#charliewan

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@houseofdayburn closing out #reachingyoureverest for this morning's session at #theartistsummit2015 #thisistheartistsummit #theartistsummit #tpgpro #houseofdayburn #charliewan #makeupartist #WeAreThePowderGroup (at Provincetown Inn)

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Love Thyself

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A Few Questions With Charlie Wan

Charlie Wan - Director & Composer | www.charliewan.com

What inspires you right now? (and why) Working with contemporary dancers inspire me. It’s all about the emotions with an edge. It’s been great work with models all these years. They will look great no matter if they care for your shoots and stories or not. The images could be spectacular but the emotion could be very flat during the shoot. But when you work with contemporary dancers…they want to learn about your story, process internally and then express it back to you with their bodies and faces. They completely took my breath away.

Who are three of the biggest influences in your career? (and how have they effected your career)

Film Director Wong Kar-wai - Intricacy of storytelling without explaining too much.

Commercial Director Bruno Aveillan - Ethereal visual and emotional story in the commercial world.

Neo-classical composers Olafur Arnald, Max Richter, Neil Frahms - Cinematic sounds break the boundary between classical music and sound design.

All these influences essentially affected the way how I create my films and music. My work is being described as ethereal and melancholic. I want audience to feel something when they see my work especially in our world only focus on vanity.

Can you tell us about a defining moment in your career? One that made you realize this was what you were going to do with the rest of your life. I don’t think I ever had the thought about doing one thing for the rest of my life. I have developed a few careers from art director to beauty photographer to now director/composer. We all evolve and change at different stages in our lives. Something you were so passionate in the past might not be that significant now. But one defining moment (enlightenment) of my life is actually last year I realized that life is all about “honest living”. Very simple statement but not very easy to do. Are you honestly liking what you are doing right now? Are you honestly happy with this compromising way to live? Your heart and intuition tell you loud and clear all these years everything you should be doing. But sometimes we choose to ignore that inner voice. Perhaps the money is too good. Perhaps you are in high power with this uninspiring position. Perhaps your unsupportive boyfriend got the best body. But the answers are always inside you. Listen to your heart. Trust your intuition. Live your life honestly. Now.

What advice would you give to a makeup artist or hair stylist starting out in the industry? Believe in yourself. And believe in yourself. Ok, one more time…believe in yourself! This is a long journey. You might have heard of the 10,000 hours rule. To become good at anything, it takes around 10,000 hours. With my personal and many of my friends’ experiences in the industry, this roughly translate to about 5-7 years. There will be a lot of difficult times ahead. You might have a lot of self-doubts or encounter many unfair circumstances. When you feel like there’s nothing left in you to climb your Everest…try one more step before you give up. You might be surprised what’s next.

What is more important to you the work (a makeup artist or hair stylists artistic skill) or the artist (the person themselves - personality, professionalism)? We are from New York. Anyone can make it here usually already good in their crafts. Then personality and professionalism are the core qualities of people that I am looking after. Always be nice, charming and humble. There are ALWAYS people way talented than you are. No one wants to work with a talented prick. The sad truth is…you are replaceable if working with you is an unpleasant experience. I always told my team that working together is like co-hosting a party with me: make sure everyone has a great time and experience. You are also the first person in the chain (makeup and hair) to warm up the model for the photographer/director. Treat your model as if how you would like to be treated. Be gentle with her skin and hair. It’s her assets to earn her living. It’s extremely important to take care of her. Offer her food, talk to her, be curious about her life, etc. Simply just be a cool friend of her day. Simple nice gestures make a huge difference to someone’s mood. Happy model means happy shoot. 

What is the key to a successful work-life balance? To be honest, I don’t know if such thing exist. You either obsessively working or compromise your time with life. I think perhaps the better way is to block out times to focus on the moment and be present. When you work, work wholeheartedly. When you “live”, only focus on life without thinking about work.

What are you most excited about right now? I am currently going through a major rebranding of myself. It would be under my alias "Dayburn" as a beauty commercial director and composer. I am putting my 8 years hard work as a beauty photographer aside for the moment. The past two years I felt like the young Clark Kent (Superman). I discovered some unexpected new powers in me (such as my music composing skill) and was trying to make sense of all these skills that I have. I was confused for two years. I was (am) constantly experimenting what should be the new identity. Just like Clark Kent tried to figure out his outfit, what posture to fly and which cape to wear. Now many parts of me finally start to come together. My new identity allows to re-package myself in a much more simplified and focused way.

See Charlie Wan as a part of An intense three day inspiration and educational program for the professional Makeup and Beauty community - The Artist Summit. October 4-7th, 2015. www.theartistsummit.com