Wei Han

Hometown: Chengdu, China

Home College/University: SCI-Arc(Southern California Institute of Architecture)

Major: Art and Architechture

When did you attend Spring at Tisch? Spring 2016

What did you study during Spring at Tisch? Filmmaking and Graphic Design

Why did you decide to come to Tisch?  I took a year off from my home school and wanted to try something new. I started to get interested in media arts back when I was in high school. I mean, I watched a bunch of YouTube and Vimeo videos like everyone else, but just for fun. I was never serious about filmmaking and knew nothing about how to make a film before this semester. My home school is in the arts district, downtown LA. There are so many independent studios around. I literally saw people filming stuff every single day, and some Hollywood movies were made just nearby my school, so I was inspired by the film culture there and decided to give it a try myself.

What else should we know about you? After I decided to try filmmaking for my gap year, I looked many film school websites like NYU, USC, UCLA, and London Film School to find appropriate programs for myself. I have to say among all those school programs, Spring at Tisch is the best one in terms of the duration of the program, the intensity of the courses, and the experiences Tisch gives for visiting students. It's not like a four, five week summer intensive or a weekly based evening school. Spring at Tisch is a full-time semester study at the prestigious NYU Tisch School of the Arts with all these talented major students. It's very challenging but also very interesting. I started to learn filmmaking from zero at the beginning of the semester. I was totally a plain paper. I tried very hard to catch up with those major students who have spent two or three years at Tisch. It's tough, but I believe I made it. I don't think I am worse than anyone in my film classes and my works are even better than most of theirs. Throughout the semester, I have learned so much and made so many friends from Tisch and even other schools like Parsons, SVA, FIT, and Pratt. Now, I absolutely know how to make a film.

I think the money I spent here is definitely worth it and New York City is very, very exciting to live in. I remember when I first decided to take a gap year and apply for Spring at Tisch, my parents were not happy about it. They were like, make up your mind, kid. They thought it's a waste of money, time, and energy, but I am very glad now that I persisted. I think Sight & Sound Filmmaking is a life-changing course for me. It taught me how to make films and really stimulated my passion for filmmaking. It opens a new chapter of my life. If I did not take this course, I probably will never know how fun filmmaking can be. By the way, I'll take Sight & Sound Documentary over the summer. I just want to learn more before I go back to LA. Next semester, I will be back to my home school to continue my study in art and architecture, but that does not mean I will give up making films. Filmmaking has become an important part of my life. I love art and architecture, but I also love filmmaking. I'll try to pursue both. It's gonna be very hard, but I'll try. Maybe I'll switch to filmmaking in the future. Who knows?