Acknowledgements.doc

HK Film Industry Plots a Survival StorybyCandy KanA Masters Project submittedin partial fulfillment for theDegree of Master of JournalismJournalism and Media Studies CentreThe University of Hong KongMay 2003ContentDeclarationP. 3AcknowledgementsP. 4HK Film Industry Plots a Survival StoryP. 5References InterviewsP.24 Bibliography- BooksP.25- News ArticleP.26 Websites- Academic Field P.27- China Film Industry - Film Awards & Activities -Hong Kong Government P.28- HK Trade Development CouncilP.29- Fruit Chan P.30- Hero - RTHK - OthersDeclarationI hereby declare that this Masters Project represents my own work, except where due acknowledgement is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis, dissertation or report submitted to this university or to any other institution for a degree, diploma or other qualification. SignatureCandy KanMay 2003AcknowledgementsI would like to express my gratitude to Gene Mustain, my project supervisor, and Doreen Weisenhaus, the academic supervisor of the Masters Projects, for their inspiration, feedback and support.My deepest thanks to all of my interviewees, particularly to Charlie Lam, Cheung Tung Joe and Stanley Tong, who are very supportive to my project. HK Film Industry Plots a Survival StoryBy Candy KanIt is a dark time for the Hong Kong film industry.Even the industrys most glamorous celebration of the year, the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards, seems a colorless affair. No red carpets, no colorful fluffy dresses, no smiling faces in the photo call. It is taking place as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome rattles Hong Kong and as people mourn the suicide of a star, Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, and cope with a continuing economic crisis. It is cinematographer Charlie Lams first time at the awards. After getting a Computer Engineering degree at City University of Hong Kong, he studied still photography in England. A year later, he came back to study cinematography at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts (HKAPA). In 2001, his debut short film Tai Tai made to the final round of the Cannes Film Festival competition. At the same time, his graduation work The Crossings won top honors in Kodaks competition for film students in the Asia Pacific Region; it too was screened at Cannes.Even so, hes never been to the Hong Kong Film Awards. I would later understand what this said about the insular nature of the Hong Kong film industry, but at the time it just struck me as surprising. I met Charlie a day before the ceremony. While Charlie and I spoke, Cheung Tung-joe, president of the Hong Kong Film Awards, called me about tickets to the event, so I took the opportunity to get one for Charlie.And so now here we are, and the scene is new to him - local movie workers, against the unusual background of the SARS crisis, coming together to appraise and recognize their work.In here, I can feel that people do respect the movie industry, Charlie will say as the evening passes. Yet it seems it is the only place that I can find respect. Although many guests and award winners passed on the event due to SARS, the organizers decided not to cancel, but to instead use the moment to pay tribute to medical workers.Today our home is in trouble. We have to unite and come out and say we love Hong Kong, Eric Tsang Chi-wai, veteran comedian and host of the 22nd annual ceremony, tells the crowd.The decline of an industryThe Hong Kong film industry is in trouble too, and has been for the past few years. Productions have decreased from 242 in 1993 to 92 in 2002. Box office revenue has dropped drastically, from $1.5 billion to $352 million over the past decade. Filmmaking seems no longer a profitable business for investors. The Asian economic crisis also has driven away the much of the audience. In addition to the regions economic woes, many in the industry blame the rapid decline in audience on rampant film piracy, but many others - in and out of the industry - put the blame right where they say most of the evidence points, on the industry itself, for the poor and unimaginative quality of its films. The death of the Hong Kong movie is because theres something wrong with the creativity. Theres no new blood in the industry. The script, the theme, the cast, the backstage and the producer are always the same, said Ho Kwok-leung, an Associate Professor of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University who studies popular and political culture. For instance, I can find no Hong Kong sci-fi movie. It is always ghost movie or police story. In response to its problems, the industry has looked to the Hong Kong government for help - both in direct aid and in promoting it north across the border. There of course, a vast potential audience awaits, but so does a quota on imports and powerful new competitors, including, under Chinas commitments to the World Trade Organization, Hollywood productions.That brings us back to quality. Cheung Tung-joe, a veteran film director in addition to being chairman of the 2002 film awards, was a witness to the best time of the Hong Kong film industry - the end of the 1980s and the start of the 1990s, when there was a huge demand for movies and movie workers.At that time, more than 200 movies were produced each year - more than the industry could actually produce while maintaining quality. At that time, there were only four cinema lines in Hong Kong, and each could show around 30 movies per year. What they couldnt show was fed to such overseas markets as Taiwan. We did not have sufficient local professionals to produce so many movies at that time. Therefore many non-professionals seized the opportunity and got into the business to produce movies. Some even got pretty good earnings. The situation became worse and worse