(Hi Saigon) – Being loved by the audience and waiting for a detective series is not an easy challenge. Song, Director Nguyen Hieu Dan was able to achieve success with many series of this genre. We had an interview with director Hieu Dan to learn more about the unrevealed secrets as well as the difficulties he and his crew encountered during the making..
The beginning of the story, Director Hieu Dan confided that Vietnamese cinema is growing and proving that he is not inferior to international friends. Besides conveying humanistic messages, the image is also an important factor that makes the film more attractive.
However, at this stage, the content in the form of instant noodles is growing quite strongly. Besides, the proliferation of short content on media platforms. So, does the detective drama genre that you are working on have any difficulty in conquering today's readers??
We open a website, read an online newspaper, spend money to buy a magazine or we go to the cinema to watch a movie, Going to the stage to see a play or a reformed play is evident in those types of entertainment, We all have different attitudes.
We will completely spend our time and contemplation while surfing the web, watch Tiktok, or surf your friends' Facebook. This attention will be completely different when we read a magazine or when we spend time watching a movie..
So the detective drama genre I'm working on is really like that. The audience has chosen a detective drama, which means they will also spend a certain amount of time watching it throughout 45 minutes of an episode. If the movie I made is really attractive, Even if there are many episodes, the audience will still wait until the broadcast time to sit in front of the screen and enjoy. It proves that, Each genre of film has different audience needs.
So in terms of conquering the audience, according to me only 2 element: Interesting and useful.
A product created must be able to synthesize 2 that factor. If it's interesting but not useful, the audience won't be able to leave anything behind. On the contrary, If it's useful but not attractive, the audience will obviously change the channel right away.
Between continuing to maintain the series with content, What do you think about the message and following the audience's tastes??
We all have different tastes. therefore, each audience group, each age, Each broadcast time has different target audience.
When making movie series, I always ask before investors is: Who does this movie serve??”, “At what time frame is it broadcast??”, “Who is the viewer??”, “Which region will enjoy that work?”… Through those object classifications, I will predict the audience tastes in that target will include who and what content. When the movie airs, We are looking forward to receiving comments from the audience so that our tastes always meet the needs of viewers..
How to reconcile the passion for the detective genre but still make your brainchild 'integrate' with the current film market?
Actually, One of the reasons that I like this type of detective is because I can identify "Humans are the core of society”. By that, We can see the appearance of detective is to find the answer to the question "Who is the killer?"?”. But to find this answer, we're going to have to go very deep into relationships, victim's personality, along with the suspects.
In other words, The detective genre in my opinion is to decipher human behavior and personality. As you all know, in the era 4.0, The relationship between people is becoming more and more fragmented, more hidden,… especially the truth will be covered more, Humans are like that too less touching each other's hearts.
Really when choosing the detective genre, beside passion, I also hope the audience will Expand your knowledge of psychology. From the details of the movie, we will solve puzzles together. Above all, is to find a way to decipher the times, have a deeper look at people in this life.
During the making of the movie, I always wonder “what is the message across??” – definitely for a better life.
Are known, He was a journalist before. What fate made you decide to turn to be a screenwriter?? Has this opportunity created any advantages or disadvantages for you??
Previously, I collaborated and worked at Thanh Nien newspaper, City Sports Newspaper (Today's Sports Newspaper) and one of my forte is sports commentator and reporter.
Actually, since I was a child, I have a very special interest in detective stories as well as going to the theater and watching movies often.. In general, I am very passionate about art 6 and th 7 is theater and cinema.
Actually, If answering the question "Who is a journalist?"?” the answer is the storyteller and the news reporter of the society. If analyzed carefully, There are many similarities between journalists and screenwriters: are the ones who transmit information to people through the happenings of the times.
So, I don't feel too much of a barrier when switching from a journalist to a screenwriter. After that, from a passion for cinema, I also step by step challenged myself as a director of the first works written by myself.
Turning in a new direction is because I want to challenge and renew myself. Really, after setting a new goal for yourself, I get more advantages than disadvantages. The difficulty here is just how I approach this field properly.
Clear, The similarity between journalism and screenwriting is your role and mindset. The difference lies in the approach to the problem. If in the field of journalism, The expensive details of the problem will be expressed through the pen, then for a director or a screenwriter, telling stories with visual thinking is the first thing that we have to think about..
Doing this job requires keeping a cool head, So did your first products get "stoned"?
I also want to be clear 2 the literal and figurative meaning of “Throwing stones”.
With the literal "Throwing stones", should think about negative comments, hate clearly. The mixed reactions aimed at my team with bad intentions, I really don't care. But "Throwing stones" from a positive perspective, means sincere comments, In any product, we want to be stoned.
Because, if the audience loves the new audience, New brands give comments to make their products better and better.
People often say that you make friends because of your job, I also did a job but lost friends. So is there ever a conflict in the process of working that you lose your associates??
I really like an English idiom that is “No pain no gain” – “No pain is no success”.
Literally speaking, for example, if we want to be successful in sports, we have to practice sweat and tears., In the field of art making, we also have to make trade-offs.
More broadly, “No pain no gain” here is also a “bitter medicine”, truth offends". These contradictions we accept must happen, If the whole team is aiming for a common goal, which is to make the best product within each person's ability, and of course, in the process of everyone giving their own opinions, there will definitely be conflicts., but this kind of conflict I really want to happen to make my product better.
It's a pity that there have been conflicts and even lost partners. Because when we can't find a common voice, it means that it is normal to lose our relationships with each other.
What kind of movies are your strengths?? And how do you develop that genre??
