TV series touches off teenagers’ creativity

17:38' 08/07/2007 (GMT+7)

A scene in Frank’s Diary VietNamNet Bridge – The first highly-interactive programme for teenagers on Vietnamese TV, Vang Anh’s Diary, has inspired a group of 10th graders to put their own Vang Anh’s Diary version on the Internet. Vang Anh’s Diary is a multi-episode TV show about a schoolgirl named Vang Anh and her daily interactions at home and school. At the end of each episode, she poses a dilemma for viewers to offer their own solutions. Since June, however, Hanoi teenagers have been talking about a similar series called Frank’s Diary made by 5 students majoring in Chinese at Foreign Language-Specialised High School. Unlike the pretty and talented Vang Anh, Frank in Frank’s Diary is a normal-looking school girl who wears glasses and brings up issues ranging from family conflicts and inferiority feelings of countryside students studying in the city to teenagers’ dieting to have skinny bodies. Most scenes were shot in class. One of the “producers”, said: “After shooting the first episode during breaks between class meetings, we received lots of support from teachers and classmates.” The first episode is about Frank’s encounter with a new classmate. At the end, the protagonist also provides viewers with different options to a question to choose from and give any suggestion to “producers”. Frank’s Diary is now playing in a yahoo blog. Hanoi teenagers have been sending the link to the blog through Yahoo Messenger. Only a few weeks after its debut, the film had attracted 1,500 visitors. “It’s a pity that they don’t have much chance to advertise it. Besides, students are all on summer vacation. Otherwise, there would be many more viewers,” said a classmate and a fan of Frank’s Diary. However, the group is planning to post the show on youtube.com and clips.vn to attract more watchers. The idea all started when Hong Hanh, who is in charge of recording, was presented with a mini camera. So along with Anh Tu, Phuong Anh, Quynh Huong and Quang Huy, Hong Hanh spent 2 days recording the first episode another 2 days doing technical touch-ups and posting it on the Internet. They’ve finished the first phase of episode 2 now and are looking for actors as well as scripts for future ones. (Source: Viet Nam Net)