INTRODUCTION: A Day in the Life of the Production TeamFrom the beginning of the year until now, a ‘leaving the nest’ phenomenon has hit HK’s TVB empire straight on – popular artists such as Charmaine Sheh, Bowie Lam, Sammul Chan, etc. are leaving their long-time employer in favor of entering mainland China’s vast TV and film industry.
The common sentiment towards filming TV series in mainland China seems to be overwhelmingly positive: “Mainland China investors are quite extravagant and willing to stake a lot of money – they are willing to invest way more in production of series and films than TVB is! Also, the Mainland production teams are treated very well – they are able to sleep longer hours, plus the pay is more than three to four times that of TVB’s salary – with these types of ‘perks’, who WOULDN’T want to try their luck in the Mainland?”
TVB’s artists have consistently been complaining about poor working conditions at the company – the long hours, low wages, and even the poor quality of the food! For those artists who have already foregone their careers in HK in favor of heading North (to the Mainland), are the conditions truly as good as reported? Behind all the glitz and glamour, how is a day in the life of the Mainland production teams really like? Is it really reporting only on the good and not the bad? Are there difficulties that the artists actually go through but are afraid to mention?
Back in April, Nan Dou Daily’s reporter contacted one of TVB’s fa dans who had broken into the Mainland market years ago – Sheren Tang – for an interview focused primarily on her experience working in the Mainland. Her reply to our reporter’s request for an interview: “Why don’t you come over to my filming location in the Mainland and see for yourself how things are like? You should look at it from all the different angles so that a truly accurate report can be brought back to those artists coming later as well as to the new bosses at TVB!”
With those words, our reporter arrived at Hengdian Studios at the end of April, where the Mainland series《倾城雪》[Qing Cheng Xue] was being filmed, to follow Sheren and the production team around for a day and personally experience ‘a day in the life’ of the team. Then afterwards, once the day of filming wrapped, our reporter sat with Sheren at a restaurant to talk about the recent ‘leaving the nest’ situation at TVB as well as her own experiences in the Mainland China television industry, which she has been a part of since 2005. Throughout her ‘journey’, she encountered many situations and real-life experiences that were never previously discussed or revealed, which she candidly shares with us in this interview. Compared to her days at TVB, this [working in the Mainland] is a completely different life experience – almost to the point of being an entirely different ‘state of existence’ for her.
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The date of the interview, April 26th, just happened to be one of the hottest days of April in Hengdian – at one point, the temperature reached a high of 32 degrees Celsius. When our reporter visited, the production team for 《倾城雪》[Qing Cheng Xue] was in the middle of filming 2 scenes at the ‘Residential Houses in the Ming & Qing Dynasties’ and ‘Qing Ming Shang He Tu’ shooting bases – the team was divided into Group A and Group B so that both scenes could be shot at the same time. Sheren was in Group B for the day, which consisted of about 20 people.
The director of the series, Lee Wai Chu, also got her start at TVB and later on moved to ATV, finally settling for a career in the Mainland. Having been on both sides, she provides the reporter with some insight as to the differences in terms of ‘manpower’ between HK and China: “In Hong Kong, a typical production team consisted of approximately 7 people; here (in Mainland), a team could consist of up to 40 or 50 people. In HK, the standard of living is high, so the average wage is higher, whereas in China, the average wage is lower – so for us, hiring 3 workers in China is equivalent to hiring only 1 in HK. With so many people in a typical Mainland production team, things are usually able to get done quicker.”
TVB’s recent palace series such as "Beyond the Realm of Consience" and "Can’t Buy Me Love" were filmed in HK, usually with one of the region’s public parks or a set built at TVB City serving as the backdrop for the palace scenes. At Hengdian, you will discover that the real palace scenery (not temporary makeshift sets) truly does add to the beauty of the scenes in the Mainland palace-themed series.
Back when "Beyond the Realm of Conscience" aired, netizens laughed at the idea that the so-called ‘highly priced custom-made jewelry’ used in the series could be so easily purchased for a cheap price on the Internet. That’s not the case here – the expensive jewelry and accessories that Sheren wears for this series are meticulously safeguarded both before and after filming. Producer Yu Zheng states: “Those jewelries and accessories are from my antiques collection – it is only during filming that I let the artists ‘borrow’ them to use!”
There are other differences as well. Sheren states: “Compared to the days of rushed filming at TVB, life here [filming in Hengdian] is actually a blessing!” Indeed, in the 2 days that our reporters visited the set, they observed that the team started work around 8 or 9am in the morning and would film until 7 or 8pm at night, following their usual rhythm of ‘working while the sun rises and resting when the sun sets’. In the afternoons, in between filming, artists could be seen ‘taking a breather’ in the various courtyards and rooms or admiring the beautiful scenery in the rest areas.
Director Lee states: “The mental / psychological state that the artists are in is very important. Having adequate time every day to ‘prepare’ for the next day and also having enough sleep makes the artists look sharper and as a result, they are able to give us better performances. If every day, they only get 2 to 3 hours of sleep, all they are able to give us are listless reciting of scripts and bags under their eyes – why go through that?”
In addition to the working conditions, the food at Hengdian has also been praised by HK artists. During lunch time, our reporters got the chance to try the boxed lunches that the workers get. Sheren, however, did not eat the boxed lunch that day – she insisted on ‘saving her stomach’ until the end of the day so she could take our reporters to a special Guangzhou-themed restaurant (located on Guangzhou Street) for dinner. Sitting around the table and chatting over a dinner of tasty Guangdong delicacies is definitely a relaxing experience! Sheren expressed that whenever she films in Hengdian, she would either go with a few close friends / colleagues to this restaurant for dinner, or she would go to the local street market and buy some fresh groceries to cook dinner for herself in her suite back at the hotel.
At TVB, a lot of series are filmed in a 12,500 square meter lot housed within TVB City. At the Hengdian Studios, which took 3 billion dollars to build, there are 13 different shooting bases, including Hong Kong Street, Guangzhou Street, Emperor Qin Palace, Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, etc. No wonder the studio attracts dozens of production teams from all over Asia to come and film at any given time. In fact, at the time of our reporter’s visit, there were over 40 different production teams using the facilities for various stages of filming and the hotels were all fully booked!
Even with such an establishment, the conditions are far from perfect! Sheren indicated that when she came here to film the series "The New Princess Pearl" a few months ago, the hotel that she usually stayed in was completely occupied by other production teams, so she had no choice but to stay at a different hotel. Even though the hotel was just newly renovated, the rooms were not up to standards: “The bathroom was stuffy and the carpet smelled bad, among other things – after 2 days, I couldn’t stand it anymore and requested to be switched to another hotel, but because there were so many production teams there, they couldn’t accommodate me.” In the end, her team was moved to a hotel in the city – the noise and bustle took some getting used to, but they learned to cope with it.
Director Lee advised us that nowadays, many of the production teams have already given up on live sound recording at Hengdian because the environment has gotten a lot noisier: “I heard that the Hengdian Group has plans for some additional expansions that may alleviate the problem. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day!”
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TO BE CONTINUED…..(stay tuned for Part 2, which will be the ‘official’ interview with Sheren Tang)
Source: Sina Entertainment
Translation: llwy12 @ AsianFanatics
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