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| <Past records Project
Report> 07 |
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| Children’s
Drama Production in the Asia-Pacific Circle |
Koji Kanazawa
Executive Producer NHK Entertainment Programs Center (Drama
Programs) |
With an assistance grant from the HBF, the ABU (Asia-Pacific
Broadcasting Union) started in 2004 its international project
to co-produce, a “children’s TV drama series”,
by calling on the broadcasters of the Asia-Pacific region to
take part.
From the planning phase, all fifteen broadcasters, six of whom
joined us in 2004, and nine in 2005, have been working enthusiastically
towards the completion of individual 15-minute drama productions. |
All members in a planning meeting
NHK Broadcasting Center, Tokyo
4 April 2005 |
| In Asia, dramas are fresh, and children so pure
that they can best be described by the word ‘sweet’.
We believe that these dramas will help audiences to learn about
the little known lives of people in Asian countries. |
Each broadcaster is to produce independently a 15-minute programme
that depicts friendship and family love through the cheerful,
active life of children in his/her home country. Avoiding the
use of too many words, we are seriously focusing on children’s
emotions and their fresh and young minds. By doing so, we shall
enable children around the world to share the same feelings,
surmounting language barriers.
Nine dramas will be aired on NHK’s educational channel
in April 2006, during the spring vacation period. The nine broadcasters
for the 2005 project are BBS (Bhutan), RTPRC/CCTV (the People’s
Republic of China), RTHK (Hong Kong), DDI (India), IRIB (Iran),
NHK (Japan), EBS (Korea), RTM (Malaysia) and MRTV (Mongolia).
Each of them will soon be completing their individual 15-minute
dramas, and the nine dramas will all be shared among them free
of charge, to be broadcast by each broadcaster.
In 2005, I undertook responsibility for the project as a co-editor-in-chief
with my NHK colleague Ms Hiroko Sakaue.
The shared theme is the growth of a child’s mind. We have
done our utmost to make the dramas enjoyable for children, rather
than to emphasize their educational aspect. The major target
audience of the dramas should be children in the lower grades,
aged 7~9 years, but we have paid careful attention to storytelling
and producing that will please the whole family.
We held the first planning meeting for the 2005 phase at NHK,
Tokyo in April. The producers all brought their proposed individual
story outlines based on the theme of the growth of young minds
and containing the motif of the bonds of family and friendship.
Then in July, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we further discussed
the storylines or the first drafts of the scripts.
Not only did each producer explain his/her own plans, but the
group also devoted a large amount of time to discussing together
all the proposed plans. This process was critical because all
broadcasters will air the other broadcasters’ programmes
as well.
The participants gave serious attention to discussing all the
plans in a responsible manner, with the aim of making the dramas
even better. While a friendly atmosphere was maintained, incisive
comments flew back and forth among the professional producers
in the room. |
| This is the very first experience of producing
a drama for Mr Javad Hatami of IRIB (Iran) and Ms Kesang Dorjee
of BBS (Bhutan). As might be expected of a producer from Iran,
one of the major film producing countries, Mr Hatami’s
draft storyline, which is about the love between a little girl
and her father who is working away from home, is a very moving
one. The drama that Ms Kesang Dorjee is producing is not only
her first but also her country’s. Expectations are running
high for the results. |
(Right to left)
Ms Elki Poon Yuen-yee, speaking(RTHK, Hong Kong),
Ms Li Lei and Ms Zhang Xiaojian(CCTV, Beijing, China)
Ms Kesang Chuki Dorjee(BBS, Bhutan)
4 April 2005 |
Mr Rao of DDI (India) is an expert on music programming and
a well-known producer in the music field. Ms Li Lei of CCTV
(China), Ms Elki Poon of RTHK (Hong Kong), Mr Chang-young of
EBS (Korea) and Ms Yukie Okamoto of Japan’s NHK are all
drawing great expectations, being producers active in the forefront
of documentary production.
Mr Kamarudin Ambak of RTM (Malaysia) is a busy, but gentle and
trustworthy producer who is in charge of many TV programmes.
Ms Ariunjargal of MRTV (Mongolia) won the Best Children’s
Programme Award in last year’s Japan Prize for her “Friends”,
which she produced and directed herself. She has a fresh sensitivity
which other producers would find hard to emulate.
In the meetings for planning and script briefing, every producer
proposed revisions to the original contents of a drama if he/she
found anything in it unacceptable in his/her home country. This
process is extremely important if an international co-production
project is to be successful. In that sense, by discussing all
the planned contents with all the members, we succeeded in making
a wonderful project “circle” (which also means “in
harmony” in Japanese).
Every country in the Asia-Pacific region has nurtured its own
particular and unique family culture. We believe that in this
ABU Children’s Programme series, the valuable culture
of each country’s everyday life is well depicted and explained
through the growth of the main characters’ rich mind.
We also believe that not a few children in the Asia-Pacific
region will absorb so much that is of great value from this
drama series. We are certain they will learn that children all
over the world live exactly in the same way as they do, laughing
and crying, while joining hands with their families and friends.
We sincerely hope that in the years to come, this drama series
will continue to live in their hearts as a fond memory of their
childhood.
(January, 2006) |
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