Paris By Night

**Paris By Night** progams are the main products of Thuy Nga Productions.

## Definition

**Paris By Night** (abbreviated: PBN) is a series of concert programs of a variety nature (that is, including music, dance and drama, combining most of the theater types known and popular with Vietnamese and foreigners), originated in Paris, France since 1983. The person holding most responsible for these programs is Professor To Van Lai, co-founder of Thuy Nga Productions in 1972 along with his former wife, Nguyen Ngoc Thuy.

In addition, Paris By Night can also be defined as concerts which are designed & planned by the heads of Thuy Nga center together with directors (harmony, lighting, choreography,...) ideation, preparation and organization. The name Paris By Night comes from the fact that To Van Lai held these programs initally in the evening in Paris.

The purpose of organizing the Paris By Night programs is to perform Vietnamese art as well as introduce the great values ​​of Vietnamese culture to Vietnamese descendants abroad and in the country later, and at the same time act as the basis for the next Vietnamese generations overseas to learn about Vietnamese culture and find solutions to preserve it.

## Components

### Core

Each such Paris By Night program includes the following key/mandatory components:

* Around 20 or under 35 songs/medleys included in the following genres: pop (or songs mixed in the form of pop music and dance); blues and country music (some of which are known to Vietnameses as "bolero"). They may either belong to the theme of each or not. Sometime after the VHS or DVD (and Blu-ray) release of these programs, soundtracks from each program will be recorded on CDs (categorized by song type) and released simultaneously.
* One or two comedies primarily written by writer and MC Nguyen Ngoc Ngan (or by artists from an organization known as "Nhóm kịch Thúy Nga" for some plays of older PBN programs) or no comedy at all for certain reasons.
* Starting from PBN 98, most PBN programs include quizzes for the audiences with rewards of a certain amount ($500 or $1000 and even higher in the case of later programs) or some free services and discounts provided by sponsors.
* After the final performance, there is always a part called "Finale". In this part, the MCs will come out on stage to announce the end of the program and the artists participating in the program will come out on stage to say goodbyes to the audience. This part is often dubbed with the soundtrack of the show's opening performance. In DVD and Blu-ray version, it also includes a list of individuals/groups who participated in the production of the program.

### Optional

* Video clips of off-stage scenes: video clips of off-stage scenes most often appear in PBN program from No. 52 and earlier.
* Fashion Show: some programs (especially large-scale programs) will feature fashion shows (all of which are *ao dai* fashion shows). Background music is usually songs that are later featured on CDs of recorded songs from PBN shows.
* Interview with sponsors: present in a number of PBN programs with large investments from major sponsors.
* Interview of certain singers, artists or special individuals.
* "In Memoriam": these video clips will remind the audience of late musicians, singers and artists that once collaborated with Thuy Nga Productions. Memorial videos are only available in some commemorative PBNs, including PBN 100 and 126.
* Bonus:
	+ Behind the scenes: The video clips of some scenes during the preparation process for the show. Appears in most PBN programs recorded in DVD and Blu-ray formats.
	+ MVs recorded and released by singers, either directly or indirectly collaborating with Thuy Nga Productions.
	+ A comedy/tragedy filmed off-stage.
	+ Documentaries of major sponsors.

## Showtime & ticket distribution

Paris By Night shows usually have their first poster published at most 60 to less than 100 days before the official recording date, and shows will always be aired on Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 1:30 pm. There are some PBN shows recording on special holidays like US Independence Day (July 4th) or on a holiday close to the recording date (specifically Mother's Day).

Up to 90 days before the air date and some time after the show's first announcement, the audience can fully book tickets through one of two main methods: booking tickets through direct agencies and booking tickets. using the Thuy Nga PBN application, and people will not be able to book tickets on days from which the Thuy Nga Productions announces the sold-out.

## Price & budget

The DVD version of each Paris By Night show usually has a fixed price of $24.95 and $29.95 for the Blu-ray version. However, some DVDs of older Paris By Night shows often cost less than (or equal to) that number. Tickets to the show typically cost between $300 and $1,500 depending on the seats in the theater - VIP seats near the stage range from $900 or more.

According to Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen, a Paris By Night program in the 2010s and 2020s filmed in the United States has a budget of between 1 and 2 million USD.

