What It's Like Filming a T.V. Show in VN (and Becoming a Megastar...sike j/k)

Around January of this year a fellow salsa friend, Gary, introduced me to his friend, Alex. Alex was looking for Vietnamese-speaking foreigners to host his T.V. show, and Gary was kind enough to think of me as a potentially good fit. A few emails and one meeting with Alex at Highlands Coffee later, I was invited to host my first show for Việt Nam Đất Nước Tôi Yêu (The Vietnam that I Love).

At its core, VNĐNTY is a reality travel show that highlights interesting nuances about Vietnamese life, culture, and society. The show runs for 10 minutes and airs on HTV 7 (the number on your TV set will differ by location) on Fridays at 10:30 PM.

I took a few photos while filming my first show to document and share the experience. Here's what the process of filming a show has been like.

One Week Prior to Recording

The producer, Luis, reached out to me to propose his show's topic and ask about my availability. I gave the green light, we negotiated a filming date, and later that day I received the script in my inbox. I quickly got to work practicing and memorizing the script for fluency, as I had about four days until we started filming.

Generally speaking, the hosts are encourage the make minor edits to the script to make it both easier to remember and more natural to their way of talking. This is especially helpful for me. I first learned the Vietnamese language in the northern accent, so I tend to have an easier time remembering and saying words from that region. Thus, I wound up changing a few things from the southern accent to the northern accent.

Few Days Prior to Recording

I met with Luis to review the script and day of events. We traded ideas on what would make the program more interesting and entertaining, provided that it didn't fall to far from the theme, script, and filming schedule. This flexibility is helpful for both parties: The host has to be as engaging as possible, as much of the show relies on the host to both speak Vietnamese well and entertain the audience with funny facial expressions, reactions, and other gestures.

I did a quick read-through of the script to make sure that I was pronouncing everything correctly and with the correct emphasis and intent. I'm nowhere near fluent in Vietnamese, so sometimes I don't know when and where to pause for emphasis. Thus, meeting with the producer to do a read-through is very helpful.

I went home to resume practicing the script. For my first recording, I must've practiced the script about 40 or 50 times over the course of four days.

The Night Before Recording

Slight panic, followed by minor drinking.

Day of Recording

8:00 A.M. - On the morning of the recording day, the film crew met at my apartment to shoot the first and last scenes of the show.

The cameraman got a layout of the apartment and set up his equipment while Alex, Luis, and I reviewed the script and day of events. Once the cameraman was ready, we took our places and started filming.

Right from the first take, I realized that saying my lines in the mirror and in front of the camera were completely different experiences. I got a little jittery on my first few takes.

After some witty banter back and forth with the team to calm my nerves, I got into a rhythm, and pretty soon we were checking off the lines paragraph by paragraph.

9:00 A.M. - Within an hour, we went downstairs and got into the company SUV to head to our next destinations, which happened to all be right next to each other: Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica, City Post Office and 30-4 public park.

Fortunately the car had air-conditioning; it was definitely starting to get warm. We were still in the throes of summer, and we would be spending a significant portion of the day filming outside. The driver kept to himself most of the trip. When we were filming, he'd drive the car around the area or find some place else to park, as public parking isn't really a thing in the city.

9:15 A.M. - We started our outdoor filming at the City Post Office. Oddly enough, I felt more awkward talking directly to the camera in my own house than I did filming outside in public. I suppose this difference might have something to do with the fact that I've been salsa dancing for years now, so making a fool out of myself in front of other people is in my wheelhouse.

This particular section took a few more takes than we would've liked because 1) people kept crossing through the camera line, 2) I forgot some of my lines, and 3) an older gentleman kept trying to sell me post cards. For the last time: No postcards, good sir!

We walked across the street to film my self-introduction at the Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica. We were approaching noon and the sun was starting to beat down on us. I was worried that the sweat on my forehead and shirt would be visible on camera (rookie concerns).

Between takes, a man who looked to be in his mid-50s walked by and shouted "go Dawgs!" He and his fellow traveling wife are both UW alumni. He saw my shirt and couldn't help himself. I was equally as elated to run into a fellow Husky.

