No puedo vivir sin ti
Some jobs, though, need public-sector help to complete. The first film the Taipei Film Commission (TFC) worked on after its founding, No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti, is a perfect example.
The script had been percolating in the head of director Leon Dai for a while, but it wasn't until the establishment of the TFC that he had the courage to give it a shot. One reason was the demands of one particular scene-a daylight scene involving a threat to jump off an overpass, which would need a stretch of the high-traffic Zhongxiao East Road to be closed off, with traffic controls and safety facilities in place.
"In the past, we had to do street scenes on the sly, worried that the police would chase us out. I never thought we'd end up with the police helping us shoot by keeping order!" laughs Dai, who is full of praise for the TFC's efforts.
The level of openness on the part of the public sector is also surprising.
Already the Office of the President has provided the Presidential Palace for shooting, even breaking precedent and letting a dog inside. The dog in question, Kangkang from the show Niyada, must have felt like the king of the hill that day, as even the president's own beloved dog hasn't been allowed into his master's offices!
Similarly, even the mayor of Taipei-going back several mayors, in fact-has not set foot on the helipad atop City Hall, but the cast and crew of upcoming film Close to You have. Not only did the Taipei City Government offer use of the City Hall helipad, Mayor Hau Lung-pin even came to see how things were going, bringing coffee and cakes. The city government even organized for the neighboring Grand Hyatt Taipei to switch their lights on a little earlier in the evening to ensure the area around Taipei 101 was lit-up and beautiful.
As well as big things like closing roads and coordinating pyrotechnics, Taiwan's civil servants have also helped out in various smaller, less obvious ways.
For example, for better ambience in Taipei night scenes, Au Revoir Taipei needed some street lights on and others off. However, the lighting system is totally computer controlled, meaning the Parks and Street Lights Office had to send someone to manually take down the lights the filmmakers didn't need.
Another scene, of dancing in a street, needed a dream-like atmosphere, and so they asked for a street sprinkler truck to wet the road, using the steam that rose and the light from the street lights to create the interplay of light and shadow they wanted.
Finding locations, organizing helicopters, lending prisoner transports... the Kaohsiung City Government held nothing back in its support of Black & White, helping the producers achieve even the most impossible of missions.