After brainstorming through many possible topics to conduct a research on, we have decided to embark on our study, which is along the lines of "The recent rise of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan films in Melbourne". My other group members who have bravely decided to conduct this seemingly uphill task is Dengli, Melissa, Pei Huan and Yi Ying. We concurred on this particular topic for a number of reasons. Firstly, we all share a common interest in film and cinema and thought that by undertaking this research topic, we can find out more about the local film and cinema industry and what makes it tick. Secondly, we are all from different parts of Asia, this supposedly gives us an edge in dealing with matters pertaining to Asian cinema, hopefully. Lastly, we all have some experience with the film and media and hope to expand on what we already know, thus honing our knowledge and specialisation in this area.
Although we are all in this together and working as a group in general, we have taken on different roles which are important for this project to work. After much discussion, Yi Ying is our Secretary and her tasks include taking down the notes for our meeting to keep us all up to date with our day to day, Dengli is to be the Editor of the audio and visual pieces that we will be taking to hopefully come up with a video documentary of what we have done, Pei Huan is the Project Manager who will be vital in steering the direction of the project and making sure the project runs smoothly and finally, Melissa is the Director of Photography for all the video footages that we are going to take for our video documentary. My role in this task is that of the interviewer. I will be the one who will conduct the interviews with the relevant parties that influence the steadily rising influx of Asian films in Melbourne.
For my role, we have contacted cinemas that are located around Melbourne's city area like Cinema Nova, Chinatown Cinema, Hoyts and Village Cinemas to ask who are the relevant people who decides to bring Asian films in and if we can have the permission to conduct an interview with them to understand why they think that it is profitable to bring in more Asian films in Melbourne where majority of the population are not Asians. Unfortunately, we have not received any response from some of the companies. Furthermore, those that have responded have indicated that they are not willing to have a video interview, this might be due to them not wanting to appear on screen, or certain restrictions that are placed on them by their company policies.
The strategies that we have used are mainly careful and systematic planning for what we will do and setting a time line. That motivates us to move forward to meet our own deadlines. What we have planned for now is that we will need to contact the relevant people to request a for n interview, which we have done, begin our research and come up with surveys that will aid us in information and statistics collection for this study, checking for clearance with Mr David Carlin so as to make sure we have access to the filming equipment that we need to have to conduct our interviews and more. Lastly, we are also doing intensive research on our students' rights for copyright benefits so that we will not unknowingly break the law with regard to that issue.
Regarding the problems that I have encountered, first of all is the delayed response time that the companies have when replying to my emails. It has been about a week since I last e-mailed Hoyts, but I have yet to receive a reply from them. When I approached the Melbourne Central branch of Hoyts on Wednesday to ask them how to contact them and that if I could speak to their manager to inquire more about this, all I got from them was a direct e-mail to their office and an explanation that response to it might take some time as they then needed to request for clearance from their head office (which I have already sent an e-mail to) to grant them permission to conduct an interview with us. All this red tape is time consuming.
My next problem is my unfamiliarity with the local film and cinema industry. As I have only been here for around two months, my knowledge of the local film and media scene in Melbourne pales in comparison with my knowledge of the film and media industry back home in Singapore.
I intend to solve my problems through a variety of ways that are simple yet effective. First of all, I will call the companies frequently to check on the status of how far their requests for clearance have gone to. Hopefully, this will give them a sense of urgency and will eventually lead to them replying to us faster than before. Secondly, to improve my knowledge of the local film and media industry, I will have to mingle with more people who are working in the industry now or have considerable knowledge of how the local film and media industry is and what makes it tick.
I believe that with the direction that our study is headed, it can tie in with other research that will stem out from the Asian Media major as it ties in with how film makers in Asia are coming up with films that have more of a global appeal as considered to simply appealing to the local audience because they hope that their films will have a shot in Western countries. It can also be studied on how the rise in Asian films are changing the perceptions of people who have watched them, especially the Western perception of the East with references from what they have seen in Asian films.
It can also tie in with the Cinema Studies major as it can be used to show how the influx of Asian media in Australia has affected the local film makers. Either they can draw from the Asian directors' cinematic style and further improve on it or they can learn what elements of film Asian directors usually put into their films and try to make local productions that will have a shot at the Asian film market.
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