Filmmaker Yulin Kuang

Yulin Kuang is an independent filmmaker, in her final year of studying creative writing and film & media studies at Carnegie Mellon University. She has produced two webseries and a number of short films. Her screenplay, "First Kiss", was one of three finalists in a Pittsburgh screenwriting competition and is currently in development as a short film. She has worked at ABC, 7ate9 Entertainment, Leeding Media, and is currently looking into the daunting world of post-grad employment.

What is the current project you are working on?

I'm currently fundraising for my short film, "First Kiss", which is the story of a fourteen-year-old boy who finds out a pretty girl wants to kiss him at his best friend's Spin the Bottle Party. I was pulling from the traditions of shows like The Wonder Years and John Hughes films - basically, it's my ode to the agonies of adolescence.

Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/509602191/first-kiss-a-short-film

I'm also starting production on the second season of a webseries called "Echo Chamber", which I'm producing for the site TVTropes.org.

Link: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebOriginal/EchoChamber?from=Main.EchoChamber

How do you measure success?

In high school, I used to draft up these long, elaborate timelines for my future, and I figured I'd measure success according to how close I was to living up to my fourteen-year-old self's expectations. I still have some goals in place, and those are more or less my benchmarks for success now. I think it's always good to have something to work towards.

How do you handle rejection?

The first time I was ever in a competition, I was six or seven years old and my art teacher submitted my finger painting into a county-wide contest. I made it to the finalist level but I didn't win. When my mom told me the news, I burst into tears and felt like crap for a few hours until I was distracted by something else new and more interesting. For the most part, I don't think my rejection-handling strategies have changed much.

Did you always want to be a filmmaker?

My concentration is actually in writing for television - I picked up short films in college because I realized there's a lot more room for experimentation in films than there is in television. Not that television can't be experimental and thought-provoking and awesome, because I think the best kind of television is all those things in addition to structured narrative and that's what makes TV my favorite medium for storytelling. But films do tend to take more risks and exploratory ventures off the beaten path, and that's something that's interesting to me right now.

What inspired you to become filmmaker?

I used to watch hours and hours of TV growing up - at first, with my parents when we first moved to Kansas from Guangzhou, China, because it was the easiest way for them to pick up the language. But then, it was just because I really, really loved it. Eventually my mother told me I was wasting my time with it, so I decided to pursue a career in writing for television/filmmaking so I could call it "research" and prove her wrong.

What is the best thing about being one?

As a student filmmaker, I think the best thing is just being surrounded by all these creative, hyper-talented people who have all committed themselves to making your movie, working crazy hours for free pizza and soda. There's a great sense of community that develops, and when you finally produce something after all those hours and days and months of hard work and you show it to other people and they like it... it's probably the best feeling in the world.

What is the worst thing about being one?

I guess on the flip-side of the equation, filmmaking is very much a collaborative effort. I'm a creative writing student as well, and with fiction you get these lovely long periods of solitude where you can spend days writing a short story about dust motes and ants, and nothing's really stopping you from progressing other than yourself. With filmmaking, it's so much harder just in terms of logistics - you write the script when you're in your own little world, then you decide to turn it into something real and all these other people are involved and they want to know about location fees and where the outlets are so we can get the right lighting set up and all these other questions that take more people to answer and feed while they're on set. But like I said, all the little traumas related to filmmaking are pretty much worth it in the long haul.

What is the estimated number of projects you have worked on?

Two webseries (Zombie College Musical and Echo Chamber), a couple of shorts being prepped for festival submission, spec scripts, and literally hundreds of files in my "working title" folder ranging from scene fragments and outlines to features and novels.

Who is your favorite filmmaker?

In the editing clusters where we pretty much do post-production for days on end, we have this game called "Whose coffee would you get for a year?" My favorites tend to be Joss Whedon, Tina Fey, and Aaron Sorkin - which might be cheating a bit because they all have a foot in the television industry. But I think they're also incredibly interesting filmmakers. Joss Whedon and his crew, especially, have done some amazing things with Dr. Horrible and I'm so looking forward to seeing his upcoming independent projects. Woody Allen, Christopher Nolan, JJ Abrams, and John Hughes are also fantastic and inspirational and I read their scripts and wonder how they do it.

What is one piece of advice you can give to someone who also wants to make it in the movie business?

I don't have the answer to this one yet, since I'm still trying to make it myself. Check back with me in a couple of years?

What do you like to do besides filmmaking?

I watch TV like it's my job. Hopefully it will be one day soon.

Have you had any other jobs before you decided to become a filmmaker?

I'm still a student - but I'm more or less a perpetual intern. The summer after my freshman year, I was the international sales & marketing intern at a publishing house, but after that I was pretty set on a film/TV track.

