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

Skylar, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your creative career?

I’m always learning from the projects I work on and the talented filmmakers I work with. Unlike other regular full-time jobs, the nature of our work requires us to constantly meet and work with new people and personalities. It could be challenging to find your place and easy to doubt yourself.
After all these years in the industry, I think the most important takeaway is that we need to stay open and have a positive attitude. It doesn’t matter what level of experience anyone has or what they have worked on. Once we start on a new film, we’re all doing this particular project for the first time. And with this mindset, it really makes everything less intimidating and more organic. There haven’t been two projects that I worked on where the workflow was exactly the same. Every film is different and every crew has its unique dynamic within. Having an open mind and a positive attitude on the job is what I try to abide by every single time, it keeps me grounded and gives me more confidence to take on whatever challenges lie ahead of me.

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 am an LA-based film and TV editor, VFX editor, and assistant editor. As a member of the Motion Picture Editor’s Guild, the Academy of Television Arts & Scienes, and the Federal Association of Film Editors in Germany, I have worked on anything from Hollywood blockbusters to commercials and documentaries.
Growing up in an open and artistic home, my passion for film came from my sculptor father who is a film buff and sci-fi nerd, who ignited my fascination towards Hollywood and international filmmaking and the endless possiblibilies of filmmaking from a young age. Determined to pursue a career in film, I moved to LA as soon as I graduated high school and got my Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts in Film Productions. It’s interesting how being a “filmmaker” is not a real thing, it’s nothing but an umbrella term for anyone who works in film, just like you are not just be a “doctor”, there are so many specialties within it. During my four years of training at film school, I learned and experienced all aspects and specialties of filmmaking and realized my corner of the world lies in post production and more specifically, film editing, one of the most underrated and taken-for-granted department in filmmaking. I then went on to pursue a Master’s Degree in Film Editing at the prestigious American Film Institute and started my career in film editing.
Along the way, I was mentored by industry giant and Oscar-nominated editor Dody Dorn. I slowly find my place within the craft and have been a working professional in the industry.
My most recent work, Fireline, just had its world premiere at the renowned Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and will be playing in select theaters throughout the country this summer. My other recent projects as an assistant VFX editor and assistant editor include Zack Snyder’s scifi epic Rebel Moon on Netflix, and Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, which will be released in July on Netflix as well.

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

As a female BIPOC filmmaker working in Hollywood, I have seen first-hand the struggle of filmmakers in Hollywood and I strive to help other minority filmmakers like me succeed in the industry. I was a Film Independent Project Involve fellow as well as the editor of two Indeed Rising Voices films in the past three years. I am honored and grateful to all the mentors who gave me a chance and shared their craft when I was up and coming. Now, in the next stage of my career, I would love to do the same, to give back to my community.
I dream that one day, working on big Hollywood blockbusters and working on BIPOC films are not two opposite paths but one unifying experience where people with diverse cultural backgrounds all come together and create art that reflects the world we are living in.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Something that made me realize being an editor is my “destiny” is this indescribable feeling that I get when I edit and get into a tricky situation but eventually manage to come up with a solution to make the edit work. So often the work is tough and draining and one inevitably questions if this is the right career path. Once in a while, I would be so frustrated and overworked at the end of a project and think, “This is it, I’m done with editing. I don’t want to do it anymore”, but as soon as the project ends, I would be craving the feeling of editing and wanting to do it all over again. As editors, we are used to not having our work be the center of attention. It’s gratifying to be the invisible hands behind the scenes and know the problems we solved with our creativity. The audience would never know how much time we spent on the edit to make it work and it’s ok. It’s such an endlessly creative field of work and it requires so much understanding of the material, which really comes down to human connection, it informs my day to day life and my way of interacting with others. The work is reflective. I’m learning my craft when working everyday and in the meantime also learning from the filmmakers I work with, and the characters in the stories we create.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.skylarzzzhang.com/
• Instagram: @skylar.y.zzz

Image Credits

Arndt Werling, Celie Cadieux, Shay Yang