Paying the price for perfection
Getting the resources for period pieces is difficult given the current scale of the Taiwanese television industry. Sets and props need to be developed from scratch, and in the case of A Touch of Green, the air-force theme simply made things even harder.
For authenticity’s sake, the production team had to set up two aircraft hangars and build two full-size replica fighter planes. “We might not be able to shoot sweeping, epic scenes,” Tsao told the team, “but if we get every little stitch on the clothing and every little detail on the props absolutely perfect, those little details will accumulate. If we stick to that, we’ll make something spectacular.”
Although the production received NT$60 million in subsidies from the Ministry of Culture, more than three years of preproduction work caused costs to escalate to over NT$180 million, leaving quite the shortfall. Even a few days before shooting began, Tsao reveals, the finances were still not all locked in. The troubles they faced are a microcosm of the television industry in Taiwan as a whole, and thinking back on it still gives Tsao chills.
“Finding the funding for this really gave me a sense of the depressing situation this industry is in. Everyone wants to buy up Korean and Chinese dramas, but meanwhile we couldn’t find the money we needed. Some people suggested we shrink down the scope of the project, but I was utterly unwilling to compromise on quality. If we didn’t make the show, we would be in breach of our contract with the Ministry of Culture and would be liable for at least NT$30 million. But if we just charged onward, we might lose even more, so we were really between a rock and a hard place.”
Fortunately, an entrepreneur stepped in near the last second with a large cash injection, and while not all the expenses were covered, they were at least able to get started with shooting.
Over the seven-plus-month shooting schedule, Tsao simultaneously took on the roles of director, producer, and executive producer. This just added to the pressure, to the point where on several occasions Tsao wasn’t sure he’d be able to make it through. “We had a total of nearly 900 scenes to shoot, and every day we didn’t shoot we lost at least NT$200,000, so we followed a ten days on, one day off schedule. Fortunately we did have support from the military and our CGI team, but even so we were still hard up for money. Meanwhile the crew and actors would be out all day shooting under the blistering sun, so much so that I barely even want to go out into the sun again for a good year now that we’re done.”
Golden-Bell-winning director Tsao Jui-yuan (right) says that Taiwan needs a more comprehensive policy toward the television industry, to help the industry prosper through broader cooperation. (photo by Jimmy Lin)