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

Tianzhi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

When I was growing up, I was always a bit confused about my career goal or where I was headed in general. I was always a bit afraid to express myself. During the summer of 10th grade, I participated in a film project led and written by our drama teacher. That was the first time I realized the possibility of revealing my feelings and the way I view this world to others through movies. So, I started to write stories and short scripts. And later on, in college, I participated in my first film class with excitement and fear. When my classmates saw my film, surprisingly, many of them felt related to the emotions and the story. That is when I first realized the power of cinema. Later on, when I was fully devoted to cinema as a career, I met more and more people and heard more and more touching stories. Cinema has become a language to me and others. We are all connected through film even though we have different backgrounds and stories. There is something we share deep down in our hearts as human beings. I think that is when I really decided to pursue this career as a filmmaker.

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

I am a production designer and filmmaker who is currently based in Los Angeles. I am a recent graduate from the University of Southern California. My main work is to design and build film sets that are suitable for the story. During the process, I would communicate with the director and other departments while trying to design a set that is both visually appealing and true to the story as well. I got into the art department due to the projects that I participated in school. I had some great mentors who were willing to teach me and lead me into the art department. I have always been interested in world-building and creating something from scratch. Therefore, I started my career in the art department. When I work, I like to pay attention to the details. Each little thing could contribute to the set, the actors, and the storytelling. I like to dive into the characters’ worlds and try to recreate them on film sets.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think if the audience would like to watch more and comment more on films, it would be really helpful. I think for many filmmakers including me, it would be very satisfying when audiences are willing to watch our films. I would really appreciate any kind of comments as well. Whether the audiences feel good about the film or they dislike the film, I would love to hear about the reasons behind those. They really helps me improve as a filmmaker.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think the most rewarding moment would be when I am able to accomplish something that I would consider as “perfect.” I think I have not truly experienced that moment before. When I watch my work on a bigger screen, there is always something I can do better next time. There are definitely some moments that would make me proud as a production designer. But there are always people who are better than me and know more things than I do. I guess this process of keep becoming better and improving is the most rewarding process in the filmmaking journey.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: frank_mr.d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tzduan/

Image Credits
The Last Four Images come from my production design work, The First is The Lights Above Directed by Luke J. Salewski The Second one is Two Suns Directed by Yuqing Lai The Last two come from The Guest Directed by Jiawen Han