Today we’d like to introduce you to Yiqi Feng.
Hi Yiqi, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Before entering the film industry, I completed my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in marketing in Australia. If it weren’t for the massive life changes brought about by COVID-19, I might not have had the courage to confront my dreams.
Every film, for me, is like a parallel space from some corner that we might never notice. It’s like each dream in reality has been briefly realized in another world. I started writing screenplays when I was 14. It has been one of the most important parts of my life that has sustained me throughout. But when I chose my major in my bachelor’s period, I lacked courage and missed the opportunity. Fortunately, fate has favored me once again. By chance, I came to the set as an intern. When I was closely touched by the story delivered by camera language, my dream of becoming a filmmaker came out again. It’s like a portal to find your real ego, a foreordination of calling that leads you to be brave to go throughout the world.
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 will always be challenging to transfer to a new area. As a film producer, I must thoroughly understand the industry’s rules and build a solid foundation of self-background. At first, I thought the previous five years of marketing experience had wasted the most valuable time of my life. After a huge mindset adjustment, I learned to look at events differently. I was good at consumer behavior and customer segmentation in the marketing area; I started to convert these two majors and discovered their close relationship. For example, the audience group in the film industry is like the target customers in marketing. A film’s content will be the intangible value in marketing notions.
After the mindset change, a new issue has shown up in my career: I need enough opportunities to dive into the industry to gain more experience. I started a lot of internships. The most impressive struggle is to break the original self. I was a production assistant at Phoenix Satellite Television. My position was to participate in a TV documentary production and assist producers in communication with interviewees between departments. I had the most profound feelings about this job, and it has changed my personality to a great extent. It made me feel that I am like a button in interpersonal communication; everyone is a button; we are bound together as an entire group. I was a very introverted person. Through this job, we had to sit in a room with a group of people constantly meeting and coordinating, docking; in another way, I forced myself to be braver, which was very rewarding.
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 am a television and film producer. As producers, we do not limit the content to any subject or form as long as they can present diverse stories. My differentiation is my previous commerce background could give me a more business-oriented mindset to produce a film. In my previous job, I held a directing position either, which gave me more creative producer decisions and thinking.
My favorite producer, Lawrence Turman, mentioned that a producer must be a generalist who can appreciate. They have to hold a characteristic taste and the tenacity to persevere. For me, perseverance is the ability to confront a complex problem. As a producer with a business background, I will always combine commerce knowledge and props with a detachment from the artistic vision to transfer the event as a commodity. This kind of versatility of thinking is a hallmark of mine and one of the tools I use to keep my mind sharp and stable.
What are your plans for the future?
I want to tell stories about LGBTQ youth in small cities because they are mostly unseen and unheard. Their struggle is often internalized, but they deserve to be seen. I am too familiar with that feeling of being trapped and ignored. I want to explore and better understand their world through the making of these films, fiction or otherwise. I would love for my films to provide the audience with a new perspective. For me, film, and art in general, is a window that gives you access to a world beyond your day-to-day life. I benefit a great deal from it, and I want my film to have that impact on people.
In addition, feminism is another target subject that I would love to be involved with. Male lives represent all humans’ lives, while the other half, the female population, is often silenced. This silence is everywhere throughout our culture: movies, news, literature, science, ETC. The marker of female absence is the gender data gap. I hope to make it, even if it is not famous or great, but I am satisfied with the work.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Corleone Film Studio (Shanghai) Jiamin Dong Siyu Peng
