Way Out with Yu-Ying Chuang
Artists work to challenge themselves. While most of us enjoy knowing exactly what we are going to do each day and take comfort in knowing how to do it with familiarity, artists like editor Yu-Ying Chuang seek the polar opposite. They want to force themselves to prove that they can recalibrate to new situations. This was the mindset that led to Chuang’s role as editor of the film Way Out. The Family Drama genre was one which was underrepresented in Yu-Ying’s resume but there was another factor just as important in her decision to take on the project. She concedes, “Way Out is my first time to edit family drama. Because the film’s director and I are Asian, sometimes our family values may not be the same as the Westerners. This script wants to express whether children should follow their parents’ arrangements or pursue their dreams. People like us who dream for working in film industry will have deep feelings. Although this film is structured in the countryside, I believe that if we can express the story what we want to say and the meaning behind the story, it is really a very meaningful thing.”
Way Out is no light tale. The burden of self versus family falls upon Felice Loiz. The young woman is an aspiring photographer who wants to make her way to the city to pursue her dream. Her father forces a heavy handed attempt to convince Felice to stay and take over the family’s dairy farm. If Felice relents and agrees, the farm will stay in the family. Without her, he will be forced to sell the farm to pay for his wife’s cancer treatments. A story like this offers no happy ending; Yu-Ying crafted the scenes to illuminate the perspectives of the different characters.
The final scenes of the film depict the volatile evening which begins as a family dinner and explodes into anger, sadness, and tears. When Felice and her father argue their opinions on the future and what life is really about, Chuang selected scenes which vacillate between mother and daughter in the same frame and the father standing alone. The isolation is palpable. The final painful scene with Felice and her mother crying together in a dark room presented a unique challenge for the editor as the camera had not caught all of the scene. Yu-Ying states, “When the film washed out, I had to do some creative and clever editing to construct what we need to make the scene work. The footage which showed Felice’s feelings of discouragement had to be edited many times in order to achieve the right feel and look for the ending. “
There’s a harmony to the plot in every piece of film; an idea that in some way reflects the same ideas as what the film communicates. This DNA is evident in Way Out with the editing. The film’s accolades include a Gold Award for Best Editing at the International Independent Film Awards as well as Best Drama Short at both the Independent Short Awards and Los Angeles Film Awards. Struggling to make an uncomfortable situation work for her family, the character of Felice finds a kindred spirit in Yu-Ying Chuang’s desire to use her craft to help the visual and emotional business of making this film work for her production family. There is passion and heart in every artist’s adversity; fictional or in the real physical world.
