Haochen Yang grew up in a media art making family. His dad is a TV director who makes music videos and live TV shows. Haochen has been bathed in the river of image and music since he was a child. However, since he got his first digital camera at the age of 19 as his birthday present, he has been attracted by the aesthetic of real presented through photography.
He kept taking photos until he got accepted by the film program at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. He started to watch a lot of films from early age cinema until nowadays. Also, he writes film critiques based on the films he watches.
During his undergrad period, he was being introduced into feature film production by working with two filmmakers in the industry. The films are Dragon Blade and The Great Wall. After that, Haochen realized he is most interested in making movies rather than taking photos and writing film critiques. Therefore, he made up his mind to apply to film school to enhance his filmmaking abilities. Finally, he got accepted by Emerson College.
In the process of studying filmmaking at Emerson College, Haochen finds that he is good at creative thinking. His ability is more related to directing and screenwriting. He loves observing the world with different people from different backgrounds and combines different people together to tell a realistic story. His camera always focuses on the people he encounters around him. He is currently making a 25-minute short film. That film tells a story of a retro high school boy in China striving open up his mind to let other people accept him. That film is called Your Smile.