Taiwan Today

The public and academic sectors are stepping up efforts to train the next generation of film and TV industry professionals.

In Taipei City’s Gongguan area near the banks of the Xindian River is a steep embankment covered in trees and a mishmash of brick and concrete structures. Treasure Hill, as this unique community is called, traces its origins back to the late 1940s when newly arrived Kuomintang soldiers needed quarters near the anti-aircraft guns that protected the south of the city. Today the buildings are occupied by a very different sort.

Upon arriving at Treasure Hill, one will invariably see curious visitors popping in and out of small art studios transformed from spaces that once housed soldiers, military dependents and eventually illegal squatters. The area is popular with tourists from home and abroad. They mingle with artists and students on their way to classes in some of the spaces renovated by Taipei Media School (TMS), which works to cultivate the next generation of Taiwan’s film and television talent. “The art exhibitions and other activities that take place here help broaden my horizons as I explore the world of media creation,” said Woody Yang (楊舜仁‬), one of the 71 students taking classes at the school, which opened in September 2016.

Founded under the auspices of Taipei City Government, TMS is an experimental initiative that operates outside the mainstream education system and therefore has complete freedom in drawing up curriculums and schedules. It is also able to hire instructors rich in experience but lacking official teaching certificates. TMS recruits junior high school graduates and above with a passion for media work. “As the only institution of its kind in Taiwan, we hope to unlock students’ potential in the media industry at a relatively young age,” said Tim Chen (陳怡光), the school’s director.

TMS requires students to spend around four hours each day in the classroom. The rest of their time is dedicated to working on assignments such as making films or taking part in internships. “They sometimes go on short trips, guided by their teachers, to places frequented by disadvantaged members of society,” Chen said. “Contact with all sorts of people, especially the underprivileged, lends depth to their works.”

Learning from the Pros

In a bid to boost the local cultural and creative sector, the Ministry of Culture (MOC) has put in motion plans that provide support to fledgling artists and students like those at TMS. One of the ministry’s projects involves inviting foreign experts to Taiwan to act as mentors for young filmmakers. For example, since 2015 the MOC has welcomed industry professionals recommended by the organizers of the Festival of 3 Continents, an annual film festival in western France’s Nantes, to give advice to selected teams of filmmakers through intensive training sessions. They discuss issues such as how to improve scripts, raise funding and create attractive film proposal presentations. The effort has borne fruit, as evidenced by works like “The Last Painting” by initiative participant Chen Hung-i (陳宏一). A thriller about art, murder and politics, Chen’s film was entered in the Big Screen Competition at the 2017 International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

In June 2017, the MOC expanded its reach by providing subsidies to local production companies so they can arrange for experts from home and abroad to help develop promising TV drama scripts. The ministry also organizes the annual Television Screenwriting Awards, and helps winners pitch their works to local production houses. Meanwhile, MOC-funded training sessions are arranged by industry groups, TV companies and higher education institutions in the areas of acting, screenwriting and technical filmmaking.

One of the ministry’s goals is to ensure that local talent keeps up with industry trends. “Modern audiences are able to access diverse platforms for viewing content produced anywhere in the world,” said MOC Deputy Minister Ting Hsiao-ching (丁曉菁). “Local professionals must have the know-how to cash in on this phenomenon and explore overseas markets.”

To further develop the skill sets of burgeoning filmmakers, the government has initiated programs designed to provide students with real-world experience. For instance, the MOC offers media companies grants that can be used toward the production of TV shows or films, or for equipment upgrades. In return, beneficiaries are required to offer internship opportunities, which Ting said are invaluable in that they allow senior industry players to pass on their knowledge and skills to the next generation.

“Communication arts is very popular among young people, in large part due to the rise of new media and advanced mobile devices capable of distributing information,” said Yeh Chi-ku (葉基固), chair of Taipei-based Shih Hsin University’s Department of Radio, Television and Film, which traces its origins back to 1962. The academic said Taiwan tertiary institutions have set up nearly 50 departments and graduate schools geared toward the media industry.

Today’s students are outdoing older generations in terms of creativity, according to Yeh. “High schoolers nowadays have access to an extraordinary variety of content, from art house cinema to self-made YouTube videos. They also learn how to make films on their own with software that is readily available before they ever attend college,” he said. “That means teachers must continue to learn and keep pace with the most recent trends abroad in order to truly inspire students.”

Progressing with the Times

To stay relevant, curriculums are including the latest industry concepts. In 2015, for example, Yeh’s department opened an undergraduate course in drone filmmaking. The professor said the class was partially inspired by “Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above,” a 2013 documentary that made international headlines and caused public reflection on Taiwan’s environmental challenges. A course in virtual reality (VR) applications in filmmaking, meanwhile, was launched at the graduate level in 2016. This latest addition to the curriculum reflects the growing popularity of the medium. Last year, the Venice International Film Festival for the first time accepted submissions in the VR category. Two works by Taiwan filmmakers were selected for inclusion in the competition, “The Sandroom,” co-produced by Huang Hsin-chien (黃心健‬) and American Laurie Anderson, and “The Deserted” by Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮), with the former winning the Best VR Experience Award.

In September 2017, Shih Hsin University began offering a course that teaches students how to use big data analysis of words and phrases on social networks to find out what subject matter will best attract the attention of modern audiences. “Currently, the local film industry gains a great deal of knowledge about what interests Taiwan moviegoers through feedback given after screenings. But we hope to identify this beforehand by looking into what is being hotly discussed online,” said Yeh, who himself took classes in the relatively novel field at the Institute for Information Industry, a government-supported research organization in Taipei.

With the public and academic sectors dedicated to developing talent in drama production and introducing new concepts and techniques, the local film and TV industry has every reason to be optimistic. “Taiwan, as an immigration society, is receptive to different cultures, and the young people of today grow up watching content from around the world,” Ting noted. “All this makes for a creative talent pool that will keep the industry vibrant.”

Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw