Creative Director is a title that many people do not understand what industry or field it belongs to. However, the name Denis Dang and the million-view music clips in which he created the images and wrote the script, everyone knows...
Denis Dang's real name is Dang Duc Hieu (born in 1993), born and raised in Vinh city. Hieu was a good student in all natural science subjects. Since childhood, Hieu's family expected and oriented him to become a general practitioner. Hieu carried his parents' dream into every page of his book and hoped that he would pass the exam with honor. Then Hieu passed the entrance exam to two universities at the same time, Hanoi Medical University and Foreign Trade University, bringing joy and pride to his family. But it was during his school years that Hieu soon showed his talent and ability to create images, take photos and draw very well; in his dream about his future path, Hieu always hoped to work in a profession related to image creation.
Talking about Hieu's path of study, after passing the entrance exams to 2 top universities, his family still believed that Hieu would choose Hanoi Medical University, but somehow at the last minute Hieu asked his family's permission to study at Foreign Trade University because Hieu thought that only this major could help him get closer to his dream of freely creating images.
During his years studying at the Foreign Trade University, even Hieu's parents could not have imagined that their son could win so many prestigious awards outside of his major: Top 5 promising young photographers 2013, Young Talented Student Face 2012, First prize for the best student voice 2011. In addition, with his impressive achievements and scores, this young man also received a master's scholarship in France. This was the time when Hieu found the answer to who he was and what job he liked to do the most.
After receiving an excellent degree from the Foreign Trade University, Hieu did not go to study in France, but chose to stay in Vietnam to pursue his dream.
“I am not like my peers who want to make money early and assert my expertise, but I want to find a place to work that gives me inspiration and sublimation” – Hieu said. And luckily, Hieu has reached where he needs to go: A unit specializing in producing music videos accepted him to work as an accountant. Here, Hieu was approached and quickly attracted by the music video production team.
At this time, the trend of music videos in the Vietnamese market is lacking in innovation. Most of the MVs of young singers have not found new colors, breakthroughs and ways. Besides, the trend of photo manipulation in Vietnam (a type of photo with photographic images combined with surreal effects) is not popular. Hieu immediately researched and discovered that if this visual school is put into music videos or short films, it will be very impressive. He immediately advised the crew. Gradually, Hieu asked to implement the image concepts and unexpectedly received enthusiastic applause. Not long after, Hieu was entrusted to create images and content for the first MVs in the role of Creative Director.
As the person who brought the title "Creative Director" to special attention from the public when referring to an artist's product, Dang Duc Hieu said: "In this position, I am responsible for standing behind the script, producing images for MVs, as well as coming up with ideas and creating concepts throughout. Thanks to the creative director, artists will best visualize what the final product they bring to the public will look like." From there, "Ghen" by singer Erik, "Color of tears", "In my memory" by Nguyen Tran Trung Quan, ... and later "Water flows, flowers drift" by Nguyen Tran Trung Quan, "Don't ask me" (My Tam), "No Boyfriend" (Hoang Yen Chibi), "Mermaid" (Hoa Minzy) ... were born, quickly causing a big shock in the music world with millions of followers because of the breakthrough in image and content.
Especially with the way he creates drama in each story, until now Hieu (from here on called Denis Dang) is still considered a saint; each of his image concepts quickly goes viral in the entertainment industry.
In 2023 alone, Denis Dang took on the role of Creative Director for “Ai Lau Doi Mi Hoen” by Ha Nhi, “Cung Trang” by Mina Young, etc. Anyone who has worked with Denis Dang knows that he is an extremely perfectionist on set. This pursuit of perfection makes the product frames created by Denis Dang have depth, reaching a very high quality, not inferior to the concepts for MVs of foreign stars. Singer Nguyen Tran Trung Quan once said: “Denis always exploits artists and makes it difficult for artists to the maximum. However, whoever receives a schedule to collaborate with him has maximum satisfaction, and that MV will definitely be famous.”
Recently, in each project, Denis Dang has participated in "entertaining" a role. Most notably in the MV "No Boyfriend" by Hoang Yen Chibi, "Con yeu dau ai tro di" by Duc Phuc, "Mau nuoc mat" by Nguyen Tran Trung Quan are products in which Denis is both the creative director and the male lead. This guy does not stop at the fields in which he has made his mark, recently the public saw him leave a special impression in Hoang Thuy Linh's music show, in short films, and especially the reality TV show "Sister Dep Dap Gio Xu Song" on national television.
