Growing up not only means leaving behind her childhood self but also means leaving behind her memories of her father.
I was immediately moved by this detail added. I have worked with her on more than one project but this detail suddenly made me deeply understand her motivation to tell such a story. At that moment, I feel truly connected with her and motivated to help her make this film.
I believe with this trust built by empathy, we will be able to examine realistically when problems regarding production come along the way.
I’m positive that our film will be a powerful piece of work.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Holding weekly talent shows with my twin sister. I have an identical twin sister, which is a blessing. We called our talent show “shining stars”, this is very much what a 12-year-old would name it.
We would set up the stage ourselves, make hand-written tickets, and design the stage lights using lamps and flashlights.
Our family members always came to see our shows.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.yangqian22.com/
