Meet Yi Yang | Film Editor/Director

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

Hi Yi, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
My favorite quote is “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” from Henry David Thoreau. Surprisingly, the first time when I heard this sentence is when I watched the film Dead Poets Society. This quote means a lot to me because it significantly shaped my value of time, or more precisely, my value of life.

I spent most of my childhood and my adolescence in loneliness. Frequent moving from one place to another made it very heard for me to make some life-long friends. With time going by, people come and go. Under this unstable environment, I kept trying to adapt and fit in. Moreover, my parents did not spend a lot of time with me when I was a child. I didn’t have too much toys like other kids. The only things with me were a CD player, a bunch of CDs of the pop music and TV series, and a piles of old books at the bookshelf. I was not a brave kid. I would be frightened and haunted by a cover picture in a book. Sometimes, my parents left me with their siblings. Without the protection from my parents, usually, I became the easy target for their’ bullying. They looked down on me and called me a “bad seed”. After all, I was not a good student in elementary school. I got bullied at school as well because I wasn’t tall enough, I wasn’t cool enough, and I was very sensitive. I was, by no means, a perfect kid through their eyes. I tried to be but didn’t work out. That made me depressed. But this quote gave me courage and belief. I don’t have to be a perfect one. I just have to be a unique one. It is okay to be different from others as long as I managed to “live deliberately”. Gradually, I started to explore “who am I” and “who I want to be in the future” during my teenager year. I started to think outside of box and felt more comfortable by doing it with the guidance of the quote.

When I was 17, I went to Miami, Florida all the way from China. When I was completely alone, facing with the cultural difference and language barrier, the loneliness worsened. I had to confront many hard times. I was confused at that time but the quote quickly gave me an answer: I wished I can find the “essential facts of life”, but what is “essential facts of life?’ It does not have to be the sweet memories. As a matter of fact, all the tough times are more important because it has the greater power to shape my personality. The great method is not to escape it, but to embrace it. And all the battles for fighting against the obstacles will definitely leave the great mark on my life.

Nowadays, I lived in Los Angeles and became a filmmaker. I cherished all these hard moments because they provide me with a lot of inspirations in terms of the creating process. And I firmly believe I can accept all the upheaval in my life sometimes in the future with the guidance of the sentence. After all, my life doesn’t have to be glorious as long as it is not easy to be forgotten by myself.

What should our readers know about your business?
I am Yi Yang and I go by Roy. Graduated from Chapman University Dodge College with the MFA degree in Film Production Major with Editing emphasis, currently I am an independent filmmaker (film editor and director) based in Los Angeles. My editing field includes narrative, experimental, documentary, music video, and commercials. My editing projects, including Red Velvet and 3000, have gained a lot of recognitions in various worldwide film festivals, including Pan African Film & Arts Festival, San Francisco Indie Short Festival, American Black Film Festival, Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, etc., Meanwhile, I have a huge interest in creating my own story and directing it. So far I have two independent shorts in my directing portfolio. And my first directorial short film, Enclosed, has gained into many well-known film festivals such as Snowdance Independent Film Festival, Osaka Asian Film Festival, etc.,

When I was a child, I was always fascinated every time I went to the cinema. From that moment, I realized that film is a powerful tool to make the self-expression and arise the personal emotion among the audience. For the first time, I felt passionate on it and I always have the strong impulse to tell my own story. When my parents found out that I was interested in film, they were very supportive: they encouraged me to watch a lot of films whenever I had time and they would rent some film DVD for me.
This was not easy because I was always busy with the schoolwork and had a bunch of homework back then. During my high school, I founded a film club and gathered many other peers to watch the films and make the short films. The collaboration with each other was very joyful. At that time I was thinking, this is what I want to do in the future: to work with people who share the same interest with me for the thing that I love. When I was in college, I made a huge decision: changing my major from Biology to Film Production. That was a risky move. But subconsciously I always thought that if I didn’t take this chance, I would be fully regretted. Therefore, from that on, I launched my career as a filmmaker. After I graduated from college, I went to Chapman University to pursue my MFA degree. So basically, this is my story of how I get to where I am today.

I earned dual bachelor degree in University of Miami with Film Production and Finance. I always believe film is the combination of art and business. It is also about the collaboration. Therefore, especially when I was a director, I felt that how to make a wonderful team is equally important to how to write a good story. I think, for the director-wise, this is what sets me apart from others. In my opinion, the director’s job is not only to write the good story and to find the good cast, which is the essential element of course, but also to gather a good team and to dig out their potentials. I tried to make the filmmaking process as joyful as possible. I don’t like to rush the shooting schedule because I felt that would create a negative effect onto the project. I always believed that a director should think about not only what your partners can bring to you, but also what you can bring to them. As for my editing, again, teamwork is very important. I like to take all the aspects, such as the performance, the story, the cinematography, etc., into the consideration and try to find the balance in it. If the director wants to involve in post-production process, I would try to make this journey as memorable and smooth as possible. Also, I like to think outside of box. Before the editing, I will read through the whole script and think about what kind of emotion I want to generate throughout the film: should I make audience cry or should I make audience feel uncomfortable in a good way, and what directors want to achieve. Some films focus on the story, some focus on the character, others focus on the theme. In my opinion, editing is hard to be concluded in one formula because different stories can be told in different ways. I would like to think these through before I make the edit because I believe putting the audience and the director into the top spots is very important for an editor.

