Broadcasters across Asia have resumed various levels of production following months of lockdowns and Covid-19 containment measures.

Regular production is back on track at China’s Hunan TV, while in Hong Kong, local broadcast giant TVB has already started filming two dramas – 七公主 (Seven Princesses, working title) and 超能使者 – this month. A third drama, 刑偵日記, starts in early June.

TVB says precautionary measures are being taken on set, including wearing masks in recording studios, observing hand hygiene and increased cleaning and disinfection in studios.

Also in Hong Kong, PCCW Media-owned free-TV broadcaster, ViuTV, says production is back on track and work has resumed on Ladies in the City (working title), Ink at Taiping and We are the Littles. Like the rest of the production industry, back-to-work measures include the full range of precautions, including temperature screening and minimising headcount on set.

In Korea, free-TV broadcaster MBC says production continues as scheduled, excluding shows with live audiences. The same goes for cable broadcaster CJ ENM, which says production is resuming slowly. 

“All weekly entertainment reality shows, such as Home Alone, weekly singing contest show, King of the Masked Singer, and all drama series were filmed every week regardless of the Covid-19 situation” and with strict precautions, says Jean Hur, MBC’s international relations director.

In Ulaanbaatar, it has been business as usual for Mongolian broadcaster NTV since April after a month’s pause in March. NTV premiered entertainment programme My Wife Rules (12x45 mins, 6pm Sunday) on 26 April and Little Master (12x60 mins) on 25 April, says Shinetsetseg Jargalsaikhan, NTV’s head of programming.

In Taiwan, Dentsu-owned The Story Lab Taiwan's assistant producer, Jane Lau, says production has continued throughout, albeit with strict compliance with the country's social distancing measures.

 

 

Broadcasters across the region are exploring alternative formats, including virtual events with stronger online elements, and story lines that incorporate new social realities.

Hong Kong TVB, for instance, is taking its annual Miss Hong Kong Pageant into a virtual space later this year, with expanded global participation replacing the usual on-ground event.

TVB says the move is part of a broader shift to launch a more diverse slate of content on online platform Big Big Channel “owing to the great impact and growing concerns over the Covid-19 pandemic”.

In India, where a nationwide movement controls kicked on 25 March and have been extended to 31 May, broadcasters have piled into lockdown-friendly content that allows them to create shows without breaking the rules. Similar innovation is happening across the creative industry in Asia. 

South Asian streamer Eros Now released short-form web series A Viral Wedding – Made in Lockdown on 9 May. The eight-part series is about couples willing to say “I do” virtually. The actors filmed themselves and the show was produced by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K.

Viacom18’s music and English entertainment channel, Vh1 India, went live with Vh1 Quarantunes on day one of the lockdown. The network now says viewership has soared three times higher than pre-Covid.

 

 

In the Philippines, filmmaker Adolfo Alix Jr is drawing on the experience for new projects. Unlocked, an anthology of stories about gay couples and how the quarantine situation in the Philippines has affected their relationship. He says all precautions are being taken to ensure safely, including shooting on Zoom.

Also in the Philippines, ABS-CBN's streaming platform, iWant, launched its first lock-down original feature, Love Lockdown, a “sexy suspense film” about lovers in quarantine, on Friday, 15 April. The three-part feature involves seven people “entangled by love, obsession and betrayal” and three stories that begin with a couple blissfully quarantined together until his wife discovers an affair, setting off a series of events that draws in other people in isolation. The film was shot by the artists themselves from their homes guided by directors Andoy Ranay, Darnel Villaflor, Noel Escondo and Emmanuel Palo, and produced by Dreamscape Entertainment.

In Indonesia, production continues – slowly and in different formats, with animation production faring best.

Rajawali Televisi (RTV) continues to produce kids shows Dubi Dubi Dam and Fun Times – home version via Zoom. But no other production has resumed, says Rajawali Televisi (RTV) CEO, Artine Utomo.

Malaysia-based animation studio, Les' Copaque Production, is also carrying on with the new season of kids' title Upin & Ipin. The studio said all safety measures had been implemented. 

Les’ Copaque’s international marketing manager, Karyabudi Mohd Aris, says office space utilisation has been adjusted in line with Covid-19 containment measures different processes have been put in place to ensure the team is able to work from home without compromsing output.

One of Indonesia’s most prolific producers, the Jakarta-based Screenplay Productions, paused all production in March as a result of a government-mandated lockdown, and is preparing to stay off set possibly until the end of June.

Screenplay COO Wicky Olindo says shows impacted are Perempuan Bergaun Merah (The Girl in the Red Dress), Virgo and Sri Asih. Production will resume when the government lifts the lockdown, he says.

 

For many, on-set activity has been replaced by development.

Although still not allowing filming, Iskandar Malaysia Studios (IMS) has opened parts of the sprawling complex for pre-production. IMS suspended operations from 18 March in line with the government’s movement control order.

Antony Tulloch, IMS GM for studio ops & film services, says strict SOPs are in place, including deep cleaning and social distancing.

Also in Malaysia, Revolution Media’s Zainir Aminullah, who executive produced Netflix horror series The Ghost Bride, says three film projects are in pre-production. Shooting is tentatively scheduled for later this year.

Fremantle’s Jakarta-based Indonesia production outfit, which ended Indonesian Idol S10 in March, is in pre-production on classic game show Price is Right, with shooting scheduled to take place at the end of June, and on Indonesian Idol S11, with auditions scheduled to open in July 2020. A third project involves podcasts.

Fremantle Indonesia’s (PT Dunia Visitama Produksi) co-managing director, Victor Ariesza, says the company’s activities on the ground are governed by Indonesian government guidelines as well as by strict regulations from HQ in the U.K.

For Singapore-based regional online video platform, Viddsee Studios, production has ground to a complete halt and new activity is focused around pre- and post-production as well as on new government initiatives designed to keep the creative industry engaged and paid.

Viddsee’s co-founder and CEO, Ho Jia Jian, says his team is busy vetting and finalising concepts for the next slate of original series, shorts and social documentaries, slated for release later this year, pandemic measures permitting.

On 11 May, Viddsee sent out a call for proposals for its StoriesTogether Content Fund, which is part of the S$8 million Public Service Content fund announced by regulator, the Infocomms Media Development Fund (IMDA) on 14 April.

Ho expects remote pre-production to become the norm along with new video-assist solutions that allow directors, supervisors and stakeholders to remotely direct and provide feedback.

Life for news platforms in Asia is, predictably, dramatically different.

Juggling record consumption with safety demands to deliver on the global story of the moment, news outlets are operating with split teams, safe distancing, a giant stash of sanitisers, and a major responsibility to keep populations up to date with the shifting pandemic situation. 

Singapore's national media network Mediacorp says the government's strict guidelines are being followed to the letter. While on-air TV and radio news presenters are not required to wear the mandatory masks when outside their homes, everyone else is 100% masked-up and operating according to the country's "circuit breaker" rules. Mediacorp says the protocols it has established also extends to all contractors involved in its productions and operations. 

The struggle is real in another way for Vietnamese producer/distributor, Vietba Media.  

Returning to the studio this month to produce a sitcom, the production house along with the entire industry has had to grapple with a country-wide advertising slowdown.

Vietba’s programme acquisition manager Truong Thanh Hang, says one entertainment show has been delayed to October not as a direct result of Covid-19 containment measures but because the advertising environment has shifted.

The issue now is less about the ability to roll out safe production procedures than it is to gather the funding to make the shows possible at all.

An abridged version of this feature was published in ContentAsia's eNewsletter on 19 May 2020