In December, 2018 I was contacted by Elena from Hear the World Foundation which is a corporate foundation of leading hearing instrument manufacturer Sonova.
In collaboration with the Global Foundation for Children With Hearing Loss they were about to launch a new project in Vietnam where they would donate Cochlear Implants (CI) to 10 disadvantaged children (2-4 years old) in Vietnam.
A Cochlear Implant is a device that is implanted into the head and once activated it allows hearing impaired people to hear again.
Hear the World wanted to film and interview a number of the recipients and their families to capture a glimpse of their lives and learn about their hopes prior to the life changing surgery. They then wanted me to return 4 weeks after surgery when the implants would be turned on to capture the moment when the children would hear with their cochlear implant for the first time.
The project would take place in Hanoi and I would be delivering a 4 minute film and 25 images from the shoot.
This for me was really the perfect project as I love shooting emotional driven content and I loved that we would have a big break between the shooting dates so that I could sift through the initial footage and interviews and take the time to choose the strongest character and plan out how we would approach shooting the activation. The 6 week lead in time also allowed plenty of time for Elena, her partner Paige from the Global Foundation for Children With Hearing Loss and myself to chat about the participants and our expectations so we were all on the same page by the time the shoot came around.
I flew up to Hanoi the day before the shoot and Elena, Paige and I met for lunch to discuss the project. I had lived in Hanoi from 2012 - 2016 so I knew the city well and I felt that given the subject matter that it would be great to open the film with a sequence of Hanoi scenics and sounds and Elena and Paige loved my idea.
That afternoon we visited the National Pediatric Hospital where we would be meeting two of our first two subjects the following day. Elena was also keen for me to capture some footage of the children playing with their parents so I took them too Lenin Park to scout it as a possible location as there was a great play ground that we could film the kids in. I also thought that it would be an ideal location for the interviews. Noi Pictures producer Lan who would be working with me on the project was then able to quickly organise filming permissions for the following day.
The following morning we met 3 year old Hung and his parents Ha and Hang and 3 year old Ha and her parents Kien and An. We did a few shots at the hospital and I was really happy with the heart warming moment that I captured as Hung and his Dad had a sword fight as we were leaving the hospital.
From there we headed to the park and on arrival we let the kids play so that I could capture B-Roll footage and stills of the children playing around the park.
The interview with Hung’s father Ha was fantastic, he was really good at giving his answers in short informative and emotive sentences, he spoke from his heart and his character had a lovely sense of warmth. At one point he spoke about his pet song birds which he kept in his home, he spoke of how Hung loved to play with the birds and to call out to them and that his simple dream was that Ha would be able to hear their beautiful songs. He said that only when this little wish comes true that there would be greater wishes. You can read an extended version of the interview on the Hear the World website.
Ha’s father Kien however was not so comfortable on camera, he seemed nervous as he spoke and his answers to our questions didn’t quite have the emotion and depth that we had hoped for so for this reason we decided to concentrate on getting stills of Ha during her activation.
The following day we travelled about an hour outside of central Hanoi to meet 3 year old Lam and his wonderful parents Mai and Ngoc at their home. Paige and her foundation had been working with Lam and his family for over a year and they had developed a great relationship with the family who were very kind to allow us to film them in their home.
We shot footage of the language learning games that Lam’s family played with him at home and it was clear that his whole family where very committed to doing everything they could to help him. We had lunch with the family and then afterwards we did interviews with both his father Ngoc and his mother Mai who was very emotional as she spoke.
For this job Elena wanted to keep the crew small so as not to be too intimidating for the families so I was on camera and sound and above you can get an idea of the setup that I used. Capturing clean audio is always a little difficult in Vietnam and during these interviews we had a lot of issues with motorbikes driving past, honking truck horns from the nearby road and roosters crowing in the neighbourhood. Ngoc and Mai though were very patient with us as we went over our questions multiple times so that we had plenty of clean audio to work with.
At the end of our day Mai and Ngoc took Lam for a walk around the neighbourhood so as I could shoot some b-roll footage and then we ended the day with some family portraits outside their home.
