HENGDIAN World Studios is the largest filming location on earth.
Dubbed Chinese Hollywood, thousands of historical and costume productions were shot here since its first filming site – Street of Guangzhou – was completed in 1996 for the movie Opium War.
Its most popular screening location is the Forbidden City, an exact replica even in size to the real one in Beijing.
Since late January, the filming base – located in the eastern coastal Zhejiang province, about 150km south of Hangzhou – has been closed in the wake of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.
All shooting sets nationwide were suspended to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.
As the situation improved, it was reported that film and TV crews were planning to resume work at the studios.
A list of crew members and artistes has arrived and they are now undergoing a 14-day quarantine at Hengdian town.
“We cannot wait any longer, the money is burning daily,” a film crew member told the local media.
Although Hengdian World Studios has agreed for them to resume work, the production teams are still one step away from doing work.
All of them, including the celebrities, have to first attend a training session on the prevention and control of the new pneumonia virus, specially designed for the industry by the local government.
After that, they have to sit for an exam and must score perfect 100 points before the respective teams could submit their work applications, together with the health reports of all members.
“This industry is seen as ‘high risk’ because filming involves a big group of people.
“On top of this, those who appear in front of the cameras cannot wear a face mask. The test is more like an educational session. If you fail, you can re-sit until you score a full 100-point,” the crew member added.
The paper has 25 questions consisting of objective and true or false questions related to their basic knowledge on epidemic prevention and control, such as food and health management and personal hygiene.
Apart from this, the teams must also work out a smoother filming process and reduce the number of people to a maximum of 20.
The filming base has opened its door mid-February to a handful of major production houses that met all safety requirements, including having comprehensive prevention and control measures.
And only those who had never left the town throughout the closure or had no contact with people from highly infectious areas were allowed in.
The local media reported that some 6,000 film and TV crews of various production houses had stayed back in the town since the stop-work order began.
The good news is none was infected.
“We could only shoot simple scenes with two to three characters; those with more people have to skip for now until further notice,” said another film crew member.
Last year, 304 films and TV series as well as 75 commercial shoots were conducted at Hengdian World Studios.
Lucky visitors can bump into their favourite stars or observe film crews at work while touring the site.
The studios have attracted so many shoots until a special job known as the “professional extras” was created there.
There were thousands of these performances, made up of locals and those who dreamed of becoming a real artiste at Hengdian daily.
Before the closure, over 30 film and television series were being filmed or had pre-shooting preparations being made inside the base.
Among them were Hong Kong director Wong Jing’s new film, an adaption of the late novelist Jin Yong’s story The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber that stars actor Raymond Lam, Donnie Yen’s Polar Rescue, Thank You, Doctor by Chinese actress Yang Mi and Legend of Fei by Chinese actress Zhao Liying and singer Wang Yibo.
Stretching across an area of more than 30sq km, just slightly smaller than Putrajaya, Hengdian World Studios have over 13 major filming locations of different themes but only about half are open to the public.
The palace scenes of the Qing and Ming dynasties, the huge Buddhist temple, ancient towns and gardens, as well as beautiful mountain scenic spots in Chinese films or television sets were most probably filmed here.
The films included The Emperor and the Assassin by actress Gong Li, director Zhang Yimou’s Hero (starring Jet Li, Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi) and Curse of the Golden Flower (with stars Chow Yun-fat and Gong Li) and Hollywood’s The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Famous televisions sets that were made here were Nirvana in Fire, Scarlet Heart, Empresses in the Palace, as well as Hong Kong TVB’s War and Beauty, A Step into the Past and The Confidant.
Dubbed Chinese Hollywood, thousands of historical and costume productions were shot here since its first filming site – Street of Guangzhou – was completed in 1996 for the movie Opium War.
Its most popular screening location is the Forbidden City, an exact replica even in size to the real one in Beijing.
Since late January, the filming base – located in the eastern coastal Zhejiang province, about 150km south of Hangzhou – has been closed in the wake of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.
All shooting sets nationwide were suspended to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.
As the situation improved, it was reported that film and TV crews were planning to resume work at the studios.
A list of crew members and artistes has arrived and they are now undergoing a 14-day quarantine at Hengdian town.
“We cannot wait any longer, the money is burning daily,” a film crew member told the local media.
Although Hengdian World Studios has agreed for them to resume work, the production teams are still one step away from doing work.
All of them, including the celebrities, have to first attend a training session on the prevention and control of the new pneumonia virus, specially designed for the industry by the local government.
After that, they have to sit for an exam and must score perfect 100 points before the respective teams could submit their work applications, together with the health reports of all members.
“This industry is seen as ‘high risk’ because filming involves a big group of people.
“On top of this, those who appear in front of the cameras cannot wear a face mask. The test is more like an educational session. If you fail, you can re-sit until you score a full 100-point,” the crew member added.
The paper has 25 questions consisting of objective and true or false questions related to their basic knowledge on epidemic prevention and control, such as food and health management and personal hygiene.
Apart from this, the teams must also work out a smoother filming process and reduce the number of people to a maximum of 20.
The filming base has opened its door mid-February to a handful of major production houses that met all safety requirements, including having comprehensive prevention and control measures.
And only those who had never left the town throughout the closure or had no contact with people from highly infectious areas were allowed in.
The local media reported that some 6,000 film and TV crews of various production houses had stayed back in the town since the stop-work order began.
The good news is none was infected.
“We could only shoot simple scenes with two to three characters; those with more people have to skip for now until further notice,” said another film crew member.
Last year, 304 films and TV series as well as 75 commercial shoots were conducted at Hengdian World Studios.
Lucky visitors can bump into their favourite stars or observe film crews at work while touring the site.
The studios have attracted so many shoots until a special job known as the “professional extras” was created there.
There were thousands of these performances, made up of locals and those who dreamed of becoming a real artiste at Hengdian daily.
Before the closure, over 30 film and television series were being filmed or had pre-shooting preparations being made inside the base.
Among them were Hong Kong director Wong Jing’s new film, an adaption of the late novelist Jin Yong’s story The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber that stars actor Raymond Lam, Donnie Yen’s Polar Rescue, Thank You, Doctor by Chinese actress Yang Mi and Legend of Fei by Chinese actress Zhao Liying and singer Wang Yibo.
Stretching across an area of more than 30sq km, just slightly smaller than Putrajaya, Hengdian World Studios have over 13 major filming locations of different themes but only about half are open to the public.
The palace scenes of the Qing and Ming dynasties, the huge Buddhist temple, ancient towns and gardens, as well as beautiful mountain scenic spots in Chinese films or television sets were most probably filmed here.
The films included The Emperor and the Assassin by actress Gong Li, director Zhang Yimou’s Hero (starring Jet Li, Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi) and Curse of the Golden Flower (with stars Chow Yun-fat and Gong Li) and Hollywood’s The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Famous televisions sets that were made here were Nirvana in Fire, Scarlet Heart, Empresses in the Palace, as well as Hong Kong TVB’s War and Beauty, A Step into the Past and The Confidant.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
