HONG KONG: The lights are back on and the cameras are rolling again as Hong Kong's film industry steps out of its dark days into a promising future in close collaboration with the mainland's booming film industry.

Talent is the hard currency of the future. There's the challenge. Many film industry people have moved overseas. Many quit when the industry, after a Golden Age in the 1980s, sank. Once the world's third largest film industry, turning out more than 300 titles a year, production declined to about 50 films a year in the 1990s. Now the film industry is scrambling to address an immense shortage of professionals to meet the development.

Facing the urgent need for talent, Hong Kong Baptist University's Academy of Film, established in June of last year, is now recruiting students for the next academic year, offering a syllabus of script writing, direction, production management, production technique and acting.

Hong Kong film is a genre whose golden age came replete with fast-motion kung-fu combats, ghosts of dead ancestors and crimes.

"People believe Hong Kong movies mainly focus on kung fu, martial arts, criminal or ghosts subjects," says Cheuk Pak-tong, director of the Academy of Film. As a man who considers himself a "practical dreamer with vision", he would like to see the stereotype of Hong Kong films change.

"In the past decades, there were realistic films apart from kung fu and ghost movies. Hong Kong people enjoy freedom of speech and thus people apply this in films. Therefore, it created various kinds of genres," Cheuk said. "I expect Hong Kong to produce musicals and science fiction in the future."

With that outlook in mind the Academy of Film has incorporated a broad range of electives embracing philosophy and various aspects of culture.

The Academy of Film believes it has an advantage over other academies in the way it has integrated various talents over a short period of time.

Special consultants, such as Academy Award-winning directors including John Woo and Hou Hsiao Hsien, are great assets to the school.

"We can invite 20 or 30 directors and producers to teach our students, while other academies only have one or two," Cheuk said.

Movie productions rely heavily on artistic collaboration. the school quickly established cooperative links around the world. "We maintain close relationships with other movie schools such as the University of Southern California and the All-Russian State University of Cinematography. We also cooperate with movie schools in Europe, Asia and Chinese mainland," Cheuk said.

Cheuk predicts the fast growth of movie production on the mainland will provide terrific impetus for Hong Kong film makers.

"The market is there," Cheuk continued. "We only produced 50 commercial films last year, it is not enough."

"Bollywood in India churns out more than 800 films a year. China can consume more than 2,000 films a year. In view of the potential huge market on the mainland, I am sure Hong Kong's movie industry will start coming back soon," Cheuk noted.

In the expectation of increased demand, Cheuk urged the Hong Kong government to put in more resources in assisting "young film makers".

Moreover, the government should provide more training, not just in terms of technology, but also in the basic knowledge of film production, he suggested.

Movie industry surely is a big money game but not as profitable as most people think. Only about half of Hong Kong productions earn money. That's still better than Hollywood's record. About 80 to 85 percent of films produced by Hollyood lose money.

Despite the risks, investors still would put money in movies because it is possible to make a profit, Cheuk said, adding that the glamour is also an attraction to investors as long as the economy is sound and steady.

"We now focus on the mainland market," Cheuk concluded. "The huge market will compensate for what we have lost in the past."

(HK Edition 01/29/2010 page1)