Today we’d like to introduce you to Rongdanyang Xiang.
Rongdanyang“Sunny” Xiang, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My career began when I produced promotional videos and commercials. It was the first project that I worked in as a producer, where I realized my lifelong passion for film and television production. I studied television and film for a BFA degree at the Academy of Art University. I served as an assistant for Hugh Litfin, a senior member of the American SOC, for two years. I obtained an MFA degree from film producing major at Chapman University. I am currently an experienced producer and a member of the American NATPE film association, serving as the producer and the head of international sales and distribution at Fusionart Pictures Inc.
Over the years, I have produced more than 50 short films, commercials, promotional videos, documentaries, MV and feature films in the United States and China, and participated in the production of more than 200 projects, including PUMA X THE HUNDREDS commercial, TV show “Rap of China”, Fitz and The Tantrums’ MV, etc.
My independently produced works include the promotional video of the 6th Silicon Valley Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum in the United States. My film “The Magic Door” was shown at the Berlin International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema. My personal interview was published in the European film magazine and was reported by various major social media in Berlin. I produced “I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone” and distributed it to Amazon. The distribution to iTunes and Google Play is ongoing.
My works have won awards and officially selected in 53 film festivals, including Berlin International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema, WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, Hollywood International Moving Pictures Film Festival, Crown Wood International Film Festival, Desertscape International Film Festival, White Unicorn International Film Festival, Madrid International Film Festival, Amsterdam International Filmmaker Festival, CKF International Film Festival, Anatolia International Film Festival, Global Film Festival Award, London Independent Film Festival, Newmarket International Film Festival, Burbank International Film Festival 2020 and many other film festivals.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
From the moment I decided to work in film production, I knew that it wouldn’t be a smooth road. A producer makes the projects happened. The work includes financing, script development, scheduling, budgeting, post-production, and distribution. It is his/her fundamental responsibility to supervise, inspect, guide, and coordinate the work of the whole team, keeping the project on track. There were many difficulties along the way. Finding investors and casting was never easy, scheduling and budgeting required big-picture and strategic thinking, post-production needed professionalism, distribution demanded marketing ability, the whole process required lots of communication and coordination work. In fact, I see them as more challenges than struggles. In this job, working long hours with high pressure is the norm. The hardest part is to deal with various emergency situations, especially when several emergencies occur at the same time.
I could still remember when I produced “I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone” 2018, a Wellsfargo cover girl was cast as the heroine and a dog took part in the shoot. There were many overnight shoots and the dog had a shooting time limit. The communication and coordination workload was heavy. What’s worse, our hard drive was suddenly broken after the editing, and color grading was done. I had to spend hours with Cynthia Chen (“Missing Link” and “Richard Jewell”, etc.), trying to solve the problem. Luckily, we managed to retrieve all the files from the backup. This film was distributed to Amazon. The distribution to iTunes and Google Play is ongoing. It won Global Film Festival Awards, London Independent Film Awards, Los Angeles Film Awards, Top Indie Film Awards, and LA Shorts Awards. It was also officially selected in New York International Film Awards, Crown Wood International Film Festival, Desertscape International Film Festival, and Newmarket International Film Festival, etc.
When we started the post-production of the documentary “2015” 2020, outbreaks of the COVID-19 in the United States also began. As we received stay-at-home order, I had to collaborate with our colorist Cynthia Chen and sound designer Xiaodan Li (“Arctic”, “iBot”, “Ba Yue”, etc.) remotely. I remember they debugged the colors and sounds and exported the files for check over and over again, just to ensure that we got a perfect film. Their hard work paid off. The first episode of this documentary received 2,780,000 hits and the second episode received 8,550,000 hits on Weibo, a social media platform of 550 million monthly active users.
