In an exclusive interview, Flickering Myth sat down with Yunyi Zhu, an award-winning film and television producer from the movie Promises, Promises.
Hi Yunyi Zhu, welcome to Flickering Myth! Before we talk movies, can you tell us about yourself?
Hi, my name is Yunyi Zhu. I was born and raised in Beijing, China. I came to the US for college in 2017 and finished my undergrad at University of Wisconsin – Madison with a double major in Radio, TV, Film and Economics. After graduating from college, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my dream in filmmaking and got an MFA in Television and Film production from Loyola Marymount University in 2023. My career has taken me to some of the most renowned film production companies in the world, including Warner Bros., Mei Ah Entertainment (Hong Kong), Vanishing Angles, Tencent Pictures, and many others.
Your film Promises, Promises has had quite a successful film festival run. What is the movie about?
Thank you! Promises, Promises is the story of a hardworking cross country athlete who after missing the cutoff to make the college championship team, sabotages her top-ranked best friend in the most important race of their college careers. We screened in festivals for American, Canadian, and Italian audiences last year. It premiered in Los Angeles and then screened at Silver Wave Film Festival in Canada, International Sport Film Festival at Napoli, Italy, Big Apple Film Festival in New York. It was nominated by 43rd Paladino d’Oro Sport Film Festival for Best Fiction, and Best University Award. The film will be released on “Film Shortage” later this year.
As the Producer, Director, and Co-writer on the film, how did you prepare?
Because I want to direct and produce the script, I first started with finding my producing partners, which gave me more space to focus on directing. Christopher Putlock and Enyi Zhu got on board because we met in film school and had worked on many projects together back then. I trust them with my vision. After location scouting for a few weeks, I reached out to Joaquina Gentil and Charlotte Hendrickx to help me with casting. We met through working on another film, called Ten Whys and I knew we would be a good team.
From there we started working with all the resources we could. I was the leader of the producing team so everything will come to me. At some point, it was a challenging experience because I needed to solve all of the problems and give them directions to move forward. However, it was a great training for my communication and organizing skills. I also learned a lot from working with all of my producing partners. Enyi is very detail-oriented, and she had a lot of production experience, so she helped brainstorming all potential issues that could happen on set and we made plans of how to avoid them. Charlotte had a lot of experiences working with actors, so she helped me with casting, which is one of my best decisions. I worked with Joaquina and Christopher on locations because we had 7 different locations because we needed to film from exterior locations such as the beach, pier, track fields, trails, to interiors of the apartment and the school locker room. We scouted all over the place from Ventura to Long Beach and all the way to Orange County. They are very patient and hardworking. This was truly the best team I could ask for.
Can you share any fun facts from the set?
This is a sports film about cross-country runners, so, of course, there are many running scenes. We had spent countless hours capturing various running scenes, trying to get the perfect shot that would make the audience feel like they were right there on the track with the runners. But filming these scenes wasn’t easy. Not only did the actors have to run for long periods of time, but the crew had to deal with a heavier workload when filming outside. The logistical challenges were immense, and it seemed like every day presented a new problem that needed to be solved. Finding proper basecamp, working with local parking situations, and the unpredictable weather and catching the daylight time, etc, were all issues that we needed to address during production. Despite all these challenges, we all soldiered on, determined to create the best possible movie. Sometimes, we start before sunrise and finish well after sunset. But our hard work paid off, Promises, Promises got into film festivals all over the world, including US, Italy, Canada, etc. Looking back on the experience, I am truly proud of all cast and crew and what we had accomplished.
We filmed this film during the pandemic and unfortunately, one of the actors got COVID during the shoot. As a producer, it was truly a nightmare when I just woke up in the morning and got the phone call. I thought we had to shut down the production. I quickly called the location owner on that day, and he was willing to help us and work with whatever the best option we had. All the other cast and crew were all very understanding and patient to wait for the decision. We quickly got everyone tested for COVID and enforced wearing masks and proper social distance on set. Everyone worked really hard to catch up with the day and luckily, no one else got COVID after that. We did a pick-up shoot for the missing scene a few weeks later. Gathering everyone on set again feels like a family reunion.
How did you come up with the concept?
I wrote this script with my talented co-writer Louisa Rorschach. We both had experiences in competitive sports. I was a professional roller skater and runner, and she was a professional swimmer. It was always my goal to make a film about running and the difficulties and challenges of competing with teammates for this kind of individual sport. The intertwined relationship is what I wanted to discuss. We worked on the script for a couple of months and was nominated for the festival Your Script Produced! Season 4. Even though we didn’t win the grant, we found investors to make this film happen.
Which producers/directors would you like to collaborate with in future?
Can I say Jackie Chan? He is also a producer and director, other than actor. I grew up watching his films and part of the reason why I want to become a filmmaker is because of the 90s Hong Kong film. It is always my dream to make an action/Kung Fu film. I would really want to work with him if they’re going to create another Police Story.
How can people keep up with you on social media?
I am active on Instagram and my IMDb. My website is www.zhuyunyi.art
Our thanks to Yunyi Zhu for taking the time for this interview, and to Liz Rodriguez from EMR Media for helping us with the interview
