One-Year Filmmaking Student Stephanie Yang talks about why she chose San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking

ABOUT BEING AT FilmSchoolSF

“Having the opportunity to attend a school that challenges me as an artist and a professional has pushed me to develop my craft in very intentional ways. I am learning more than I ever expected when I signed up for the FilmSchoolSF’s digital training program. Prior to coming to the school, I was making short narrative films within a local community of filmmakers (and continue to be a part of that community), where each of us learns from each other. Learning collaboratives definitely provided me with a space to explore my passion around storytelling. However what I felt was lacking was a rigorous approach to the technical aspects of filmmaking, such as lighting, camera work, cinematography — on a competitive level. FilmSchoolSF provides me with that digital training — and also with an opportunity to explore my voice, my vision and my passion. I am so appreciative of the school and what it is helping me to achieve. The approach is so personal that I feel like each project I am working on is individually nurtured through the process — with each instructor taking the time to understand my vision and my hope for what it will be. This is how school should be — and every day I feel so lucky to be able to create in a space that is so supportive and so wonderfully challenging as well.”

ABOUT STEPHANIE YANG:

Stephanie Yang is an artist living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work explores the disparities and assumptions that frame personal and social relationships in urban settings. She is a writer, collage artist and filmmaker. She is the founder of Shifting Narratives, an independent film company and online community for filmmakers who are using the short narrative form to support and strengthen social justice and human rights movements. Stephanie received her BA from UCLA and her MA in French Literature from Tulane University where she specialized in film and feminist theory. Her graduate work focused on women’s voice, and the filmic and literary representations of women within the social sphere, specifically pertaining to courtesans, performers, and other marginalized women.

Stephanie Yang

Digital Filmmaking Program, Spring ’06