Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shan Jiang. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Shan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

As a production designer, I always try to tight everything to the deeper theme of the story. I would pick certain characteristics and discuss with the director, whether this person has a favorite way of using toothbrush or even the placement of a bluetooth speaker when they are showering, whether they like to left their office table uncleaned or if they never throw away their pasta sauce bottles. All the details matter and when they’re all well handled, the design will make the piece immersive.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a production designer and director based in LA. Right now I’m in my USC MFA film program, and ready to dive deeper into the business.

Usually what we do it’s to create the look of a film(set dressing, props extra.), it requires a great understanding of the story and good handling on resources. I like to meet filmmakers that has strong voice, compelling perspective and unique visions.

What I most proud of might be my period works and genres like musical or sci-fi. Surreal elements could always give my department a lot space to be creative, but I also love my works based on real social issues and modern stories.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

There’s an art library in USC that I didn’t know for a long time. It has all kinds of pictures on artists and art movements. The experience of touching these works through time is extremely inspirational.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I always believe that it’s the authenticity that makes the audience echo with, and I try to bring in the best possible reality to a story. One of my method is that, to imagine this scene is recorded by a hidden surveillance camera, and plan out what will be shown in the footage, then build the look on top of that.

Image Credits
Joy Tan, Shih-Chun Hsiao, Kaizhou Yang