Grand plans

My first interview with Su Beng wouldn't be until August of 2004. In the beginning I had a very simple motivation- curiosity, but the more I thought about it, the more I became thoroughly convinced that there was a story worth telling here. That summer I went back to the States for my annual visit and consulted some trusted friends about my ideas and motivations for writing this story. Fortunately, one friend in particular had the foresight to advise me to video record all of my conversations with Su Beng. I had only planned to audio record our meetings for later reference- when I'd begin writing. What did I know about camcorders, video recording, camera angles or lighting?

From the beginning I had a lot of grand plans for this story, but I had no idea how it would mushroom.