Life & Work with Yin Chen of LOS ANGELES

Today we’d like to introduce you to Yin Chen.

Hi Yin , so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started recording myself during the pandemic—partly out of fear that if I didn’t, those days would soon blur and disappear. Life felt empty, and I wanted to leave a trace of my existence. That impulse led me to buy my first camera, and the short pieces I created unexpectedly received positive feedback from my classmates. Their encouragement pushed me to keep exploring.

When I entered college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Attending the career fair made me realize how much courage it takes to pursue filmmaking as a career. Still, after studying subjects like math, marketing, and finance, I found that nothing excites me the way filmmaking does. It’s the one field where I feel both passionate and capable. Even though other paths might offer more financial security, I can’t picture myself doing anything else. I believe that when you truly love what you do and are willing to grow through it, success will come naturally in time.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road. Unlike working in a firm where there are clear guidelines or metrics for success, creating art on my own can sometimes feel uncertain and even isolating. There’s no definite standard to follow, no universal measure of whether something is “good enough.” That ambiguity can be both liberating and anxiety-inducing.

Over time, I’ve learned to remind myself that the most important thing is to create with intention—to stay honest to the emotion or story I want to express, even when I’m unsure if I like the outcome. Art, to me, is less about perfection and more about persistence and sincerity.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I explore the passage of time and the fragility of memory. To me, the powerlessness of watching time slip away is one of the deepest emotions—it pierces through the layers we build to survive adulthood and reveals the pure innocence we once had as children. To evoke that emotion, I often integrate my background in piano improvisation into storytelling, allowing music to guide the rhythm of both image and emotion.

My creative process centers around finding connections between shots—through symbolism, rhythm, and structure—and giving them symmetrical or contrasting meanings. Composition and editing are crucial for me, so I often design them during pre-production. I like to anchor each piece with an iconic moment—a movement or image that lingers in memory—and build the story and pacing around it.

What sets me apart is how I treat visual storytelling as musical composition—each cut, frame, and silence carries rhythm and intention. I’m most proud of my ability to merge emotion and structure, intuition and precision, creating works that feel both cinematic and deeply personal.

How do you think about luck?
My greatest treasure throughout my documentary journey was the archive of my life since I was 13. It contained every fragment of my growth—videos, photos, drawings, diaries—each piece a reflection of who I was becoming. But two years ago, I lost it all. That loss shattered me. During the pandemic, when life already felt hollow, it made me question the very meaning of existence.

Ironically, my proudest work came from that loss. I created a film about losing my archives—about memory, impermanence, and the fragility of holding onto the past. It became a way to heal and to rediscover why I began documenting in the first place.

So, if luck plays any role in my life, I’d say bad luck has often turned into a quiet form of grace. Losing everything taught me to create not to preserve, but to feel—to live through the process rather than cling to the result.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ianpression.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ianpression/