An Interview With Susan Johnston
Whale Fall — May we all be blessed with longevity
After the death of a whale, its corpse will become oasis for hundreds even thousands to live. Same as the death of a man — his word and love will continuously affect next generation that follow. As a great writer, that is how my grandfather affected Chinese literature and me after his death.
As a part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Yiyuan Yuan.
Yiyuan Yuan, also called Coy, is a digital artist who is majoring in 3D animation. Besides animation, Yiyuan has expanded her love of art to include motion graphics and design as well as digital painting. She even directed her own 20-minute short film for her high school. Yiyuan graduated from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, with a major in animation. She recently graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City for her MFA in Computer Arts. She was born into a literary family in the south of China, and her name means “the origin of art” in Chinese. With that blessed name from her family, she began her life’s journey as an artist — now and in the future.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?
I grew up in a city named Changsha back to China, and during my high school study I made a decision to go abroad, since then I started my life in the U.S until now.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I always love art or anything that’s not about numbers or rules, just like my grandfather who is a famous writer in China, he taught himself to read and write when he was a construction worker. His persistence and passion influence me a lot when I was a kid, therefore I begin my artistic journey.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your content creator career?
I was trying to translate the poem in my film from Chinese to English for my professor when I created this film, it’s fascinating that even the language is so different, she can still feel the love from that poem.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
The most interesting people I have interacted with would be my professor Ms.Schreiber, I have never met anyone who is so passionate about animation. She embraces all kinds of animation and loves them all. Her knowledge and thoughts always inspire me. Whenever I went to her to discuss my film — Whale Fall, she could always enlighten me even though she might not be really familiar with my culture.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Ms.Schreiber would also be the person that I am grateful towards that helped me get where I am. I had a meeting with her before my film started. Without any images or pictures, I just shared a brief script with her. I was really nervous with my script since it was my first time writing an actual script and the story is based on my own. She loved the script and understood the Chinese poem I included in it. With her encouragement and advice, I started to revise it and have confidence to move forward.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Accepting yourself I think, accepting who you are and loving yourself. Even if after all we are just a small tiny part of the universe that no one will remember. To love your life and face yourself, try your best to do whatever is enough. My father is always critical and hard to communicate with, I had a hard time with him when all I want to do is to please him. When I realized my life is not his, I just stop forcing myself to fit his expectation and just love who I am.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Currently I am continuing to build my portfolio of creative work in Motion Graphics, 3D, Design, Compositing and Digital Painting, entering festivals and commissioned work.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
The most important one for filmmakers is time management, always assuming more time than less. When I started my film, I had a rough schedule, but in the end, every step took longer than I expect because there was always something unexpected happening during the process.
Ask for advice. Since I was the only one working on the film, sometimes I got blind and can’t see lots of stuff clearly. Asking other people to review and give advice can help a lot.
Take some breaks. Because this film is my thesis film and I only have limited time, also as I mentioned before it took longer than I expect, I worked late every day during that time. Eventually, I got super sick and made the process even longer. Working too much won’t do any good for your film, taking breaks is important.
Don’t hold any clips just because you like them. In order to make your film better, you have to delete lots of clips that you love so the audience can understand your story. My storyboard was originally 5 mins long, and I had a hard time deleting some of the scenes because I liked them so much. Later on, I realized some of the scenes did not help my story at all, I started deleting lots of shots and finally, my story is understandable than confusing.
Last but not least, learn a lesson from all the mistakes you made during your film, try your best again for the next one, and repeat the process.
When you create a film, which stakeholders have the greatest impact on the artistic and cinematic choices you make? Is it the viewers, the critics, the financiers, or your own personal artistic vision? Can you share a story with us or give an example about what you mean?
My other professor Mr.Masson would be the person who has the greatest impact on the artistic and cinematic choices I make. I was really stubborn with my story before because it was a real story based on my own experience. The story was awfully long at the beginning and I was having a hard time letting go of some of the shots. He sat down with me and got through my edit together, pointing out to me that you don’t need that many shots in order to tell your story, the most important part is the message you try to deliver as well as the logic. After our meeting, I deleted almost half of the shots, even though some of the details are gone, but the story is much clearer.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Nowadays people stop reading but jump into the pool of short intense videos. It’s such a shame that no one appreciates the beauty of old poems anymore. As an artist that came from a literature family, I would encourage people to try to pick up a book of poems and find a quiet place, read and travel with its author. Instead of funny or intense fast videos, read a book or poem to travel further with your thoughts.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
Director Ang lee, he is my favorite director, not only because of his greatest films but also his life story. He never gives up his dream, and he approves to the world that he is the greatest director. all is not gold that glitters but gold will glitter forever.
How can our readers further follow you online?
I still post art on my instagram account @coyyuanart, if you are interested, please take a look 🙂
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
About The Interviewer: Susan Johnston is a Media Futurist, Columnist as well as Founder and Director at New Media Film Festival®. The New Media Film Festival, honoring stories worth telling since 2009, is an Award-winning, inclusive, and boundary-pushing catalyst for storytelling and technology. Susan was knighted in Rome in 2017 for her work in Arts & Humanity.
Yiyuan Yuan: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.