PHNOM PENH: Every week, Cine Hub in Phnom Penh hosts a ‘Cine Sharing’ session, inviting creatives working in the film and television industry to come and share their knowledge and experiences. Chum Sothea, one of Cambodia’s top television commercial (TVC) directors, was the featured guest on 9 September.
In his presentation, he covered what a TVC production pipeline typically looks like and gave insights into the director’s role in the production of a TVC. Sothea has been directing commercials in Cambodia for the past six years.
His passion for film and TV began at an early age, partly because his father was a TV Producer. He started out as a graphic designer, but it all changed when he received a scholarship to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in film production in South Korea. Upon his return to Cambodia, Sothea was quickly recruited by an advertising agency to direct TVCs and has been doing that ever since.
“My scholarship was a private fund and one of the conditions was that we would commit to sharing our knowledge,” said Sothea, explaining why he was hosting the Cine Sharing session. “My passion is to share what I know and what I learned with people so that we can all grow together.”
Before, it was commonplace to recruit directors and crew members from abroad to produce TVCs in Cambodia. However, local talents like Sothea are beginning to change this trend and promote homegrown production with less reliance on foreigners.
That said, homegrown talents are still far and few between. Spaces like Cine Hub hope to provide resources and support to young aspiring creatives to help the local industry grow.
Sothea also said he likes forums like this because it gives him a chance to speak with the audience and potentially learn something new.
“Personally, I’ve come here in the hope that I learn something new from the audience," he said. "When I do my presentation, maybe it could be better. Maybe I should have thought about something differently. So I look for that from the audience."
Audience members took part enthusiastically in the Q&A session after Sothea’s presentation, appearing eager to learn more and get his professional advice.
Samet Monivong, an Editor at Business Cambodia, said he came to the session to learn more from experienced professionals like Sothea.
“I also have experience in this field, but I think the creatives who present at these sessions are beyond me, like in the way they shoot or direct,” he said. “I think I can take what I learnt here and apply it to my work to make it easier for me.”
He added that seeing people like Chum Sothea in the industry makes him feel proud to be Cambodian.
“As we know, in the past, the people directing TVCs were all foreigners, meaning that most of the commercials were not made in the Khmer style. But when we do it ourselves, we can show our Khmer style and what the nation wants. It is our pride too.”
Another audience member, Leng Len, who frequents Cine Hub as both a film enthusiast and member of the industry, said she feels like she has learnt a lot from these Cine Sharing sessions and was glad that she could catch Sothea’s presentation.
“I’m glad that I could make it this evening, just to learn from one of the masters, because Sothea is a very accomplished and established TV commercial [director],” she said. “He basically directs for all the mainstream and high-profile brands in Cambodia, and it’s a very hands-on and practical experience that he shares, so I benefited a lot by joining this session.”
She added that it is very encouraging to see a big group of film and TV enthusiasts and professionals all gathering together under one forum to listen and learn from industry experts.
“As someone who is also part of film crews, I’ve noticed the rise of film talent in Cambodia, in TV commercials, in film shoots,” she said. “The enthusiasm in the film industry is very contagious. It’s like [we] are being given an opportunity to do things and now, within these past five years, I’ve noticed these changes in terms of local talent.”
In his session, Sothea wanted to make it clear that what he shared should not be understood as a fixed standard. He explained that the film and TV industry is ever-evolving, and working on fast-paced production sets requires a degree of flexibility. Even with an extensive pre-production planning period, the success of a production can often boil down to the director’s ability to adapt to the environment and unexpected occurrences on set.
“This presentation by no means is like a textbook or a playbook, it's primarily my experience, my personal experience,” he said.
Most of all, Sothea encourages all aspiring directors, whether for commercial or art-focused projects, to keep expanding their horizons and to continue learning from watching films and from each other.
“I think my message, as always, [is that] I hope that people watch a lot of films,” he said. “Study different filmographies, [whether] directors' filmographies, cinematographers' filmographies, writers, producers. Go in depth and find things to learn. There are so many things to learn from them, and the thing with filmmaking is that we always learn from each other. That's the only way to go.”
“Keep going, keep watching, and hopefully the audience will find themselves in the art. I think that's the biggest objective of any artist, to find themselves.”
