Playground Signs Acclaimed Director, Thuy Vy
Playground> What was the thing, or experience, that excited you about film in the first place?
Thuy> It’s all eventual... It’s hard to pinpoint. My first memory of film and moving images was from my childhood growing up in a farming village in Vietnam. We didn’t have running water, constant electricity, let alone a TV in the village. Occasionally there would be a visiting troupe with a truck that would set up at the local school grounds at night to project open air movies. The movies were black and white, I don’t remember the stories, but they could’ve been propaganda or Russian. The village was excited to gather together. Families would bring out their wooden chairs to sit and watch shadow projections. The films would be narrated by a live person, and at times doing the voices for the characters. The communal experience was alive and palpable.
Playground> How do you approach a brief?
Thuy> What is the feeling that engages and draws an audience in? Would be the first question I ask myself and then to build on the response. It’s also crucial for me to understand the strategic, contextual and even historical side of the brand and the concept. Knowing the history and familiar territories allows you to know where the tolerable edge is. From there it’s trying to tie all this in with the technicalities of creating an arresting visual story structure, something unique, that conveys the key brand message in a clear and relatable way.
Playground> Traditional advertising has been ravaged over the past decade, in many ways, what do you see as vital aspects to connect with an audience through moving image?
Thuy> The visual landscape is exponentially accelerating, we are bombarded with images everywhere. Naturally we’ll learn to filter out the irrelevant stuff and the vacuous content that is forced on us. We all want to be engaged, to see beautiful meaningful things and to learn from them. Advertising that is going to vitally connect with people, will be works that carry within them something more, stir a curiosity, provide a sense of wonderment.
Playground> There are great performance directors, great visual directors, great comedy directors - what's your jam?
Thuy> Over time I’ve realised it’s the story I want to tell, and the mood that will eventually evolve into a language that feels right for it. I’m drawn to aspects about life with a regard for compassion, and trying to see the poetics in everyday (even in moments of ugliness). I like things to feel real and natural. Performance within the scenario is most important. When you get that right, then the appropriate visual language to carry it comes through. I’m constantly making photographs, and thoughts on the syntax of images and how we frame life are very important processes. It’s not just photographic theory, but how we see the world and how we represent it.
Playground> Where does meaningful inspiration come from?
Thuy> Inspiration can come from many sources for me, often it’s not an instant or single moment of revelation. It's the culmination of many things; a book, a song, a strange object, a chance encounter in life that provokes a feeling, thoughts. All these isolated life experiences over time form connections and merge into something... If there’s one thing that inspires me more than anything it would be books, I love reading, the printed text, a book as an object. It’s a powerful thing, ideas in a book and the imagination it stokes. It’s radical to read and one of the most empowering things is to be informed. Coming from a war torn Vietnam with displacements and migration, my mum instilled in me that your education is something no one can take away from you wherever you go.
All Photos by Thuy Vy. B&W film grabs from ‘Bao gio cho den tháng Muoi’ 1984 Dir. Dang Nhat Minh
