Complex sentence: Shortly after, he moved to Vietnam to work for a small cultural magazine, and there did research for his first screenplay, based on the life of Tomas Vu, a visual arts professor at Columbia who grew up in Vietnam during the war.
Split into simpler sentences: Shortly after, he moved to Vietnam to work for a small cultural magazine. While in Vietnam, he did research for his first screenplay, based on the life of Tomas Vu, a visual arts professor at Columbia who grew up in Vietnam during the war.