Backyard's Nguyen Goes on a Tear

Backyard Director Kim Nguyen Goes on a Tear
 
A former agency creative and MTV staffer, she's using her
combined background to produce youth-oriented work
that takes a holistic look at creative solutions.
 

Backyard Director Kim Nguyen brings an agency creative background to her work at the company.

When an ad agency creative is unleashed on the production world, the result is just what you'd expect: a totally immersive, concept-to-completion creative talent who now has all the tools to create and produce content at her disposal. That descriptions applies to Kim Nguyen, the prolific Backyard director who has concepted, written, directed and produced a torrent of recent work to build upon her portfolio of documentaries, commercials, music videos, and mobile and social media campaigns.
 
Born in Da Nang, Vietnam, Nguyen was raised in Chicago and attended the University of Illinois, where she earned a Bachelor's degree in Communications. She went on to earn a postgraduate degree from The Creative Circus in Atlanta before embarking on a seven-year career as a copywriter, working on staff at McKinney & Silver from 1999 to 2001 and freelancing for the likes of Ogilvy & Mather, DiMassimo, McCann Erickson, Lowe, Strawberry Frog, Taxi, BBH and Tribal DDB.
 
In 2006 Nguyen landed a job writing on-air promotions for MTV, where she quickly moved to production and began directing her very first spots. The combination of experiences shows in her work as a director.
 
"Kim really understands the big picture: she has an extraordinary understanding of brands, a real aptitude for the collaborative process, and the ability to deliver across multiple platforms," says Backyard owner Blair Stribley. "Most impressive is the tremendous level of enthusiasm and attention to detail that she brings to each and every project. That she understands the full creative process is obvious in everything she does."
 
Nguyen's on-air promo and opening title sequence for the MTV series "I Just Want My Pants Back" won a Gold Lion and a Silver in the "Video Presentation: Content Promotion" category at this year's Promax BDA Show in L.A.  The show features the goings-on in the lives of a group of twenty-somethings living in Brooklyn, New York.  It includes scenes of young hipster drama and shenanigans set against a series of on-screen graphics, such as "I just want to make it to 30" against a shot of a young guy hurling in the bathroom, or "I just want to make rent," seen against a shot of a woman counting bills.

Nguyen's free-wheeling promo for this MTV series was a winner at Promax this year.

In addition, Nguyen's 23-minute documentary, "Santa Land," which follows an elderly couple's involvement in their Florida-based Santa-themed community, screened at the London International Super Shorts, the Full Frame Festival, the Naples Film Festival, the St. Lauderdale Festival, the Beaufort Film Fest, and the L.A. Pacific Asian Festival, where it won Best Short.
 
Since joining Backyard last year, Nguyen's work has included shoots for Anomaly's Captain Morgan "Step into the Black" Music Series, for which she lensed performance footage of indie band Langhorne Slim on stage in a suitably dark and smoky club; two comic spots for TradeStation, an online stock trading platform; an entertaining four-spot campaign for Sears new "Shop Your Way" initiative from digital agency R/GA (see "Too Good," "Tailgate," "Roof" and "Underwear"); and an energetic new campaign for Gold's Gym.
 
Nguyen credits much of her success to her diverse background, which includes hands-on experience at every stage of content creation. "I think about the full production process at every phase of a project," she says. "I think about how the edit will come together before I even start shoot. I think about the music tracks that could play underneath it, and sound design. Plus I really understand the creative process from the advertising side, since I used to be a creative."
 
Nguyen's resume already includes Chelsea Handler's host campaign for the MTV VMAs, an ESPN digital short film for the World Cup, a music video for Usher, and collaborations with writers from "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," "Chelsea Lately" and The Wayans Bros.
 
When it comes to her future career plans, Nguyen has her sights set on the big screen. "Eventually I'd like to move into feature comedies," she says.  "You know you've made a successful comedy if your movie is featured on an airplane in-flight selection and people are laughing. I'd love to have a plane full of people laughing at me."

Published 22 October, 2012