Tran Duc Vien used to study "stupidly" and became valedictorian, to the director of a million-view comedy group

To become the director of Vietnam's first diamond comedy group, few people know that Tran Duc Vien used to take the university exam with only 0.5 points in Math, owing 10 subjects after 1 and a half years of learning to code. This is also the opportunity for him to turn to art as he is now

Before becoming a comedy group loved by a large number of young people, owning Vietnam's first diamond Youtube channel with more than 10 million subscribers, the FAPtv team in general and Tran Duc Vien himself in particular had to start everything from scratch. Their capital at that time was nothing but the passion and recklessness of youth.

Tran Duc Vien was born in 1990, the guy who identified himself as a "stupid student" when he was in school. Vien also had to stay in class in grade 10. And before falling in love with filmmaking, he studied Information Technology at a university in Saigon. He admitted at that time that he did not have a clear career direction, just because he liked working with computers, he chose to study Information Technology.

However, after nearly two years in the university lecture hall, he no longer felt interested in dry code, so he gave up.

In 2011, at the time of struggling to find the right path for himself, at the urging of a friend, Vien participated in a trial course on filmmaking at Arena Multimedia, saw that there was an applicant, he dropped out of university and decided to register to study filmmaking. When Vien decided to drop out of university, his family did not support this decision because his whole family had graduated from university. Therefore, the course lasted 2 and a half years with a tuition fee of more than 60 million VND was a burden, he used to do all kinds of jobs: worker, lake helper, restaurant waitress, phone sales..., to make a living. For more than 1 year as a worker, every day Vien drove 60 kilometers from his house in District 2 to Binh Tan to work.

Fortunately, when I learned to make films, everything went more smoothly. Although he went to work during the day, went to school at night and lacked many practical conditions, Vien still achieved the valedictorian of that course. "At graduation, I didn't get a degree, my mother just came up to receive it. Mother directly stood on the podium in the middle of the hall of several hundred people. That is the best feeling of motherhood. My mother is proud, because I was "stupid" before class, but now I am valedictorian," he said. Duc Vien also shared that it was that difficult time that became the motivation for him to conquer his goals and help you realize your passion for the profession.

After finishing his studies, Vien joined a unit specializing in filming music videos. He accepted to do all kinds of small positions in the film crew to study. During that time, he was like a "toucher", because almost everything came to him, from making lamps, then switching to filming, setting dolly, and lighting. For a while, he switched to editing and color correction. Duc Vien is so versatile that, sometimes when the boss is busy, he always does the boss's part.

Until 2014, when he saw that the filmmaking market on Youtube had a lot of potential and Vien himself saw that he could make better products than what was available, he invited some friends to form a comedy group.

In the first 3 months, the monthly salary received from Youtube was only about 1.2 million per person, so it was very "crisis", in addition, because the group was newly established, there was no name, there was no money to turn around the investment.

"We don't have money to buy lunch boxes for the group, everyone has to eat at home and then go to the restaurant. There was no rent for the venue, we went to the café to buy a glass of water to ask for a photo, only dared to order soft drinks for cheap, stalking whenever the customer talked the softest, then pressed the phone," - Vien shared.

But he and the team also didn't expect that, in the difficulty of revealing wisdom, that circumstance helped the group create a funny comedy series "Unstable Cafe", which is very popular with the audience. Tran Duc Vien shared that he used to not bring any money to his family for 5 months, sometimes even having to ask his mother for money to fill up gas. He always encourages the brothers in the delegation: "Come on, later there will be a salary, everyone can have more than 1 million VND per month".

The 9X director did not forget, the first money he received from YouTube, went to distribute to all members, each received 50,000 VND and was emotional.

3 months after quitting his job, FAPtv received the first advertising package "When I reached the salary milestone of 8 million, I knew that the path I was going on began to have what was right, there was light," Vien said.

Since then, he has never stopped teaching himself about filmmaking. Besides, thanks to going to school and investing in characters, the film is also more "real" rather than "fake" like in the early days. The script structure and pacing of the film are also better. And thanks to self-improvement, Vien realized the need to add meaningful lessons and educational elements in his clips, instead of just "comedy for fun" as at the beginning. In particular, perhaps the fact that his youth brushed many professions and was close to ordinary people became a blessing for Vien when making films.

"Each person has their own life. If everyone takes the 22-year-old mark, they must get a university degree, 25-year-olds must have a career in hand, 30-year-olds must have wives and children... society will be very tedious. And if so, there would not be a KFC brand like now at KFC's nearly 70-year-old boss to succeed. So live the life you pursue, don't take anyone as a landmark or measure," said director Tran Duc Vien.

But fame often goes hand in hand with work pressure, so Vien's working day can last up to 16 hours, especially at the end of the year. The work requires constant creativity, and at the same time is under a lot of pressure, Vien said that sometimes he is overwhelmed. From the initial few members, Tran Duc Vien's comedy group now has more than 50 official members, not only producing comedy videos, Tran Duc Vien turned to making school films, psychological films. In the future, he wants to try his hand at movies.

Vien said that for a young director, there are still many difficulties ahead, but he is still learning and listening to the opinions of the audience.

Vien is living with her sister and mother in Ho Chi Minh City. HCM. The director of 9X said that the motivation for him to overcome all pressure at work is his mother, "My mother likes to watch my movies, meet my neighbors, go to the store, she all talks about me with great pride".

The male director born in 1990 said that many people think he is very rich, but the truth is not really. "I think that youth is not important how much money you have, but what you have done. No matter how much I do, I invest in my spiritual children, hoping that they will contribute to making this life more fun and meaningful," Vien confided.

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