Today we’d like to introduce you to Darren Bui.
Darren, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’m 24, I’m a Midwestern kid, and am currently an editor at Viacom. Like many millennial filmmakers, my earliest memories of entertainment started on the Internet. I was 12, I spent a lot of time playing video games, and was obsessed with YouTube. I wanted to recreate scenes from my favorite games and YouTubers. Luckily, my older brother had just taught me how to pirate anything I wanted.
My very first torrent was a non-linear editing program: Sony Vegas Pro. Coupled with it was my very first project: a Counter-Strike homage. YouTube provided the editing tutorials, and the Internet supplied me with all the sound effects. It turned out awesome, at least to my friends and me.
*Counter-Strike is a first-person shooter videogame developed by Valve.
From then on, I continued to tinker with videos as years past. At the time, I was never into making films, but definitely into making cheesy and dumb videos. I was the kid who always made a video for school presentations. Usually very cringy, but nevertheless, entertaining. To this day, I keep them all hidden away on a secret YouTube channel.
I’m sure when I’m 90 years old I’ll have a good laugh at my grade school self. I honestly didn’t consider a career in film up until the very last second of Senior Year. Where I was from, the arts weren’t at the forefront of education. Popular career paths included business and medicine, but my year, in particular, was all about the engineers. I was going to choose one of those paths, but it was a bit of an autopilot decision.
One random night at home, I remember walking down the stairs as my brother came from the opposite direction. I stopped him on the way and asked, “What should I major in?” He told me with confidence, “Film.” I was baffled, I wasn’t even aware that that was an option. We went our separate ways and in those ten stair steps or so I had discovered my career path.
Here’s where I start bullet pointing for your reading ease:
-From there, I attended Columbia College Chicago.
-I graduated with a degree in Cinema Art + Science (fancy pants wording for “film major”)
-Moved to Los Angeles upon graduation.
Here I was, the city of stars. I had spent a couple of months obsessed with La La Land and was actually inspired enough to move. I had nothing but my suitcase, a handful of cash, and my family/friends loving support from back home. I began my first year in LA working in a shipping warehouse. Imagine Amazon, except without the horrendous pressure of 2-day shipping. I applied to film jobs relentlessly during that year, but with no luck.
I tried applying as a production assistant, videographer, editor and even dabbled in some acting. After a while, I started getting tired of my day job, literally physically exhausted. So I decided to quit upon my year milestone at the company. My back was busted, and I couldn’t even make it to my last week because of food poisoning from an In and Out burger. I was at my bottom. There was only one direction to go from here: up.
How I started working as an editor is as serendipitous as it comes. I went to a holiday party with my roommate as his plus one. Eventually, I lost him in the drunken masses and ran into a familiar face. We never had formally met, but we had mutual friends and had seen each other around school back in Chicago.
We both bonded over the fact that we were abandoned plus ones. It seemed like nothing at the time, but that interaction would eventually lead to him bringing me on to his company as an editor. Almost immediately after I joined, Viacom bought the company, and voliá, I was now an editor for Viacom.
Additional bullet points about my LA move:
-I met my amazing, lovely girlfriend.
-My closest friends and brother moved to LA as well.
-I got a new puppy. Her name is Boba. Like the Milk Tea.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Truth be told, I only decided within the last few months that I wanted to go down a career path as an editor. I love editing, but I never would have thought I could make a full-time profession out of it. I was always afraid of the nitty gritty technical side of it. It just so happened that those were the jobs I received the most and so I stuck with it.
On my first day working for a Viacom company, I literally had never touched Adobe Premiere, which was their main program. I was a Final Cut guy. I had my roommates run me through a crash course the night before, and I learned on the fly. I’d say it wasn’t smooth at first, but luckily, I had some great mentors to guide me through it.
Overall though, I can’t really complain about my journey. I’ve always had support from my family and friends on all of my endeavors. I’m very thankful for the quality of the people I have in my life. I’ve had rock bottoms here and there like any other person, but with every down came even higher-ups. I work hard and always forward.
We’d love to hear more about what you do.
As an editor, you have to be humble and collaborative. There’s no room for egos.
Sometimes, directors or producers will have trouble communicating how to cut their piece because of the technical language barrier. I love being able to translate those thoughts into editing and give them their, “Ah ha” moment. As far as my personal flares, I’m really big on musicality, visual storytelling, and taking into account every perspective of the film.
My brother is a music producer and singer. He exposed me to the ins and outs of audio and how to tell a story with it. Rhythm is huge too since editing naturally carries one.
I appreciate visual storytelling because I used to shoot many projects of my own. I’m also an avid watcher of video essays on film.
As an editor, you deal with all aspects of the film. You interact with the directing, acting, photography, production design, sound, all of it. I’ve worked in every department at some point in my career. I wouldn’t say I’m a master at any of them, but I have a basic understanding of all positions that I carry into my edits.
Contact Info:
- Email: darrencbui@gmail.com
Image Credit:
Dolly Ave
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
