Women’s History Month: Featuring Filmmaker Yoonhee Ye

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Happy Women’s History Month!

At Zooppa, we’ve always been committed to doing everything we can to bring equality to the industry and beyond. That’s why we launched Peggy in 2018 and why we continue to celebrate and highlight the multifaceted, multicultural, and underrepresented filmmakers and creatives in our community. 

In celebration of Women’s History Month and the amazing, powerful ladies of our community, we’re bringing you a series of features and interviews with Zooppers just like yourself. These ladies are Zooppa veterans, award winning filmmakers, innovative designers and more. We can’t wait to get started!

First up, we’re featuring long-time artist, filmmaker, and VIP Zoopper, Yoonhe Ye. She’s been a member of the Zooppa community for almost five years, having won second place in the Behr Paint Open Project and third place in the all Fresh Tropical Mist Open Project!

Today, we get to learn a little more about Yoonhee, what has influenced her filmmaking, and how she creates her storyboards.

How did you find yourself in your creative field?

Growing up, reading and drawing were my two favorite activities. It didn’t take too long for me to realize that it was stories that captivated my heart the most. They were my windows to the world, secret passages to other people’s mind, and was nourishment to my heart. I couldn’t choose anything else as my profession. I knew that creating stories and sharing them with others was the most meaningful thing for myself.   

What does Women’s History Month mean to you?

Alert, but in a healthy way. It triggers me to think about what I’ve done for Women’s Rights in the past year. Though it never feels like I’ve done enough, I appreciate that it reminds me of what I should be working on more.  

Tell us about how your love for comic books and art has informed or impacted your filmmaking/career.

Comic books, which is a medium full of art and stories and amazing characters, I fell in love with it so quickly and madly in my teenage years. 

It was comics that made me realize that my drawings were my way of creating stories. If I were to draw a landscape, I imagined who lived in the scene and what their life would be like. If I were to draw an object, I imagined who owned it and what kind of history it had with the owner. Above all, I loved drawing people. Once the connections between text (stories) and art (drawing) were made in my mind, I started drawing my own comic books. 

Now that I look at it, it was my prime study in how to come up with shots and how to navigate stories with visual choices. And when I came across the medium of film in university, I jumped in without much fear. I was excited to explore the new tools I had in my hands to do the same thing I loved and I ended up becoming a filmmaker.  

What was your favorite Zooppa Project that you participated in?

I loved them all but I enjoyed making the Behr project the most, as it was a very personal project.

Can you tell us a little bit about your process in developing and creating your storyboards?

Working as a storyboard artist and drawing storyboards for your own projects is quite different. I’ll write about when I’m drawing one for my own—meaning projects I direct.

First, I think through the scene—shot by shot—in my head, as specifically as possible. Once I have shots in mind that I’d love to see in paper, I start drawing very rough sketches. During this process, I start to get a better grasp of what I want by re-drawing and re-structuring them quite a bit. 

This is also a great time to collaborate with my team and bounce ideas around with them. After I confirm the shot choices in rough sketches, I start drawing the full storyboards to share with others.  

Female Heros?

So many! I’ll name someone who’s inspired me most recently—Yuna Kim. She is a South Korean figure skater. 

Can you recommend a must-have/read/see/check out for fellow female (and non female!) creatives?

Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin.

The Earthsea series is considered one of the best fantasy novels of all time but I think it is overlooked compared to some other famous fantasy books. Ursula K. Le Guin’s deep character study and her warm but sharp view toward the world is so inspiring. I’d recommend them to any fellow female creatives. 

What is your Personality Type? 🙂 

INTJ

We love sharing and bragging about all the incredible things that our community members are doing out there in the world. We’d love to hear about what you’re doing and brag about you too!

Share your passion projects, your award winning films, and your works in progress with us by email ada@zooppa.com!

We <3 you. Happy Women’s History Month! Thank you for being here with us.

Cheers,
Zooppa Community Team