As shared with everyone from the beginning, I've been interested in detectives since I was a kid. If I read a book, Watching movies is like solving equations, detectives or policemen are like mathematicians, The killer is a mystery. And death, deadbody, victim, along with other relationships are parameters or variables. From that, Exposing the main culprit is like successfully finding the unknown. I often liken being a suicide victim like an equation with no solution.
Turn around a bit so we can see that too, To really enjoy the detective genre, it's not too heavy or haunting, the problem is that the production crew must know how to choose how to express and transform the viewer into the math-solving process in a very subtle way.. Actually hacking viewers' brains is the challenging art that I've always wanted to show. Obviously the detective genre is fascinating and it combines a lot of different genres.
I like detective and I like to challenge many different genres but actually every director doesn't want to be confined to one genre and you can see I'm very lucky and as I just proved. Detective it synthesizes a lot of different core genres as analyzed to find the culprit, we have to get into the nature of evil, The most important nature is still human nature. And to sum it all up, to decipher the human outlook of society, then detective is one of the genres I think is the best to show that.
There is a question that I like very much is how to present the detective so as not to negatively affect or haunt the audience? Well, like I said, let's just treat it as a math problem, a very interesting brain hacking story. But honestly, I'm writing a detective comedy format right now, where crime and crime solving will be viewed through a gentle lens, witty and it's true that it's less obsessive through humor. Although I often say that the pinnacle of comedy is tragedy. Surely it will also have its losses, drama and tears.
And another format I'm also cherishing is the interactive detective format, which means we're going to shoot a lot of options and each option it's going to follow the audience's choice for detective or investigator activities., For example, detectives or investigators in such situations will have many options, I shoot those choices and each of those choices leads to action, the situation and the stories that follow. So this is the kind of interactive detective format I'm trying to build.
Usually already 1 filmmakers must have a lot of ideas for movies, So do you ever run out of ideas?? If so, how do you solve it??
Follow me, We will run out of ideas when we are no longer passionate. If you're passionate, you won't run out of ideas because ideas are everywhere. When you run out of ideas, if you still have passion, you will be able to read a book, can see a newspaper, can go out to meet friends, drink a cup of coffee, look at the street, to a hospital, to a detention camp, we have a lot of ideas in this society, The question is, are you still passionate about discovering new ideas for yourself?.
Building and finding the context will take a lot of time and manpower, Will this affect your progress or cause you any obstacles??
In my opinion, there is no boring genre, monotonous but boring, monotony is the fault of the first director, For me, the detective genre is already good because it has all the dramatic elements, not hack, chubby truth, provides a lot of knowledge in the human perspective and depending on the context, performer, specific case, I will show it in different ways but try to make sure the dialogue elements are expensive, Logical regret, irritating, exact actor attitude, mentality, act, The image must be logical with the right content and camera angle.
Context is one of the most important elements of the detective genre, because we also know that detective movies have a point where we will look at the starting point of the characters so that the investigator or detective will deduce the actions that are hidden inside. in.
And clear with manufacturing conditions, With the available budget before a script, we all carefully consider how the setting will suit this character best., most suitable for the requirements of the scenario, Usually we will try to make sure that the contextual elements are appropriate 60 – 70% The script's requirements in today's production conditions are already satisfactory.
It is the context that is the highlight, show the starting point of the detective characters without a single line can express and in the current production conditions we would like to reiterate that we will try to achieve 60 – 70% The requirements of the script and the context ensure that the audience has the most honest view of the starting point of the characters in that case..
In the process of working, What is the most memorable product or memory for you??
In the detective series, which SaigonTV has produced as: Trace, Profile detective, Detective Squad, Crime squad, The villain, Finding evidence… I'm really impressed with the Tracking series.
The thing that impressed me the most was that Tracking was the first series we did in the detective genre. At that moment, we make remake movies, not detective movies like now. Based on real cases, through the stories of the soldiers of the criminal police team, The soldiers of the criminal technical department of the police of the provinces, we have learned a lot.
When going to the provinces, We have been introduced to many cases by soldiers of the People's Public Security, listen to them talk, Tell about the process of solving the case. Through those conversations, We learned a lot from their professional work. More literally, during production Trace, We can approach and learn ways to solve cases so that our products are created in the most honest way and reflect the social reality..
There is an opinion that Vietnamese people's thinking lacks logic, that the detective genre requires a lot of reason. What do you think about this view??
The detective genre requires a lot of reason, this is true. I have not heard the idea that Vietnamese thinking lacks logic. Before, A foreign employer once remarked to me that Vietnamese students lack critical thinking but are very logical.. I think the logic is high or low depending on the field of activity or the person.
There is one detail that I want to emphasize when writing a script, in addition to referencing foreign works, Real cases in Vietnam or cases in the world, I often go to meet friends who are students of the math department in general.. As people in the field of nature, I must say that you guys are very logical, should be able to chain the circumstances,The dialogue as well as making the sentences are extremely convincing.
I have to say that you are naturalistic and are one of the groups of people that I find very accurate in predicting perpetrators when they read a book or they watch detective movies..
Follow me, The appearance of the Villain, Tracing as well as other films of the same genre create a "push" for Vietnamese detective films.?
Each detective product will contribute to making this Vietnamese film line more colorful and rich. Products born from those same competition will create a variety of colors, enriching and the quality of Vietnamese detective movies will go up.
The current, The profession of directing is also quite popular with many young people who want to pursue it? Do you have any advice for young people??
Actually, for me, directing is a creative art profession, it's full of fun and challenges. Any profession, If you have passion and discipline, you will succeed. Follow your passion because success will follow you.
It is a fact that if you really feel happy and equip yourself with enough passion in the journey to conquer future goals, success is definitely the result that you will reap..
Thank you to Director Nguyen Hieu Dan for sharing!
