Part 2: Vietnam

“Experience is a brutal teacher” – Oscar Wilde

There have been struggles from the beginning, and no doubt there will continue to be struggles. But as long they are different, I am okay with that. It’s from these trials and tribulations that we are able to grow and that is what is most important. 

We began day one with little idea of what to expect, let alone what we were doing. We arrived in a room with more bed than floor, there had been confusion over our sleeping arrangement. Should we just run with it or ask for it to be fixed? We ran with it. When working as a journalist in country things don’t always go to plan and you can never plan for everything. When things go wrong you often need to just run with it and hope for the best. On our first full day in Vietnam we were dumped at Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum with the task of retrieving an interview with a local about Ho Chi Minh. This wasn’t time or place to be myself, a shy small town girl, here I had to be who I wanted to be- a fearless international journalist. Approaching complete strangers who spoke little to no English for interviews tested our confidence but got easier with every approach and I am sure this trend will continue.



When reviewing the interviews I found that a lot pf background noise had been picked up. I have attempted to remove some of this but am now noticing something that sounds like microphone feedback. It'll take a bit more work to find a good midway point.

Professionally and personally the biggest challenge for most of us was our time spent at the peace village. As we entered the classrooms we were challenged by thoughts of whether we had the right to be there, were we doing more harm or good and how we could deal with the situation in an ethical manner and still come out with the best material possible. The classrooms were loud and crowded with 14 of us pouring into the small rooms already filled with children with varying levels of disabilities. At the time we were incredibly torn between treating the children like dignified humans and gathering as much material as we could in our dauntingly short amount of time. We all dealt with this pressure differently, I began my visit running around taking photos and recording ambient sound and interviews in as many areas as possible. Later, as my empathy took control, I sat with a boy and played blocks with him.

 

Reflecting on these stand ups I can see that I still have a long way to go to improve my stand ups. Mainly I need to work on my confidence and ability to relax in front of the camera. I see myself rushing through the words making them come out flat and without breath. Additionally, particularly in the second stand up the background noise is distracting. This may be able to be removed in post-production but it would be better to minimise it at the time of recording.

Photos have been one of my biggest challenges as I don't have a good quality camera or much experience behind the lens.

As my camera isn't the best quality I have faced challenges where photos that may have otherwise captured nice moments have been lost.

My camera's slow shutter speed has also mad shooting moments with movement difficult.

I'm still not entirely sure what went wrong to worsen the quality of this photo but I believe it could have been good were it more clear- though the sky in the background is blown out.

Despite these challenges I feel as though my photography has improved through the week.

 The week has been challenging in many ways but I can already see many of my skills being built on and I am sure this will continue over the week to come.