While most individuals his age are eager to close the chapter of their undergraduate lives, Thuan Tran is rolling blunts in his office at 9 AM and meeting editing deadlines for video projects featuring artists like Beyoncé, Nas and the ASAP Mob. At the young age of 21, Thuan has achieved more accomplishments than the average college student.
Currently working at Karmaloop as the Director of Photography, Thuan gives himself no praise for his achievements. He humbly replies, “I’m doing okay,” almost as if he is unaware of his career successes in the past three years.
His job wasn’t always this entertaining and easygoing. At 18, he decided to drop out of Massachusetts College of Arts only after one semester. He gave up his scholarship and his life as a teenager to pursue a career in the video industry. “At first, I thought it was the worst decision I ever made.” He paused, meekly smiled and added, “This feeling only lasted about a week.”
Opportunity came knocking on the door early for Thuan, who began an internship with Karmaloop in Boston right out of high school in 2010. After a few months, the Director of Photography in Boston, Jackie Munoz, referred him to intern at the New York offices. “Naturally, I took the first bus I could find to the city,” leaving behind his younger sister and mother in Massachusetts.
He wasted no time transitioning from a college drop out to a dream chaser in the city. Filming three projects daily, his employment schedule became his life, working seven days a week from 8 AM to 2 AM. To Thuan, there was no such thing as eight-hour workdays. His life was consumed by work at all hours of the day. Still, to this day, he finds it difficult to have a social life. It is no surprise that for the first six weeks in New York, Thuan was living in his office. “This may seem like some pursuit of happiness shit to some people, but I thought it was awesome!”
Regardless of living out of his office, Thuan turned his negative situation into an opportunity to grow. At a young age, he knew he had to mature and focus on his career. “I had to humble myself and realize that I’m not the best anymore…I understood that I was nothing compared to who was killing it in New York.”
At times, Thuan did have regretful thoughts. Some predicaments would place him in a position in which he was tempted to walk away from it all. When faced with these situations, Thuan would just remind himself that “every artist goes through this, but quitting isn’t cool.”
Being a struggling underrated photographer in New York fueled him to stay up all night perfecting his edits. “I was filming two to three things a day with the biggest artists that I thought I would never be in the same room with.”
One particular artist Thuan made a connection with was the ASAP Mob, a hip-hop crew from Harlem. The group is lead by uprising rapper, ASAP Rocky. “I owe the ASAP guys a lot,” he says.
On Thuan’s 21st birthday, he got the opportunity to co-direct and edit ASAP Mob’s Bath Salt music video, which currently has over three million views on YouTube. Thuan created a mutual beneficial relationship with one of ASAP Mob’s group members, ASAP Ferg.
ASAP Ferg, who was awarded the “Rookie of the Year” award by the BET Hip Hop awards this year, admired Thuan’s skillful eye and asked him to direct his Persian Wine music video. Without any hesitation, Thuan agreed. “They (the ASAP Mob) understand that us photographers and directors need them as much as they need us.” An exceptional job that worked in both artists’ favors, Persian Wine has ranked up over one million views on YouTube, and ASAP Ferg continues to rely on Thuan for grim, violent videos and editorial pictures.
Working with music icons or soon-to-be icons is Thuan’s new field. As expected by most people who admire musicians, Thuan still gets nervous when working with some of his favorite artists.
Recently, Thuan had to do some film work for the annual Rock-The-Bells music festival in New York. “I remember throwing up in a porta-potty before an interview with Erykah Badu.” Nerves are inevitable, especially when you’re meeting one of your favorite music icons. For Thuan, dealing with nerves on top of stress from editing deadlines and long hours in the office take a toll on his life, which is why he has grown fond of smoking weed to calm his worries.
Thuan, who grew up smoking weed, comments, “I usually have like 10 things going on at once and when I take a smoke break, it gives me a second to prioritize things.”
Everyday, he takes five to six smoke breaks. At first, taking breaks during work hours affected him negatively. “I wouldn’t be able to process things quick enough at shoots orI’d make mistakes like forget a battery.” Quickly, weed became a tool instead of a roadblock. It became essential to his every day life. “How can I mess up now on simple things if I’ve shot crazy things whilst being crazy stoned?”
“Every day is kind of successful,” he simply answers, when asked about his most successful day since working with Karmaloop. He recently returned from a business trip in Houston, Texas. “I was working on a video project for Beyoncé’s new album,” he replies nonchalantly, while his job is one most editors would sell their soul for. But he counts getting his brother a job at Karmaloop as a superior accomplishment in his eyes.
With all these achievements at the young age of 21, Thuan’s main goal is not to become the best videographer in New York, although many would argue that he’s well on his way. His objective is personal. “I like knowing that my little sister can be confident in herself after seeing my brother and I do well.”
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