Over the next few weeks Noi Pictures transcribed and translated the interviews for me and I combed through all of the footage. On receipt of the transcripts I picked through the interviews and worked out possible scripts for both Lam and Hung’s story. I shared the scripts with Elena and we also had a call to go over everything before we returned to Hanoi.
Elena had arranged for all of the children to have their activations on the first day of our second trip and on this day we would also interview Dr Ha from the Pediatric Hospital and Hear the World Foundation Board member Apryl Sweat who would be joining us for the activations.
On the second day I planned to use the morning to capture scenics and sounds of Hanoi and we planned to tie up the film by spending time with either Lam or Hung depending on which direction we decided to go with the film.
Lam’s activation was scheduled first which made things a little difficult as it meant that I would be seeing an activation for the first time as I was filming and this meant that it was hard to anticipate what would happen so I mainly relied on tripod footage so as not to miss the moment. It was the right move as Lam’s reaction upon hearing sound for the first time with his cochlear implant was priceless. We then shot a quick interview with his Mum and she was so relieved that it had gone so well.
Next up was Ha, she was in a lovely mood on the day of the activation and I love the series of images that I took of her as her cochlear implant was turned on and the sound gradually increased until she could hear with it for the first time.
We photographed one more activation in the morning and then it was Hung’s turn to be activated. Having had a strong reaction from Lam in the morning we were fairly certain that we be focusing on his story but I was glad to shoot Hung’s activation as in the end I was able to use some of his activation footage as I introduced Dr Ha’s character in the final film. The afternoon was spent completing interviews and then we organised another visit to Lam’s house. I was keen to get him out of the house this time so we asked Mai and Ngoc if they could take us somewhere that we could capture the family having fun and they were very happy to help us.
The following morning we visited a few markets, a cafe where customers bring their song birds to admire their songs and we finished off by capturing the train making its way through the narrow gaps between houses near the Hanoi train station.
Apryl and Elena then joined us and we visited Lam one last time. He was in a wonderful mood when we arrived and it was clear that he had really come a long way since I had met him 6 weeks earlier. We started with some of the language games at homes and then we headed to the park where he rode his bike, played football and he got very excited during a game of hide and seek with his Mum and Dad. We ended the day at a nearby cafe and Mai went through her photos and shared with me images of Lam and the family as he was growing up.
A lot of the games that Ngoc and Mai play with Lam involve numbers and counting.
Here they teach Lam to kick the ball when they count to three.
My assistant Tuan Anh and I with Lam and his family at the end of the shoot.
From there it was time for post production. The interviews were transcribed and translated, the footage was cut. From there I like to print out the transcripts and I read through them and highlight that parts that I want to use.
My aim here is to get across the information as succinctly as possible and to do this I need to piece the cleanest sound bytes together, cut any unnecessary words and avoid using the sounds errors that I mark into the transcript. The above block of text becomes “This morning we had the privilege to see the activations of children who have received a cochlear implant through a special partnership with Hear the World and the Global Foundation for Children With Hearing Loss”
I follow a similar process with the Vietnamese Interviews but it involves a lot more going back and forth with a translator. Essentially I start by cutting down the most important information, I’ll add in a little emotion and then I’ll cut it all down again. It’s a little bit like cooking!
At this point I start building what will be the final script, I created a document in Dropbox Paper so that I could share it with Elena and within the document I created a spreadsheet with 5 columns for vision, part, interviewee voiceover and a final box for notes where Elena and I could go back and forth with our thoughts as I developed the script.
Once the script is complete it is time to start putting it together. Each time I finish a draft I export it to Vimeo and then I use Vimeo review tools so that my clients can easily share feedback on specific sections of the edit. Once the edit is final I send it off to be color graded and sound mixed and in total post production for this project took 6 weeks.
A tearsheet from Hear the Worlds 2018/2019 activity report featuring a report on their project in Vietnam.
I’ve also posted screenshots of the story that you can read on the Hear the World website.
