The Directors: Claryn Chong
Claryn Chong is a 23-year-old Chinese-Indonesian film director, photographer and creative director. Born in Singapore, raised in Australia and now based in London, she takes much inspiration from her diasporic experiences, existing as a young woman of colour, and her endless identity crises.
Her specialism in music videos stems from her love for a diverse range of music, where she has worked with a variety of artists including: Lava La Rue, Miso Extra, Chanmina, Holly Humberstone, English Teacher, Logic1000, dexter in the newsagent — to name a few. On her sets she strives to provide fellow creatives with an ultra fun, safe and comfortable environment, where long-lasting friendships and working relationships are birthed.
Name: Claryn Chong
Location: London, UK
Repped by/in: Lowkey Films
LBB> What elements of a script/brief sets one apart from the other and what sort of scripts/briefs get you excited to shoot them?
Claryn> Straight into the hard questions! When I get a brief I guess what I look for the most is potential for ideas that I’ve never seen before. I love it when the ideas are niche and the references are hyper specific, rather than just compiling a bunch of references together that are alike and seen many times before. I get excited when I am given these super specific points of reference as a place to start, but also the space to then inject myself and my own creativity into them.
LBB> How do you approach creating a treatment for a spot/brief?
Claryn> The process definitely depends on what the project entails. Sometimes it’s going with the first thing that comes to mind, sometimes it’s endless conversations and discussions to pinpoint what the client wants exactly.
After the initial idea is formulated, it’s endless hours of research, speaking to the right people, digging everywhere I can for further inspiration, and patiently watching and allowing the idea to evolve into something else completely. Then it’s combining all of the above into an effective, confident, and visually stunning treatment that’s able to sell the idea well!
LBB> If the script/brief is for a brand that you're not familiar with/don’t have a big affinity with or a market you're new to, how important is it for you to do research and understand that strategic and contextual side of the ad? If it’s important to you, how do you do it?
Claryn> I would say it’s definitely important to an extent. It’s always good to go on a mini deep dive and look at the client’s branding as a whole, as well as other brands and pieces of work that fit in that realm; understanding what does well and what does not, what is original and what has been done a million times before.
But there is also an element of keeping relatively distant from the research, to avoid a subconscious pigeonholing of ideas and limiting yourself to what you think you can and can’t do as per what fits the branding.
LBB> For you, what is the most important working relationship for a director to have with another person in making an ad/video? And why?
Claryn> For me the most important working relationship is one that is communicative, passionate, and equal. A trustful space where ideas can be openly and excitedly shared, with no underlying feeling of one person being above the other. Honestly, filmmaking to me has always been about the collaboration and the eagerness to come onto a set with other passionate creatives with hopes of establishing long-term working relationships and even friendships.
LBB> What type of work are you most passionate about - is there a particular genre or subject matter or style you are most drawn to?
Claryn> It changes all the time. I think in my past work I’d been very drawn to ideas of adolescence and youth, and in turn loved making videos that felt dynamic, colourful and energetic, with a stylistic element of do-it-yourself.
But as I move into my mid-20s navigating the world as a woman of colour, I’ve definitely felt a big shift in the type of work I’m passionate about. More recently I’ve been drawn to subject matters revolving around identity and diasporic experiences, but told through lenses that feel more experimental and visually artistic, or surreal and dark. I have a few videos in this realm that are waiting to be released and honestly can’t wait to get them out into the world.
LBB> What misconception about you or your work do you most often encounter and why is it wrong?
Claryn> I think a problem I’ve faced quite a lot across my work is the misconception that there’s only one type of genre, or artist, or brand that I work with — basically, pigeonholing. Getting a brief for something because they’ve seen me do it once before. Funnily enough I’m not a one-dimensional creative. I like to switch things up. I like to think there’s a lot more to me and my interests and my work. The projects that excite me most are the ones I’ve never done before.
LBB> What’s the craziest problem you’ve come across in the course of a production – and how did you solve it?
Claryn> There was a music video earlier this year, actually. I’d spent almost four months prepping and remember thinking I’d never felt more prepared for a shoot in my life.
On the morning of the shoot as I was walking to set, I get a call from my producer telling me the shoot was cancelled because the artist had to go to hospital due to a stomach issue. Then, a minute after the call, my phone gets snatched mid-texting. I had to then navigate my way to set anyway, where I now had no phone and no music video — it’s funny to think about now, but it was a mental morning!
Luckily enough we managed to reschedule the shoot with not too great of a financial loss, but at the time the most difficult thing was accepting the possibility of having to totally let it go.
LBB> How do you strike the balance between being open/collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea?
