Hai Dao was born in Hanoi. He studied directing, in which he holds a degree in Vietnam. In 2017, he passed with merit at Middlesex University Ma Film course. He lives and works as a screenwriter, director, producer in between Vietnam and London. In 2012 -2014 he taught Film Direction at Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema. He has directed and produced shorts that they have been awarded in both of Vietnamese and International short film festivals.
“Listen to people, but believe in your own decisions.”
Real life inspiration
"The idea naturally came from the sympathy for illegal immigrants in London. They are not able to legally work to support their lives, thus facing continuous problems."
Drafts, scripts and dialogues
"Having the script well-prepared is a crucial task in the pre-production period. I was actually had six drafts in total within the six months I had to get the final draft. When I am on set, I flexibly let the actors and actresses adjust the dialogue to help them be able to act more naturally, yet absolutely loyal to the plot of the film."
Eighteen hours of filming
"I’m fairly satisfied with what I have done in our four day shoot in London, with a limited budget as well. What we prioritized and also well rehearsed before filming was acting, collaborating between actors/actresses and the camera movements. What also was important was the work we put into our story board and shot lists, which made our teamwork run smoothly as everyone knew exactly what they were assigned to do and what the shots were expected to look like. The only difficulty that got us stressed was the limited time we got. We merely had roughly eighteen hours per day for filming while we really needed significantly more time for better quality shots."
Infil & Full Set goes international
"Up to present, Infill & Full Set has got several proud achievements. Particularly, it was presented, officially competed for prizes and was nominated in over twenty film festivals worldwide, including prestigious film festivals for human rights and immigration issues in the UK, the US, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and so on. In addition, we were granted the Special Mention prize at Asia South East short film festival 2018, were nominated for Best Film at Austrian Film Festival 2019, got four nominations for Best Film / Best UK Drama / Best Lead Actress and Best Music Score at Oxford International Short Film Festival 2019."