In a conversation with Lao Dong reporter, director - People's Artist Khai Hung - former Director of the Television Film Production Center (VFC) affirmed that having a studio for television film crews is a very urgent issue.
“I have been to many countries, visited their magnificent studios, and always wished that Vietnamese films could have studios like that. Of course, it is very difficult to have a studio as grand and spacious as theirs, but at least there must be a studio, even if it is small. However, since I was the Director of VFC until now, the request to have a private studio has not been able to come true,” said director and People’s Artist Khai Hung.
According to People's Artist Khai Hung, when there is no studio, TV crews have to "struggle" with renting and borrowing scenes.
“Finding a suitable setting for the script is already very difficult. If there is a studio, the crew can set up the set as they want. But when searching, we have to try to find the house and setting that best fits the story in the script, we cannot influence or edit too much. On top of that, sometimes, while filming, the neighbor's house is being repaired, the excavator and drill are making a rumbling sound, the crew has to stop because it is too noisy. The filming progress is prolonged, causing costs” – People's Artist Khai Hung recounted.
Director - People's Artist Trong Trinh also affirmed that renting sets causes film crews to face countless tragicomic situations.
“When filming at someone’s house, it depends on the mood of the homeowner couple. When the homeowner couple quarrels, filming must also be stopped. When the couple is angry with each other, they are in a bad mood, and seeing the film crew full of strangers running in and out, it makes them even more annoyed. Some film crews have to stop filming for a few days so that the homeowner couple can make up before continuing filming. That said, renting a set makes film crews work hard in many ways. Especially when the current production technology is to record sound directly. A quiet space is needed to film, if the sound is a little mixed, filming cannot be done. Most countries have studios when they want to develop television dramas” – director Trong Trinh expressed.
According to information from film crews, the price of renting a house as a filming location is usually calculated by the day, the price can range from 500 thousand VND to 1-2 million VND/day of filming depending on whether the house is small or large, spacious or ordinary. If it is a luxury villa, the price may be higher. Moving to remote locations makes film crews have to calculate production costs more carefully.
In the context of the television industry (television and radio) being one of the 12 key areas of the cultural industry by 2030, with a vision to 2045, having a studio for film crews to exploit has been analyzed and mentioned many times by experts at seminars and talks on the cultural industry.
Accordingly, actor Minh Tiep said that in many countries, after the films become famous, the studio area is also exploited for tourism very effectively, bringing in large revenues. Actor Minh Tiep gave examples from China and South Korea - these two countries not only have a rapidly developing film and television industry, but also exploit the studio areas - where the scenes in famous films are set - to become popular tourist areas.
This is also a model for Vietnam to learn from as both television and movies need studios. Developing tourism from movies and studios in parallel will create a large source of revenue.
