Veasna's Story - Working as an NGO videographer on a case study for VSO

This is the second case study I made on assignment as an NGO videographer for VSO.

The video tells the story of Veasna and the positive impact VSO’s RECOVER project has had on her livelihood.

As part of the project, Veasna received agricultural training and financial support to improve her growing facilities.

Held in the community with other vegetable growers the training shows Veasna best practices about what to grow, how to grow it and pest control.

Veasna has used the financial support she received to construct a net house for growing higher value crops.

VSO have also set up agricultural cooperatives. This gives the vegetable growers additional selling power as the cooperative can sell larger quantites direct to market.

They sign contracts to guarantee fair prices for their vegetables and a constant source of income.

A storage facility has also been built in the community so the vegetable growers can store their vegetables to cut down on wastage and to be able to control the sale of the vegetables they grow to the market.

It was great to see the positive relationship Veasna had with Ravuth, the trainer, and how she is looking to expand her growing activities in the future so she can support her young family.

Below is the final video:

And here’s the shorter version I made for social media:

You can see the other case study I made for VSO here and another video I made for WHO here. Please get in touch if you have any NGO video projects you’d like to chat about.     

On Assignment as an NGO videographer for VSO

I was contracted by the NGO VSO to work as a videographer to produce 2 case studies to highlight their RECOVER project.

The RECOVER project, funded by the EU, is a technical vocational education and training programme (TVET) designed to help people in rural communities recover after the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is important to provide viable livelihoods for the almost 75 percent of people in Cambodia living in rural communities, to alleviate poverty and to prevent people having to migrate for work.

This video tells the story of Thavy. Thavy worked in South Korea, but when COVID-19 hit, she wanted to return home to be with her family.

Thavy enrolled in an agroprocessing course run by VSO where she learnt to make banana chips, which she now sells in her shop to supplement her income. 

The chips are a healthy snack enjoyed be people in her village. The TVET training has taught Thavy valuable entrepreneurial skills. She’s looking at adding new flavours and expanding her product line and it allows her to live at home and look after her elderly mum. 

Here’s the final video:

As part of the project, I also made a shorter version of the video for social media, which hopefully expands the reach of the campaign.

You can see more examples of my NGO videos here. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss any NGO video projects.

Portrait photography of Him Sophy at his Conservatory of Music in Phnom Penh

It’s not every day you get an email from a libretto asking you for your services as a documentary filmmaker, but this is one of the upsides of making documentaries in Cambodia.

Catherine Filloux, a playwright and librettist, had seen my work on Last of the Elephant Men and she got in touch to discuss the potential of collaborating on a documentary.

She’d written the words to Where Elephants Weep, a rock opera set in Cambodia and along with Him Sophy, who wrote the music, they were looking to reprise the opera after it was banned in Cambodia only a couple of performances its run in Phnom Penh.

It was great speaking to Catherine, an award-winning playwright, librettist and human rights activist who has written plays in conflict zones across the world and believes in the power of theatre as a tool for peace.

It was also a privilege to meet Him Sophy, an internationally acclaimed Cambodian classical musician and composer, at the music school he has established in Phnom Penh to train the next generation of Cambodian musicians. Sothy wrote Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia. The process of writing the music involved reviving traditional Khmer instruments depicted on the wall carvings at Angkor Wat.

Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts and uncertainty about the production the documentary never got off the ground, but it was fascinating researching Khmer theatrical and musical traditions. It’s definitely an area I would like to explore more in future documentaries.

You can see more examples of my photography work here and here.

On location in Phnom Penh as a lighting camera operator for ITN Productions and Everland

ITN contacted me to work as a lighting camera operator in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on a shoot they had for Everland. They also asked me to recommend a journalist to write and present the piece and conduct the interviews.

Everland help to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cambodia counties the REDD+ initiative. Hopefully, giving Cambodia carbon credits to not cut down their trees will preserve the natural forests and their ecosystems, allow people living traditional lifestyles in the forests to continue do so.

The scheme will hopefully have a positive impact on the environment as a whole. Unfortunately, the reality of the situtation is that there’s too much money in the timber in the forest, so the only viable option is to provide a financial impetus to conserve the forests.

Everland partner with a local production company here, so they kindly provided me with a sound recordist for the day while we shot all the Phnom Penh footage and I worked as a lighting camera operator for the interviews and pieces to camera for the intros and outros.

The studio intro was shot at the ITN studios in London, where I had the privilege of working for a few months when I was based in the UK.

On a personal level, it was an interesting project as I’ve spent extended periods working with indigenous Bunong in Mondulkiri while working on Last of the Elephant Men and have since worked with the mahouts at Elephant Valley Projects for Wild Animal Protection and on a self-funded pilot for a travel show.

A link to the final video is below.

Lighting camera operator on corporate shoot with CEO of Forte Insurance

Ooshot contacted me to work as a lighting camera operator on a corporate video shoot with the CEO of Forte Insurance Cambodia as the main interview on some branded content for Scor, a global reinsurance company. I also filmed b-roll of the CEO in their offices in Vattanac Tower and interiors and exteriors of the office space.

The brief was clear and Ooshot provided me with a good samples of what they wanted.

It was a 2 camera, 4k set up with 3-point lighting using Aputure 300c MKii lights. One of the cameras was locked off on a Miller DS10 tripod and the other was on a Zhiyun Crane 3 gimbal to add movement and dynamism to the interview.

We worked as a 3 person team with me acting as the producer, director and lighting camera op. The other team members were a lighting/ camera asssitant and sound recordist.

For the sound recording the we used a shotgun mic on a boom stand and a radio mic as a belt and braces approach to make sure we captured optimal sound.

For the lighting, we used the hyper reflector and the 2x fresnel mount through scrims to maximize the brightness of the lamps to balance the light with the bright outdoor conditions.

You can see more of my work on corporate videos as a lighting camera op here and more of my work as a camera operator here. Below are are sample of images we captured.