## Format & duration

Before PBN 67, all PBN programs were recorded on VHS tapes. From PBN 67 onwards, Thuy Nga Productions gradually switched to releasing DVD format (specifically, DVD-9) instead of VHS because of the decline in global sales of VHS tapes and DVDs allowing high-quality images to be recorded. From PBN 104 onwards, programs are also recorded on Blu-ray discs (its capacity is very large, allowing recording with HD due to its much larger capacity than DVDs with 25 GB of available data can be recorded on one record side of the disc) - in particular, the entire contents of a program can be included within a single Blu-ray disc. The audio standards of these DVD/Blu-ray are Dolby Sound and Dolby Stereo. Currently, PBN programs doesn't exist in 4K quality due to its excessive logical size (one hour of a 4K video can occupy around 45 GB of storage space), which renders Blu-ray discs unaffordable to store an entire PBN program in a single disc.

Depending on the size and support of the sponsors, such program typically lasts for about 3 to 6 hours (special programs such as old PBNs or Gloria series could take around 3 hours or less). Corresponding to 2 or 3 DVDs or 1 Blu-ray disc, they can be packaged together in a single cover. Paris By Night 83 was the first program to put three DVDs in a cover, with the first and second recording the entire program, and the third including MTVs, videos of interviewing the composers and backstage footages. PBN 114 is the first program to exceed 6 hours.

Starting from Paris Night 133, the program was released in digital form on the Thuy Nga PBN application, and users have to pay $10 to $20 to watch the full program on the application in a similar manner to Netflix subscription.

## List of Paris By Night programs

### 1980s

All 9 first Paris By Night programs are filmed in Paris, released in VHS format and directed by John Pierre Barry (1947 - 2018).

### 1990 - 1994

PBN 29 and 37 were the first to record with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

### 2004 - 2006

From this stage onwards, Thuy Nga Productions no longer records Paris By Night programs in France. Also since 2004, PBN programs have always been released in DVD format.

### 2020 - present

The complicated situation of the COVID-19 epidemic has resulted in Thuy Nga not recording any Paris By Night programs in 2020. The production of PBN briefly resumed in early 2021, however, it took around 10 months for Thuy Nga to organize and air the 141st and 142nd program (PBN 132 and PBN Special, respectively). Also in the next year, Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn announces his official retirement as an exclusive MC for Thuy Nga Productions.

## Reception

So far, products related to the Paris By Night program have been widely accepted by overseas Vietnamese communities around the world because of the spirit of cultural protection and dissemination. Vietnamese music comes to successive generations born and raised in foreign countries and in the country.

Particularly for Vietnamese people in the territory of Vietnam, the products of Thuy Nga Productions were initially received mainly through smuggling routes or hand luggage of their relatives from abroad as they took multiple visits to their homeland during the 2000s and a number of PBN programs that were not widely publicized (for example, PBN 77 and 91 contain content that the Vietnamese communist government considers inappropriate for its communist regime in Vietnam which eventually leads to their national ban). In the second half of the 2010s, Thuy Nga Productions has been uploading its content on Youtube and reached out to a wider range of audiences through this platform, and the fact that pre-1975 songs were popularized again in the country was also an important factor of the reasons why the company's products are more sought after.

Until now, Thuy Nga has not and will not have any intention to record the show Paris By Night in Vietnam despite the large number of fans in its homeland, and also a few artists have expressed their desire to join a Paris By Night show in Vietnam. The main reasons, although not disclosed by Thuy Nga Productions themselves, include:

* Vietnam lacks stages large enough to gather an insane number of people (at least 10,000 spectators or more) as well as materials and equipment suitable for a Hollywood standard stage. At the same time, the organization of a large event with a large gathering of people will cause difficulties for the producers with the reason that it is likely to cause public disorder.
* The cultural censorship regulation of the Vietnamese communist government is still strict, as Thuy Nga Productions introduces cultural products from the South Vietnamese state before 1975, which is something that Communist rulers (especially those originally born and educated in the North) are undesirable because of certain complexes with the achievements and legacies of the Republic of Vietnam even though this state has ceased to exist for more than 40 years since April 30th, 1975.
* In addition, in order to carry out large-scale music projects in Vietnam, an agreement must be reached with the authorities of the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, Under the conditions of compromise, there will be some things that will have a certain adverse impact on the implementation of the Paris Night projects, which is highly likely to affect the honor and interests of the producers (changing the content of the program, distributing the profits to authorized organizations or individuals or performing performances that violate the interests of overseas audiences,...) Without prejudice to these conditions, either Thuy Nga Productions will not be able to carry out any projects within Vietnam, or the productions can be authorized by the government to implement, but may face media risks (such as incitements and insults from the Communist Party's news system and propaganda personnel) or some technical risks, which is behind the intention of a hate force (such as power failure).

## Trivia

* Paris By Night is also the title of a thriller film produced in the UK in 1988, and also the title of a detective film produced in France in 2012.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r3gc0Mbp6U
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris\_by\_Night\_(1988\_film)
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris\_by\_Night\_(2012\_film)