Meet Quynh Le | Camera Assistant & Animator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Quynh Le and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Quynh, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
For me personally, risk is an essential part of how I live my life. If you ask my friends, one of the phrases I say most is “risk it for the biscuit,” mostly as a joke but there is truth behind it. I’m a first generation Vietnamese-American kid from a small town in Pennsylvania called Bethlehem. As is the case with many first generation Asian-Americans, there was always the expectation for me to choose a career as a doctor, an engineer, or a lawyer. I kind of always knew that wasn’t really the path for me but I kept it to myself until it came time to choose a college major. Let me tell you, that was a huge shock for my mother when I told her I was going to film school out of the blue the summer before my senior year. After breaking that news, my mother and I had many heated conversations regarding my future. As any good mother would, she wanted the best for me. For her, that meant a stable, high status career with a sizable income – so obviously, a career in an art field notorious for a high failure rate was not ideal. Unfortunately for her, we’re the same exact person – headstrong, stubborn, and willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. I always thought it was so funny how strongly my mother opposed my decision since she’s taken the most risks out of anyone I know. I learned everything I know about that from her.
My mom left everything she had and knew in Vietnam to escape the communist regime and to pursue a better future for herself and for her future family. She overcame a language barrier to earn a college degree and began a career as an accountant. Years down the line, she had three terrible, unruly kids – that would be me and my older brothers – and left her career to become a full time parent. Sixteen years and a messy divorce later, she was left on her own to provide for the three of us. Somehow my mother was able to keep us afloat and together and with her support, the three of us are all successful adults now. My mom risked everything, her entire being, just to give my brothers and me a decent shot at having a good future.
To me, taking risks in pursuit of your own future is a badge of honor passed down to me from my mom. She taught me to never settle, to always strive for the best. She taught me that risk taking isn’t synonymous with being fearless but rather facing that fear of failure head on and busting right past it. Because of this, I am always ready to put whatever on the line in hopes of pursuing my own dreams. I’m proud of the life I’ve cultivated for myself so far and I hope I make my mom proud too!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Currently, I market myself as a Storyboard Artist, Illustrator, and Camera Assistant. I’m in a little bit of a transition phase right now. I’ve been working as a Camera Assistant and Camera Operator for the past six years but as of last year, I’ve begun transitioning my focus into 2D animation. No part of my path has been easy. To be honest, I think most of it was luck, although I definitely did put in my fair share of hard work. When I first got to college, I felt so behind, all of my classmates had already made short films and had them screened at festivals. Me on the other hand, I was so captivated by the summer blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy, and impulsively applied for film school. Up until then, I had only been working with still images in the form of drawings. The idea of storytelling with motion was fascinating. Pressured by how advanced my peers already were, I immediately hopped on the first film shoot I could get my hands on which happened to be a thesis film put together by a group of seniors. I started as a Production Assistant and ended up bonding with the cinematographer and producer of the film and for years, they brought me onto every shoot they could while essentially training me the whole time. By the time I had hit senior year, I was regularly shooting for my own thesis film, graduate students’ thesis films, music videos for local bands, and commercials. That was one of the hardest years of my life. I distinctly remember the second half of my senior year, I piled all of my classes into four days so I could use the rest of my week to shoot projects. That went on for months and I think I had maybe three or four free weekends that entire semester. It was horribly exhausting but so exhilarating. Nine days after my college graduation I hopped a plane to Los Angeles to begin my career here. Luckily, most of the connections I made in college ended up out in LA before I did so they were able to help me find work when I first got here.
As I got deeper into the industry, I got pretty tired of how long the days were and how heavy all the equipment is. I still loved the story telling aspect of it but the more I worked, the more cons were adding up and making the job less enjoyable. It was around the time of the COVID-19 lockdown that I finally had a moment to sit down and re-evaluate all these feelings that were bubbling up. I definitely wanted more of a work-life balance without sacrificing the creativity of my current job.
While stuck inside for a lengthy period during the summer of 2020, I began drawing again and watching lots of TV which eventually led me down the path of binging cartoons and anime. The medium of animation reignited a spark in me which has since blown out since I started working in film in LA and it only took a couple days of watching cartoons for it to click that animation is an actual career path I could consider. It wasn’t until about a year or so after that I decided to seriously pursue animation storyboarding. Since then, I’ve been taking classes while still working in film. As of this year, I’ve started taking freelance storyboarding jobs as well so that’s been a really great step in the right direction! One of the coolest jobs I got to do was for The Bear on Hulu! I got commissioned to board out a scene from the pilot as part of their pitch to FX. It’s funny, I actually didn’t hear back from them after the whole process so I had assumed the show didn’t get picked up but then I saw a billboard for the show in downtown a few weeks ago and was so shocked!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
It would definitely depend on the friend’s vibe so I’ll cover a few different things. The beach is a must, Manhattan Beach is a go-to in my friends group. Little Tokyo has such great food and this amazing cute little bookstore called Kinokuniya. For any of my fellow animation fans, they have beautiful art books for different shows and movies. If there’s a new moon on the rise, I would recommend a trip out to Joshua Tree. There’s something intensely relaxing and calming about seeing a sea of stars above you. Once your eyes adjust, you can even see the milky way with your bare eyes! Driving through different neighborhoods in the Hollywood Hills or Beverly Hills is also just so much fun. There’s some crazy real estate out there! I live in Koreatown so in terms of food, KBBQ is a must. My current favorite is Eight Korean Barbecue. Another great food spot is Sushi Stop! I remember seeing a BuzzFeed video about the chain while I was still living on the East Coast. It was one of the first places I ate out at when I got to LA. So worth it, I’m a fan for life!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Oh boy, this is tough – there’s too many people! Obviously, my mom. My brother too has been a steady rock by my side through it all. He’s never doubted me once – not when I started film school or when I moved out to LA or even more recently when I decided to switch my career over to the animation world. He’s a true best friend. I owe so much of my personal growth as a human to the friends I’ve met in college. They’ve been nothing but supportive and embracing, I love them! And lastly, to the select few high school friends who’ve stuck by my side this long. They have been so understanding of my need to pursue the arts, even if that takes me 3,000 miles away across the entire country and I only get to see them once a year now. I’ve been really lucky to have so many great people in my life, honestly.

Website: www.quynhhle.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quynhematography/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quynh-le-36527a231/

Image Credits
The nighttime photographer was taken by Noorman Wicaksono (@noormanxw on Instagram) and the vertical studio photo was taken by Justin L. Williams (@justin.l.williams on Instagram)