We were lucky to catch up with Runze Qiu recently and have shared our conversation below.

Runze, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I first knew that I want to spend my life pursue a career of storytelling when I was in the high school theater club, which I joined only out of curiosity. Back then, I was recommended by my theatre instructor to act the protagonist in the play for our coming-of-age ceremony. Our play supervisor nitpicked about the script so much that huge changes were made even the day before the performance. Thus, by the time I went on stage, I wasn’t even sure if I can fully memorize that long monologue for the highlight part; however, when that actress delivered the last line before the monologue and the spot light was on me, I looked ahead into the audience and had the strangest feeling: even though there were over a thousand people in the stadium, it was so quiet; literally I could see nothing, but pure light; and the time seems to have stopped. Was I stunned? The next thing I knew: I was surprised to hear my own voice speaking out the lines, full of emotions, without any mistake. It was as if I was watching myself performing! It was a moment of my life that I realized the out-of-life quality of art and storytelling, literally. And ever since then, the seed for a creative path is planted in my heart.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Runze Qiu and I’m an independent filmmaker and film producer based in Los Angeles. I’m also a M.F.A. candidate at UCLA Producers Program. I graduated magna cum laude from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, focusing on film directing and producing.

Before relocating to Los Angeles, I worked for 2 years in Beijing in commercial production houses as an in-house director and marketing creative. I have directed TV commercials and event videos for brands such as Haier and ROSEONLY. I have also worked closely with the executive producers as a production coordinator to coordinate commercial video production (1-3 min in length and with a budget over $150k) between established commercial directors, well-known agencies such as Ogilvy and BlueFocus, and big corporate clients such as Alibaba and Xiaomi, from the development of ideas to the final delivery of the film.

To date, as an independent producer, I have also produced over ten short films, and developed over five short film scripts with fellow filmmakers. ‘Crimson is the Night’, the passion short film project I produced and directed in Beijing, with a budget of $25k, won the Gold Remi Award at 56th WorldFest Houston International Film Festival, a Canadian Screen Award-qualifying film festival. ‘Your Room Is Ready’, the most recent short film I produced, about an eerie twilight-zoneish hotel check-in, was officially selected by the LA Shorts International Film Festival, an Oscar and BAFTA-qualifying film festival.

Currently, I focus myself on feature film development, mainly in the genre space of sci-fi, thriller, and action. I’m driven to develop director-driven films that have rich world-building and answer life’s biggest questions, such as Cloud Atlas, Bladerunner, and Black Swan.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My creative goal is to impact the lives of the people who watch my films, even if it is just one person’s life. This is goal is originated from the very reason I wanted to do film in the first place. During high school, I watched this film called Cloud Atlas.

Before that, I could say that I wasn’t fully aware of the power of cinema. The film tells six stories seemingly unrelated; however, by shuttling back and forth in six different times and space, from the past to the future, it miraculously formed a whole picture that expresses the mysterious notion of Afterlife in Buddhism.

The moment I finished the film, my eyes were welled up in tears. I felt a strange feeling that I became a part of the universe: I felt myself only a negligible point in the coordinate of time, and I could see people from the past to the future passing by me. For the first time, I was aware of how infinitesimal I am. Walking out of the theatre, I felt nothing but great awe for life. I felt that the power of the story could penetrate through the limit of time and space and stretch the storyteller beyond his or her own life.

Cloud Atlas changed my view of life and also my future path. Understanding that power of film, my mission is to pass on this great gift of storytelling and influence more people through the power of filmmaking.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

If I could go back in time to my NYU Tisch time, I would really encourage myself to learn more about the business side of filmmaking. Because the truth is, unless you want to be a pure artist and only show your films in galleries, you have to understand the landscape and position yourself in it. Some of the resources I’d encourage the people who have just started their filmmaking journey are the trades, such as Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and Variety. I also wish I knew the script website such as Blacklist and Coverfly earlier, so that I could get a better understanding of what the script market is and what the fellow artists are doing.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: runzeqiu
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/runze-qiu/

Image Credits
N/A