Duy Truong MTV experience
Friday, May 24th - I straightened my hair early in the morning... went to work all dressed up, but with no makeup on. I didn't want to do a full face makeup early in the morning as it would spoil as the day progressed. I wanted to have a semi-fresh face for the meeting at 6pm. I brought all my makeup gear to work and at noon, during lunch did a full face makeup. (neutral/natural look). I put on more than I usually do, so that if my makeup faded a bit, it wouldn't make much of a difference. I was happy with the end result. At 430pm I left work (right on time) and went straight home. I was greeted by hubby, hurrying the kids to get ready and told me to pack a few outfits, but no ao dai as the song I was going to model in didn't need an ao dai. We left the house around 530pm, dropped the kids off at my parents house and we headed downtown. We got there a little after 6pm and met up with the crew at Wineology on Wyandotte East. The weather held up with no rain and the sun was still shining. There was a slight breeze, but it wasn't too cold or too hot. They were still filming for the song that Trang was modelling in and needed to "borrow" my husband for the final scene. The song is about a guy and girl who are in love, (Duy Truong and Trang), but the guy is very poor and the girl leaves him for a rich guy (there's where my husband comes in, modelling as the rich guy) LOL. The funny thing is that I told my husband that I had a feeling that they'd ask him to model for one of the videos because typically bolero type songs has that storyline of either 2 guys and 1 girl or 2 girls and 1 guy. I was RIGHT! LOL... so for the final scene they had hubby and Trang sit at a table near the patio, holding hands, talking and smiling with each other, then Duy Truong would walk along outside, seeing them together and looking sad and walking away. I can't wait to see the end result of that video! It didn't take too long as they took 3 takes for that ending. After that we packed up and left to meet at Anh Phuoc's house to gather our things and plan for the next video (my video). The song is "Dem Tam Su" (bolero). The song talks about a guy and a girl who has known each other for a long time, since youth and has always secretly loved each other and cared for each other. But the guy is poor (always the storyline for nhac bolero) and the girl always leaves him because of that. It's sorta like Duy Truong is my "what if" guy but never was... He makes my heart melt, butterfly in my stomach, smile on my face but I know there's no future for us so I don't let him into my heart. He loves me, but knows I won't accept him, so he moves on... Our first take was by an old building, where we're walking down the street and stop by his house (the old run down building - because he's poor)... the second take was at a bus stop where I'm sitting at the bus stop by myself and Duy Truong comes to the same bus stop and we both see each other for the first time after so many years of being apart... it's a friendly meeting of "hey!!! Wow, it's been so long, how are you??? You look great... what have you been up to???" type thing (this is the first frame for the actual music video). After that Duy Truong wanted the rest of the video to be taken at night, Tommy suggested we eat dinner at Anh Chien's house as Vietmix was practicing with various singers for the upcoming show in a few weeks and there was food there. We stopped by to buy more food at Sun Hong restaurant and then went to Anh Chien's. I was STARVING at this point and ate two small plates of noodles, veggies and thit heo quay. The people there were surprised to see Duy Truong with us and was asking me "is that the singer from Paris By Night?" and I was like "yes, that's him, here's here to do music videos". Then while I was talking to some people, Duy Truong was telling other people that I was his "ex girlfriend" but I left him for my husband. Of course he was just joking, but he left out the "just kidding" to the end of his story, so later on one of the girls there came to me and said "I didn't know Duy Truong was your ex boyfriend!" and I was like "What? No, oh, I think he's just kidding, that's our storyline for the music video - we're just acting"... but somehow the story went around and Anh Phi was asking me the same thing... OMG - here goes the rumor mill now!!!! I tried to laugh it off and hubby was laughing it off too, but who knows if they think we're just kidding or if it's real. We'll see how far this rumor goes... OMG - (shakes my head at Duy Truong). Vietmix invited Duy Truong to sing a song - to test out their skills playing with a professional Vietnamese singer (that sings Bolero songs). It was a highlight of the evening to get a free show... After that it was around 1030pm and it was getting dark and we decided to go and finish the MTV... hubby left to be with the kids and I went along with the crew. At first Duy Truong wanted the last scene to be by the railroad tracks... unfortunately, there wasn't much lighting and it was too dark so Tommy suggested we go down to the riverside to film with the Detroit downtown skyline as a backdrop. Admittedly, that was the better choice, it was a bit chillier filming by the water, but I stuck it out and was professional and kept to my character... It was about half an hour of filming as Duy Truong really liked the scenery and decided to film the entire song there so that we would have a lot of footage. We took about 4 takes in different angles, different views and different scenery. We were done a little after 11pm. After that we took lots of pictures to remember the night. At around 1130pm we went to Tim Hortons for a late drink and snacks, at midnight we headed home - I got home a little before 1230am.
It was a wonderful experience... I was a bit nervous and shy at first - so the first 5 takes were BAD... but after I relaxed and chilled and got into character, things got easier and fun. Another item to check off my bucket list!!!! Got to model for a professional Vietnamese singer in an MTV. Being a love interest and acting it out is quite fun - it's exhausting mentally and emotionally though as it I didn't sleep well that night. Parts of the video triggered feelings of CC... MY REAL "what if" guy... the one that I tend to think of quite often and miss every now and then... Seeing how Duy Truong was looking at me, holding my hand, the actions and the acting, it really triggered certain situations that I was in with CC when we drifted apart - and it was mainly because of me walking away and not allowing CC to enter in my heart... the hurt on CC's eyes and when he tried to reach out to me to find out why I was acting so cold towards him when we both knew how much we cared for each other - that really hurt me knowing that I hurt someone that much. So that took time to work over those feelings and emotions.
I'm just glad I didn't have to wear an ao dai!!! LOL
It was a wonderful experience... I was a bit nervous and shy at first - so the first 5 takes were BAD... but after I relaxed and chilled and got into character, things got easier and fun. Another item to check off my bucket list!!!! Got to model for a professional Vietnamese singer in an MTV. Being a love interest and acting it out is quite fun - it's exhausting mentally and emotionally though as it I didn't sleep well that night. Parts of the video triggered feelings of CC... MY REAL "what if" guy... the one that I tend to think of quite often and miss every now and then... Seeing how Duy Truong was looking at me, holding my hand, the actions and the acting, it really triggered certain situations that I was in with CC when we drifted apart - and it was mainly because of me walking away and not allowing CC to enter in my heart... the hurt on CC's eyes and when he tried to reach out to me to find out why I was acting so cold towards him when we both knew how much we cared for each other - that really hurt me knowing that I hurt someone that much. So that took time to work over those feelings and emotions.
I'm just glad I didn't have to wear an ao dai!!! LOL