Meet Brandon Tran

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brandon Tran a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brandon, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome is an interesting concept because I don’t think it’s something you really overcome rather something you learn to live with.

I’ve had the opportunity to talk to professionals in the industry and to hear how critical they are of themselves and their work goes to show that, one, it exists in all of us, and two, it still bogs the mind no matter where you are in life.

I chose this question because again it’s not something you can really overcome, but something you learn to deal with as you continue forward with whatever field you are in. Your mind can easily become a sort of echo chamber for the scary voices in your head and if you don’t know how to quell them then the echo chamber evolves into a rabbit hole as well.

And so if I were to then rephrase the question to how I overcame these negative voices, I suppose it was a matter of time and maturing. Living more allows you to not take yourself so seriously I think. Life is much bigger than you and it’s a force that continues on with or without you. I find that if you let yourself get bogged down by your own mental obstructions you fall into a very unproductive state, and that perhaps is the worse state to be in as a creative.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’ve never been one to tell people what I do because I don’t think it interests people as much as it interests me. Plus it feels weird to talk about myself. I’d much rather hear others talk about themselves and share a little.

Weirdly enough, that’s what my work entails, listening to other people’s stories and capturing it in a visual medium. I love listening to people’s stories and finding ways to share them, because you never know who might find it relevant to their own lives.

I slightly believe that as humans we have maximized and lived out the entire spectrum of experiences and emotions. Now everything moving forward is either some variation or repetition of past experiences. And if I follow that idea, human stories become in a way a universal thread that ties the human experience together.

I don’t mean to imply that there wont necessarily be any new experiences, of course each and every one of our perspectives will inevitably be unique, but it is kinda nice knowing there’s a sense of understanding or collectiveness in the universality of the human condition.

All this to say that I love my job as a director of photography, because I get to be trusted with how I visualize and communicate these stories onto a screen for people all over to connect with. It’s a hard thing to do, but a very rewarding one. My camera becomes a record keeper of stories, and I, it’s orator and translator.

To be honest I don’t even know if any of this makes sense or is remotely interesting, but I guess if you’re crazy like me then everything seems to connect one way or another.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Something I’ve learned is that our taste and sensibilities are determined by the things we consume. I believe in whatever field you are in, as long as you surround yourself in whatever it is you resonate with and believe in, the quality and value of whatever you produce will be reflected. For one, I don’t think I genuinely learned that much from film school. I enjoyed learning about the history and development of cinema over the years, but that didn’t have a direct influence on my work. Instead I began to consume works of filmmakers that resonated with me and I found those experiences to have a profound effect on me and my art.

Another thing I’ve learned was the importance of building bridges instead of burning bridges. It’s so important to network with people in order to gain more opportunities and experience. Without those connections it feels almost impossible to get anywhere. Ive made a few mistakes of burning bridges that now I wished I hadn’t. But it’s all part of bettering myself and being more mature as a person.

This isn’t much of a lesson, but something that helped me through all this was the persistence to be kind. Kindness is often rare these days so to be able to demonstrate it goes a long way. It’s important to be kind!

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

Maybe this is how everyone my age is feeling, but the biggest challenge I’m currently facing is the lack of guidance especially having graduated from college in 2023.

Being the first person in the family to partake on an unconventional path is horrifying simply because I am clueless. Sometimes I wish I was a nepo baby with infinite resources and connections, but I’m afraid that’s not how the world works…or not how it works for me at least.

I’m hoping to find someone to show me more about what I love, being a Director of Photography, because there’s only so much I can learn on my own I think. Now it’s time to start advancing with the help of someone who’s been doing it for much longer than I have.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brandontrandp.com
• Instagram: brandontran0