Media makes

I've just returned from a recording studio here in Hanoi and feel so excited, I just had to blog it.

VTV (national television broadcaster) wanted a foreigner to do voiceovers for a tourism advertisement that they are going to be screening, starting tomorrow.

The producer picked me up on his motorbike and ferried me to the recording studio... and it was just fabulous to be back inbetween the sound-proofed walls, with computer equipment, mixing desks and a special recording booth. It's been a long time since I stepped foot into a recording booth, headphones on, speaking into a suspended mike - and I loved it.

The engineer is a famous Vietnamese musician and had his own recording studio, so I chatted to him about my dad (who is also a musician with his own studio) and about missing the radio and audio production work I used to do.

They showed me the footage for the ad and I was impressed. The quality was brilliant, and it really shows some beautiful footage of Vietnam - from Ha Long Bay and Sapa through to Phu Quoc and the bustling cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. So it's nice to be part of something of that calibre.

Although, they only did two run throughs, one of the original script and one I'd edited, which worried me a little. Used to doing more than one take of a script. Anyway, it was great experience and lots of fun.

It's funny isn't it. Since being in Vietnam I've featured on television news and special programs so many times I've lost count, I've been in a couple of newspaper and magazine articles (even last weekend there was a big spread in Vietnam Pictorial and I was dubbed "MCD Cadre", which has now seen me called Cadre Masters by some friends).

In Vietnam the westerner is the "other" and that means the gaze is on us more than ever. It's given me so many different opportunities to meet different people working in the media industry here and get an insiders perspective on how things operate. You can't pay for that kind of experience.

And you can't pay for the reminder about how much you love working in studios and production... hmmmm, perhaps a return to radio will be my next move after my volunteer assignment.

Who knows, you just never know what's around the corner.