Only recently, 4As agencies in China were complaining about poor
personnel skills and lack of high-end post facilities as reasons for not
producing more TVCs in China.
But now, the trend towards localisation, the arrival of foreign-backed
production houses and lower mainland production costs are conspiring to
help them reconsider, said agency executives.
According to Saatchi & Saatchi Beijing managing director James Keller,
"Production facilities have improved greatly along with the quality of
local talent and crews", a view shared by Mr Tomaz Mok, MD/ECD of
McCann-Erickson Guangming Beijing.
"If we had the choice, we should shoot and produce in China," said Mr
Mok.
The change of mood is partly due to foreign invested production houses,
which are now starting to offer the high-end services previously
missing.
Mr Ian Maycock, managing director of Australian-backed Creative
Interface in Beijing, said that his company "delivers the same quality
as Hong Kong".
"The difference is that clients in China can oversee the production
process here without having to fly overseas all the time," he said.
Pacesetter Pictures International, also a foreign-invested production
house, has been filling the high-end production niche since 1992.
Last year, it was the first to introduce motion control to China and
flew in talent from Los Angeles to complete a TVC for Sony.
"We don't just import the hardware itself, we make sure that the correct
artists are part of the package," said PPI director Dan Mintz.
Exposure to international talent is vital for further development of the
industry, as Frankie Chan, general manager of Grey Beijing pointed
out.
"Post production in China is still bad; however, exposure to working
with different people, especially outside talent will make a big
difference," he said.
Client demands or the preferences of the director might also rule out
the option of producing in China.
"You need to negotiate with the director, but in the end you do what he
wants to do," said Euro RCSG Great Ocean Partnership Beijing general
manager Mason Lin.
For a recent TVC for Lintas client Unilever, PPI secured permission to
shoot in the Forbidden City, recruited 400 extras and built an indoor
set at Beijing Film Studio.
However, once the shoot had been completed, Hong Kong director Gera
preferred to take the post work back to Hong Kong.
While most agencies are positive about the changes, they still produce
more than 50 per cent of their TVCs for the mainland outside China.
"It still very much depends on the needs of the commercial," said
Saatchis' Mr Keller.
"While commercials shot in China become more relevant for the Chinese
consumer and more cost effective, for technical reasons we might go to
Hong Kong."
According to Euro's Mr Lin, post-production involving complicated
computer graphics and animation are still best done in Hong Kong, Taiwan
or Australia.
"Often creative directors don't want to risk producing in China," he
said.
However, he noted, there are also more down-to-earth reasons for the
prevailing China-phobia: "(Agencies and film crews) might just want to
have a good time going abroad."
Source: CMM Intelligence.
