What an eventful week! I had the great, great honor of being the Cameraman for Legendary Master of Ceremonies Việt Thảo this past week. This gentleman recognized by all the Vietnamese folks world wide for his community, charity and special events involvement. For those that doesn't know who he is, to put it in perspective, he's equivalent to Anthony Bourdain from The Travel Channel's No Reservation, who travels the globe dining to various cultural culinary cuisines and document them on his show. Likewise, MC Việt Thảo travels the world abroad to promote Vietnamese cultural awareness from different businesses, organizations, restaurants, and etc. owned and/or operated by people of Vietnamese descendant.
This was his first time in Kentucky, and was I totally unaware of the filming opportunity until I was recommended to help out by Phuoc Hau Buddhist Temple in Louisville, KY based on my background in photography and local geography knowledge. With my assistance, we travelled to many different Vietnamese owned businesses, from Tailor shops, to Restaurants, to greet and meet with local Vietnamese community leaders.
Needless to say, there was a learning curve and tired arms at the end of each day. He taught me the use of camera angles and positioning and in exchange, I showed him how to quickly edit videos in Final Cut Pro, so he can quickly progress through lengthy amount of video footages we took throughout the week. Now that the week have passed, I look forward to all the footage we took on his YouTube channel!
**Post Update** MC Việt Thảo's documentary, "CHUYỆN BÊN LỀ", for Kentucky are up! Starting with CHUYỆN BÊN LỀ #272 to #291. I wish I had more time to prepare for filming! Lots of shakey carema's work due to equipment stability issues and lack of proper camera lenses. But, seriously, I had one day of notice and I couldn't be happier with the results. Cheers.
