Yas ATCK
In-house director, producer, writer
Yas:
Would you like some tea?
[Yas had made Iranian cookies and tea]
Miles:
I had a lot of Persian/Iranian food growing up. Had a Iranian babysitter for years. Loving the smells and what I’m seeing.
Yas:
I'm cooking the Iranian national dish tonight for my friend - ‘ghormeh sabzi’. It's like a green stew. It's got loads of different herbs in it; you cook it with lamb, although it’s easy to make a vegan dish too, and you can use kidney beans or borlotti beans. Then you make crispy rice as well - ‘Tahdig’ - which you may have had before.
Miles:
I have indeed. It’s so good.
Yas:
It’s everyone for themselves when it comes to Tahdig.
I love my family, love my partner Tristan, love my sister but I would elbow them all out the way for Tahdig.
Miles:
For those reading: how do you pronounce your name? I noticed it’s different from the usual British take.
Yas:
Most western people call me [‘Yaz’] which is fine I guess, but the proper pronunciation is [‘Ya:s’].
It's more like a long ‘arr’ sound than a Yaz. Yuh-ah-suh. Yas.
Miles:
We’re notorious as a country for mispronouncing names aren’t we.
Yas:
It's very typical for names to get Anglicised. My dad's name is Shahin. It’s a Farsi name but everyone calls him ‘Sean’. My mum’s Thai name is Sumontha but everyone calls her ‘Sam’.
Even a family friend - his name is Faraz but everyone calls him ‘Dave’.
Miles:
Standard [laughs]
Yas:
I think for a long time, me and a lot of the other immigrant/second generation family sort of just went - ‘it's easier, it's fine’. But I think I definitely got to a point in my life and my career where I went: ‘I should, you know - reclaim my name’
Miles:
People have a lot of respect for that.
Yas:
Yeah.
It’s funny though because I feel embarrassed to correct people sometimes. I don't know why.
Miles:
You work under the name of ‘Yas ATCK’. What does ‘(A)TCK‘ signify or stand for?
Yas:
It’s my director's name. ATCK stands for (adult) Third Culture Kid.
A third culture kid is a child who has grown up largely outside of their parents culture.
My mum's from Thailand, and my dad is from Iran, but I was born in the UK, so I've adopted a culture that belongs to neither Iranian, Thai, or English culture. But it's sort of like an amalgamation of all three of them.
My identity is special to me but by its nature - can make me feel different. Often, if I’m trying to describe to someone how I feel about something, or my experience of growing up - they understand elements but not some perspectives.
Miles:
What do you think are the differences between someone of your upbringing and say - the average Brit?
Yas:
[contemplative] A good question.
Things like hosting culture for example. My friends sometimes joke that I'm very extra, and that I go all out with things.
In western culture, what I have done is maybe a lot (tea and cookies) but then in Eastern culture - I haven’t done enough: I haven't got you fruit; I didn't cook for you; I haven't, you know - made sure that you have exactly everything you need!
[Miles laughs, looks pleased at the treats in front of him]
Yas (cont):
It's in this kind of limbo where I'm not quite one thing, but I'm not quite the other.
I have never met anyone else who's half Thai and half Iranian, it feels like it’s just just me and my sister. It’s incredible but I'm always thinking: where are the other kids like me? What are their experiences growing up as well, are they similar?
I think that's what I like in everything that I do when I'm creative: Film, TV, even photography.
I want to be able to share perspectives with people and also hopefully inspire others as well like me, who want to get into the industry.
I'm really glad that I've ended up where I've always wanted to be.
It took me a long time to get here to have the confidence to be able to say ‘I'm interesting enough to be here’. I always believed that I wasn't.
Miles:
This industry has a lot of self-critical, doubting, creatives.
Similar feelings have cropped up in other interviews, for different reasons and from different backgrounds.
People don’t have to just convince themselves that they do belong but also recognise that difference can be of value in itself?
Yas:
Is this imposter syndrome maybe?
Miles:
Could be yeah.
Miles (cont.):
What’s been your route into film?
Yas:
I've worked across a whole number of different industries. I've been a primary school teacher, I worked for a robotics company; I've worked in marketing.
It’s all been very different but everything that I've learned on the way has really helped me with what I'm doing here and now.
