Tash Tung Is A Director Doing It All, With Representation And Identity At The Forefront Of Her Work

Born to Malaysian heritage, Tash Tung is a female director, drawing inspiration from themes of identity and heritage in her work. The best aspect about working as a director, stylist, make-up artist, etc, is you may not know their face, but you will most defiantly know their work. Tash is behind a various range of projects including the music video for Sister, by Shaybo and Jorja Smith and Bree Runaway’s, Gucci.

She started her journey in the industry from a young age, painting, and drawing where she could. But it wasn’t until university, that she found her love for directing.

Her work is empowering, delving into any project that Tash can feel connected to or tells an important message. From high fashion to music videos, Tash ended our conversation by expressing her love to try it all and be in every space she can, we sat down with the curator to discuss her past, present, and future…

This is a full-circle moment for me… I studied the last two vids you directed for Jorja Smith, and now I get to talk to you about it! I felt so connected to those videos…

That is honestly the best thing, that’s why I do this.

How important is it for you to feel some type of connection to a treatment or brief before accepting it?

So, the themes of identity and heritage kind of came as I continued to work in the industry and figure out what was important to me. Exploring my heritage and my femininity became important to me personally which started to reflect in my work. And it’s important because these days we kind of take things at face value and I think there is so much nuance and complexity to people and situations; we do often hear the same stories being told, and there is so much out there.

The Shaybo and Jorja video was something I loved doing, it's something very personal to Shaybo and about a really important topic, so I had to do it. so when briefs come in that I think are important and I can do justice to, that’s a great way to start a collaboration.

The Sister video with Shaybo and Jorja was filled with amazing creatives, stylists, etc. what is shoot day like?

That particular shoot was a really special day for me - from the cast, crew to talent, we had an amazing team that was largely made up of women. The song is about healing from domestic violence and was super personal to Shaybo, so I wanted the shoot day to feel like a safe, welcoming space for everyone to share their performances and enjoy the process even though we addressed sensitive subjects. My EP, Laura Northover, and Producer, Izzy Graham, helped me put the team together, and we all always aim to have diversity both in front of and behind the camera.

What is your process of doing music videos and how do you know when a project is really for you?

The song/artist/brief is really important - do I connect with it? Can I listen to it hundreds of times? And the brief - if it’s something specific, where the artist will be heavily involved, can I bring something to it that’s worth doing for them and me? If it’s an open brief, that can be amazing but feels quite rare these days.

During the pitching, I already start mapping the visuals out in my head, so once we start pre-production, the development is an extension of that pretty-solid base structure. I can be quite specific with some camera movements and edit points etc, but then really enjoy working with the HODs (heads of department) and creative collaborators to make it the best it can be.

Talk me through the process of creating the short film for Miu Miu’s Autumn 2021 and Dazed?

This was another really special project and an interesting question - as our talent came on board fairly late, it was a new process for me. This was cool because a person at Miu Miu saw my work and then put me forward to DAZED, which was an amazing feeling because it means people are seeing things independently and wanting to reach out.

First, I watched the runway show - it was so beautiful and striking, with amazing silhouettes and textures up in the snowy mountains. I wanted to bring some of the atmosphere and magic from that show into the film, focusing on 3 key looks that could be 3 facets of modern femininity. I wrote a treatment and with those looks broke down a rough structure of beginning, middle, and end. Once Kai Isaiah Jamal came on board, I went more in-depth so they could have an emotional beat to write their poem to, knowing what my intention was.

We got the poem from Kai when they arrived ON the shoot day, so I was on set picking outlines for the shot list. The poem was so powerful though, that part was easy. Miu Miu and Dazed were a dream to work with, they let me creatively do my thing.

Your work is dedicated to themes of identity and heritage, what is the message you intend to create with your work, and do you ever have a moment where you feel like it hasn’t done that?

These days it’s easy to take things at face value, I’m interested in showing the nuance and complexity of people and situations - we often hear the same story, when there are a lot more experiences out there.

Personally, it came out gradually through my work as it became something I started to explore myself: my diaspora SE Asian heritage, my own femininity. I like creating worlds where I can tell those stories - big, small, funny, tender - and I believe in knowing where we came from to know ourselves better.

Tell me about your heritage and growing up; were there a lot of influences to be in the arts?

I grew up in London, my family is Malaysian.

Our house was full of Chinese paintings and my dad would teach me to always draw with a single, decisive line. My dad’s side of the family are bohemians, artists, and musicians, so it was in my blood to be creative. My mum’s side are business-minded, logical, hard-workers and she instilled this relentless work ethic in me. I went to a really academic school but my parents always supported my early desire “to be an artist,” and I loved painting. My parents owned a jazz bar and an Asian restaurant.

I spent most of my teenage years going to metal gigs and watching music videos on TV and hanging around Virgin Megastores - as if I was in Empire Records (the film)!

I went to a super academic school, but my parents were always really supportive of me being an “artist”. I went on to an art foundation at Chelsea College of Art, and then I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was a moment for me of realising the intersection of art and filmmaking which I hadn’t seen before, and it stuck with me. But I came into filmmaking really late, maybe 5 years ago now.

And I started as a runner for commercials and stuff, and I never really saw any female directors, so I went for it. then I got represented after the first video I put out, and I had to learn kind of quickly after that.

Images by Tash Tung

What was the learning process like for you, especially jumping into the deep end with it?

I suddenly had to throw myself into it, I’d only made that first video for my friend for about £300, so it was cool. When I was working in production, I would do directors treatments, but then I was suddenly signed and had to do it for myself, so I pitched on everything. I ended up making loads of things; music videos, content pieces, short films, I had to learn to direct so I had to do loads of projects.

You said when you first started, there was a lack of women in the industry, five years on, have you noticed a change?

100% there has been a change happening. My first commissioned music video was a really hard shoot, I was working with a much older crew of men and I was really young then so it was hard asserting my ideas. After that, it had really stuck with me and I became really conscious of who I was working with, I didn’t just want to accept who I was given. I’ve also done a lot of talk about women in the industry, and companies or organisation out there who do so much for female-identifying people in the industry.

I do try and do more now to show that you can be anything and still work in the industry.

Do you have anyone in the industry that inspires you? Past and present?

Hard question! I think when I started out I used to look outward more at where I wanted to be and who I was inspired by. These days, it’s more of a piece of work that will remind me what we can achieve with the craft and shake things up, like Megaforce - Burberry, Bong Joon Ho - Parasite, Saint Maud - Rose Glass.

If you were to give younger you one piece of advice what would it be?

Be more confident in your desires. I know that sounds weird, but I came to directing late. I thought at first I would do film programming, or film producing. These roles facilitated the film or director. Rather than having the confidence to take on the creative role I really wanted. After a few years of working as a director’s assistant, I finally directed my first music video about 5 years ago now. I think part of that is not knowing many female directors back then, apart from select-few big ones (like Kathryn Bigelow for example) or very niche artists working in moving images. No names in the short-form, commercial world, which is where I was working.

What kind of projects do you want to be working on and where do you want to be in 5 years?

I hope I can scale up the work I am already doing. I really do love working on commercials, I love the scale of working that big and the narrative. I just want to do everything and I think that is okay. In this industry, it is very easy to label yourself as one thing i.e a commercials director or a music video director, but I really think it is ok to try it all and move between them. They are different crafts, but doable.

Fashion campaigns, commercials, and narrative long-form.

For all UK enquires contact BLINK Productions.

Follow Tash on Instagram, Twitter and via her website!