For Ricky Wong’s (王維基) HKTV (formerly CTI) to be a ‘formidable’ opponent facing a strong, long-standing TV station (TVB) that has enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the HK television market for such a long time, audiences are most concerned with what type of ‘advantage’ HKTV will have over its opponent and what will set them apart from the competition?
With their Sales Presentation event that took place this past Tuesday (December 4th), HKTV seemed to take a ‘full attack’ approach in declaring ‘war’ against TVB -- the behind-the-scenes production crew, which consists primarily of producers, scriptwriters, and directors who were ‘poached’ from TVB earlier in the year, seem to be especially motivated in this ‘battle’ against their former employer. Based on the preview clips of the 12 series shown during HKTV’s Sales Presentation, the subject matter explored as well as filming techniques used definitely break through the ‘usual’ family friendly fare we are used to seeing with TVB. Despite the fact that HKTV has not gotten their free-to-air TV license yet and Ricky Wong is ‘burning money’ every day with virtually no incoming profits, that has not stopped the fledgling station from continuing their recruitment efforts -- reportedly, Ricky Wong has targeted a bunch of artists whose contracts with TVB are scheduled to expire in 2014. Given that a ‘fierce battle’ between the 2 stations appears to be ‘inevitable’ at this point, it’s no surprise then that TVB does not dare to let down its guard – on the day of HKTV’s Sales Presentation (December 4th), TVB urgently called together many of their first / second line siu sangs and fadans to participate in a special Anniversary Awards promotional event to ‘showcase’ their continued dominance in the TV realm.
The biggest advantage of working under Ricky Wong’s leadership is the ‘unlimited freedom’ that he gives his staff. Not having to worry about the ‘burdens’ and limitations that other companies face, HKTV is therefore able to take a more ‘daring’ approach with their series, exploring themes and topics that HK audiences are not used to seeing. For example: in the horror-themed series Frightful Century (驚異世紀) – starring Dominic Lam (林嘉華), Leila Tong (唐寧), Noelle Leung (梁小冰), etc. – there are many gory, bloody, graphic scenes such as someone eating internal organs, a person’s detached head rolling off of a body, a severed head inside a washing machine, etc. – the ‘scariness’ factor is through the roof! In the media news –themed series Fiery News Catalyst (導火新聞線) led by Noelle Leung and Catherine Chau (周家怡), a pregnant woman jumps off the top of a building after her identity as the victim of a rape case is revealed by a news agency. Even though the ‘jumping off a building’ concept is something seen often in TVB series, the biggest difference here is that HKTV uses more than just one or two shots to ‘show’ the situation occurring – the ‘realistic nature’ in which HKTV filmed that particular scene helped them to capture the audiences’ ‘horrified reactions’ to the scene. In the trailer for the plastic surgery-themed medical series Three Sides of Shape Doctors (三面形醫), singer Lesley Chiang (姜麗文) has a kissing scene with actress Candy Cheung Suet Kan (張雪芹), while in the time travel series Second Life (第二人生), Wilfred Lau (劉浩龍) and Chao Sin Wan (趙善桓) also share a same sex kiss scene – these types of scenes hardly ever appear in HK television series. Even the 2 ‘heavyweight’ series – Hakka Women (客家女人) starring Maggie Cheung (張可頤) and Prudence Liew (劉美君), and Age of Housing Passion (歲月樓情) starring Ha Yu (夏雨), Paw Hee Ching (鮑起靜), and Felix Wong (黃日華) – have a very meticulous style to its filming and storytelling -- with its ‘movie-like’ feel, the trailers definitely give a feeling of ‘freshness’.
HKTV’s series are both ‘spicy’ and ‘non-spicy’
After the trailers were released, some audiences claimed that HKTV is trying too hard to break through the barriers of traditional HK television by ‘pushing the envelope’ and challenging broadcasting industry standards. During an interview with our magazine, HKTV’s chairman Ricky Wong responded by saying that his station is not trying to ‘push the limits’ just for the heck of it – instead, they are trying to take all audience’s tastes into consideration: “To put it simply: some people like to eat ‘spicy’ foods and some people don’t! Our plans include 2 different versions of the series – the version that airs on television will be for those audiences who can’t take ‘spicy’ things while the web version will be for those who are able to take the ‘spiciness’. Since there are fewer restrictions with the Internet, there will be some scenes in the series that will only be available in the on-line version. We have some staff who actually worked at the Broadcasting Authority [TN: now called Communications Authority] before and so are very familiar with broadcasting regulations and restrictions. Our goal is to produce programming that reflects everyday life and also gives a realistic feeling.”
Targeting artists whose contracts expire in 2014
As for recent rumors that HKTV is already ‘targeting’ artists whose contracts with TVB expire at the end of 2013 / beginning of 2014, with quite a few lead actors and actresses amongst them, Ricky Wong confirmed that was the case, but would not provide further details: “I won’t reveal any names – all I can say is that the number of additional artists will range anywhere from 20 to 30 people.”
Even with the number of artists that HKTV currently has, there are only a handful – such as Felix Wong, Maggie Cheung, Frankie Lam, etc. – who can truly be considered ‘first-line’ leading actors/actresses. Towards this, Ricky Wong explained: “From the beginning, it has always been harder to find good supporting ‘green leaf’ actors/actresses, such as Felix Lok (駱應鈞), Samuel Kwok (郭峰), etc. Back during the previous TV wars, Rediffusion Television (RTV) tried ‘poaching’ many leading actors and actresses, yet in the end, they still weren’t able to win. Actually, it’s not difficult to find good-looking young actors / actresses in their 20s – only problem is that these types of artists are the ones who are also easy to replace. That’s why I feel that it’s more important to ensure the foundation is strong by ensuring that the ‘pillars’ are steady – this means having a large number of talented, experienced artists with strong acting skills on hand. At the same time, you may feel that some of the artists are relatively unknown with television audiences – such as award-winning theater actor Poon Chan Leung (潘燦良) and Joman Chiang (蔣祖曼) for instance – but that’s because we don’t have our license yet and so we aren’t able to provide a ‘platform’ to introduce them to TV audiences; however, once we have that ‘platform’, things will be different, since TV audiences will get the chance to become familiar with them. Also, in addition to recruiting experienced artists, we are also in the process of training quite a few newcomers.” [TN: Many people may not realize this, since the Media has not focused much on it, but HKTV/CTI does have Acting Classes (as well as Scriptwriting classes, Directing classes, etc.) just like TVB and ATV do. Many of the younger, lesser known artists participating in HKTV’s series are graduates of HKTV/CTI’s Acting Classes.]
Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2300
Translated by: llwy12 @ AsianFanatics
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