Artist, Associate Professor, Dr. Do Lenh Hung Tu, Chairman of the Vietnam Cinema Association, former lecturer at the Vietnam Cinema School in Ho Chi Minh City, is an expert in the field of set design and screenplay writing. He has published the book "The Art of Writing Television Drama Scripts" (Writers Association Publishing House - 2022), which is considered a useful handbook for both those who are trained or readers who are self-trained in the profession of writing television drama scripts. On the occasion of Associate Professor, Dr. Do Lenh Hung Tu's visit to Quang Ninh to attend an advanced training course on documentary films, reporters from the Provincial Media Center had an interview with him.
- Sir, as a set designer, how do you evaluate Quang Ninh's strengths in building sets for films?
+ As we know, any movie or story needs a setting. Setting is the living space that contains the action and characters. The setting can be natural scenery, staged scenes, indoors, on the street, on the beach, on the riverbank... When talking about Quang Ninh, we think of Ha Long with its wonderful setting. Quang Ninh people are gentle and hospitable. There is no reason why cinema should not be developed.
Quang Ninh has the world natural heritage Ha Long Bay, the sea, the mainland and many movies have taken Quang Ninh as the setting in famous movies. We know, the movie "Indochina" by French cinema, the image of Quang Ninh has been known to many people in the world through the filming scenes. After that, many Vietnamese movies were made about the scenery of Ha Long Bay, the caves, the boats on the dock... We believe that Quang Ninh will forever be one of the destinations that domestic and foreign film crews need to visit.
- So in terms of subject matter, from the perspective of a script expert, how do you evaluate the source of subject matter in Quang Ninh for films?
+ Quang Ninh has a rich source of topics for documentaries, including many interesting characters, many programs and events. Quang Ninh people are always resilient, optimistic, love life, overcome difficulties, and overcome fate. All of these will be very vivid when put into documentaries. As I said above, Quang Ninh also has many settings to put into feature films. It can be said that those settings are extremely attractive.
- And another story is that Quang Ninh has strengths in tourism. So how will the cooperation between cinema and tourism benefit the development of the film industry in Quang Ninh, sir?
+ Of course, as we know, in the cultural industry, the film industry is one of the spearheads. In fact, cinema contributes to stimulating tourism through many famous films. For example, we have seen that the film "King Kong - Skull Island" was filmed in Ha Long, Ninh Binh, Phong Nha Ke Bang. The film has made the landscape of these localities famous and known to many people, and then a series of tourists come here.
In Quang Ninh, after the movie "Indochina" was released, many tourists came to Quang Ninh, and Ha Long Bay is one of the famous international destinations. Therefore, I think that cinema will contribute to stimulating tourism. Because movies, both the setting of the movie, the stories told also make people pay attention and on the background of the characters, then the actions of the characters, the expressions of the characters. We see that is the space, the setting. If there is no setting, there is no movie. And the setting of Quang Ninh that is shown in movies, shown in cinema, people will know more and people will have the need to come to Quang Ninh.
It can be said that cinema contributes to the development of tourism and tourism also makes cinema stronger and stronger. Because famous movies are associated with the scenery. For example, you see the movie "I see yellow flowers on green grass" after being shown, many people come to Phu Yen.
- In the Master Plan of Ha Long City to 2040, with a vision to 2050 approved by the Prime Minister and in the wishes of many artists, Ha Long will be built into a cinema center. What do you think about this idea?
+ This is a good idea. I think there are many places in the country that deserve to become centers for developing cinema. Currently, Ha Long, Quang Ninh, Hanoi, Nha Trang, Hue, Ho Chi Minh City, Ca Mau... everywhere we have beautiful scenery. Vietnam has over 3,000km of coastline, with many natural advantages that are rare in many places. We are like a house with a frontage but full of sunshine. Many Europeans dream of coming to Vietnam, because here the sun and wind are favorable and people feel warm, longing for the tropical sunshine.
Vietnam's nature is very beautiful. The problem is how we preserve it so that it is not polluted, so that we can attract more tourists to come in a so-called green tourism. That is, come and enjoy the air, the landscape, enjoy the advantages of the environment but at the same time we must know how to beautify the environment, keep the environment clean for sustainable development.
- In addition to taking advantage of existing advantages as analyzed above, what should Quang Ninh do to develop cinema, sir?
+ To attract more film crews to Quang Ninh, there needs to be an open mechanism and preferential policies. Above all, there needs to be decisions from provincial leaders to support film crews. For example, tax reduction, cost reduction for film crews, support for hiring local human resources. It is even possible to exempt taxes for private film crews. I am very happy that Vietnamese audiences are still not indifferent to Vietnamese films. Vietnamese films, Vietnamese stories filmed in Quang Ninh, I believe will be attractive. But to make a film, you need capital, you need to invest capital. Investing capital does not necessarily mean there will be a good film. However, investing capital is extremely important, it can be said to be decisive because if there is no investment, there will be nothing.
- In the coming time, should the Vietnam Cinema Association open more cinema training courses in localities like what was done in Quang Ninh?
+ We think a lot about training, focusing on digital content. Because according to the latest information we know, when we go to Hollywood in the US, to the center of Google, people say that every month, on average, there are 5 billion people watching on the digital platform in Google, in Youtube. Moreover, every year, there are about 150 billion people in the world accessing Youtube. Therefore, in the digital age, creating digital content with a duration of about 2.5-3 minutes is a need of the times. The Vietnam Cinema Association opens advanced training courses in the upcoming program that will discuss the so-called sharing as well as creating digital content.
The second digital content is that if we want to create, listen, see sound and images, we need a script. Therefore, in the near future, the Vietnam Cinema Association will open classes to guide the practical methods of writing film scripts, writing television scripts as well as writing script content for digital programs.
- Thank you for the interview!
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