Jaemin Yi | Travel, Creativity, and the Pursuit of Awesomeness

So the other day I got this e-mail from a high-schooler asking for my advice.  I thought my response might be helpful to other people (more specifically: my 18 year old self), so I’ll post it up here:

Hi Jaemin! My name is Angela and I think I’m going through a mid-life crisis with all these college apps that I’m filling out. Currently, I can’t decide whether or not I should pursue film, the environment, or writing…

My response (unedited, so s’cuse me if it ain’t pretty!):

I’ll just say right off the bat, I think one of the biggest myths about life is that we have to “figure out” or “come to a decision” on what we want to do.  That’s such bullshit lol.

Being a filmmaker or a writer or an artist isn’t something we think about and then DECIDE we want to be.  Instead, you should just keep exploring and spending time doing the things you love to do.  In your free time, if you feel like it, keep writing.  Or make little film projects with friends.

Whatever it is you do, make sure you’re not doing for an END GOAL but just doing it because you love to do it.  And I promise you, if you follow your heart and keep doing what you love, then a path will come from it.  

For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been sneaking behind my girlfriend’s back. I’ve been lying constantly about where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing. I even got her friends and family in on it.

But last Saturday, she finally found out what we’ve all been up to this entire time…

And she loved it. Like, tears-coming-down-her-face loved it (I don’t usually enjoy making girls cry, but I’ll make exceptions).

If you know Taneen at all (her blog is seriously one of my favorites), then you know she’s the absolute PERFECT target for a Shit [Blank] Says video. This girl is full of such ridiculousness/awesomeness/weirdness, it’s almost too easy!

For a girl who doesn’t give a shit about fancy dinners and expensive gifts, we all knew that this would be the perfect birthday gift. And it totally was.

One thing I didn’t expect though, was how awesome making this video would be for me.

Wow, this feels good. I just posted all three of my Doritos commercials online (‘The Red’, ‘First Date’, ‘The Breakroom’, and check out behind the scenes pics right here) and now I can call it a wrap. Done. Finito. My first personally funded, professional shoot is now officially in the can. Ahhhh. But before I [...]

I first came across Christian Simmons work when I was checking out some of the competition for the Doritos Superbowl contest. There were over 1,700 entries submitted and believe it or not, me and my creative partner saw nearly every single one. Most of them were flat-out horrible (just trust me on this) but out [...]

This is a guest post from Adam Witten, a talented commercial director represented by The Insanity Corp. based out in NYC.  After seeing my post on 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Directing a Spec Commercial, he wanted to add on with his own tips on making it in this industry. from Scion: BOXHEAD, directed by [...]

photo by cathycracks Ah, the good ol’ “Spec Commercial”  If you’re a filmmaker looking to break into commercial directing, you’re gonna need a few of these on your reel.  A spec commercial is simply a “fake” commercial that a filmmaker makes to show ad agencies and companies that he’s worthy of hiring. Needless to say, [...]