Claryn> Great question! This is something I admittedly struggle with — as a director, an idea can become so precious to you and the worst thing in the world is seeing that be pulled apart. For me, striking the balance is remembering that filmmaking is a collaborative process and sometimes the joy of it comes in being open to build on ideas with other people.
Of course, I won’t lie and say that there haven’t been times where clients have totally changed my ideas. In those moments it is important to stand your ground and push for the creative that you believe in.
LBB> What are your thoughts on opening up the production world to a more diverse pool of talent? Are you open to mentoring and apprenticeships on set?
Claryn> If we’re talking ‘diverse’ as in the sense of marginalised groups of people, then I don’t think opinions really matter as that is what should happen. From my personal experiences, not only is it a cis-white-male dominated industry, but when the production world does attempt to be inclusive sometimes there is still an element of hierarchy, or tokenism, or white feminism.
It is more important now than ever to genuinely involve a more diverse pool of talent, whether that is through mentoring and apprenticeships on set, or proactively giving those creatives more opportunities.
LBB> How do you feel the pandemic influenced the way you work? Did you pick up new habits that you feel will stick around for a long time?
Claryn> Funnily enough the pandemic can be argued to be the beginning of my career. I was in the middle of studying, and having that taken away from me really forced me to try and put myself out there in the industry.
I applied for literally every relevant internship and potential job opportunity I could find; I started making coffees on lifestyle content shoots and filming YouTube vlogs for small artists. I camera trainee’d on small sets then on huge sets then quit because I realised I didn’t actually want to be a DOP. If I tried to summarise it, the pandemic’s definitely influenced the way I work in that it’s given me a lot of patience and resilience.
I’ve picked up the habits of trying new things and letting go when they don’t work out, and I still find I do that a lot as a director now.
LBB> Your work is now presented in so many different formats - to what extent do you keep each in mind while you're working (and, equally, to what degree is it possible to do so)?
Claryn> I do believe the idea is the most important thing and it’s key not to totally detach from the original format that it is meant to be presented in. Of course there is the element of delivering for the client as well as the general changing formats in media today, and so I do always keep it at the back of my mind whilst working, making sure the idea can be delivered to the best it can be in those formats.
LBB> What’s your relationship with new technology and, if at all, how do you incorporate future-facing tech into your work (e.g. virtual production, interactive storytelling, AI/data-driven visuals etc)?
Claryn> Ever since Sora (the OpenAI model for video creation) came out a month or so ago, I’ve been thinking about this question a lot. It’s really scary, and there’s definitely an element of spite that I feel towards new technology because us filmmakers obviously run the risk of having our careers lessen in value.
Why would a production pay for 200 extras and an additional AD to shepherd them when they could just type in text instructions on AI and save all that time and money? When it comes to directing, the biggest worry is that the lines are now blurred in the sense of what skills you actually need to direct. Everyone has ideas, and everyone is able to type prompts into a robot — does this then make everyone a potential director? On the other hand, what can we realistically do about it?
New technology is so much bigger than us and there’s no real way of fighting it. I do find it fascinating to an extent, and when it becomes normalised just as every new future-facing tech does, I know there will definitely be a time I’ll have to incorporate it into my work whether I want to or not.
LBB> Which pieces of work do you feel really show off what you do best – and why? (Please upload 4 videos to your company archive).
Claryn> Miso Extra ‘2nd Floor’ — I think this video shows off my work best in its effectiveness in taking a super simple concept and really elevating it. The entire video follows Miso cutting her hair, but I like to think it’s done in quite an interesting and artistic way. So much intricate preparation went into the shot list — every single shot and camera movement and angle was planned out, in order to achieve the very specific, rather sharp and dark atmosphere that we wanted to nail. There is also an element of telling the story through an East Asian lens, where the colour palette leans into a lot of classic East Asian colours.
CHANMINA ‘Biscuit’ — this was my first proper directing job abroad, where I got lucky enough to shoot in Tokyo, Japan. What people don’t know is that we only had about four hours to shoot, guerrilla-style with a whole anamorphic lens set-up, right in the middle of Shibuya Crossing on a Monday morning — which was absolutely chaotic. It could be said that it reflects what I do best in terms of the ability to make decisions on the spot and act quickly on my feet!
Girli ‘Matriarchy’ — this was a special one as it was a film made by women all about women. I’m not taking credit for putting together an almost all-female crew, but I guess it goes to show what I believe in and stand for in this industry as a director.
El Londo ft. Bawo ‘Online’ — I’m really proud of this one because of how much we were able to make work with such a small budget (only 1.5k!). Self-produced and created with friends, to me this video reminds me that creative filmmaking doesn’t have to be big, or expensive, or excessive. Maybe not to some, but that mindset feels like a definite strength of mine.
