Meet Huiyu Zhou | Editor&Designer
We had the good fortune of connecting with Huiyu Zhou and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Huiyu, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
I think one of the values that mean a lot in my heart is Sincerity. Before I started my filmmaking career and socializing with people who have different cultural backgrounds from me, I had a really difficult time getting involved in American culture because I am super introverted and I cannot speak English very fluently. When I was 18 years old, I went to UC Davis and I barely talked because all things are new to me and I am a person who needs a longer time to get used to those new things. However, I know I cannot stop here. I tried so hard to practice English and talk with my professor about my plans for the future and making new friends. I want to let other people know that I am open to them and I accept different voices and opinions. It takes time to let myself jump out of my comfort zone to see through a new world and it also takes time for other people to trust me that I am a person who usually speaks the real opinion to them. During the cooperation, people would all have different kinds of thoughts that want to tell. As one of the members of the team, what I need to do is be a good listener and help them to analysis about the advantages and disadvantages so that they can make the best decision. Different voice sometimes is a good thing for people like me to learn and to see, and to get a new vision about the world.
Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
During my undergraduate time, I created a film that revealed several childhood traumas that I had when I was very young. The reason why I created this film is not to criticize my parents but to have doubts about several negative phenomena that Asia societies sometimes have. I am the only daughter in my family and I begin to become the goal that my family members used to compare. They hope I can become a better person. They hope I can do better than other children in my generation. It’s not a rare phenomenon in Asia. Moreover, the old family members such as my grandma or grandpa, sometimes hope to have a boy, not a girl. Therefore, I was raised in a restricted family which have expectations for me but they also hoped that sometimes I could be a man, not a girl.In that film, I criticized about female gaze and the things that I mentioned in the previous paragraph. In that film, I decided to analyze myself and tried to escape those phenomena, though they still exist in the world.
Link for my work: https://youtu.be/k1jm9QkpQrs?feature=shared
When I became one of the graduate students at Dodge Film School, I realized that I still needed to improve my skill in editing and focus more on the storytelling pacing. The pacing is one of the important elements that create the tone of the storytelling. For example, In the cycle one project which I edited during the first year of study, the story is about a single mother who has a very huge stress on the living needs to balance her job and her family well so that her daughter can have a good life to live. My job is to let the audience feel the hesitation and the depression that this single mother felt.
Link for my Cycle One:
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Los Angeles is a place that never lacks entertainment. It is hard to choose which one is the best for them. However, if there is a chance I can show my friends here, I would like to take them to North California. it has a different weather from LA and people can see different landscapes if they are here. I would take my friend to the county where I spent four years–Davis. It is a small place but has a lot of good food inside. There is a Japanese restaurant called Zen Toro that is very popular among students. After the one or two days in Davis, I would take my friend to Napa Valley which is a really good wine-making place for my friends to purchase for their family members.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Julie Wyman was the first filmmaking professor who taught me how to make a film at UC Davis. Her existence means a lot to me. When I was in the third year of college, the covids came and the school shut down. I was alone in Davis and Professor Julie the one who taught us filmmaking online. I sometimes would write emails to her to clarify the knowledge she taught in class and talk with her during office time on Zoom. We talked about feminism and the male gaze and she shared a lot of her own experience when she was making the documentary. Even though my English is bad during that time, she is still very patient with me. I appreciate she appears in my life. She wrote a recommendation letter for me and encouraged me to still keep learning filmmaking knowledge and get more practice. She is a lady that always has generosity to her students and easy to talk with her.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jade.h.zhou?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@huiyuzhou7666?si=CV2ld1PPtHdLzvGW
Image Credits
Dodge College of Film and Media Arts
Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