One of the most proud moments is when I make the first film, Enclosed. That is the first time I made the transition from the editor to the director. This path was full of challenges. I set the shooting dates at the end of 2019, three days before Christmas. I knew I wanted to make a low-budget short so the story had to be novel but also doable. Since this independent project is not the school project, I didn’t have the support from Dodge college, which means everything had to go through by my own. The process of writing the story was painful. The first several drafts were not good. I went through the process of endless revising and building up the new stories back and forth. During Thanksgiving, a month before the shooting, the new story didn’t come out still. At my birthday, I was sitting in front of the computer and undergoing the huge pressure and anxiety. Of course, I thought about giving up. But instead of telling my producer and my cinematographer I was quitting, I called all of my peers, told them that I was going to make a film at the end of 2019, and asked them whether they were interested in being on set. In my opinion, I think the key factor for overcoming the challenges is to cut out my backup. I had to put myself into a desperate situation to stimulate my potentials. After the script is finished, the pre-production process had a lot of difficulty such as the casting problem or the insurance problem. With the hard deadline, I knew I could not escape but be more determined to confront the problems and solve them. Therefore, a story of the sentimental young teen hanging back to express his feelings to the middle-aged cleaning lady, who takes advantage of sexuality out of his fondness for her remedy of trauma came along.

This experience gave me a lesson in different ways. It helped me become a stronger person. Risk and pressure, to me, are not frightening anymore. I have to confront the pressure and risk and try to convert them to my momentum or motivation. To me, the ultimate goal is to enjoy the pressure and appreciate what the pressure can bring to me. Also, this directing experience changed my attitude in terms of being an editor. For the first time, I realized how hard for a director to make a film. I tended to be “lenient” towards the directors and the stories they give to me. Before this experience, I always counted on the director and I felt that the success of the editing was heavily based on the directors, their stories, and the actors’ performance. But after this experience, I tended to think about what I can help the directors make the stories better by being an editor.

When I am a director, I like to tell stories in an exquisite and subtle way and believe that the experience of watching a film is like drinking a tea, the aftertaste is what makes the experience memorable. I like to focus on the small incidents, to capture all the little moments, and to depict all shades of nuance. In my perspective, the most important thing to make a film is to create the “moment” that makes the audience arise the same prior experience of themselves.

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?
We can start our day by eating at a breakfast store called Bea Bea’s. It has all kinds of delicious breakfast: pancakes, French toasts, Crepes, waffles, you name it. If we go there, I would highly recommend my friend to try the French toasts over there. It is very good.
After the breakfast, we can go to hang out in the Grove, not only because it has the AMC theater and many stores, but also because we can have lunch over there. It has Farmers Market L.A. It has lots of delicious South American food and organic fruit and vegetable stores. Also, many stores sell unique homemade candy, coffee and cupcakes. Furthermore, the dining area over there is very special with the wood table and the light-green painted wall. I usually like to dine over there, sitting a little bit corner in the second floor. I can take my time without any disturbance. For me, it is the most relaxing place in Los Angeles area. Every time when I stressed out, I would go there.

After we finished the food over there, we can drive around the Mulholland Drive. This road all the way reaches to the top of the mountain and we can have the great view on Los Angeles area. During the night, we can drive through the Downtown L.A. to experience different vibe. Our destination is Huntington Beach. That would be our last step for a day. For me, I like the beach at nighttime more than that at daytime because the beach at night is very serene and mysterious. It brings out my creativity usually. I like to walk over the pier, feel the breeze through my cheek, look at the stars in the sky and the ocean waves coming from the scattered light at the ship faraway. Basically, these are the most interesting places in my opinion.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I have to say on my way to achieve my goal there are so many people I have to thank to. Firstly, I have to thanks for my family who support me to study abroad in the United States and choose the career path that I passion about. When I have the hard time, they are always be the first to listen to my concern and give me the suggestion.
Secondly, I would like to shoutout to all my classmates in Dodge College. Three years in Dodge College would be one of the most unforgettable moments in my life. I made many friends. I am fully grateful that I met my editing classmates such as Zhiqiu Jin, Yuan Hong, Xiyu Fan, Xinyi Yu etc.. We watched films together and discussed about the editing with each other. Because of them, I improved so much and became a better and more confident editor. Also, along with my directing career, a bunch of outstanding sound designers, cinematographers, production designers, and producers helped me so much and was willing to work with me together. Shoutout to Yongkai Lin, the production designer; Yifu Li and Haobo Wang, the cinematographers; Xinrui Wang and Zilu Xu, the sound designers; and Jialiman Sun, Fan Zhang, Mingqi Tao, Shu Zhang, and Vincent Wang, the producers. Without them, I don’t think the shooting process of my films will be smooth.

Last but not least, I would like to give my acknowledgment to my mentors. There are five mentors that I would like to mention about. Firstly, I would like to shoutout to my editing professor in my college, Konstantis Kontaxis, who led me into the post-production world and taught me with a lot of basic knowledge on editing. Secondly, I would like to shoutout to my editing professors in Dodge College, Paul Seydor, A.C.E., and Bruce Green, A.C.E., who taught me how to become a better editor and emphasized the importance of the collaboration in post-production process. Then, I would like to shoutout to Kelly Galindo for teaching me how to tell the performance. Finally, I would like to shoutout to Thomas Harris, who introduced me into a whole new world of the storytelling, encouraged me to watch films and make my own individual story, and supported me to analyze the films in a more flexible way.

Website: yiyangroy.com

Instagram: jijiangroy

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/yi-yang-922290105/

Youtube: Yi Yang

Other: IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8735394/

Image Credits
Miguel Tafich Yukun Chan Cassandra Keith Jason Meisel Shannon Carter