Meet Ting Li (tim) Tsai

We were lucky to catch up with Ting Li (tim) Tsai recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ting Li (Tim), thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

I love all kinds of stories, and I love them in all forms. There are many ways to create and enjoy a good story: novels, comics, painting, and music. I started to tell stories through drawings; I love to tell a story while making a drawing. Then, I discovered video making when I was in high school. I started to tell a story with a camera. It wasn’t always easy to keep the creativity high. It runs dry from time to time. My trick for maintaining my creativity is to keep an open mind and absorb knowledge from all sources. As writers/directors, we can only write what we know most of the time, so the more we read. The more we know, the better we will be able to work.
Another aspect of maintaining creativity is consistency. Write every day, even when you don’t have a good idea. I don’t believe a good idea would pop into my head magically; I need to work for it. So, I write every day when developing a script. I might not like what I wrote, but I know it’s necessary to get myself where I need to be.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I come from Taiwan and am moving to the US to pursue my dream of being a filmmaker. I’ve already made a short called “Về nhà 南途 Southern Journey ” back home that got into some major film festivals in Asia.
Here is a link to the Letterboxed page: https://letterboxd.com/film/southern-journey/

I am a writer and director. I love seeing a story come to life from just sentences to a sequence in film. I always enjoy that process. I want my movie to say something about our society, life experience, and interaction with that society.

The film “Souther Journey” was inspired by my relationship with my family.
I recall the last time I met my grandfather in Vietnam. It’s during summer vacation, so we fly from Taiwan to visit; my brother and I visit Vietnam with our mother every few years. He became gaunt because of diabetes and could barely walk. I could only understand a few words he said in Vietnamese, and my Vietnamese was too poor to talk to him. so we sat there looking at the sunset. It was the last time I saw him.

After my grandfather passed away a few years later, I realized I’d never had the chance to understand him or his tales. Everything I know about my grandfather came from an interview I did with my mother for a school project.

“Southern Journey” made me realize that making films is a gateway to further understanding many things and people. I worked with other students with similar backgrounds and also with Vietnamese actors in Taiwan, which was a fantastic experience, and I would like to continue doing so not just for me but also for people like me who want their stories to be told.

I continued doing so after attending Chapman University in the US. I work with Polish writer Maria Magierowska and Indian Producer Rhea Damani on a short film called “Summer Wedding.” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32176004/?ref_=tt_mv_close

It’s waiting for the film festival to pick up for the world premiere.

It’s a Polish family story about protagonist Stefania’s struggles to take a pregnancy test amidst constant interruptions. When her fiancé unexpectedly confronts her, secrets are revealed, leading to a pivotal confrontation with her mother.

My next short film is called “片場勿語 The Commonality of Tyranny.” It’s a film that talks about the struggle of a screenwriter, Mei, and her director, Lin, when they face pressure from the production company to remove the political aspect of their film. This film is currently in post-production and will hopefully premiere next summer.

I love to work with people from different cultural backgrounds and would love to continue doing so.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

As I mentioned, that is what I said to you before. Consistency is a great habit to have. If you need to improve at something, keep practicing it and fine-tune your skills in the repeating process every day. I still have a long way to go as a writer/ director. Discipline and consistency are what keep me on the ground. I got this advice from Quentin Tarantino.

I like to draw. I was in art school before I started film. It helps me define what I want to see in a movie regarding visuals. Color theory helped me when communicating with the Production Designer and Cinematographer. I also like to hand-draw my storyboard from time to time. It helps me pre-visualize how the film will look and how I want the scene to flow.

Being a good listener is what I think is the most important quality to have. As a director, it is sometimes hard to think you might be wrong, and there is a better solution. However, you have to listen; you don’t always have to agree with others, but on a film set, it’s always great to have options. Being a good listener is also crucial when directing actors; understanding how the action or dialogue affects them will help when you need to give notes or instructions.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I want to tell stories about the conflict of history and cultural background. I come from Taiwan and have a mixed cultural background. Therefore, I am looking to work with people who have the same life experience and are eager to speak up. Whether you are a writer, director, or filmmaker looking for collaboration, I am here! The next story I want to write is inspired by an event in Taiwan, which involved a runaway immigrant worker and the policeman tasked to take them in. It resulted in a shootout, and the immigrant worker took nine shots and died. I want to explore that social conflict.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm16062627/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-tsai-537807259
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@timtsai

Image Credits

photo by Nic Caceres, Erika Dunn.