Today we’d like to introduce you to Tae Park.
Hi Tae, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
’ve always loved art and photography, but I definitely got into it as a newly discovered passion during quarantine. I spent lots of time on YouTube, watching videos of many inspiring YouTubers like Casey Neistat, Sam Kolder, and Peter McKinnon. I learned a lot of the photography and filmmaking basics on YouTube through watching these creators (YouTube University woo-hoo). It wasn’t just the photography and filmmaking skills that I learned through these creators over quarantine, though. The isolated period created a moment of self-reflection as I was graduating high school. Looking back at my life, I’ve realized I had so many missed opportunities that I neglected due to fear of putting myself out there. These creators and their videos really inspired me to fully experience this world and started to bring out a brave side of me.
A quarantine hobby turned into a passion, which also turned into a career choice I made when I was applying for colleges. I went to NC State University as a double major in Film and Communication in Media. Alongside learning theory-based studies in film for school, I chased my creative outlet through many personal projects, being a videographer for student organizations, joining a fashion magazine as a photographer, and taking on freelance jobs.
Then, at the end of my third year, I saw my friends make a short film and premiere it in a local theater. I remember staying in the theater seat for a while in awe and inspiration. I had to do the same. As I was taking a screenwriting class at the beginning of my fourth and final year at NC State, I drafted the script for my short film with the help of my friends who inspired it all. Then, gathering all my resources, help, and support from my friends and family, I was able to proudly take on my biggest passion project of directing a short film and premiering it at the same theater that I was first inspired to start this. I can say that it was an accumulation of skills I developed throughout college, connections I’ve made, and a support system that I’m lucky to have that made this all possible.
As the premiere wrapped, I’m currently located in the DC area, working as an in-house videographer for an economic development agency.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We currently don’t live in an ideal world where all creatives and artists can earn enough money to live comfortably through the work they feel purely passionate about. I think, to live by that standard, it requires skill, connections, and luck, all at a very exceptional level. I undermined this concern that I would eventually have to face during my first three years of college. And when the fourth year rolled around, I became anxious about my post-grad plans.
I had no internships nor a clear pathway into this career, as navigating the photo or film industry in Raleigh seemed challenging to break into. I began to worry about post-grad financial stability, the job market, and practical ways to make ends meet with my passion for photography and filmmaking. I began to anxiously seek freelance opportunities for any photo and video work as the graduation date approached. This was also around the time when I was working on the pre-production of my short film, which I originally had in mind to finish production before graduating, so everything felt chaotic and anxious.
To express and translate my feelings and values that I believed in, I made my short film about the anxiety surrounding your 20s, the fear of taking risks, failure, and growth through those hardships. After graduating, I gave my all into both the production of the short film as well as carving my path toward turning my passion into a career.
To me, it seemed like the first three years of college, where I didn’t focus on practical ways of career development such as internships and jobs, were wasteful. I was rather working on passion projects and diligently took any chances at photography and film work. I think that these projects I’ve done for the sake of passion and love for what I do, alongside the short film I’ve made, subtly led me to amazing friends, community, and skill development that shaped me to be who I am today in my career. When working on these, I’ve also learned that they draw people toward you, for you to learn from them and grow with them.
So I encourage everyone to do things, anything, that they feel passionate about and have love to give. I believe that they all add up and return back to you in amazing ways.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a filmmaker and a photographer. I tapped into many genres of videography and photography for work, but my heart always followed strong visual storytelling.
I love finding different angles to find strong visual storytelling in any video or photo I create, and I’m most proud of having a keen visual sense that allows me to recognize and create strong visual images. But I believe a strong visual piece without a good story has its limits, so I aspire to be not only a creator of insane visual imagery, but a storyteller who masters visuals to aid good storytelling.
What matters most to you?
I’m a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my personal work, so I thought I would very much be a result-oriented person when it comes to creating something. For example, I thought I would feel most fulfilled when I finally finished editing my short film and had a physical artifact that I could finally call “done” because I spent so much time and resources working on it. I also believed that an artist’s greatest pleasure comes from the act of expressing their work and showing it to the public. Art, after all, is an outward expression. But I felt most fulfilled as an artist in moments when I felt supported and trusted by the community around me. When I count back, there’s been so much that came to me as input for me to learn and grow from others while working on my short film. The short film didn’t just produce a finished artifact as an output, but the process of meeting people and learning from them has also internally shaped me and affected me deeply.
So recently, what matters most as an artist isn’t the art itself, but the people that I get to invite to be a part of an act and the shared emotions surrounding the art.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://afilmbytae.wixstudio.com/afilmbytae
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afilmbytae/?hl=en
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tae-park-05177a271/
