Meet WEICHUNG CHEN | Colorist & DP

We had the good fortune of connecting with WEICHUNG CHEN and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi WEICHUNG, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
“If no one noticed you were doing your job, it means you did it well” is the golden rule in our industry. Most audiences have no idea how much effort goes into creating a single shot.

For example, the gaffer collaborates with the Director of Photography (DP) to design and execute the lighting plan. If the gaffer and their team have done their work correctly, the audience will not even realize that the light in the shot is not from the sun but from a dedicated team making the light look “natural.” What looks like a sunlight could sometimes be someone holding a light out of the frame, it could sometimes be a tow plant running a hundred feet away, with very long cables. connecting to several 4,000w lights on a condor, staying three stories high outside the window, with CTO gels in front of it, blazing a warm “sunlight” to indicate it is 2pm in a sunny day in the story.

Another example is the camera operator doing their job so well that the audience forgets they are watching a movie and feels as if they are there with the characters. On set, this may involve a large camera on a heavy-duty dolly on a very long track, with a lot of crews pushing it back and forth to capture the perfect shot.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am currently focused on pursing my career as a Director of Photography (DP) and Colorist in post-production. As a DP, I work closely with the director to visually translate their vision of the story, designing everything seen on the screen, from camera movement and use of color to shot composition. In post-production, as a Colorist, my job is to enhance the visual storytelling by color grading the shots, subtly affecting audience emotions.

The learning process of being a DP requires a thorough understanding of lighting, camera operation, some directing, and the process of post production. Having good lighting is as important as good camera work. The reason some “shot on iPhone” advertisements look better than a lot of student films is simply because of the quality of lighting and production design. To learn how to be a DP, you definitely have to start with lighting a scene. This is something you can’t just learn from a book; you need hands-on experience on set, guidance from an experienced mentor, and the willingness to learn from your mistakes in real-world projects. And I am very glad to have the honor to have the opportunity to have Professor Alan Caso to be my mentor when I am studying in SCAD.

So far, I’ve worked on more than 30 films as a DP, including narrative short films, music videos, fashion films, interviews, and documentaries. Additionally, I’ve worked on over 60 films in various roles in the camera and G&E departments. I believe the hardest genre of short film is comedy and horror. I have not tried action yet, but I’d love to try that in the future.

My journey of learning color grading has been quite similar. It was a huge challenge when I first started in late 2018 due to the limited resources available. Even today, when I mention my role as a Colorist, many people assume I work in a hair salon! Learning how to color grade a single shot isn’t difficult if you have the time and dedication. However, the biggest challenge is matching shots across different scenes and maintaining a consistent look throughout the entire film. Another challenge is collaborating with the director and DP to ensure their preproduction vision is accurately represented on my monitor in the color suite. This requires a thorough understanding of the “why” behind the “how” of each tool and how they affect the image.

As of June 2024, I have worked as a Colorist on more than 100 student films, including three feature films. One of these films is over two hours long with more than 950 shots on the timeline. Anyone with enough time can make a single shot look good. If your source only focuses on a single shot, you might struggle with real-world projects. Being a Colorist involves much more than that. We have to match shots between multiple cameras and across different scenes, and we also have to develop the “look” of the film to ensure the entire film appears coherent.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If someone is interested in cute little town, they will definitely be interested in Savannah. I like how a lot of residential houses in midtown looks completely different but still looks alike. If they enjoy beaches, Tybee Beach is quite popular, though I’d opt for beaches on the Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, which is an hour’s drive away but definitely worth it. If they prefer mountains, I would invite them to Taiwan. Taiwan is renowned for its excellent hiking and mountain climbing options.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I believe it’s all about inspiration. Art inspires people. Inspired people create more, leading to the creation of even more amazing things, which in turn inspire others. So if there is something I’d like to shoutout, it will be Yuuki.

Yuuki Shimizu for the thought-provoking conversations we’ve had about aesthetics, photography, film, and life. He inspired me to view films from the audience’s perspective, to pay attention to what is out of focus in a shot, and to embed hidden messages in various ways. By thinking like the audience, you can truly understand their perspective and convey your vision more effectively. He also emphasized the importance of rest to reset your mind, helping us recover faster from creative block.

There are so many people I’d like to mention on my journey, and Rex Wong is one of them. Rex has a unique ability to read scripts in a different way (this is a compliment) and to tell the same story in a way that no one else, sometimes not even the director, could imagine. With his extensive filmmaking experience, he can precisely decide what lens and settings to use just by looking at the floor plan. Nine times out of ten, he gets exactly what he wants without needing to move the camera and reframe later on set. He can also visualize the finished movie just by reading the script and envision how the cut will be edited in post-production while rolling the camera on set. If this isn’t pure talent, I don’t know what is.

Website: https://vimeo.com/weichungchen

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weichung.films/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weichung-chen-494638159/

Image Credits
Haley Breese