We were lucky to catch up with Grant Hao-Wei Lin recently and have shared our conversation below.
Grant Hao-Wei, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?
That’s a really good but also tough question, but to answer it simply – I learned to be effective in an environment where I am the minority by cultivating resilience and hanging on to the ones who support me. Film and media in America are dominated by cis white men. To be a queer Asian man in America, it is often hard to tap into this very heavily network-based industry. However, being in a diverse city like NYC, I had the privilege to find a small pocket of like-minded BIPOC and queer communities who really genuinely support one another. The search for a community like that is often not that easy. My biggest advice when there seems to be no community where you are is to start one yourself. With the help of the option of online communities like Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter, you can find like-minded creatives that might one day turn into collaborative partners or even potential clients. In fact, the biggest mentor that I have in my career journey is a very talented LA photographer I met through Instagram. We finally met when I worked as a last-minute photography assistant for one of his projects, and since then we were able to refer job opportunities in our respective cities to each other when they came up.
Building an online community doesn’t mean you have to be ready 100% before you start putting yourself online either. Although a lot of time quality and polished content does help, many appreciate content being raw and genuine over flashy and gimmicky which is often detached and not relatable. Start posting your process, your thoughts, and your work in progress, and refine as you go.
An important thing to note is that success means different things to different people. It is often the perspective that helps me motivate myself even when I feel like I am not where I want to be in my career journey. I do feel successful in being able to sustain myself while not being the dominant voice in the room, yet the process is nevertheless exhausting and frustrating when you feel like the community at large is not on your side. What I found helpful is to celebrate small successes often and proudly, and for the parts where I feel like I can improve – list out tangible tasks that I know I can do to take myself to the next level. Not only has this process helped me not fear for my future, but it has also helped other creatives who are in similar shoes feel a sense of comfort and motivation in this often uncomfortable journey.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a cinematographer and photographer based in Brooklyn. I would say the most exciting part about documenting and storytelling in visual form is the opportunity to intimately know someone whom I would’ve otherwise never met if it weren’t for the lens. I started my journey of cinematography by working with performing artists, whose lives are often hidden away from the façade of the stage. Through film and photos, I was able to help tell a more complete story for performing artists that help the audience know a deeper side of them, beyond the short moment their hard work presents on stage.
Even when I work with businesses like restaurants and hotels, I love to help visualize all the stories that are often overlooked but hidden in these spaces. Restaurants and hotels are essentially community spaces where people come together and make memories and my job is to visualize what those memories can look like. The design in those spaces is also one of my favorite things to capture. I love to bring attention to the small (or big) design details that the designer put in to make the place feel beautiful and welcoming.
I am always looking to capture more people, event, and spaces where I feel like the stories need to be experienced more through a digestible format. I especially love working with short-form vertical content these days. As we all spend so much time with our phone, the vertical format has become one of the biggest ways the new generation consume content and digest other people’s stories. Compared to big-budget production, which has its beauty, often time short-form production is much more budget-friendly and efficient for most businesses that are trying to reach more consumers.
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?
This is also a tough question because there are so many qualities and advice from mentors that have helped me get to where I am today. If I have to pick, the three qualities that were most impactful in my journey would be diligence, resilience, and balance. The industry is always changing, especially now with the advancement of AI, the filmmaking/video industry can really change soon in the future and the importance of storytelling has never been more important. I believe that staying diligent about educating ourselves about these changes and adapting to them will allow us to use them as a tool instead of a replacement on our journey to improve our craft. The flip side of that is to stay resilient even when it seems like the job market is becoming more selective and tougher to tap in. Spending the extra time I have outside of gigs learning new things, rebuilding my portfolio and re-editing old work has always helped me in developing more opportunities in the future. Among all the hustle and bustle comes a good work/life balance. It is often easy to feel like I always have to work 24/7 because otherwise, work will not come through. While consistency and keeping up with communication are extremely important, so are mental health and protecting my creative agency. I notice that when I feel too burnt out, I get super inefficient with my workflow and also have a hard time coming up with edits and work that I fully am satisfied with. My best advice to folks who are just starting out would be to take your time and know your limit while consistently pushing it. Everyone is on a different timeline and the only comparison you need to make is between the old and new you.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am always looking for collaboration. Being a one-man team has its merit but it can also be exhausting at times. While I love capturing the world as is, I also love working on bigger productions for a commercial that brings bigger imaginations to life through a team of people with creative visions. If anyone is looking for a camera operation, producer, or creative director, the best way to connect with me would be through my Instagram at @boomnbust.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.granthaoweilin.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boomnbust/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/granthaoweilin/
- Other: Pixie Site: https://granthao-weilin.pixieset.com/
Image Credits
Demi Yuyu Chen