When it comes to content marketing, it’s not just about shooting beautiful videos - I'm a strategic thinker as well: thinking about how to get the most deliverables out of one shoot, how that's going to help a business and their long-term content campaigns. So that's how I approach it.
I work at the wonderful Fable Studios, and our goal is to help businesses to get the most out of what they need, especially as a lot of companies these days are spending their money differently. Video marketing or video content has changed from how it used to be - it's lots of little and often, rather than one big expensive TV Advert.
To circle back: I've done a lot to be able to get here. It's been a weird and wonderful journey. Sometimes tough, but always fun.
If I could go back in time and show 10 year old me where I am now - I’d want her to be excited, not scared, and definitely not change anything about her life.
I wouldn't change anything, because I'm the sum total now of everything that I've ever been up to this point - the good experiences, and the bad.
I think it's just the way that you look at it.
Miles:
That’s a great perspective and I’m going to poke you to continue - how do you mean?
Yas:
My dad is very philosophical, being from Iran. He always says to me if I ever complain about something: “the rain is the rain, right?”
The rain is just the rain - To some people, the rain is a glorious thing, because it waters the garden, and it washes your car. It's great for your plants. Another person down the street could say that it’s awful, because they were going to go out and do things and it ruined their hair.
Miles:
That’s a very British image.
Yas:
The rain is never going to change the situation, it is just what it is. It just depends on the way that you look at it.
[Miles thinks and nods]
Yas (cont.):
We live in very, very suburban Bristol, where it's a predominantly white area.
I think maybe it’s been interesting and a learning experience for my family, dealing with racism, especially in the 90s, 2000s. To me, it’s hard because it’s the way that those people have grown up, the media that they've been fed, how these things have shaped their fears. It’s not their fault. It’s all they know.
Miles:
That’s a very enlightened approach.
Kindness is really good at breaking down other people's barriers, right?
Like, people are so protective of these fears, prejudices. Sometimes, all it takes is a friendly face for people to challenge that kind of thing.
Yas:
I like to think so.
Miles:
What drew you to film and TV and media, specifically? What inspired you or what made you have that ‘aha!’ moment?
Yas:
I've always been creative at heart, since I was a kid.
I’ve got some cringe home videos, singing Barbie Girl in a wig, pretending to present the news, making stories with play-doh. I used to make my own short films with unicorns and stuff. And my Pokemon toys... Honestly, I couldn't find my Pikachu toy for today, gutted. It's in storage somewhere, otherwise I would have brought it as part of the photo shoot!
Still a hardcore Pokemon fan…but we shall not talk about that.
Miles:
Awesome.
Yas (cont.):
A big influence also was all of the stories that my grandmother would tell me about her life in Iran and the stories from my aunties in Thailand. They’d tell me the folklore of Thailand and Iran too and it was so fun and fascinating - Eastern culture is very much about being ‘raised by a village’ and one of my Thai aunties, Mam, and my Iranian grandmother lived with us when we were little.
In a TV commercial, a corporate video, marketing content: I really like to focus on the things that I think are special. Everything I like to do is very celebratory - the smallest of details deserve to be given care and love.
The first advert that I ever directed was for a fostering company and the pitch to them was more about celebrating what happens when a child is fostered; it was positive and cheerful.
Everything in your life deserves a place to be celebrated, whether it's a good or a bad experience, because at the end of the day - as I said before, it makes you into the person who you are today; that journey is the reason why and how I'm now sitting and talking to you.
Miles:
For people entering the industry - what do you describe your work you do?
Yas:
I'm an in-house director, producer and writer.
Fable Studios is a small and intimate business. We cover production and post-production, working with lots of freelancers, and I do a bit of everything. I do a lot of new business meetings, produce shoots, write scripts and pitches, work on booking kit and crew, liaising with clients - that kind of thing.
I work in a duo with one of our in-house editors, Louise, who is absolutely fantastic in her work as well as being a fantastic person. She’s my rock! She’s one of the sweetest, smartest and most incredible editors I’ve ever known.
It's really great to be able to work in such a small team, because we all just really get each other. It’s really nice. The Directors of Fable, Rob and Luke, are incredibly supportive and aren’t just colleagues, they’re my mentors and also my friends too.
