Anh Le Huy
“My parents both came from the Northern part of the country so naturally, I didn’t have any relatives roughly the same age around. We moved around quite a bit, so that did not help with me bonding with other kids. As family, we got well off quite fast, thanks to my parents and their hardworking ethics. Every house we moved into got bigger. The neighborhoods became ‘different’. Even the schools, they got ‘richer’ I was slightly resistant to change. Adults, like my parents, who managed to turn their lives around, actually never ‘explained’ the flip side of things to their kids. That I found out on my own”
“But one thing I did consistently was somehow make a lot of time for watching ‘western’ films, which is an unordinary thing for kids my age and in Saigon. Everyone else was crazy about Hong Kong soap operas. My parents loved the fact that I stayed in more. We used to hunt for VHS tapes of films with English subtitles, instead of Vietnamese-dubbed. Comics, or Manga, played an important and everlasting role in my childhood. They were my Shakespeare, my ‘War and Peace, 'my ‘Mona Lisa.'”
“My parents were both veterinarians working in agricultural institutions. They were very successful but never chose to climb the leadership ladder as many of their colleagues or friends did. So, in some ways, that was kind of lucky for me as they had no intention of making me follow their footsteps. I was not close to my Dad. He has passed away. But I think he raised me well enough. My Mum is retired and living a pirate’s life now! Literally on a beautiful island, in her a small ranch that she built herself.”
“I was supposedly very ‘gifted’ in school, ‘top of the class’ gifted. Needless to say, Vietnamese education is infamous for being very demanding in classical training; the usual suspects like mathematics, physics, literatures , etc. I did even excel for some weird reasons, in calligraphy. But as I neared the end of high school age, I fell behind. Intentionally. I lost most of my interest in learning.”
“Throughout all the first 12 years of education, ‘creativity’ was not a word you would hear often in schools. At least in the late 90s in Vietnam. There was no such thing as a ‘creative industry’ for any youngster to choose. I had no connection to that world, but then I also had little in common with the rest. In my 11th grade, I became neglectful of the things I used to excel at: test scores, competitions , etc. For the first time in my life, I got a ‘zero’ score on an important exam, and I felt fine about it. That could be considered ‘rebellious’ in other points of view. And not too different to a migrant mindset, I wanted to get out of the country.”
“I went to an art college in Kent, England, which eventually became known now as ‘University for the Creative Arts, UK’. I got a B.A in Illustration. Socially I was miserable in college, but I loved every other experience. Writing and drawing up comics, experimenting with animation, making shorts, all in the name of earning a ‘degree’. I thought it was a ‘cheat’ comparing to the constant ominous atmosphere of exams and competitions in Vietnam. My mind was almost ‘released’. I tried to absorb in as much as possible, almost like I was trying to make up for a lifetime of lost cultural explorations. At one time, I was drawn into creating concept arts for video games, chalking up characters and lores as assignments. My tutors were amused of this hungry kid who thought he ‘could’ do ‘every-thing’.”
“After college, I came back to Vietnam and joined a small design firm as a Graphic Designer. I was designing logos, marketing collaterals, packaging for 11 months. That was rewarding though. I mean I got a good job right away. Many struggled. During those first months and years getting in to the professional circles, I came across many who worked in the music industry, singers, producers, guitarists, and drummers I realized we were very soloed in those days, and connections was a discovery. Everyone was just fumbling in the dark of their own cosmos. 2018, how much we have evolved as a community.”
“I have built my career in Branding & Advertising, as a Designer, then Art Director, then Creative Director; as a crafter and as a manager. So, filmmaking as an ‘industry’ I have always flirted with. Making commercials on the agency side naturally involves a lot of deep collaborations and hands-on time spent with filmmakers. And I have been lucky enough to ‘sell in’ diverse ideas that eventually went in to production. The more I dedicated myself into the crafting part I had to forgo a few agency privileges here and there. I managed to ‘break the ice’ with many talented people on the sets of my projects; DPs, camera operators, art directors, producers, and gaffers. The more support I gather from them, the better my works became. I guess that was how I got into the film industry.”
“My parents were very supportive, but I believe they did not know exactly what that path led me to. I used to watch this TV program ‘Hollywood’s Movie Magic’ religiously as a child, so my Mom did have a notion that I would end up making movie special effects. And like many good parents, they wanted me to enjoy a holistic upbringing, and ‘art’ was a big part of that motto. They paid for piano lessons, I remember my private tutor was a big name in the classical music scene. Our family would receive invitations to concerts almost every week.”
“Drawing was one of my favorite past times as well, so Mom was very eager to let me dwell on that. She’d choose that over Nintendo games any day. I remember she got me a beautiful calendar of landscape prints and every day I would spend hours redrawing those with pencils. Looking back now, I understand my parents had always believed that creativity would contribute greatly to me becoming a better person, but never a career path. They were not wrong.”
“My 2nd boss was a big influence on me. He was the Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy, Vietnam, back in 2007 when I first joined the ad scene. At the time, truly high-end production in advertising had just graced Vietnam, and only the most prestigious of agencies could afford clients with budgets big enough to execute some of the more interesting concepts. And the freedom was immense. A few pioneers changed the industry. He was one of them. And what struck me just as hard then as it does now, was that he wanted to direct, and made a few great spots.”
“I am not a professional director. I make films for my agency, and on the scripts I write or ideas I create. So getting paid for filmmaking is a blurry line for me. At least for the moment. However, I do get paid for my directing work. My first paycheck would be my work for directing a series of commercials for ‘The Coffee House’ – ‘From Farm To Cup’, it was for a campaign to launch their Signature Specialty Coffee Store. Having said this, I must admit it is extremely hard to accept that we all need to take it slow to go far. I’m sure someone famous and wise said that. Only a couple weeks from my last directorial effort, which was a rewarding and successful one, I already felt the gaining angst and horrible urge to get back in the saddle and hold the reign again.”
“I am now a partner and Executive Creative Director at an ad agency in Saigon, Vietnam. It’s a big responsibility to build a company and develop of roster of 20+ creative talents every day. It’s a way of life. I want to continue being both aggressive and selective in directing. Sounds a bit contradictory and arrogant, but I am stuck with this life. And there are many people around me I do not want to disappoint. Perhaps next is a Feature film?”