#FlashbackFriday #FBF Do you remember our exclusive interview with Bing Rao?
Interview conducted by Larry Jaffee
New York-based Chinese cinematographer Bing Rao enjoys a unique firsthand vantage point in seeing how China’s film industry has transformed economically and technologically during the past 15 years, influenced by Hollywood while remaining true to its insular culture.
The NYU film school graduate’s film career, which began in Beijing 1989, includes working directly with Woody Allen, albeit as a translator, winning awards both back home in China and in the U.S. for his work as a director of photography, and lists a half-dozen cinematography credits to his name from the prestigious China Film Group, the country’s leading studio.
Earning a BFA from China’s only film school, the state-run Beijing Film Academy, Rao moved to the U.S. in 1994 to further his filmmaking education. “I couldn’t get into NYU because my English was so bad,” he reminisces in an exclusive Student Filmmakers magazine interview. A year later his language skills improved enough for him to start the MFA program at New York University, where he graduated from in 2002 and also taught as an adjunct instructor. Since then, Rao has been in demand back in his homeland, where he won notices for his cinematography for a 2003 Chinese film called Suffocation.
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