I usually come into the office, kick off my shoes and put my (leopard print!) office slippers on, word vomit my ideas at the team, and then they’ll be like, “got it”. And they always do - it's brill.
They endure me coming in and singing my Disney (or Scandinavian power metal, depending on my mood), decorating my desk with fairy lights and sparkles and fluffy patterns.
Miles:
What was it like being a woman in the industry? What would you say to women who want to enter industry?
Yas:
I personally feel so, so supported and loved. I really have had a really fantastic positive experience. I understand that it is very difficult though, it isn’t easy for women and minorities in this industry. And I'm not saying that I definitely haven't felt that too, but my own experience is: feeling supported and loved by everyone around me. No big egos to contend with.
Bristol is such an exciting place to be for anyone who wants to enter the industry. The network is just so wonderful.
Miles:
Have there been any kind of projects you feel particularly proud of?
Yas:
A TV advert that I worked on recently for Wake the Tiger was amazing. It was a super diverse team to work with, which is hugely important to me. It was so fantastic to see such a beautiful array of people. So refreshing and lovely to see.
I did another collab project with Louise about a BMX store in Bristol called Crucial BMX.
We worked with two local riders. One who's a bit of a BMX Bristol legend - a fabulous guy called Tyrone ‘T-Bone’ Watson. I interviewed them, asking them ‘why BMX?’
I really wanted to do it because I'm not a sporty person but what really resonated with me was ‘community’. The BMX community is like a family in Bristol.
They're so they're so supportive of each other, and that's what I recognised. It wasn't just about BMX’ing.
Miles:
Looking at your work - there’s a lot of bold colour. Where does that come from, do you think?
Yas:
Maybe from working with children. Thai and Iranian culture is also very, very rich in colour.
I taught for three years in Thailand and part of the curriculum that I was doing had a double period on a Friday where I could teach them anything I wanted, off-curriculum.
Every year, I'd always run a short film competition where the children would practice their English grammar. They'd have to do it in English and it would reflect the grammar that we'd been learning throughout the year. They'd write their scripts and have a weekend to shoot it. And then, in the IT classes (because I taught all subjects) - they would edit their short films. Finally, at the end of the year - we would push all the desks back, get the kids popcorn and then watch all of the short films on the pull down projector.
I would always secretly film my own short film with the other teachers and then we'd show it. The kids would just go wild.
Yas (cont.):
A lot of things I do are big, bright colours, loud, extravagant. But I also enjoy small, detailed, soft, intimate.
I do a lot of work with a distribution company called Magic Light Pictures who create the Gruffalo World children's content. They have a pre-school show called Pip and Posy - a really gorgeous animation by Blue Zoo Animation. We work on their ancillary content - I can’t lie, when I’m filming myself glueing googly eyes to pipe cleaners, or doing voice-over recording (“Always ask an adult for help with scissors!”) I think to myself, is this even work!? It’s so much fun. I also write the cinema shows for the children.
I took my friends’ children to see last year's show at Showcase Avonmeads. I almost cried - it was so brilliant to see a whole cinema full of children, singing and dancing and clapping along to the scripts and the games that I had written for them. And I was just looking around thinking, this is just fantastic, I’m so proud of myself.
I'm writing the show again, for the next one coming up. New games, new fun!
Miles:
Awesome.
Lastly Yas - any film recommendations?
Yas:
There's an Iranian film made in 1995, called The White Balloon.
It was one of the first Iranian films that I saw that my dad showed us. I was really struck by how different the filming was to anything that I'd seen growing up in the West.
It's all filmed from a child's perspective and it takes place during ‘Nowruz’, which is New Year. It's about a little girl who wants to buy goldfish for New Year's and it's just about the dynamic between children and adults, all set in the bustling streets of Tehran, focussing on the small details of everyday life that are so seemingly big through a child’s eyes. It’s a fantastic film.
- And if you haven't seen any films in Farsi as well - it is a beautiful language to listen to… to be told off in too.
Miles:
I’m sure my Iranian babysitter probably did when I was little.
Miles (cont.):
Yas - it’s been lovely to chat. You are a very generous host, and a star. Keep up the great work.
Yas:
Thank you, Miles. For listening to me and bringing light to the stories and lives of people in the industry!
Miles:
You are most welcome. Thanks for having me.
Links:
www.fablestudios.tv
