We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yiyang Shen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yiyang below.
Hi Yiyang, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
My name is Yiyang Shen; people also call me Robert. I am a professional editor now working in Shanghai. Before my career, I studied film editing at the School of Visual Arts, where most of my classmates and friends were full of creativity in making films.
My decision to work in the film industry started in high school when I tried making a film with my friends. At that time, finding out how to create a video was just fun to me. I enjoyed learning and experimenting with making videos. And I remember so clearly that there was a school event where I had an opportunity to show my film to the whole school, and I’m glad I participated. When I screened the film I created it by myself and saw the audience’s emotions being changed as the plot of my film changed; after the screening, I felt my work was meaningful and realized that film is a powerful language that I can wheel.
With this faith in mastering the language of film, I studied film at the School of Visual Arts and found my specialty in film editing. This is what I’ve been through to become a professional editor.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Yiyang Shen, and I have been an editor for nine years. I started as a video editor during my high school years, and then I turned into a filmmaker and pursued my studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Later, I developed my career as a film editor and became a freelancer in New York. I edited tons of short films and ran a YouTube channel then. This concludes my school years.
Now, I’m working professionally in my hometown, Shanghai, and spending my holidays making films that make my life meaningful. Some of our films have been showcased in different film festivals this year, and I want to share them with you all.
“At the Sea” has been screened at many film festivals across film festivals in the US and China, and it is screened online now.
“A Shared Table” has just been screened at the New York Shorts International Film Festival, and will be screened at many more film festivals later this year and next year.
“Fall to Blossom” is also winning the best film at the inaugural University of Maryland Film Festival, and will be screened at different film festivals later on.
Meanwhile, we are making two new films these months, and they will be screened next year!
I’m trying my best to balance my work and my creativity and keep improving myself by making better films in the future.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
In film editing, as an editor, I always love to hide hints or clues in the footage, the sound, and the pathing of a scene. These clues may not be obvious when the audience first sees the film, but if the audience sees my film the second, the third time; these details in my film are the keys to impress my audience and make them love my movie.
This obsession with details is something I learned through many filmmaking experiences, and I wanna share this with filmmakers who have just started their careers:
Edit a good film is like writing a good poem, every frame of the film serves the plot, and this is the key to making a memorable film.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One thing I learned from my experience is to always put my ego aside and be humble with everything and everyone. It sounds easy, but it’s a tough goal to achieve, especially when I am experienced in my work.
A personal story I can share is that when I first went to film school, I already had 4 years of experience in making videos, and I was so confident about the skills I had that I started being stubborn about my ideas or plans on making film. I rarely ask my friends to give me feedback on my work. Now it seems like a lot of precious learning opportunities were missed at that time.
Being humble and listening to others’ ideas can always help me improve myself, and this might be the best lesson I learned throughout my school year.
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