When it came to the copyright application of our film “To Kern” 2020, our entertainment lawyer was in New York, the worst-hit city by the COVID-19 in the United States. However, we still got a copyright report in spite of all the difficulties. The post-production was also affected by the COVID-19, in which our colorist Cynthia Chen, sound designer Xiaodan Li, and composer Lisi Chen all contributed a lot. Finally, “To Kern” was officially selected in Crown Wood International Film Festival, White Unicorn International Film Festival, Madrid International Film Festival, CKF International Film Festival, Five Continents International Film Festival, Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards, Oniros Film Awards, Florence Film Awards, LA Shorts Awards, and Newmarket International Film Festival. The distribution of this film is ongoing.
In addition, we had problems building up the set while producing the film “The Magic Door” 2020. There was a scene about a dream in the film where we needed to create a greenhouse on the sound stage. After the set design, the art team began to do the set dressing. It took us about a week to complete a very vivid scene-setting, during which I constantly communicated with and coordinated between the DP, production designer, and the director to ensure overall management and budget control. Nevertheless, all the efforts were worth it. This film, though in the progress of distribution, has won awards in International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema, London Independent Film Awards, LA Shorts Awards, etc. It has been officially selected in Global Film Festival Awards, Anatolia International Film Festival, Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards, etc.
While producing the film “Tinhead” 2020, we first had a tough time attracting investment. Then, one of the actors quit the day before the shoot. All the actors of this film were selected from SAG, which had many rules and required a lot of paperwork for using their actors. Therefore, it was really not easy for us to find an understudy and convince the investors that the new actor was qualified in only twelve hours. As there were many aged and child actors in this project, the management on the scene was very complicated. The green screen scene also posed difficulties for the shoot. There was a rain scene where we had to block the whole street and set up lighting at around 3 am. To create a lifelike rain scene was harder than it sounded. In order not to disturb the neighborhood, we did a lot of communication and coordination work before the shoot. Moreover, during post-production, the director proposed a whole new kind of special effect while there was no reference film. In this case, the special effect team had to try many different special effects according to their own understanding. As the rendering of the special effects was very time-consuming, it did take us much effort to make sure that the director and investors were satisfied. This film has won the Los Angeles Film Awards and London Independent Film Awards. It has recently been officially selected in Salento International Film Festival, Anatolia International Film Festival, Top Indie Film Awards, LA Shorts Awards, and Burbank International Film Festival.
By tackling the problems one after another throughout my career path, I have honed my skills and strengthened my mind. Working as a producer could sometimes be discouraging but challenging and satisfying most of the time.
Please tell us about Fusionart Pictures Inc.
Fusionart Pictures is an award winner & Hollywood based production company with an extraordinary film producing experience and extensive academic background. The company is focused on the creative development, production, post-production, and distribution of independent films and documentaries. We also run the production and manage the post-production for commercial and promotional videos. The film festival and digital distribution are also a part of our business. We have a professional team of experienced producer, writer, cinematographer, production designer, editor, colorist, sound designer, composer, costume designer, who are all award winners. Our cooperative partners include Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, iTunes, Microsoft, Comcast, DirectTV, IN Demand, Netflix, Hoopla, Hulu, Sony Entertainment Network, Steam, VUBIQUITY, VUDU, and Dish Network. We are also collaborating with news media, including Sing Tao Daily, World Journal, China Daily, US New Express, VoyageLA, TouTiao, NetEase, SDTV, South East TV, Zhejiang TV, HNTV, and other TV Channels.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think faith is good luck in my producing and distributing life. My faith lies in trying my best to produce works with not only excellent economic and social benefits but also high artistic value. My love for film and television production along with my commitment to art drove me to choose a career of producer, yet it was actually an optimistic attitude and a spirit of never giving up that pushed me forward along the way. Now as a good leader and an efficient problem-solver, I have confidence in the success of my future career and life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8052190/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rongdanyang.xiang
- Other: www.fusionartpictures.com
Image Credit:
Siqi Xiao, Donghao Zhang, Haobang Geng, Stephen Inniss, Maritza Brikisak
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