What are some of your favorite American films? Foreign films? Television shows?

When Harry Met Sally is probably the most-played film on my Netflix instant-play. I have the shooting script on my desk, just because. My sensibilities tend to veer towards teen dramas and romantic comedies. Almost Famous is another favorite. Thank You For Smoking is one of my favorite screenplays. Of the classics, Sunset Boulevard, It's a Wonderful Life, and The Sound of Music. As far as foreign films go, Gosford Park and The History Boys when I'm in the mood for British accents. Hors de Prix is a wonderfully clever French romantic comedy that I'm in love with.

Oh, God, there are so many TV shows that have changed my life... The Wonder Years is probably the greatest single influence on my writing. Sometimes I feel as though we don't have any shows on right now that reflect an honest view of my teenage experience. I see the kids on MTV and the CW and I just think, 'God, those kids are so much cooler than I ever was.' Where's the Dawson's Creek or Freaks and Geeks for this decade? Veronica Mars and Party Down are also favorites. The West Wing has some of the best scripts I think television has ever seen. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of my all-time favorite portrayals of high school. Bryan Fuller's Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies, I'm just in awe of the execution of those story concepts. Cheers has some fantastic storytelling and characters. Of the shows that are currently on-air, Modern Family, Community, 30 Rock, and Parks & Recreation. Of the British shows, I love Doctor Who, Extras, Coupling, The IT Crowd, and The Inbetweeners.

How would you describe your film education?

I took a number of screenwriting classes here and there, but the most educational experiences were when I was getting my hands dirty working on independent films, and when I was interning in LA over the past two summers.

How would you describe the film "scene" where you live?

Pittsburgh is a great town where a lot of Hollywood films come to shoot when they need a city that's bigger than home but smaller than New York. It's also a great setting for a zombie apocalypse. Based on my own experiences within the Pittsburgh filmmaking community, we have a lot of young talent here and they're always busy working on something or other. But it's less of an industry town, and the scene is definitely much smaller than what I've encountered in LA or New York. In some ways, that can be a good thing - everyone seems to know each other, we all kind of end up working on each other's projects, and there's a sense of community rather than competition that develops. But I think students really intent on pursuing a path in filmmaking do tend to leave Pittsburgh after a few years, and that's just the reality of it.

How has social media changed the independent film industry?

Having personally developed two webseries in the last year, I would say that it's had an incredible impact. It gives independent filmmakers a whole new platform to reach out to audiences. I think the whole point of filmmaking is to share it with people, so that's terrific. But besides that, I think we're starting to see examples of truly successful social media endeavors - projects like Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog have helped advance storytelling through social media by leaps and bounds. Arcade Fire had a music video, "We Used to Wait", which played with the possibilities of social media that really pushed it past what you can do with simple, straight narrative film. On the whole, I think it's an exciting time for independent filmmakers.

What's your opinion on crowdfunding?

I think it's terrific. I have a lot of friends who've successfully funded their projects through Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, and anything that's helping to fund the arts is a win in my book.

I'm currently raising funds on Kickstarter for my short film, "First Kiss", mentioned above. Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/509602191/first-kiss-a-short-film

How does independent film differ from the mainstream?

There's more room for experimentation, and there's less money. Which can honestly be a good thing, as it forces creative work-arounds that'll make you a better director in the end.

You could go back in time and see any film being made. Which film would it be and why?

When Harry Met Sally. I'm just in love with that movie.

What's your favorite movie quote and why?

The History Boys - "The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - that you'd thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you've never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it's as if a hand has come out, and taken yours." This is pretty much my favorite thing about books, movies, and television.

And I know it's from TV, but hands down favorite quote from anything ever is the closing monologue in the series finale of The Wonder Years. It happens as the camera pulls back on the street that Kevin Arnold grew up on, and we see the street lamps light up, and then fireworks bloom in the sky and we hear older Kevin's final voiceover (and I burst into tears because I'm a sentimental sap)-

"Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next you're gone, but the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house like a lot of houses, a yard like a lot of other yards, on a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years I still look back with wonder."

What is your opinion on movie remakes and sequels?

A lot of them exist just for the sake of existing, which I think is a shame and hurts the market for original stories, but there are occasions where I think a film could benefit from a reinterpretation. People don't stop going to the same plays after seeing one adaptation twenty years ago - part of the point is to add something to the conversation, and to introduce a new generation of audiences to it. So in that sense, remakes can accomplish a lot. And though some sequels are gratuitous, I think there are some stories that benefit from that serialization.

What is your opinion on book to movie adaptions?

I consider them separate works in their own right, and enjoy them the better for it. For instance, I like Nick Hornby's film adaptations of his books because I think they take enough liberties from the source material to really tell a different story with the essence of the original, and it's like I get to consume it all over again.