Ms. Vilayvone Bouchaleurnphone reporting from Dansavanh International Checkpoint in Savannakhet Province.
© Lao National Television (LNTV)

Vilayvone Bouchaleurnphone, the documentary’s producer and reporter, shared that while LNTV has worked previously with the NHK International for another project¹, her production crew’s experience for this particular documentary still provided a different perspective. “When I started working in LNTV, I was a children’s program producer. Back then, we produced documentaries, but unlike this one which was more focused on a specific topic and location,” said Vilayvone. Indeed, how to tell the story about the benefits and opportunities of the “Economic Corridors” proved challenging and rewarding at the same time. “For this documentary, we had to do a lot of research,” Vilayvone added. The production crew highlighted how they learned the importance of systematic and careful planning at the onset of production, the need to study the locations and how to tell the story from their perspectives. They also applied flexibility in executing the plan, how to troubleshoot when things did not go the way they expected them to be.

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The project produced five documentaries. Aside from the LNTV documentary, the series included an “Overview” developed by the NHK International and three other documentaries from the National Television of Cambodia (TVK), Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV), and Viet Nam Television (VTV) respectively.

On the technical aspects, the production crew received advice from the NHK experts of Japan who guided them through the documentary production. Multi-audio is one of these, which is the aspect of inserting narration, sound effects, music, voice over, among others. “Before, when I interview a foreigner, I just do voiceover, but for this project, I have to do the subtitles. Maybe for other countries, it is normal but for Laos it is something new,” Vilayvone candidly shared. For such specific details as inserting narration, the production crew learned the principle of inclusivity in their reporting— to take into consideration those people who have hearing disabilities.

For Oudon Oundala, cameraman, despite the language barriers, he learned new shooting techniques from the NHK experts. “Working with the NHK expert, it is different from my normal work,” he added. The cameraman also recounted the visit they had in Japan and how they were able to visit NHK’s studio and learn about its technology for documentary production.

Spending three days to shoot in the Second Friendship Bridge in Savannakhet, one of the East-West Economic routes, just to get the right kind of natural sunset lighting was one experience that the production crew fondly remembered together. It instilled in them what it meant to produce quality products, which can be at par with international standards. More importantly, it strengthened their teamwork, which the production crew saw as vital to produce high quality products.

Documentary production is not new to the LNTV production crew; they have several years of experience behind them. Yet, all agreed that the project made them better practitioners of their respective fields. They hope to be a part of more international media cooperation projects and acknowledge its role in promoting media exchanges and in fostering stronger ASEAN awareness and friendship, including ASEAN’s friendship with Japan.