Meet Wentao Zong of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Wentao Zong.

Hi Wentao, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My Story with Los Angeles

Sooner or later, you come to realize that, regardless of anything, the life you are trying to live has nothing and everything to do with La La Land. The only thing I now know better than 10 years ago is that the real Hollywood isn’t so much about breaking in Griffith Observatory after 10pm without a permit, but more about walking outside of a party somewhere in the hills, unable to find your own Prius among many others, stressed about the 40-minutes’ drive home. Nonetheless, this is the price you pay for being a, what they call, a cinephile.

After four years in Beijing studying Spanish, I made the decision to move to California and started pursuing a career in film at Chapman University. However, at that time, little did I know that Orange County is hardly LA, and anyone who’d argue against that would give in eventually to the long communes on a Monday morning. I was originally admitted to the MA program of Film and Media Studies and decided to transfer to Film Production with an emphasis in Sound only two weeks into the first semester. I guess I’ve never been as committed to academia as I’d wished to be and had been hoping to find the steppingstone to actual filmmaking. I just never thought the opportunity would present itself that soon, and in a way as casual as a brief mentioning of someone switching major too three years ago. After 24 hours of battling with myself and a good amount of hair loss, I knocked on the door of the associate dean, who is also a professor of sound.

People always ask, “Why sound though?” First of all, they needed more people in the sound program, because sound is not as glamorous and popular as directing or cinematography. Second of all, sound made sense to me when I thought about how I spent most of my life on learning foreign languages. In some way, speaking a language makes you pay more attention to the sonic elements in life. People’s voices, their resonance in the space, how they reach each other in the room, and all the pauses and jittering in between. Listening, that’s one perk of being a wallflower.

I still remember the first time I walked into one of the mixing rooms and was immediately intimidated by the giant speakers and control boards with flashing lights and moving gadgets. Little did I know that in two years, I’d also become a tech-savvy person who’d master those knobs like a writer with his words. I had a rough start, having to grow from zero to carrying projects on my own in a very short time. I was on set as much as I could, and when I was not on set, I was in the mixing rooms. Like Spanish, you need to learn the grammars before you could make your own sentences and start conversations that evolve as you go on to learn more, and I was always eager to learn.

I was understanding sound like never before, and also about filmmaking in general. I also learnt that being a film enthusiast doesn’t necessary sparkle the same passion for filmmaking. Those can be two completely different things. You are vulnerable and sensitive as an audience, but you have to be tough and strenuous as a creative. The same kind of work ethic and professionalism I learnt on set, I also brought into other aspects of my life. Besides all that, for the first time in my life, after much longing and late nights of staying up watching movies, I was among people who called themselves artists, and having conversations where my input was heard and valued. It was through teamwork that it became crucial to me that I needed to find a voice of my own. Who am I as an artist? What stories do I want to tell? Like everyone else, you started by learning how to say “Hola” and “Me llamo Alfonso”, but rather sooner than later, you’d want to say something more, like feeling sad after the party’s over, or seeing a bit of yourself in another person’s eyes.

Back when days were better, I used to say stuff like “Maybe one day I’ll just hop on a plane, fly to America and be an extra somewhere” And it was to a certain extend exactly what I did. Wallflower though I always am, I forced myself to take risks, because I knew I had to put myself out there to be able to get where I wanted to be. At least just try first anyway. You are here in Hollywood, and you know that anything is possible if you really want it enough. That’s what I told myself when I transferred to film production, and also when I decided to submit a script to the thesis committee at school, which was later selected for production. All of a sudden, I was not just a sound designer, but also screenwriter for a short film, being in the same room with actors, explaining to them why I wrote what I did. I think, in some way, it also amazes me how much I have changed since I came to the US, how I have been saying yes to everything, taking risks. Maybe it’s because some chances are only given to you once in a lifetime. And once you get them, you have to give all you got.

I find it hard to talk about Los Angeles, like trying to grip sand in your fist yet only to end up with nothing at all. I look for Los Angeles in those hideous trips trying to get to the top of Griffith Park at golden hour, the 12-hour shoots under the sun on a baseball field, the laid-back carefree voices of white men, the sound of street sweepers from 10am to 2pm on Wednesdays, the swiping of fobs that open doors to gyms and pools, the spiraling parking structures seething with fire. I never had a real life here in Los Angeles. I never felt home. I’m always on the way to somewhere, looking in from the outside. I learnt the language of a different people, travelled across the ocean, learnt how to drive on endless freeways, remembered not to think too much about it when people ask you, “What’s up?”. These are the lessons you have to learn if you want to stay here for a bit longer, if you want to someday be part of something bigger than just yourself. It’s always about risk-taking, and you already know it all too well. The real City of Stars, the ultimate Los Angeles syndrome, lies somewhere in one of those moments when Mia is knee-deep in a conversation with some over-night success, while Sebastian experiences a great existential crisis staring into a black hole made of Prius car keys.

Who am I? I’m a sound designer, a filmmaker. I’m a writer. I’m the co-founder of a video production company that’s just starting. I’m a Spanish teacher. I’m a freelancer trying to make ends meet. I’m grown-up but somehow still a kid. I’m everything LA wants me to be.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I try my best to be optimistic! One of the important lessons I learned in adulthood is that you have to channel yourself to be happy. It hasn’t been a smooth road for the past two years. Survival is the hardest part. I feel like I could’ve spent more time on “art” if I don’t have to stress about finding gigs that pay for everything. But you work with what you get. It’s definitely been a character-defining journey.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m working my way to become a professional sound designer and re-recording mixer. Now I am mostly freelancing and I am also starting a production company with my friends from Chapman University. I’m very proud of my thesis film at dodge college of film and media arts at Chapman University, for which I’m both the writer and sound designer. It’s a semi-biography called Dear Libido. Besides that, I am proud of my sensibility, my optimism, and my friends.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
My favorite book is Cien Años de Soledad by Gabriel García Márquez. I loved it since I was a kid, and somehow ending up to learn Spanish for college seems like fate. I haven’t been inputting enough. All recommendations about anything in life are welcome!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kick7.studio/service/sound
• Instagram: @wentaozong
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wentao-zong-ba18a9370
• Other: wentaozongfilm@gmail.com