Start Chapter - Digipost & Rice

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updated: 2022-02-25

I am writing these logs in early of 2022, when Digipost has closed for 3 years and Rice has become an independent since before I left. After 6 years and with these circumstances, I don’t think the stories I am sharing here are any longer sensitive. I am publishing these memoir with the intention of archival and sharing lessons that I’ve learned to all friends and colegues.

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After a field trip visiting Digipost when I was attending RMIT, I knew that this company was developing a project to make short documentary films.

The interviewer when I applied to work there was Andy. In the session I said I really like what Rice was doing and hoped to help build on this project more than making TV commercials for Digipost. Of course I said I was willing to take on commercial projects if needed. I also said I like cutting films more than doing visual effects or audio processing. I did not mention I just closed my rock studio. Because for some reason I thought it would not help me getting the job.

Andy offered a month as trainnee to see how things goes before commiting to full-time contract.

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RI000 - Japanese Festival - 12/2015

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cập nhật: 2022-02-03

The first shot in this film is also the first shot that I took for Rice. This film is part of a series named You Are Here! covering events that are around town. The main subjective purpose was to create more connections for partnership for Rice or at least that’s what I was told.

Operating the camera and recording audio both in the same project at such a busy event was very different compare to [the fiction film][] that I made previously. This was also the first time I ever work with Linh, Đông, and Andy.

Linh and Đông were both younger than I am but I think I have never refer myself as “anh” (meaning older) and called them “em” (meaning youngers). I never want age to be a thought barrier when working especially creative work. In contrast, I usually promote “mày/tao” to people who are too shy in an effort to remove this barrier completely. Took me a very long time to realise that calling myself “tôi” and refer other as “anh/chị” make much more sense since it still retains a little respect to each other. Andy was the oldest but we speak english so I didn’t have to think much. Perhaps all this language confusions are the price I paid for attending boarding school in the UK at 13 years of age.

Through out the event, I noticed Đông didn’t seem to appreciate the present of Linh too much. Perhaps there was a little conflict between them that I never would know or understand. Other than that, everything went pretty well.

I don’t remember what Andy studied but Linh studied something completely “off topic” to this line of work. If I remember correctly, she even did sometime in Indonesia. Đông studied television at Lasalle so he was very favoured because both Andy and Alan (founder of Digipost) came from Singapore.

At this point people were still a little cautious since I was the “new guy”. It took another project for things to settle. I remember very well when me and Nick Jones (Senior Editor at Digipost) have such a giggle after I presented my rough cut while Andy walking out of the room shaking his head. Shame that our Executive Producer demanded to make adjustments for the film to fit with the context of the organisors of the event. Here is the link to the published version.

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Credits

published: 2015-12-01

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/Production Companies/
/Executive Producer/
/Producer/
/Cameraman/
/Recordist/
/Editor/
/Colorist/
Special thanks:

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