Meet Bing Yi Oyster” Liao”

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bing Yi “Oyster” Liao and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bing Yi “Oyster”, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I would say “keep learning.”

I began my career working with TVCF and Taiwan’s film industry as an art department assistant after I received my BA degree in Mass Communication in 2006, learning practical filmmaking skills by doing. After being involved in film projects for 6 years, I realized I lacked certain requisite skills that could help me advance to the next level. So, I decided to have a gap year, learning skills, such as sketching, watercolors, and perspective drawing, and courses about design fundamentals.

I restarted my career in 2013 with more energy and professional knowledge. My production design for the television film “A CORNER” was nominated for Best Production Design in 2015 at the 50th Golden Bell Awards, the highest honor in Taiwan TV production. This honor fueled me to persist in my career and gave recognition of my hard work.

Although I was the production designer for several local narrative film projects between 2013 and 2021, my knowledge and skills are restrained by a limited market and smaller budgets. I was eager to further improve my abilities and transcend the small scale of Taiwanese productions.

After working in Taiwan’s film industry for 17 years, In 2023, I was awarded The AFI Scholarship endowed by THE DISNEY DIVERSE STORYTELLERS FUND and now is studying for my master’s degree in Production Design at AFI Conservatory.

It is never too late to learn.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I grew up in the countryside in Taiwan. Given the opportunity of being surrounded by beautiful landscapes filled with rice fields, I spent much of my childhood observing nature. That upbringing probably shaped my curious personality. I like to observe the world and every detail that surrounds me in everyday life.

The ability to observe helps a lot in my work since the most important task for a production designer is visual storytelling. Based on what I have observed and perceived, I can create worlds and vibes to visually tell stories in films and TV series and make them convincing.

Another key factor that makes my work unique is my life experience. I am not from a rich family, so I grew up in an environment that was surrounded by different kinds of hard situations, experiencing the struggles of surviving in society. Also, in order to pay back my tuition loan, I lived in an illegal rooftop dwelling for 6 years and finally paid off my loan when I was 29. Because of that, I was allowed to closely observe and feel the struggles of people who were at the bottom of the heap. These experiences allow me to put myself in the protagonists’ shoes when I am reading scripts, inspiring me with more ideas to make the sets more detailed, and even adding more imagination to my designs.

In 2015, I was granted the opportunity to production-design for the television film “A CORNER,” a story about how a single mother raises her three kids in a very helpless way. When I was reading the script, I recalled many ideas that I had seen and experienced, putting myself in the story and building up a set vividly representing these three kids’ situations and inner desires. My design was nominated for Best Production Design at the 50th Golden Bell Awards, the highest honor in Taiwan TV production.

Two factors helped me get to where I am today: stay curious and keep learning. Curiosity is crucial for a production designer since it allows me to explore new possibilities when creating my work. Because of my curious personality, I am always eager to learn new skills and gain new knowledge, which is vital for me to become a better version of myself.

It was not easy for me to get here and there were a lot of obstacles on my path, but luckily, the environment where I grew up shaped me into more persistent and resilient. These personalities allow me to grow from difficult situations and continue pursuing my goals even failing several times.

The most important lesson I have learned along the way was communication skills. Filmmaking is a collective work, so how to express my ideas and communicate them with the whole team is vital. When I was first involved in film projects, I was not confident enough to express my thoughts, not to mention the ability to talk to people who I needed their help with. So I ended up doing all the jobs myself, working overtime every day without extra pay.

I realized that I needed to build up my confidence and communication skills, so I forced myself to speak out. By doing so, practicing and practicing, I gradually became more confident and learned how to communicate with people who have different personalities.

The most important thing that I want the world to know about my story is the FEMALE POWER. I hope there will be more and more women reading my story and realizing that they have potential powers to achieve their goals. It would be awesome if my story could awaken women who are also from a working-class family like me, and they have to know that they have the power to reach what they want and that their futures are full of possibilities.

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 fascinating city with diverse culture, food, and architecture. If my best friend is going to visit Los Angeles, I will take her to museums, such as The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Broad, and The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, etc. Visiting these museums is not only to enjoy the artworks in the exhibition but also to appreciate the contemporary architecture.

The other part that I like is exotic food. There are areas like Korea Town, Little Tokyo, Little Armenia, and Historic Filipinotown, etc, providing thousands and thousands of options of restaurants for visitors to enjoy diverse food and their culture.

Last but not least, I suggest bringing her on an architecture tour. Los Angeles has a strong cultural inclusion, so there are diverse architectural styles, such as Art Deco, Spanish Colonial Revival, and American Craftsman, etc. So I will drive her leisurely seeing these architectures in DTLA, Pasadena, and Los Feliz, etc.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to thank Giddens Ko, the director of my first production-designed feature film “MON MON MON MONSTERS!”. Back in 2015, although I had been working in Taiwan’s film industry for 9 years, I was not experienced enough to become a feature film production designer. However, I was lucky enough to be introduced to Giddens Ko by line producer Clare Tung and cinematographer Patrick Chou.

The process of working with Giddens Ko was such a pleasure. He was creative but also liked the core team contributing their ideas, discussing them with him together. He listened to my ideas and took them when he thought they were interesting or helpful for the storytelling.

“MON MON MON MONSTERS!” was nominated for several film festivals, including Best Visual Effects at the 54th Golden Horse Award, the highest honor in Taiwan’s film production, and won the NewHampshire Audience Award at the 21st Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.

Thanks to Giddens Ko for trusting me, and “MON MON MON MONSTERS!” gave recognition of my hard work and made me more confident in my career.

Website: https://ala0518.wixsite.com/oyster/about

Instagram: oyster_liao

Facebook: Oyster Liao

Other: IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3210057/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 

Image Credits
Bing Yi Liao New Classics Media Jing Teng Entertainment Star Ritz International Entertainment AFI CONSERVATORY