Today we’d like to introduce you to Yuan Hong.
Hi Yuan, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Hi! Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity! By the way, you can also call me Circle! I like Googling random things and if you Google what happened in 1996, you probably will see these: NASA launched the STS-72 Space Shuttle mission during January of 1996. Major League Soccer had its first season. Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales got divorced. Nintendo released their newest gaming system, the Nintendo 64 or N64 in Japan. Mad Cow Disease hits Britain, etc. And coincidentally, I was born in 1996 too. I would not say I born to be a video editor or something like that. But it’s just so hard for me to recall what exactly make me want to be a video editor or a creator. I guess what I want to say is that everything happens in our life are connected together and all those experiences bring me here and influence my future.
If my life could be watched like a film, some details would be shot in close-up and you will feel like: uh-huh, there is the clue. But my life is not a film, it cannot be edited, cannot be punched in or zoomed out, I cannot see the whole timeline and don’t even mention resizing any frame or saying this scene can indicate something will happen in the second act. This is an era of ever-changing technology sweeping the globe, I just go with the flow. However, this wave didn’t take me to any beach named by computer science or some other paths. It tried tho, my major in college was Digital Media Technology, and most of our class was about coding. In my sophomore year, my mom talked to me about my future and as a mama’s good girl, I agreed with my mom that I would pursue a master degree; but also a girl who was keeping her red panda inside (if you have watched Turning Red, you will know what I am talking about; if you haven’t, go watch), I chose to major in film production.
After graduation, I was freelancing and worked with two amazing editors: Cynthia Chen and Dora Wu, who brought me into the industry and help me working on professional productions. Not only I got hands-on experience, but also I harvested friendships. Being a freelancer, as it called, is pretty free, in other words: it’s unstable. And I saw other friends from trailer houses having fun, which made me curious about the life with those benefits and regular pay checks. Then, I started to send out my resume and cover letter to every trailer house on the Golden Trailer Award Nominees list. My best friend Jingxi was working in Wild Card, and she told me GrandSon is looking for assistant editors. Then, I get to where I am today: Assistant Editor at GrandSon(A VERY COOL CREATIVE COMPANY btw), enjoying the new working vibe and having fun with new friends here.
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?
I think this question should be the question for both my parents and me actually, hahaha. Because as far as I can see, the biggest obstacle in this road is the money. I am not born in a rich family, but the cost of studying abroad and especially studying in Film is considerable. However, my parents still invested a fortune in my uncertain future, or a definite loss in economic terms I would say. To be honest, I probably would not be that supportive if I have a child who wants to get a master’s degree in Film, but my parent stands by my side all the time, which makes me feel super grateful but also makes me stressed out.
Then my inconfidence comes, I still remember when I got into Chapman I told one of my director friends that I was always questioning about myself: How do I love film, or TV, or other media? What if I just wasted my parent’s money for nothing? Am I a good editor? How do people see me? I never stop questioning until one day, after finishing our short film, that director friend talked to me face to face seriously: I think you are good at editing and you are a good person. I hugged him and thanked him, but I don’t know if he knows how much it means to me. After that, I hear more positive feedback from my professors, my classmates and coworkers, and those kind words help me build my confidence bit by bit. At present, I still question myself but just focus on how I can make things better than what I have at present because I know I will be an excellent editor everything is on the right track. Though I cannot suddenly be rich and pay my parent back unless I can win a lottery without buying it, I still feel faithful about that I will get more than they invested with regard to personal growth.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Recap: I am a video editor/assistant video editor. I used to be a freelancer, worked with several experienced editors for TV series and documentaries. Now I am working at the trailer house called GrandSon with a bunch of professional and creative people; thanks to that, I am getting hands-on experience of A24, HBO, APPLE TV and NEON projects, which keeps me being excited about my job.
I think patience and being easy to communicate with are essentials for being an editor or an assistant editor, and I am that kind of person. I remember when I had the interview with Goktug, the founder of GrandSon, he asked me about my hobby. I told him that I was into a game called “Jump King” which made me feel I am like sisyphus — the difference is I was repeating jump and fall. Then, he concluded: that’s good, that shows you can keep sitting there for a long time. And he is right.
Generally speaking, I would say the best part of me is my personality. If you like quiet nice strangers, you will like me; if you want a funny caring friend, you will like me too. I am an introvert person and being a little bit crazy and goofy sometimes. But most of time I’d like to hide in the crowd, which makes me feel safe and it is convenient to observe other lives and emotions. Through my observing, I find out everyone is so special with their unique personal experiences and life attitudes. For answering that question: what set me apart from others? Well, in my opinion, it can be everything, everything in me is different from the others and makes me distinguished, but also no certain things make me more outstanding cause I believe every individual is “the other existence” in each other’s parallel universes. I am afraid that I cannot claim this clear in one sentence (looks like at least we can sure about what is NOT my best part—my English); so I am going to make an example: You and me can be one spirit in two bodies, you can be another version of me in a parallel universe of mine, so do others. Every living being can spiritually reunion as the one, but every living being is also totally different from each other. I hope this can explain more how I feel about this question, if not, you can take this as my goofy side and that could be the thing sets me apart from others.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
My website is yuanhongpost.com, and my email is: [email protected]
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yuanhongpost.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuan-hong-53161721a/
Image Credits
Yue Wang, Xinxiu Liu, Davis Chang, Joshua Snyder
