As a "post-95s" young man from China, Liu Tiantian has been living overseas for many years, persistently pursuing his dream of film and television art. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a major in theater performance and a double major in theater performance and film, and working in New York and Los Angeles for many years, in 2022, she chose to step out of her "comfort zone" and go to the beautiful European country of Switzerland. Take a break.
In the past two years, in bustling Zurich, Liu Tiantian worked hard to overcome the language barrier and left his own unique mark in the advertising and film and television industries. Talking about his career path, Liu Tiantian said with a smile: "It seems that I am always traveling in different fields, but every experience has made me gain a lot."
Challenges and Growth: Gaining Joy by Integrating into a Team in a New Country
Facing Strangeness In different countries and cities, everything has to start over, especially in Zurich, Switzerland, a city where German is the main language of communication. Liu Tiantian faces dual challenges of language and culture.
When he first arrived, Liu Tiantian chose to start with the crew to experience the film and television shooting atmosphere here. During this period, she joined many large and small production crews, and participated in the filming of film and television dramas and commercials. Here she was both a stage manager and an extra, and she worked in various types of work.
With these experiences, she applied for a job as a production assistant in a film production company, responsible for advertising projects. This was the beginning of her career in Switzerland. However, in an international creative environment, the language barrier became a major problem that she had to face after joining the company. There are Swiss, German and Portuguese people in the new unit, and everyone mainly speaks German.
"With the language barrier, I just communicated hard and tried my best to push the work forward." As a producer, Liu Tiantian knows the importance of communication. She worked hard to overcome the language barrier and tried her best to integrate into this new team.
She started from simple work, communicated and learned bit by bit. Colleagues also try to communicate with her in English. In the process, she not only learned how to overcome language barriers, but also deeply understood the power of teamwork.
"I am a person who loves to worry a lot and wants to do things well, so sometimes I can be a bit of a workaholic." Liu Tiantian said that he is a typical INFJ personality. Her unwillingness to admit defeat inspired her fighting spirit, allowing her to get out of the predicament step by step, get on the right track, and gain joy.
In her opinion, as a producer, sense of responsibility is very important, and it is necessary to unite everyone and move forward together. For example, during the two days of cooperating with Peng Yuyan's team to shoot the Longines watch commercial, Liu Tiantian, as a producer, followed up the entire shooting process and intervened in every link to ensure that the shooting was completed as scheduled.
Producer’s Perspective: Insight into the dual needs of customers and the market
As a producer, you must not only have strong communication skills, but also have very strong logical thinking skills, organization and empathy, as well as Good aesthetics. In Liu Tiantian's view, the most difficult thing for advertising projects is how to meet customer needs and meet customer expectations. "My boss is very experienced. He knows how to face customers and how to satisfy them. He is very persuasive and can try his best to persuade customers."
This experience of working in a film production company has provided her with a follow-up experience. A shift in identity provides a solid foundation. She said that here she learned how to run a company, how to connect and communicate with customers as a boss, and benefited a lot.
In March of this year, Liu Tiantian founded his own company and became an independent producer. Liu Tiantian, who speaks four languages: Chinese, Korean, English and German, has a natural advantage in accumulating and communicating with customers. Liu Tiantian's partners span the Pacific from China, including Swisscom, the century-old watch brand Longines, the century-old beer brand Carlsberg, etc.; the artist team she collaborates with includes Eddie Peng, Ma Boqian, etc. High-quality content and presentation, while reaping high traffic, are also recognized by peers and partners in the industry.
"In addition to advertising, I am also doing short plays now. I also have to find ways to convince customers to show that our directors are okay, that there is a market for our products, etc." Under the leadership of Liu Tiantian, the team produced a One short drama after another, and is currently filming the fifth short drama series. The two short dramas that have been aired have an average number of likes per episode of nearly 50,000, which has gained more traffic and commercial support for the launch of subsequent dramas.
In addition, for many years after graduation, Liu Tiantian has been insisting on filming documentaries on topics that interest him, and has become somewhat famous in the industry. Among them, "Chinese in Silicon Valley·Cohesion" directed by her won the Best Silicon Valley Documentary Award at the San Francisco New Concept Film Festival, "Flying Against the Wind" was shortlisted for the Poppy Jasper International Film Festival, and "Excellent Family" aroused strong emotional resonance among netizens on YouTube, with a viewing volume of 30000.
For different types of content products, different perspectives and knowledge reserves are required. So, how to produce different types of film and television products, and what to do when encountering difficulties? Liu Tiantian's way of coping is to communicate more with experienced people, such as senior producers, senior photographers, senior directors, etc., and gain the strength to move forward from the sharing of experience.
Regarding the future of enterprises, should they go more in the direction of business or art? Should we do more advertising or launch more skits? This is a question Liu Tiantian is still thinking about. "Let's take it one step at a time. Maybe there are more areas to explore." (Guangming.com reporter Qiu Xiaoqin)
Source: Guangming.com
