Today’s interview is on George Yang, a sophomore at UC Davis with a passion for film and directing.

1) When did you start directing and how did it develop into a passion?

George: I started directing in high school. My first project was inspired by behind-the-scenes footage from DVDs and the original version of The Office. I created a comedy/mockumentary about a film crew that failed in trying to re-enact the Civil War. It seemed like the perfect setup for gags. The idea was that most of the film crew was incompetent and ignorant about the Civil War. For example, the fight choreographer would teach the soldiers about slap fighting instead of teaching them about gunfire choreography. I think the most fun I had during that project was filming Robert E. Lee and Ulysses Grant slap each other to death. There was also a costume designer who reinterpreted the Civil War soldiers to wear hazmat suits and colorful sweaters and a lighting director who had a strong penchant for using strobe and neon lighting. Imagine how cool the Civil War would’ve been if it was really like that.

Anyway, I really wanted to get into directing around Junior High because I wanted to be a storyteller, simple as that. The good directors could put you through emotional highs and lows, could force you to examine things that you ignored before, could make you laugh, make you cry/weep- and by the end of the film you’d reach such a sugar rush that you’d cheer and clap, and contemplate on the film as you walked back to the parking lot. My goal is to make movies like that.

2) Can you explain some of the technical aspects of directing and what skills a director should have?

George: The most important thing is definitely management. The better relationships you have with your crew and cast, the better the product will be. The best ideas always come from collaboration and open dialogue. And trust me, actors are extremely important and can make or break a film, so if a director isn’t in-sync with his actors and can’t properly convey his ideas/emotions, the actors don’t perform as well and ultimately the film is screwed.

Since I’m an indie filmmaker, I do a lot of things by myself, which means managing the equipment (the camera, 35 mm adapter, external mic, the lighting kit etc). I guess those can be described as “technical” aspects. Making the cinematography look as awesome as possible during filming can save a lot of time and effort during editing. Also, editing is a technical skill that is extremely important to an indie director and often takes more time than it does to shoot a film. It seems easy to chop up clips at first, but the more ambitious you are, the more practice its going to take to get those complicated effects.

Once you figure out the rules that govern most of the effects and filters, your imagination definitely follows suit and you become more capable of reasoning out how to combine and manipulate properties to get that effect you were thinking of in your head – just like learning a language, figuring out syntax and grammar, and then combining it to form new sentences. If you’re just starting out, I’d recommend watching video tutorials non-stop and practicing with the programs as if they were musical instruments.

3) What are some of your favorite movies and why?

George: I got way too many, but off the top of my head, five of my favorites are: Forrest Gump, The Dark Knight, When Harry Met Sally, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and Silence Of The Lambs.

I picked these films because they are the type of films I want to make: Mainstream/Blockbuster appeal but with an indie director’s sense of insightful storytelling

But I’d have to say that my favorite director is Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. He can make you laugh hysterically, cry hysterically and ponder moral issues within the span of just one scene.

4) What are your long term goals for directing?

George: Be a mainstream director with indie creativity/sensibilities

5) Do you have any advice for aspiring directors?

George: I’m an aspiring director myself so I don’t have any good advice, except find a side hustle. Go for your dreams but be practical too; know your limits and reason out what you need to do to be successful.