and tampered the quality of the Hong Kong movies. This is the root of the problem, Cheung said.While quality may have been the root, the economic crisis in Asia in 1998 deepened the industrys problems. Meanwhile, the decline in the Hong Kong box office and export to the Southeast Asia discouraged the atmosphere in local film investment. Under increasingly tight budgets, production quality began to decline.The film investors worry about the situation and reduce their investment on movies. The tighter the budget, the poorer the production. This becomes a vicious cycle, said Cheung.Entertainment reporter Ming Lau, who worked in public relations for a local movie company eight years ago, said the industry started to decline in 1995, prompting him to jump to the then booming media industry. As a movie beat reporter, Lau saw significant decreases in promotional activities for Hong Kong films. There are very few big productions in Hong Kong, so there are fewer press invitations, he said.Lau said many movie companies switched to low-budget television features destined for overseas consumption. Now many movie companies use digital video tape instead of film for filmmaking, because they are fast and cheap in production. Of course, the quality is relatively poorer, he said. Prescriptions for recoveryThe industry has tried to revive itself in multiple ways. It sponsored a forum, Revitalizing Hong Kong Film Industry, in September of 2002 to collect the views of film workers. The Federation of Hong Kong Film Workers submitted a follow-up report, Revitalizing Hong Kong Film Industry, to the Hong Kong Legislative Council Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting last October.Ng See-yuen, president of the Federation of Hong Kong Film Workers, said during the Forum that the economic downturn and serious piracy problems within the region have intimidated investors and drained away cinema income. Film productions face serious financing problems, resulting in smaller budgets and fewer quality movies - and film workers being forced to leave the business.Eleven major suggestions were made to revive the industry. They included further exploration of the mainland market, increased overseas promotion of Hong Kong films, greater training for the industrys workers and tighter protection of intellectual property rights.In an illustration of just how serious the industrys plight has become, Ng urged an even bigger step - direct government involvement in film financing, in the form of loan guarantees, particularly for small and medium-sized film projects.Hearing such pleas, the government announced a $50 million Film Guarantee Fund on 22 April of 2003. Henry Tang Ying-yen, Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, said that film is a historic component of Hong Kongs cultural bedrock and has contributed greatly to the local economy. A study estimates that, for every $1 spent on film production, $2.5 goes to the economy, said Tang during a launching ceremony for the fund. Film production will also benefit the overall employment situation by creating more job vacancies for supporting industries. Film financing will also provide more business opportunities for the banking and associated sectors.The short-term effectiveness of the fund in saving the film industry is hard to predict. In the past year, the industry has tried different measures, including lower ticket prices, to get audiences back in the cinema, but the number of moviegoers remains low. Hong Kong has only six million people. Traditionally the movie market relies on overseas market. Yet the overseas market slumped or nearly vaporized during the 1998 economic crisis, particularly with piracy continuing as a problem, Cheung said.Hong Kong movies rely heavily on export sales. The decrease in demand for Hong Kong movies in the region provoked the industry to explore other places to do business, and many movie workers are laying their eyes on the mainland market.We hope the Hong Kong government can strive for a special quota in the China market. China will be our biggest market in long term, said Raymond Wong Pak-ming, chairman of the Movie Producers and Distributors Association. Wong urged the government to help the industry by negotiating with mainland authorities on opening the Guangdong area for Hong Kong movies and maybe even creating a Guangdong - Hong Kong cultural district, providing more flexibility for the circulation of films and cultural products in the region. However, Chinas commitments to the World Trade Organization to open its markets to the world make the request difficult to fulfill.Responding to the industrys suggestion to open up the Guangdong province for Hong Kong movies, Joseph Tsang, Assistant Chief Economist of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council that specializes on film research, said, In an analyst point of view, this is an impractical request. Due to the WTO agreement, Hong Kong movies cant enjoy special treatment in China.The mainland marketDespite Chinas accession to WTO, Beijing still poses strict control on its film market by only importing 20 movies per year. Under the one country, two systems doctrine by which Hong Kong reverted to the mainland, Hong Kong movies are still classified as foreign movies. Facing strong competitors like Hollywood movies, only one or two local movies are fortunate enough to get selected.The quota system was a device to protect Chinese movies against foreign movies. Opening the Chinese market will be a revolutionary change for the China film industry. For the past several decades, mainland movies were treated as propaganda art. The market was shut to outsiders for political considerations. If China now opens the door to foreign movies, it will be hard for local movies to compete with movies made by foreign companies. The idea now