{"id":19748,"date":"2023-12-12T08:50:46","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T13:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2024-02-05T08:29:54","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T13:29:54","slug":"asian-academy-creative-awards-best-drama-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/asian-academy-creative-awards-best-drama-panel\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian Academy Creative Awards: Best Drama Panel"},"content":{"rendered":"
Several nominees for best drama at the Asian Academy Creative Awards (AACAs) weighed in on time constraints, co-pro potential and premium storytelling at a panel at the National Winners Conference in Singapore last week.<\/em><\/p>\n Moving from daily dramas to premium storytelling, budget constraints and the importance of having ample development time dominated the conversation at the best drama panel at the AACAs National Winners Conference. The session, moderated by Mansha Daswani, editor-in-chief of\u00a0World Screen<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0TV Drama<\/em>, featured an array of national winners ahead of the regional winners being crowned at a gala ceremony in Singapore on December 7. The award for best drama in the region went to Netflix\u2019s Korean entry\u00a0The Glory.\u00a0<\/em>The session at the AACAs\u2019 National Winners\u00a0 In a region that has long been dominated by quick-turnaround, daily drama production, moving to more premium storytelling has been a bit of a learning curve.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of our broadcast background, we\u2019re so used to rushing our writers,\u201d said Bayani, representing\u00a0Cattleya Killer<\/em>\u00a0on the panel. The Filipino series was adapted from a 1997 feature film and acquired by Prime Video. \u201cWhen it came time to produce a premium series like\u00a0Cattleya<\/em>, we thought six months on the script would be enough. Looking back, creatives should be given more time to develop their scripts. To achieve a certain quality, you need to be able to get your characters right and balance the different tones and textures. Now, I have mandated that it will be a minimum of a year. That may not be a big thing in the U.S., but it\u2019s not usual here in Southeast Asia. We have teams working on projects for three years from now, five years from now. I think that\u2019s a bold step in respecting the craft of writing and allowing for proper development. It\u2019s not the mindset our corporate bosses would appreciate, but you need to champion this. If we want to compete at the [international] level, writers, showrunners, directors and producers should adjust their timetables to allow greater efficiency and better quality.\u201d<\/p>\n Low discussed the short time frame available for the production of\u00a0Oppa, Saranghae!<\/em>, which emerged from a Mediacorp call for pitches last August, with a requirement that the show be ready by March. \u201cThe good thing about our short timeline is that we get minimum disturbance from the [commissioner],\u201d Low quipped. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have the chance to have a misstep. It takes a lot of experience and coordination with the whole team.\u201d That the series required a show within a show\u2014its main character is obsessed with a Korean drama and winds up pulling its lead out of the TV and into her contemporary life\u2014presented an additional hurdle.<\/p>\n Goonting also discussed the challenges of insufficient time for scripting and production. \u201cOne Cent Thief<\/em>\u00a0is the story of a bank teller stealing one cent at a time\u2014how do you dramatize that and make it more exciting? The development process was long, but it wasn\u2019t very long. We need more time. We have evolved since five or six years ago, when scripts were written in one or two months. Now we have six months. Writing a series while maintaining that premium quality, elevated from your daily dramas, is challenging. When it goes to production, we have 45 to 50 days to shoot. Netflix shows have 70 to 80 scenes. We want to aspire to that. It\u2019s not just the writing time; it\u2019s the shooting time. We have to keep it within 40 or 50 scenes per episode to finish. If we go above that, we bust our budget or have to split units. We all need time and more money.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want a longer schedule, you need more money,\u201d noted Mizuno, who scored the best director award for his work on\u00a0Rebooting<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s getting easier [for shows to] travel internationally. I\u2019m exploring more international co-pros. It\u2019s attractive from a creative point of view but also from the point of the budget; I think it\u2019s useful to have a lot of partners.\u201d<\/p>\n Time wasn\u2019t the biggest challenge for the producers of Indonesia\u2019s\u00a0Broken Heart<\/em>, which follows four young men \u201cfacing their quarter-life crisis,\u201d Suwarto explained. \u201cIt\u2019s the first Javanese series. Sixty percent of Indonesians live in Java, and about 40 percent speak Javanese, but there\u2019s never been a Javanese-language series. It was too risky. We did it anyway. It didn\u2019t quite work out on TV. It\u2019s very difficult to read the subtitles; that was a lesson learned. But it did well on OTT. It destroyed every record for Indonesia at the time. We had 1 million views every episode, every day. TV didn\u2019t want to commission a second season. The OTT platform did.\u201d<\/p>\n Crying Forest<\/em>, meanwhile, was made a year after Myanmar\u2019s coup, in a market that is still maturing when it comes to premium drama production. Malchiodi has been encouraged by the series\u2019 success, noting that it has traveled to markets such as Vietnam, Belgium and Germany. \u201cThe horror genre is quite strong everywhere in the world,\u201d Malchiodi noted. \u201cMyanmar is a mix of tradition and modernity. It\u2019s a mix of an old generation and a new generation. Asia is becoming very important in the international market, not only from a trend point of view but also the technique, the quality of production and the premium style. You have to keep the quality and loyalty to your audience and still be premium. We have the ingredients and have to find the right balance.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, on the importance of recognition from the AACAs, Bayani noted: \u201cIt\u2019s always better to have another reason to aspire for more, to work harder, to achieve better quality and improve everything from storytelling to technical quality. And visibility. To use the win, either a national win or a win [regionally], in our longtail marketing and distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n Sophiya made a similar point in discussing the recognition for Cambodia\u2019s\u00a0Weight of Love<\/em>, which touches on the themes of family, motherhood, body acceptance and mental health. \u201cWe want to bring our film industry around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Time constraints, co-pro potential and premium storytelling were in focus at a panel at the National Winners Conference in Singapore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":19749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,70],"tags":[5593,8235,8232,8233,8238,8234,8237,8236,8239],"class_list":["post-19748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-asian-academy-creative-awards","tag-damiano-malchiodi","tag-david-s-suwarto","tag-itaru-mizuno","tag-jayde-lin","tag-kyle-goonting","tag-molby-low","tag-ruel-bayani","tag-sophiya","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n
Conference featured David S. Suwarto, director at PT Surya Citra Media for\u00a0Broken Heart<\/em>\u00a0from Indonesia; Itaru Mizuno, director of Nippon TV\u2019s\u00a0Rebooting<\/em>\u00a0from Japan; Kyle Goonting, representing Astro Malaysia\u2019s\u00a0One Cent Thief<\/em>; Damiano Malchiodi, content production director at CANAL+ Myanmar for\u00a0Crying Forest<\/em>; Ruel Bayani, head of ABS-CBN International Production, which made the Philippines\u2019 winning entry,\u00a0Cattleya Killer<\/em>; Molby Low, founder of Singaporean production outfit Wawa Pictures, which made\u00a0Oppa, Saranghae!<\/em>\u00a0for Mediacorp; Jayde Lin, CEO of DaMou Entertainment, producer of Taiwan\u2019s\u00a0Wave Makers<\/em>; and Sophiya, representing Cambodia\u2019s winning entry,\u00a0Weight of Love<\/em>.<\/p>\n