11:30 A.M. - Lunch time. We drove to a public lunch cafeteria (cơm bình dân) near the DQ Media office for a quick bite and rehydration before heading back to the City Post Office and Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica area for more shooting.

Vietnamese are always surprised when I go along with eating at places like cơm bình dân. For starters, this is a place mostly patronized by local Vietnamese; it's not too common for a non-Vietnamese to be seen eating here. Cơm bình dân serves exclusively Vietnamese dishes, and one has to ask for a fork as I don't recall seeing forks readily available at the cơm bình dân I've visited. Lastly, I would guess that local Vietnamese might worry that foreigners won't enjoy this kind of a humble eatery, as it doesn't exactly have the look and feel (and adherence to sanitation and health code law) that foreigners know and love.

12:30 P.M. - We're at the 30-4 public park situated next to the City Post Office and Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica to meet with the three young women from the I Love Vietnamese project for more filming. In this shot, I was to meet with Jessica To (black shirt, glasses), the founder of ILV, and her two fellow volunteers to learn about how the project was formed and what they've been up to lately.

They already had their lines, which coincided with the questions on my script. We also added in our own dialogue to make the conversation more personal and less scripted. Since we only had one cameraman and one camera, we had to shoot the same conversation about three or four times from different angles so that they could do proper editing.

 2:00 P.M. - The DQ Media team and the ILV women transferred to a nearby cafe to shoot our final scene of the day. In this shot, I'm interacting with ILV tutors and their students engaged in practicing Vietnamese. This is where we show the audience what it's like for Vietnamese college students to teach Vietnamese to foreigners, and likewise what it's like for foreigners to learn Vietnamese both for free and outside of the standard classroom environment.

By this time, I'm feeling way more comfortable with saying lines in front of others and to the camera directly. Being around other people who are first-timers on T.V. eases my personal nervousness, and I'm sure it's helping others in the room, as well.

One particular foreigner in the group, Jeremy Ginsberg (center, blue shirt), is the most vocal and jovial of the bunch. He's a musician who plays at various venues in Saigon, so he's well familiar with engaging the crowd and making everyone comfortable and happy.

His enthusiasm livens up the the entire room, almost to the point where no one in the room is nervous about being on camera. He has no problems singing and dancing about when we're all to be filmed singing the Vietnamese children's song Một Con Vịt, "One Duck."

As before, we took the same shots from different angles for editing purposes. The cameraman and producer were busy organizing the shot, room, and people, which gave me time to get a smoothie, relax, and rehearse my lines.

The staff at this cafe was very accommodating to our use of their establishment. From what I heard, DQ Media paid the owner of the cafe a small fee to have primary use of the place; customers were still allowed to come and go as they pleased. A couple of customers who were already there before we started shooting were none too pleased with our presence. We got some stink eye and snarls as they were on their way out.

5:00 P.M. - Final shots are taken, people exchange high-fives and contact information, and we take a group photo before going our separate ways. After the show recording, I took Alex out for a quick beer and snack at the nearby convenience store to thank him for inviting me to participate in this program. This entire experience was fun and entertaining, and it also helped me improve my Vietnamese fluency and vocabulary. I met some nice people along the way, and a couple of whom I've already been in touch with socially.

This show is a modest show with some level of viewership (I have no idea how many people watch this show; I don't think that T.V. viewership is tracked as stringently as it is in the States...but people watch it, otherwise it wouldn't be on :). I highly doubt that I will be famous, well-known, or even recognizable when I walk down the street--although, let's be real, that would be freakin' AWESOME. Admittedly, that doesn't really matter much to me. I signed up to do these shows because it would be a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime experience and it would force me to improve my Vietnamese speaking abilities. Making new friends, learning about peoples' lives and experiences, and having it all recorded on film is certainly a welcomed bonus.

Oh, my beer of choice when taking Alex out for celebratory drinks: Budweiser.

Here is what the final product of this show's taping looks like!



And here's the second show I did a month later.