is keep some kind of new quota system, to give local companies a chance to adapt to the new environment.To get into the China market, Hong Kong movie companies try to find ways around the restrictions. They seek more co-production opportunities with mainland counterparts. Without a doubt, Chinas 1.3 populations is an attractive market to explore. Not only Hong Kong movie companies, many foreign companies are probing for opportunities to get into the China market. Last year, a survey found 35% of overseas film companies hoped to co-produce films with mainland partners.Joseph Tsang led a film delegation to Beijing in October 2002. He said the Hong Kong Film & TV Networking Mission to Beijing was an opportunity for the local industry to meet with Chinese officials and mainland movie companies. Although the Chinese authorities clearly stated that Hong Kong movies wont receive special treatment, it is a good opportunity for the industry to voice their concerns, particularly on the issue of piracy and copyright protection in China, Tsang said.In one seminar, Raymond Wong also spoke of the hazards of doing more business directed at the mainland market - hazards that have hurt the industry badly. He lamented the inability (or, to some, indifference) of Chinese authorities to protect intellectual property rights and reduce piracy.China has many talents and suitable locations for shooting, and its reforms in cinema circuits will attract a larger audience. Yet the biggest problem now is still piracy, There are pirated VCDs for 90% of films and 95% of VCDs are pirated. The piracy problem was very serious in Hong Kong in 1997 and 1998, but through better legislation, the situation has been greatly improved, he said.At the seminar, a Chinese official admitted that pirated goods comprise a large portion of the market. Officials from Chinas Film Administration Bureau provided statistics showing that the sales revenue of original audio-visual products in 2001 was around RMB 6 billion. However, the authority estimates that actual sales value should have been around RMB 20 billion. In big cities like Beijing or Guangzhou, pirated VCD and DVD shops are accessible in many shopping centers or even on streetcorners. Two months ago, I visited some audio-visual shops in Guangzhou featuring pirated films. The look of these shops was just like any other ordinary shop. The packaging for pirated discs was extremely good. The general environment was so friendly that customers did not appear to feel any guilt. Even though it is known that these shops sell pirated goods, they seemed part of ordinary life. Danny is a 30 year-old Hong Kong photographer who occasionally travels to the Mainland. He hasnt gone into a cinema to watch a Hong Kong movie for almost two years. He said the economic downturn and the attractive price of the pirated discs have discouraged him from going. Its easy to buy pirated discs in Hong Kong and China. In the past, the pirated discs quality is often even better than the originals. However, the quality of Hong Kong pirated discs has declined a lot recently. I think its probably because of the Government actions have worked, Danny said. Yet, Mainland China is still a good place to shop for pirated discs, he continued. Some shops even provide sofa for customers to sit down and test the discs. Usually a high quality pirated D-9 DVD just costs less than RMB 20 and a normal pirated D-5 DVD is RMB 10 only. If I go to the cinema, I have to spend at least $60 for two people. To combat piracy, local film companies have pushed earlier release dates of the original VCD or DVD. However, Danny says this further discourages him from going to the cinema, as he knows that the discs will be on sale soon.Nowadays, film companies release the discs within a week or two after the movie has shown. Therefore, I will not go to the cinema. I will simply wait for the release of VCD or DVD.30 year-old Lun is also a frequent shopper of pirated discs. He has more than 50 pirated movie discs at home and most are foreign movies. Most of his Hong Kong movie collection is original.Hong Kong movies are crap, Lun said. This is the main reason why I choose not to go to the cinema. We know very well that many local productions just finish their filmmaking within one or two weeks. Of course, the audience will lose confidence in these sorts of Hong Kong movies. I dont think its worthwhile for me to spend so much money to watch movie like that. However, I buy the original copies of local movie is due to cheap price. Normally, an original local VCD just costs me less than $30.Ho Kwok-leung, Associate Professor of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said the film consumption pattern of Hong Kongers has changed. In the past, when people queued up in long lines, watching movies was a collective experience. But now watching movie has becomes a private event.The immediate release of original VCD and DVD has allowed audience to enjoy movie privately at home in low cost. Moreover, the increase in alternate entertainment activities has distracted people from watching movies, Ho said.Charlie Lam misses the good old days of big cinemas like Palace Theatre. Almost all traditional grand cinemas have been demolished, or converted into mini-sized theatres. The grand feeling associated with large cinemas has quietly died out. The government or the film industry should promote the real joy of going to the cinemas again, Lam said.However, HKTDC economist Joseph Tsang questions on the impact of VCD and DVD over the declining cinema audience.As a counter example, we can see that the United States has lots of alternate entertainment. So far it doesnt affect the income of the U.S. cinema. On contrary, the box office continues to increase each year. So why does it happen in Hong Kong but not in the U.S.? Tsang asked