How ‘Chang Can Dunk’ Director Jingyi Shao Went From Making Commercials To A Debut With Disney

Jingyi Shao got his start in the film industry through directing commercials in China for global brands like Levi’s, Johnnie Walker and Cartier. Yet, Shao knew he would eventually move into narrative filmmaking. One of his screenplays rose to the top spots on the Black List in 2020 and soon, he was off to a pitch session with Disney. This screenplay became Chang Can Dunk, which premiered on streaming platform Disney+ earlier this month. Shao also has projects currently in development for Amazon
AMZN
and Netflix.

It has been a whirlwind few years for Shao, ever since his first meeting with Disney. “I had been trying to make my first film for a number of years. To write a script, have it picked up by Disney and then very quickly, put into pre-production and then shoot it — all within three years — it’s amazing,” Shao says.

While the primary relationships in Shao’s original script were left intact, he admitted that the story was written with an older audience in mind. “When I was writing, I was thinking of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, like a modern coming-of-age story,” Shao shares.

Shao’s film follows Chang, a 16-year-old, Asian-American high school student in the marching band. Chang makes a bet with the school’s basketball star, Matt, that he can dunk by homecoming, despite being just 5’ 8″. Chang Can Dunk features cast members Bloom Li, Dexter Darden, Ben Wang, Zoe Renee and Chase Liefield.

Chang Can Dunk was shot on-location at Westhill High School in Stamford, Connecticut. “That was really challenging because they had school,” Shao says. “It’s exciting for the students but logistically, we could only shoot on the weekends and we had to follow all these Covid protocols.”

Shao’s professional film journey came halfway through his film school education at the University of Southern California. While he usually travelled to Shanghai with his parents, in the summer of 2010, he decided to take an impromptu solo trip there instead. “I started to try and find out what was going on in the film community in Shanghai and I talked myself onto some film sets. I started working as a photographer, and then at a creative agency as a writer, director and editor,” Shao says. “Then I started shooting bigger and bigger commercials. Being in a different country and getting myself out of my comfort zone really shifted my point-of-view of the world and of myself. That really helped to develop my voice. Filmmaking tastes are different in Asia versus the United States.”

From 2010 to 2017, Shao continued to make commercials around Asia and squeezed in some time to finish up film school, which often meant flying back and forth from Los Angeles.

Coming back to the U.S. and writing his first pilot was another formative step for Shao. Titled “Salvage,” Shao says it was a bit like an Asian-American version of The Bear. “When I wrote that, I felt like I was giving up a lot because I had a healthy career making commercials and I was making good money. I felt like I was taking a step back, but I also knew that I really wanted to do this,” Shao shares. “I struggled and it put a lot of strain on my relationships. You don’t know what your future is going to be. It’s hard to make plans. There’s a lot of anxiety around that. I know that’s why a lot of filmmakers stop.”

Besides Chang Can Dunk, Shao has also worked as a staff writer on the inaugural season of the BET comedy Boomerang and directed two episodes of its sister show, Twenties. Shao’s project in development with Amazon is tentatively titled Tino, a sci-fi murder mystery about metaverses. With Netflix, he is developing a show about the “crazy world” of high school basketball stars.