Interview with An Pham Thien, director of Hãy tỉnh thức và sẵn sàng [Stay Awake, Be Ready]
How did you go about creating Hãy tỉnh thức và sẵn sàng? Can you talk us through the filming processes? Once I was drinking with my friends on street stalls, I observed there are many different shades of human destiny who are earning their living around there. Especially a fire-breather young boy who, after his performance, goes around from table to table asking for money by selling candy. I realized he waits very patiently, hearing many different stories in one night. Then I sketched a story in my mind, interwoven between a fire-breather boy, a conversation between three young men and a motorbike accident. I chose the interweaving between realism and magic at the same time because I found this to be an easy way to improve ourselves spiritually without making the audience feel serious. I give them an opportunity to perceive themselves before the universe in the most natural and simple way, suitable for contemporary society.
The film is a long sequence-shot. Did you shoot your film that way to enable the viewer to really invest themselves emotionally? Yes, that’s right. By tasting of different cinematic styles, I realized that using a single take can draw the viewers into a realistic world. Camera movements seem invisible by letting the characters move freely in or out of the frames, giving the audience an experience of authentic real-time feeling and allows unpredictable events to happen visibly.
Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom? Yes, sure. Short film format has given me the freedom to experience different cinematic styles. For example, I tested static and long shots in my previous short film. I found it really effective to bring the viewer to slowly integrate with the film’s world, giving them a space to breathe. So in the new film, when sketching out the idea of the script, I envisioned the movement of the camera, the composition of the frame, connecting them with the actions of the characters, and I made it.
What do you consider your cinematographic references? I am influenced by some directors such as Michael Haneke, Theo Angelopoulos, Béla Tarr and Andrei Tarkovsky.
Hãy tỉnh thức và sẵn sàng [Stay Awake, Be Ready] is part of International Competition I7.
