FVHS alumnus Sean Nguyen currently is a script supervisor, as well as an editor for JustKidding Films and was previously a part of Baron Broadcast News. Photo courtesy of Sean Nguyen.
By Katy Nguyen
From watching movies on videotapes to working on videos for the Baron Broadcast News (BBN) until three in the morning at school, Sean Nguyen grew up with a love and passion for filmography.
Photo courtesy of Sean Nguyen.
Having graduated from Fountain Valley High School in 2010, Nguyen went on to attend California State Long Beach. After college, he started working with the YouTube Channel, JustKiddingFilms, and is now currently working as a script supervisor. He is responsible for looking at details of the items on set, to keep the filming process running smoothly.
Nguyen has always been inspired by film and technology from his early childhood. He grew up from using videotapes to now having advanced editing software and digital cameras. During his high school years, he developed this passion even further.
“When I was a freshman in 2006, I thought the BBN was the most amazing thing that I had ever seen…I made it my goal to be in the BBN. That was like my outset [of high school] to get into the BBN,” Nguyen said. “[We used to] print and copy videos [into CDs] and distribute them. It’s a world of difference [now].”
In BBN, he worked on many projects, including filming assemblies and creating public service announcements, that helped solidify his passion to pursue film as a career.
In college, Nguyen was also involved in Circle K International, a service-leadership organization, and became the Governor for the California-Nevada-Hawaii District in 2014 to 2015. He says that being involved in community service for many years has taught him that it was also important to dedicate time for yourself.
“[In college], I didn’t do a lot of video work, because I became so involved in Circle K,” Nguyen said. “I did some occasional video work, but it wasn’t forwarding of my career. But I was still interested in doing this.”
Nguyen states that it was a pure coincidence that he ended up working with JustKiddingFilms.
“I got into [JustKiddingFilms] honestly through sheer luck. My high school friend’s college roommate’s boyfriend was in film. He was working with [JustKiddingFilms] at the time…he eventually hit me up and said, ‘Hey, there’s a YouTube group that I’m working with. They’re looking for editors,” said Nguyen, who eventually became a part of the group’s editing team.
From working for JustKiddingFilms for the past five years, Nguyen learned how to manage turning his passion, into his career.
“It eventually becomes a job and loses its allure of [creating] a new video. [You think of it as] I’m getting paid this much for it,” said Nguyen, who sometimes work on a certain video from four to eight hours at a time. “Sometimes, you have to step away from it and focus on something else. Then, come back to it with a fresh mindset.”
Nguyen believes that the key to preventing burnout is maintaining a healthy balance between his job and personal life.
“Honestly a lot of it is about time management and making sure you allocate enough time to do XYZ, but also making sure you take care of yourself and the relationships around you,” he said.
The past year in the pandemic, Nguyen was not able to work on set as often and picked up streaming video games on Twitch as well as filming more videos for his personal YouTube channel.
Script supervising gradually became something that Nguyen enjoyed and got good at doing. He said that a lot of his past experiences helped him gain connections to people and inspire him to work harder as a script supervisor.
For someone who doesn’t know what the job is, Nguyen describes it as something that is invisible and unnoticeable if done well. He has plans to make it his full-time job in the future when he is able to return on set more often.
“Editing while fun is very boring and lonely because you are sitting by the computer for hours and hours on end by yourself. Just editing. I like being on set. I like the hustle and bustle. It makes me tired…but it’s so much fun being on set to me,” he said.
Nguyen’s career in the film and entertainment industry has seen quite some success, but he says that it does not always seem like that. As an Asian American, he said certain conversations were never brought up until in recent years.
“It just wasn’t a thing back then…that we need[ed] more Asians in mainstream [media] because [so many of us] were doing YouTube,” said Nguyen, who is excited to see the industry progress even further. “As an Asian American who is doing this…it’s so cool to see how much we’ve grown…We were never portrayed in the most positive light, but now we have [movies like] Shang Chi coming out as an Asian lead. Seeing it in front of the screen is fantastic.”
To aspiring people who want to work in the industry, Nguyen encourages them to give it a shot.
“It’s a slow progression. It’s not going to be fast and immediate. We’re not going to get there tomorrow. It’s something we have to learn. We are getting there, we might not see it. But we are,” he said.
