We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joewi Verhoeven. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joewi below.

Joewi , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

What I love about cinematography is that it’s very much a fusion of the artist and the technician. You can dream up all these cool frames but at the same time you have to know how to execute. It really encompasses the whole spectrum of image making, which is why I find it so enriching. It also keeps you on your toes as technology is always evolving and new possibilities arise. Not one job is the same, and you also need to know and carry wisdom about the natural world, in order to work best with her.

I think humility and an endless curiosity are essential skills for a cinematographer. Humility I learned in those first daunting years of my study, and having a humble attitude allowed me to learn so much more from my peers. The endless curiosity is just a passion you have to carry with yourself to be in constant awe of the world around you. That awe will translate through your lens once you’re behind camera. You can feel if the camera has an attitude, a perspective, or is merely capturing what happens to be in front of it.

I know this industry is tough and a lot of people become jaded as the years go by, which I think is a dangerous thing for a cinematographer of any artist for that matter, because you lose that initial flame that made you curious about the world around you, and you won’t be able to hide it. It will reflect in your work.

One obstacle I’m coping with is staying consistent in my commitment to the craft and grow as an artist. I think in the beginning of one’s journey it’s easy to be excited and you’re a sponge of knowledge, but as you grow further in knowledge it becomes harder and harder to have growth spurts, you really need to look for the golden nuggets of information and stay inspired. If not, it’s easy to slide into stagnation. Also, life starts to claim more and more time in your day, and a lot of times you find yourself distracted by many things that aren’t creative per se. I sometimes have the tendency to immerse myself in another field of knowledge because I always get excited by the initial “eye opening” knowledge one gets when delving a little deeper in any field of knowledge.

Joewi , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I relocated to China from my home country the Netherlands when I was 18. I did my undergrad in cinematography at the Beijing Film Academy. It was 2009, the Beijing olympics had just wrapped up and I spent the previous few years learning Mandarin Chinese and dabbling in music. I was in an indie rock band, we toured the nation, releasing records and enjoying the ride, though we never quite turned it into a sustainable livelihood. I felt it was time to move on as I always wanted to study film, but my experience at the time was limited to some homemade projects I shot with my parents’ miniDV camcorder. I had never been on a real set. Even though I liked playing with cameras I wasn’t technically minded at all, I did have a vivid imagination though!

Film directing seemed the obvious choice for me, but a Chinese language teacher of mine suggested I should study cinematography instead. She said I would learn all the tools of the image-making craft, which would make it easier to find work after graduation. And knowing the tools of the trade, it would be a relatively easy switch back into directing would I decide to do so. I’ve been so grateful for her advice, because the next 4 years of studying cinematography transformed everything for me.

Going in with almost zero technical knowledge, the first year was extremely challenging. Learning something so complex and on top of that in a language that you’re still trying to master, not withstanding the cultural challenge of being the only foreigner and trying to fit in your class… it was a lot. There were many instances where I felt like throwing in the towel, wondering if this whole adventure wasn’t one big mistake and I was wasting my time. However, sometime during my second year in school, I felt a new world started to open up for me. I got fascinated by cinematography, it changed my way of thinking beyond just the craft – re-shaping even my habits in daily life. Studying cinematography grounded me, it made me understand filmmaking on a much deeper level. This is when I realized cinematography, not directing, was my calling. Becoming technically proficient in the craft, a side which I never thought I had in me, gave me a newfound appreciation of my own potential, and since then trying to learn something new everyday has been the mantra.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think moving to another and very different country at a young age has equipped me with a set of essential skills. For one, being a foreigner in a country is a humbling experience, it teaches you to be flexible. As Bruce Lee said, be like water. I truly believe that.

I learned this during my undergrad years. Being the only foreigner in my class, and perhaps due to my physical appearance I was automatically perceived as the foreigner or the outsider. Not per se in a bad way, but people would have assumptions about me, and felt like they had to act different around me. I realized early on that if I wanted to make this work and be accepted as a member of the group, I had to act more Chinese in order to be perceived so. This was very challenging for me in the beginning, it can lead to existential questions of who you are and where you belong. I remember at one point making the conscious effort to really fit in and it was almost like creating a new identity. However, I never thought that I lost my sense of self or who I really was, if anything it enriched and opened me to Chinese society. This skill served me well as I was immersed in the Chinese film industry for many years before coming to the US.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I think the film medium is a portal through which I’ve experienced almost every emotion that exists in a very direct way. Its influence on me and how it shaped me as an individual can’t be understated. It has made me wonder, question and understand. It urged me to learn and have empathy. It has been so impactful that it now literally is my living.

There is so much I’ve soaked up from films, almost to a degree that it becomes second nature. Now I want to give back, create an outflow. Because I know the impact it can have on the viewer, I feel making films is an incredibly meaningful way to create.

I think it’s very true that in order to be a better filmmaker, one has to first and foremost experience life. It might not be able to answer the big question of why we’re here, but at its best it delves deeper in our existence and let us experience the whole spectrum of emotions and be in awe of the beauty and complexities of the world we live in. To me that alone is enough reason to devote my life to this art form.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.joewiverhoeven.com
• Instagram: @joewiverhoeven

Image Credits
Portrait photo by Sasha Xiaoyan Li.