Article By: Amanda Dobek
Photographs By: Kumasi Lewis

Director, producer, editor, director of photography on music videos, and more recently, commercials. How does someone obtain so many roles during production? I’ll tell you how: perseverance, dedication, determination and some seriously long hours and hard work.

Although born in Windsor, England, matt yang predominately lived most of his life in different parts of the world: From England, to San Francisco, Hong Kong, Japan, Seattle, San Diego and finally, the great city of angels itself – Los Angeles. matt yang began his first steps towards his career during high school, where he took a few classes in production. From there he jumped entirely into his craft by launching his own production company, titled myHD (matt yang High Definition) — operating as his own establishment by fulfilling temporary staff requests for production.

Working in the video/commercial circuit for approximately five years, he has directed music videos with artists such as: Christian Stone, War Stories, Evan Robinson, Rookie of the Year, and The Apple War. His most recent work entails, the completion of Jesse Barrera’s latest music video “Tangled Up.” While the majority of matt yang’s career has been comprised of directing music videos, he has slowly begun to transition into the commercial sector, utilizing the skills and knowledge he obtained as a stepping-stone for the advancement of his career. “I’m in a place where I’m really enjoying what I’m doing —[I have] really great clients, but I’m looking to what’s next, what can I grab.”

So how much exertion is given for the production of one music video? LOTS.

matt yang usually meets with a manager, band or a production company that he is signed with before receiving the project. From that meeting, a song, a budget and other miscellaneous details such as style preferences are given from which he draws up a treatment or a general synopsis of what the final product will be. After the treatment, revisions are given, ideas tweaked and then pre-production begins. After pre-production, we move forward to production — this usually takes place over the course of 12 hours. matt yang describes this to be a type of “controlled chaos… but that’s the beauty of it.” He further explains, “I’m very structured in the pre-production; I can get everything very clear, but by doing that I allow myself that… freedom [in production]…I know what I need to get, but I can [experiment] too. I have that structure to fall back on, and I leave it open to try different things.” From production we move to post-production. Per matt yang, he tries to get a rough cut to the client within two weeks and final product within a week or two of the rough cut.

As for commercials, matt yang is currently teamed up with two advertising agencies, Snowball Ad Agency and Nucleus Worldwide. Commercials come to yang in one of two ways: through production, where the concept has already been created and all that follows is production and post-production or through the advertising agency itself, where it dabbles around with a few ideas and wants the creative input of the director. From there, pre-production, production and post-production follow.

matt yang currently has a few things in the pipeline coming up — a few commercial gigs and a potential music video gig in New York — all of which are in the works. To check out matt yang’s work, you can visit his website at www.mattyang.com. You’ll definitely want to keep him under your radar; matt yang could easily be the director behind the next big commercial campaign you see or the music video you’ve downloaded and purchased off of iTunes.

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Spec Sheet:

Name/Nickname: matt yang

Birthplace: Windsor, United Kingdom

Random/quirky facts about yourself: “Grew up internationally.”

Favorite things to do: “Work on artistic adventures, travel, play with my dog, create, cook, eat, enjoy the small things in life.”

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Connect with matt yang:

Website