Vincent and his team was shooting a scene for his documentary.

Film production is something the average Joe may know little about. Most of us just sit down, relax and enjoy a film while we give little thought to all the blood, sweat and tears that went into making it. Today we will hear the story of a passionate Chinese producer named Vincent Du. As we do, we will see that a lot of hard work and ongoing education goes into producing content.

Vincent Du was born and raised in Tianjin's Heping district. His mother works for a factory in town while his father is a driver at a foreign company. From this perspective, embarking on the journey to become a photographer, film producer and cinematographer didn't seem all that probable. It may have appeared even less so when he began studying Tourism Management at Tianjin’s University of Commerce in 2000. Yet his life took a turn while attending college as he discovered a real passion for photography. By the time Vincent graduated in 2004 his career aspirations had strayed a long way from tourism. Unlike most of his classmates who went on to work at hotels, travel agencies or even in the government he looked for jobs related to photography. He caught his break by getting hired as a photo journalist for Tianjin's Metro Express. He worked there from 2004-2008.

While covering the daily grind he discovered a few topics he wanted to explore more in-depth on his own time. In 2005 he covered the topic of homosexuality. He did so by documenting the lives of several homosexuals for about 2-3 years throughout the areas of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. Another photo essay was done during the years of 2006-2007. He documented the telling tale of "Cancer Village" in Tianjin. These freelance projects helped unlock his potential as a photo journalist.

2008 marked another big change in Vincent's career. The Canon EOS 5-D Mark II was released. A series of workshops were held all across China. This caught his attention and he wasn’t going to be left behind. At Canon's workshop he learned not just about photography, but also got his formal introduction to the world of videography. This marked the beginning of his transition from photojournalist to videographer. He self-studied, interacted with video editors, and began watching a plethora of independent films. Wenguang Wu for example influenced him heavily. Vincent began seeing documentaries as the form of film he wanted to pursue. It was also during this year that he made the jump to working at the Bohai Morning Post. On the side he freelanced for Reuters.

In 2009 he set his heart on studying abroad. The desire was to explore the world of video production outside of China. Due to freelance work with Reuters, Vincent had met and collaborated with a number of international journalists. This served to whet his appetite for expanding his own horizons. The first step in realizing his goal of studying overseas was to master English. He used the year to prepare for the IELTS. The hard work paid off. Vincent passed the test and was invited to study for a year at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC) in Hong Kong.

A year in Hong Kong (2010-2011) did more than just help him earn a Master's Degree. It provided an opportunity to acquire extensive knowledge on documentary production. It also facilitated study under the leadership of Nancy Tong a famous Hong Kong film maker who was involved in the production "Who Killed Vincent Chin". The university invited many famous film makers as guests to interact with the study body. For example Ruby Yang, a Chinese American film maker. One year of study wasn't enough. He wanted to learn even more. Fortunately, based on various works he had produced, in 2011 he was awarded the Chevening Scholarship by the UK government. This enabled another year aboard at Goldsmiths University of London.